Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2015 i The Field

THE moors and glens of Scotland are full of visitors enjoying a timeless combination of stunning scenery, unrivalled hospitality, testing sporting conditions and fine food and drink. However, their attention may be distracted by discussion of land reform and the draft Land Reform (Scotland) Bill, introduced by the Scottish government as a set of measures to achieve “a fairer and more equitable distribution of land in Scotland”. It is one more step in an ongoing programme of changes and reforms whose objective is to broaden the spread of ownership of land (the statistic that 432 people own half of Scotland’s private rural land is frequently quoted). The proposed Land Reform Commission will keep the case for land reform alive, and while the Scottish government minister Dr Aileen Macleod said that…

The repainting of HMS Victory, due for completion this month, is the first stage in a major conservation project to safeguard the famous warship. The National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) has spent four months putting the ship back to how she would have looked in Nelson’s day. Research has shown that she was painted externally in a combination of pale yellow and dark grey at the time of her famous victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. The paint survey, undertaken by Ian and Michael Crick-Smith from Lincoln’s School of History & Heritage, was the most extensive conducted on board a historic vessel. “Inside and out, HMS Victory has undergone layer upon layer of redecoration as she took on various different roles; from a warship to a court-martial vessel,…

GUN CABINET 21ST CENTURY ANTIQUES Yew escritoire looks well in the hall while keeping guns safe. Price £3,691 Tel 01359 271078 www.21stantiques.com NIPPER CHEESEBOARD DORIS & CO Use cold for chopping or put in the oven for melting Camembert; 28cm x 14cm. Price £30 Tel 01460477773 www.dorisandco.co.uk NAVITIMER BATTLE OF BRITAIN, BREITLING Limited edition of 75 to benefit the RAF Benevolent Fund. Price £7,490 Tel 020 7637 5167 www.breitling.com FRONT LOADERS CARTRIDGE BAG, ALBION SPORTING From the Virtue Collection. Holds 150 cartridges and 18 on the front. Price £385 Tel 01952 691431 www.albionsporting.co.uk HIP-FLASKS LIFE OF RILEY Leather and stainless steel in tan or dark brown. Tip tot. Price £39 Tel 01799 551871 www.lifeofrileyonline.co.uk GUNTHORPE SHOOTING VEST, SCHÖFFEL Removable recoil pad and reinforced pockets. Bang on. Price £150 Tel 01572…

NORTH-east Scotland has some of the finest sporting estates in the country, several of them near neighbours of Balmoral, HM The Queen’s estate in stunning Royal Deeside. To the west is gigantic Invercauld, which has belonged to the Farquarsons since 1432 and, at more than 108,000 acres, is one of the largest estates in Scotland. To the south lies another massive estate, the 17th Earl of Dalhousie’s 50,000 acre Invermark, and to the east, Sir Andrew Walker -Okeover’s 10,000-acre Glenmuick. To the north lies Abergeldie, the 11,700 acres belonging to John Seton Howard Gordon, 21st feudal Baron of Abergeldie, over which the Royal Family have the sporting rights, and northeast of Balmoral, close to The Prince of Wales’s hunting lodge at Birkhall, is Dinnet, the 24,300-acre estate owned by Edward…

THE great joy of stalking in the Highlands is that it takes you into incomparable surroundings. You can shoot a stag in Thetford Chase or Somerset or the Lake District easily enough but the environment will not have a tenth of the romance that enhances operations in the far north. From the high tops the views are stunning – of countless summits, of islands, of the sea – and close at hand you come on secret places that even long-distance hikers never reach: deep, hidden corries, little hill lochs, waterfalls, faces as sheer as the roofs of Gothic cathedrals. This is the world of peregrines and golden eagles and of the ptarmigan (which they hunt) but, above all, it is the world of the red deer. Plenty of hotels offer…

THE habits and habitats that we personally associate with a particular fish are dependent on our past experiences. For me, brown trout are denizens of tumbling streams the colour of green tea and bass are silver shapes over a jumble of kelp and rocks on an inshore reef. The same is true for any species that I catch and this results from the memories that interweave a specific quarry with the morphology of the water in which it is typically caught. The reverse is also true. If one imagines a particular type of water one visualises a particular fish in it. When the combination of habitat and fish don’t match, the result can be discombobulating. If, for example, one were asked to bring to mind a chalkstream at the height…

WORTH REPAIRING? Q I recently bought my son a birthday present of a nice, antique, silver-plated flask. It turns our that there is a small pinprick hole in the base of it (you can’t see it) so it leaks. Have you any suggestions as to who might be able to repair it? It did not cost a fortune so it’s not worth spending tons of money on it. IH, London A Repairing a silver-plated hip-flask is tricky and can be expensive. This is partly because the silver plate on antique hip-flasks was laid on to various metals and the feasibility of repair depends on what base metal was used. Added to this, the heating process involved in soldering such a repair could erode some of the silver plate. The London…

EXHIBITIONS of art, manufacturing and technology were regularly held in the latter half of the 19th century, inaugurated by Prince Albert’s plan for a Great Exhibition to be held in London in 1851. Such exhibitions, or expositions as they are sometimes called, were held in Paris in 1855, Manchester in 1857, London in 1862, Paris again in 1867 and Vienna in 1873. Back in the 19th century an exhibition provided manufacturers, designers and inventors the opportunity to display the best of their work to a discerning public. They continue today, with the same purpose, in the form of international EXPOs. Gunmakers were no different, and in 1862 at the International Exhibition in South Kensington Michel Louis LePage-Moutier, the great Parisian gunmaker, arranged for the exhibition visitor an array of his…

THIS month we are looking at a popular but unusually specified over-and-under: a Beretta EELL 20-bore with 32in barrels. Weighing slightly more than 61/2lb, it is one of a special run made for GMK, the UK Beretta importer (a firm predominantly owned by Beretta). Numbers are limited to about 200 – small by the standards of a manufacturer that produces 60,000 over-and-under shotguns a year. Robert Frampton of GMK notes, “We had a lot of feedback from our dealers requesting these longer-barrelled guns. There seems, in particular, considerable demand from the 20-bore aficionados. We put this to Beretta in Gardonne and they agreed to test the water. This was not something that would have happened without our specific request as worldwide demand for 32in 20-bores is slight. The Beretta plan…

THE BURNING question that made a teenage Aengus Dewar want to become a professional artist wasn’t “is it art?” but rather, “is it a Caravaggio?” He explains: “When I was a schoolboy in Ireland, the famous painting, The Taking of Christ, was finally attributed to Caravaggio and hung in the National Gallery of Ireland, so our art teacher took us to Dublin to see it and it completely knocked my socks off! I thought, that’s what I want to try to do. Caravaggio really is the whole package as an artist. He is so punchy, and as a young man looking at his work, there was something wonderfully direct and potent about it that got into my psyche.” Such classical influences are inescapable in Dewar’s work now. Whether he is…

On 9 September HM The Queen takes over from her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria as the longest-reigning monarch in British history. She will have reigned for 63 years and seven months having acceded to the throne in 1952. There maybe no official celebrations but one village in Scotland, Luss in Argyll & Bute, is not going to let this achievement pass unmarked. Luss Estates, the local Community Council and the Luss and Arden Community Development Trust are planting a red oak at the entrance to the village. Locals can have their names engraved on the tree’s surrounding stone circle in return for a donation. “This is an extraordinary and significant milestone in our history, and one that deserves to be marked,” said Luss Estates chairman, Sir Malcolm Colquhoun. “The Queen has…

THE 2015 European Eventing Championships will be held in Scotland for the first time – at Blair Castle in Perthshire from 10-13 September. The last senior European Championships held in Britain took place at Blenheim in 2005 when the team won gold and Zara Phillips and William Fox-Pitt picked up individual gold and silver. The European Championships are held every two years, with the first held at Badminton in 1953. Of the six teams intending to go to the first event, only Britain and Switzerland were able to get their horses fit enough in time to compete. By the 1959 competition entries had improved with 10 teams taking part. Event director Alec Lochore said 65 to 70 athletes are expected to come to Blair, watched by a crowd of 60,000…

GEORGE Osborne, the chancellor, is looking rather smug these days and housebuilders are very happy with the majority Conservative government, too, as the Tories look to remove barriers to more new homes to drive economic growth. The trouble is, even if automatic planning permission in principle for brownfield sites and putting the pressure on councils to get on with their local housing plans should speed things up, there is one barrier that will always remain. It is the acronym that will continue to thwart growth: NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard). The NIMBY will not be bullied by the bulldozer; you might not see pitchforks and torches in village high streets if local authorities are sanctioned for not approving enough homes, but the pubs will do a roaring trade as…

PARTRIDGES are the English quarry species. They used to be the predominant gamebird and were taken with nets and hawks long before they were shot. Now, pheasants have vastly outstripped them. Partridge-shooting, nevertheless, retains a special charm. We shoot two sorts in Britain: native greys (Perdix perdix) and, increasingly, reared French birds (Alectoris rufa). The numbers of natives have dwindled to such an extent that in many areas sportsmen decline to shoot them. French partridges, which were introduced here in the 17th century, are commonly known as “reds”, “redlegs” or “Frenchmen”. Partridge-shooting takes various forms. Birds may be walked-up over a pointing dog or dogs (I have enjoyed this old-style sport on most continents; it remains the dominant method in the US and many parts of Europe). They may be…

THERE is little more exciting in the world of shooting than scaap – the slightly squelching, grating alarm call of a departing snipe, which sounds so appropriate to its soggy environment. It seems, inevitably, to come at the moment when you wobble as one foot sinks into the bog – and you have only split seconds to get a shot off before the bird is out of reach. What is more, you know that even if this birds is not your only chance, it will very likely be the best. Any others nearby will have been alerted to your presence and will be on the qui vive, and so even quicker to flush. But why are these wonderful little birds so exciting? Well, first of all, there is no doubting…

THERE is an old Icelandic proverb, “Fertile is water that runs under lava”, that perhaps has its roots in the fertile waters of Lake Thingvallavatn. This beautiful lake is just an hour from Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital city, and I’ve had two extraordinary fishing experiences there. Lake Thingvallavatn (pronounced think – valla – vatn) is Iceland’s largest lake, covering 84 square kilometres. At its longest it is 14.5 kilometres and at its widest 9.5 kilometres. Its deepest point is 114 metres, with an average depth of 34 metres. One third of its bottom is covered in vegetation with 150 types of plant and invertebrate even though it is at a constant temperature of 2°C to 4°C. This is because 90% of its catchment comes from underground. The lake is 12,000 years…

THINK striking a match, creating a fire and cooking in the great outdoors couldn’t get more primal? Well what about using meat you have shot yourself? Barbecued game can be absolutely delicious and I am surprised more people don’t include it in their culinary repertoire. It is less forgiving than other meat so it is vital to use the right cuts, prepare them correctly and have your BBQ technique perfected. However, the tips and techniques below may help you “up your game” on the BBQ this season. BE PREPARED Although having people round for a BBQ is generally seen as a casual event, planning ahead and being well organised is a must. Make sure that by the time you throw your first piece of meat on the hot grills you…

THE pre- and post-shoot dinner is the perfect chance to entertain, celebrate the season and show off your culinary skills. The big question is, what to serve? Luckily, in September there is no shortage of tomatoes and aubergines, plus new-season apples and squash. Grouse and partridges are now fair game, too. When looking for ideas most people ask me what dishes they could make in advance that are different from the usual tagine, pie or casserole. My reply? Stuff it. A deboned, stuffed and rolled bird is a great dish for a dinner party. The meat stays succulent, it looks spectacular and the fiddly bits can be done in advance, leaving you more time to enjoy your party. Here are some tips for preparing partridges and three different recipes. To…

LAST season a quiet word with the headkeeper at the start of a family shoot confirmed I was welcome to pick-up my own birds, much to the delight of my 11-year-old stepdaughter, Bobbie, and her cocker spaniel, Sid. “Just let the pickers-up know, and they’ll leave you to it,” the keeper had said, and so it was for the first three drives of the day. On the last drive of the morning all except one bird gave my peg a wide berth. I watched the unlucky cock crash into a tangle of briars beyond a beck brimful in spate and suggested that the bridge 100yd upstream might be the safest way across. As soon as the whistle’s blast signalled the end of the drive Bobbie and Sid were off like…

FIRST, I need to bury a myth within a myth within a myth, not unlike one of those matryoshka Russian dolls within dolls. Myth One is that the Spitfire, being the “best” fighter we had, knocked down most German aircraft during the Battle of Britain. Wrong. The Hurricane accounted for about 80% of confirmed kills. Which leads directly to Myth Two: it must follow that the Hurricane has been wilfully underestimated in comparison to its more famous cousin. After all, just look at that kill ratio. Wrong again. Rob Millinship explains this non-sequitor as he leads me to a Hurricane at the Shuttleworth Collection, just south of Bedford. Comparing Spitfires and Hurricanes is like comparing apples and oranges. Despite the fact that we see them flying together at air shows…

EVERY September, the Goodwood circuit beats to the sound of a very throaty drum. Exit the modern racing cars and super-cars and enter historic racers, from the Twenties onwards – yet nothing later than the Sixties. The Revival is a magical step back to the past but without the inconveniences – there’s still Wi-fi, of course. The Revival, this year on 11 to 13 September, celebrates the finest vintage motoring there is and vintage clothing, too. Dressing up is always fun, and getting into the spirit of the Revival is what makes the event so special. The Revival attracts a wide crowd and some famous names both on the track and off. Jackie Stewart, Geri Halliwell, car- and horse-loving model Jodie Kidd, Rowan Atkinson (a serious petrolhead who races), Patrick…

WHEN it comes to acceleration, there’s not much that can beat a greyhound. A racing greyhound can reach 40mph from a standing start in just two seconds, faster than a Formula 1 car. But while the latter is only any use for racing, a retired greyhound makes a surprisingly good pet, as I found out when I went to talk to Janice Marshall who currently has three retired racers and, as the wife of a greyhound kennelman, is a fund of information about the breed. She reminded me that greyhounds are one of our oldest breeds. Excavations in Turkey at a site dating back to 6,000BC unearthed a sanctuary decorated with ritual hunting scenes depicting dogs with long legs, delicate muzzles and deep chests. Today most greyhounds are bred for…

A DECADE ago, you knew what you were going to get if you bought a South Korean car. You’d get reliability and practicality but your machine might be somewhat lacking in style and kudos. Ten years on, the practicality is the same – but the reliability is setting new standards. The highly respected JD Power “Initial Quality Survey” put Kia in second place behind Porsche, making it the highest non-premium brand. That might explain the seven years warranty that the company is happy to supply with its cars. What about the style? The new Sorento typifies how things have changed in that department, too. The front is lovely, the back is a bit awkward, but it’s inside that dramatic improvements are visible. Interiors used to be a Korean weak point…