6 JANUARY 2001, Page 20

Sport of queens

From Mr Paul Healy

Sir: The Queen's action in dispatching the injured pheasant would certainly not find disapproval with her predecessor, Queen Elizabeth I (Country life, 9 December). In Turberville's Booke of Hunting, 1576, there is an illustration of the Queen being offered a knife by her huntsman to kill a stag, fallen exhausted at her feet. (The illustration can be found in History Today Vol. 33, April 1983, p7.) Paul Healy"

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