Nash Buckingham biographer, George Bird Evans, once wrote that Buckingham’s words “have flamboyance and the full flavor of a fine Havana cigar.” Here are eight quotes that prove the writer right. Enjoy some of Buckingham’s best turns-of-phrase on what would have been his 136th birthday.
“Every bird hunter, and that goes for the breed, secretly dreams and longs to own a royally bred animal, broken to the Queen’s taste and able to win on any circuit of field trials. But in the end, like most of us, he must be satisfied with plain Belle or Jack, and finds in them the traits of a lowlier dogcraft that can be wine to his soul.”
— Mark Right!, 1936
“The best long-range shotgun load to have in one’s boat for mallards is a fine retriever.”
— “Duck Shooting,” Field & Stream, January 1947
“‘Fellows,’ I tell the dogs, ‘as the situation stands, we are one bob shy of Madame’s orders. Without said bob, her luncheon may degenerate into a washout. Somewhere in yon gumbo stew are three adult quail! Are you with me, boys?'”
— “Bobs of the Bayou Bank,” Mark Right!, 1936
“As we glide through weaving aisles I calculate that I have dropped ducks on well-nigh every square yard of this time-worn shooting ground. We [he and his father] have shared — still share — glorious years. The two of us are still hard at it. The reason? Because it has been left just as it was. Because of sporting unselfishness and pride in its maintenance. Because the beauty of Nature and wildlife meant much to a family of real sportsmen.”
— “What Rarer Day,” De Shootinest Gent’man, 1934
“Tell me, if you can, of anything that’s finer than an evening in camp with a rare old friend and a dog after one’s own heart.”
— Mark Right!, 1936
“We are drifting faster than we even dream toward a sterility in wild life of the marsh and upland, from which there will be no returning. The pace must slacken!”
— De Shootinest Gent’man, 1934
“How kind it is that most of us will never know when we have fired our last shot.”
— Nash Buckingham Letters to John Bailey, George Bird Evans, 1984
“A duck call in the hands of the unskilled is one of conservation’s greatest assets.”
— De Shootinest Gent’man, 1934
The part referencing Nash and his father tugs at my heart as I recall the days spent afield and in the swamp with my Father. Dad always had the time to take me with him, to teach and show me how. First Canada just before I turned eight years old, and I honestly cannot recall the first duck, the first quail or the first phesant but have many precious memories of the many that came along later. I now have my seventy plus years and I miss him terribly. All I can say is RIP, Dad and thanks for the many good times.
No one today turns such phrases…