As Frontier Partisans readers know, it’s all too easy to lure me down a sidetrail. Mike Gahagan got me Sunday evening. Mr. Gahagan, a gunsmith by trade, is one of those wonderful people who use Facebook for Good, posting beautiful things. Natural wonders. Old stone fortresses. Muzzleloaders. He shared a pic of a hunting gun presented by Marie Antoinette to her mother, Maria Theresa of Austria.
He also threw out some English hunting portraits… and off I went.
There’s something about old English and European hunting portraits from the 18th and early 19th Century that charms me, even though I am too republican in my sensibilities to abide the aristocratic privilege it represents. Hunting was generally an upper-class pursuit, but it wasn’t solely a male pursuit, as evidenced by Marie Antoinette sending mom a gun. The image of the lovely Marianne de Morganias from Le Pacte des Loups at the top ain’t fanciful.
These scenes always make me think of the Irish/Scottish drinking song I’m A Man You Don’t Meet Every Day. My favorite version happens to be sung by a woman — The Pogues’s bass player Cait O’Riordan. Jock Stewart is a canny gunman and free with the coin at the bar. He also shot his dog, and WTF is the deal with that? Bastard. But there ya go…
I also like this one from a Dutch Celtic band. Yeah, that. Jock Stuart goes shooting with the dog in this one. I like that better.
Matthew says
Off topic, but Sabaton History which tells the true historical stories behind Sabaton songs, has an episode about Adrian de Wiart who served in the Boer War and WWI and II and was wounded eight times. He famously talk about how much he enjoyed the war. Seriously, the guy comes across as bat-shit insane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpR1pgjDA74
JimC says
Thanks. Will check this out.
John C. says
Badly wounded, at that, but kept coming back for more.
Amazing that guys like de Wiart survive to die of old age (83). Mad Jack Churchill at 89.
Matthew says
It’s interesting how in Europe hunting is seen as a upper class thing. Here in the states it is seen as something “rednecks” do. Different cultures.
Brian H. says
Our American hunting heritage is owed to the presence of wilderness in North America. Land in Europe, western Europe anyway, was tied up in estates and the game was owned by the Lord, Prince, King, etc.
JimC says
And we have to be vigilant to keep as much land accessible for public hunting and other endeavors as possible. Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation does a lot of good work in that regard, as does Ducks Unlimited.
lane batot says
The heck with the guns in those old hunting portraits–I like seeing the DOGS!