20, September 1887
Mrs Huyshe, Martins, Wagg, Dicey, and Dresden arrd
Ill in bed & could not see them.
It’s 1887. Ruddigore opened at the Savoy Theatre last 22 January. It’s been nearly a year since Sullivan conducted the premiere of his cantata The Golden Legend at the Leeds Music Festival of 1886. Now he’s scheduled to conduct Legend again, at the upcoming Norwich Music Festival, on 13 October.
Norwich is a three-hour train ride from London. Just south of Norwich there is a town called Diss, which is a stop along the railroad. Just three miles from that rail stop is Brome Hall, not to be confused with Broome Hall, although Brome is pronounced broom. Sullivan has rented this fine “shooting estate”, and moved in on 8 September.
Brome is the ancestral home of the Cornwallis family. If you’re a fan of the American War for Independence: Yes, that includes the Lord Cornwallis who surrendered to George Washington at Yorktown in 1781. The estate was old, but the house Sullivan rented had been rebuilt in 1823. Over time the hall deteriorated. It was demolished some time around 1960, but some of the original garden features can still be seen.
What does a Victorian gentleman like Sullivan do with a large country manor situated in a corner of Britain well known for its birds? He invites parties of his friends over to shoot birds.
Was Sullivan an avid shooter?
In 1871, Sullivan wrote his mother:
Fancy me getting up at six this morning, going into the stables and getting a game-keeper to pour buckets of water over me (there are no baths in this little inn) then breakfast, cigarette, etc., and starting at eight for the moors in a wagonette to begin to shoot at a quarter to nine! That’s what happened today and I’ve got to do two days more. We have been shooting eight hours, or rather walking up and down these awful endless hills they call moors, and never a bird of any sort could we get near.
He doesn’t sound keen.
Nonetheless, there are around 30 entries in Sullivan’s diaries that mention shooting, where Sullivan was himself a shooter or had been part of a shooting party but had not gone out due to some illness or injury. Shooting birds, and small game like rabbits, was part of the social life of the upper class families Sullivan enjoyed being with. And unlike fox hunting, it did not require proficiency in the saddle. The seasons for each game species were even noted in the gentleman’s diary books Sullivan used. One might assume that since he hadn’t grown up shooting, Sullivan participated in shoots merely to be social when staying at friends’ country homes.
But here in the 1887 season, Sullivan himself is playing the country squire. The people named in this diary entry are staying at Brome Hall for the week (this is a Tuesday). Tomorrow, the 21st, will be the “first partridge drive (see Game Book)”. This suggests the Hall or the village of Brome employed a game keeper.
Sadly for Sullivan, while his guests went out shooting during the week, he could only join them once, on 23 September, and only for an hour and a half. The other days he records being “ill & weak”.
After that party had left, Sullivan didn’t recover directly. He remained ill, and his legs swelled. On 10 October he needed to go to Norwich for a rehearsal. “Miserable day. Hobbled on to platform” though he “got through rehearsal pretty well. Couldn’t stand or walk for some time afterwards.” On the day of the festival performance, Sullivan was still in pain, but “managed to get through all right”.
Eventually Sullivan felt well enough to go out with four friends, writing “shot myself for the 1st time”. I admit I enjoyed including that entry here.
Through November he and his guests shot several times, including a day of “272 pheasants”. By December Sullivan sounds like an old pro. He sent 12 pheasants to his American friend Suydam Grant. On 9 December he “drove to Denham to shoot with the Oakley lot. Beautiful coven, not overstocked!” (Oakley is a nearby village.)
Sullivan doesn’t mention Brome Hall again after 1887, so it’s likely his lease was done. After 1887 his shooting events are seldom and short running.