Innholdsfortegnelse for Jul-2018 i The Field

TS ELIOT’S J Alfred Prufrock measured out his life with coffee spoons, a timescale seemingly embraced by the majority of the populace given the ubiquity of barristas on the high street. But most of my earthly presence has been marked by Game Fairs, having tramped round every one since 1982. This year will be no different, and we look forward to welcoming visitors to our stand [A14] as The Field did in 1958, when we attended the first Fair. Sixty years ago it was an amateurish affair in the best sense. Stands were mostly trestle tables manned by ladies wearing pearls buried in battleship bosoms and chaps in ties. In fact, every male present wore a tie and hat. Fieldsports dominated, with guns, gundogs and rods at every turn. And…

A YEAR ago, The Field took an in-depth look at what was then an emerging game-meat crisis. Caused by a combination of increasing UK supply and a stagnated European market, with some rather unimaginative game dealing in the middle, there was strong evidence that not all shot gamebirds were being eaten. An essential tenet of shooting seemed under threat, with potentially disastrous implications for the sport in an age of great political uncertainty. Twelve months on, it is time to assess the shooting world’s response. The first thing to grasp about what alarmists have called “the game mountain” is that in food-supply terms it’s a comparative molehill. In the UK, we shoot about 25 million game-birds a year; the poultry industry slaughters 82 million a month. And at its worst…

ACHNABOURIN, SUTHERLAND Achnabourin is a mixed sporting estate in Sutherland, extending to around 5,855 acres, with a wide variety of habitats, including coastal dunes, pastureland, semi-ancient natural woodland and heather-clad hill. The topography lends itself to sport, with stalking, grouse and woodcock shooting. The current owners have chosen not to shoot the small stock of grouse to preserve stock. There are a number of hill lochs with brown-trout fishing and the property has two rods on the River Naver for salmon fishing. There are several ponds for duck flighting plus wildfowling opportunities on the estuary. The estate has a five-bedroom lodge, sleeping up to 10 people, with views down the Naver Valley. There is also a two-bedroom cottage, a range of modern and traditional outbuildings and two further properties with…

“Several very serious pheasants were plucked from the stratosphere” his year’s Top Shots feature departs from the usual heaping of plaudits at the feet of our shooting gods and goddesses. Instead, we are celebrating those single, glorious moments that are remembered long after the season has become a blur of muddy labs and damp tweed. As ever, we have taken counsel from our network of keen beans who collectively observed much of the finest shooting in this sacred isle and fined down their offerings, excluding the absurd – such as “the extraordinarily tricky squirrel” – and feats of gunnery perfection witnessed only by the trigger puller. Readers will doubtless have their own contenders for “the shot of the season” and we encourage them to share them with us via the…

No sooner, it seems, than the hunt horses are out in the field to freshen up on spring grass following an arduous hunting season, than a huntsman needs to polish his boots and buttons again – not, this time, for the opening meet in front of some stately home but for the summer hound shows. The strange thing about showing a hound on the flags is that it’s impossible to judge many of the most important characteristics that make it a good hound: a deep, melodious cry; that low scenting ability that allows a hound to hunt a line down a road or track; or perhaps “fox” sense, that innate knack of just knowing which way the line has gone. Sagacity on a hunting day is an invaluable and ethereal…

King George III is associated predominantly, in the popular imagination, with madness. At home, he was belittled historically as “Farmer George”, the agrarian-minded monarch with a lack of interest in politics, and for losing the American colonies. However, he left the UK with a striking cultural legacy that celebrates its 250th anniversary this year: the Royal Academy of Arts. Founded in 1768 by a personal mandate from the King to promote art and architecture through exhibition and education, the Royal Academy differs from other galleries and art schools in that it’s the nation’s only independent, privately funded institution; as such, it has a place at the vanguard of British art and yet occupies a curious position in the country’s cultural landscape. Despite some modernising voices from within, and some distinctly…

There are things that, rightly or wrongly, are used to indicate one’s sophistication. Among men, these include a knowledge of classic cars, fieldsports and private clubs, along with wine – and, importantly, how one buys it. A successful fund manager I shared a drink with professed his growing interest in wine and told me proudly, “I buy mine en primeur” – paying for wine well in advance of delivery and, in the case of Bordeaux, before it is even bottled. It would have been bad manners to seem unimpressed but I did wonder why he assumed that buying wine en primeur is best. Perhaps he didn’t know that this way of purchasing Bordeaux might not always be the most economical. Or perhaps he didn’t care, seeing it as a sign…

OVER-EXUBERANCE very nearly got the better of me the other day, although I’m still debating whether I swerved an auction disaster of my own making or made a big mistake by not keeping my bidding finger raised. What happened was this. It was Saturday morning in the Shires and, typically, I was out of bread and needed a newspaper. Half a mile from home, I saw an intriguing sign that read “Howkins & Harrison” pointing into a quarry. As I slowed, a 4x4 with a rather fine-looking stone trough on the flatbed emerged from said quarry. Like a dog with a tree I am incapable of passing an auction without cocking a metaphorical leg and popping in to check the action. So, pop in I did and found a farmers’…

I’VE shared most of my life with spaniels. My first, when I was 13, was a cocker but for the past 35 years it has been English springers, all from the same line. Sadly, that line is coming to a natural end as my current springer, Rowan, is now 12, with no successors. Time to consider a new recruit. For a while I toyed with the idea of something different, such as a Spanish water dog (surprisingly competent gundogs), however, the choice eventually came back to a spaniel, but what sort? As a professional writer on gundogs I’m familiar with our six native spaniels – English springer, Welsh springer, cocker, field, Sussex and Clumber – and have seen delightful working examples of each. (The Irish water spaniel is in a…

THIS time four years ago, in her studio in Florence, Italy, sculptor Susan Leyland was researching the experiences of horses, mules and donkeys during the First World War. In my study in Somerset, I was doing the same thing. The article I wrote marked the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War. Now, Leyland’s finished sculpture, The War Horse Memorial, has just been unveiled in Ascot to commemorate the end of that war. As Leyland describes her four-year journey to make the statue, we can all empathise with the challenge of creating a constructive work of art from the emotions she was going through. “I was asked to submit drawings and ideas in June 2014 for a possible war horse sculpture and, since then, not a day…

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If the British “best” is the Stradivarius of fine guns, why is Birmingham seen as second fiddle? A look to the past might prove instrumental. The British gun trade is divided into three parts, in the manner of Caesar’s Gaul: London earned her much-trumpeted virtues delivering luxurious duellers, pigeon guns and fowlers to the aristocracy; Scotland provided sportsmen with guns and rifles suitable for Highland game; but Birmingham’s traditions are an altogether different bag of nails. Sir Richard Newdigate approached “lorimers and naylors” with two “snap hand musquettes of differing sorts for patterns, desiring you will please to cause them to be shewed to your Bermingham workmen”, in 1689. The snaphaunce musket patterns, supplied by the office of ordinance, would have been Dutch and like the later flintlock drove flint…

I was standing in President Clinton’s Oval Office when I first met Miles. He had been pointed out to me across the room and I knew from his manner that I was going to like the man. I was actually at the Clinton Library in Arkansas. Every President gets to build his own library when he leaves office. It houses his executive orders and paperwork as well as a history of his Presidency and often offers some form of community use as well. The Clinton Library took three years to build and opened in November of 2004. It contains a duplicate Oval Office. I was attending a travel event in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Miles had kindly agreed to take this British stranger out goose shooting (sadly, duck had closed)…

Leather sporting kit gets a rough ride. All the elements – rain, mud, sun, sweat, blood and tears – are thrown at it and yet it is expected to survive. Leather also gets a raw deal in the word associations stakes: one says leather, another says Fifty Shades. The sporting world probably houses more leather than the average fetish club but do we look after it as well? How do we get value for money, ensuring our much-loved pieces last as long as we do? Frances Roche, master saddler for The Royal Mews, maintains all the ceremonial state harness and saddlery. She is also past president of the Society of Master Saddlers and is a member of the Worshipful Company of Saddlers. Roche has a great depth of knowledge and…

SINCE mankind’s earliest days the humble knife has been a constant companion to the hunter, be it as a simple tool for bushcraft or skinning, as a weapon for self-defence or even as a status symbol for the elite. Few would dispute that the knife is an essential piece of hunting equipment. So it is not surprising that many sportsmen sought to perfect and personalise their hunting knives, a practice common in the 19th century when the British Empire and big-game hunting were at their height. One of the more evocative and alluring hunting knives of this period is the Wilkinson-Shakespear Knife. Produced by cutler and gunmaker Wilkinson & Son of Pall Mall, London, it was based upon a design conceived by Colonel Henry John Childe Shakespear (1814-84), a British…

2015 VINTAGE CLARET (£12, from vineyardsdirect) Exemplary house claret from the Château Teyssier/ Le Dôme stable. 2017 DOMAINE GAUJAL, PICPOUL DE PINET (£11.75, Yapp Bros) A stalwart of Bellamy’s wine list: crisp, clean and fresh. 2013 CVNE RIOJA RESERVA (£12 if you mix six, Majestic) Deliciously tasty Rioja that never lets you down. 2016 LA TUNELLA, SAUVIGNON BLANC (£13, Corney & Barrow) Stunning Sauvignon Blanc from Friuli, as good as any you’ll find. 2016 MIRABEAU PURE (£14, Waitrose) You only need one rosé on the list if it’s as fine as this one from Provence. GRAHAM’S 10 YEAR OLD TAWNY PORT (£21, The Whisky Exchange) If you fancy perfect post-prandial port, look no further than this.…

IT’S all my grandfather’s fault. He went to an auction to buy some golf clubs, bid on the wrong lot and came home with a set of fishing rods. Years later, my father decided that a daughter could do anything a son could do and taught me to fish as soon as I could stand. I haven’t looked back. From those early days on his lakes, the chalkstreams of Hampshire and Dorset and on to the wilds of Scotland, I’ve been well and truly “hooked”. Despite having fished in a few exotic locations there’s nowhere that quite gets my pulse racing as casting a fly on the Spey. Over the years I’d introduced many people to the delights of salmon fishing but more often than not it was my girlfriends…

THROUGHOUT rural Britain, countryfolk are waiting to see what machine will finally step in to fill the gap left by one of the most practical and competent 4x4s that the muddy shires have ever seen. No, not the Defender. I mean the Mk1 Fiat Panda 4x4. It was a legend among the mud-plugging cognoscenti: light, nimble, go-anywhere but highly susceptible to rust and unreliability. But, then again, it was a 1980’s Fiat. There have been more Pandas, of course, but none has recreated the simple charm of the original. Suzuki’s small 4x4s have come closest to the Panda spirit but even they haven’t had the same attraction – until now. The new Ignis has been fitted with Suzuki’s highly successful all-wheel drive system, and the result is a little cracker.…

Wetland plants clean up the Ingol An innovative water-treatment facility has been created in Norfolk to improve water quality on the River Ingol. Anglian Water has invested £500,000 in the project, which has been created in partnership with the Norfolk Rivers Trust and the Environment Agency. Completed in April, the one-hectare natural treatment site uses wetland plants to remove ammonia and phosphates from the water before it goes back into the river. It is made up of four shallow, interconnected ponds planted with iris, sedges, rush, marsh and other native chalk wetland species. Built adjacent to the village of Ingoldisthorpe, the facility treats more than a million litres of water a day. “Nutrients such as phosphates and ammonia come from urbanisation, domestic products like detergents, as well as from human…

Some obsess over their golf swings and forehand drives. For me, it’s a slightly excessive interest in the gun mount. Ask any shooting instructor or gunroom manager: good shots usually have great gun mounts. It is not a universal law but it is certainly true of most first-class shots. The well-practised, well-conceived mount is, moreover, instantly recognisable. It is usually unhurried but positive. There is nothing jagged in the action. Movements flow. The gun is handled with a certain relaxed precision. Economy of movement is combined with perfect control of the muzzles. You can tell a lot about any individual’s shooting just by watching him or her mount the gun. The elegant mount is typically a sign of general competence, like “the seat” in riding. It will, meantime, be hard…

The history of fisheries management in the British Isles since the seminal Salmon Fishery Acts of the 1860s was largely dominated by the far greater importance sea-trout is the Cinderella of the game fish world – authors, government departments, fishing owners and all other interested parties seem to pass him by. This is really not so surprising when one considers the matter. A good sea-trout river frequently accommodates salmon also, and naturally the latter fish steals all the limelight, attention and finance.” His acid test was to ask: “If faced with two invitations for a fishing holiday, one on a good salmon river and the other on a famous sea-trout water, which would you accept?” If you accepted the latter, he added, “You are a real enthusiast with a soul…

Hands up, I admit it. Prior to bowling along a Scottish lane with my own pair clasped firmly in hand, I had often dismissed carriage driving as a sport for those made from less stiff stuff than us hedgehopping sorts. When I broached the subject in a Shire pub I was hooted at, as though I might turn up to the opening meet in a dog cart, perhaps clutching a vegan pamphlet for good measure. Carriage driving appeared to lack something red blooded for its detractors. But I challenge any of the polo-playing, hard-riding thrusters to sit up behind a pair, get them underway and then tell me what they think. The reality is that the carriage-driving world can do demure – and it can also do daring and dashing.…

In some ways, the two Houses of Parliament are rather like the two ancient universities, Oxford and Cambridge. The Commons and Lords have their own colours, their own distinctive locations and celebrated alumni, and their own peculiar traditions and conventions. Like Cantabrigians and Oxonians, they refer to each other, half-affectionately and half-dismissively, as “the Other Place”. And like Oxbridge, they have a long tradition of rivalry – sometimes a friendly rivalry, at other times less so. Peers tend to be circumspect in their criticism of the Commons in order to avoid inflaming opinion against the House of Lords, but many MPs feel less need for restraint. In December 2014, for instance, former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond called for a “peasants’ revolt-type vote” (presumably another referendum) to abolish the Upper…

QI hope you are able to help me. I have a book called Where to Fish 1992-1993, published by the Thomas Harmsworth Publishing Company. I am trying to find today’s equivalent of this book but am not having any luck. Is there any such book available? LF, by email A The annual publication Where to Fish was launched in 1822 and the last book rolled of the press in 2011/12. All this information has now gone online at www.wheretofish.co.uk, where you can browse river locations, a fish list of Great Britain and river systems with all their useful contact information. Field fishing writer Keith Elliott says there is no equivalent book produced today but the Where to Fish website is most instructive.…

I INSIST on eating and cooking outside at the first glimpse of sunshine, so guests are generally forewarned to bring sunglasses, jumpers and coats. Once al fresco and I’ve gone to the bother of cleaning and lighting the barbecue, I love to use it for as much of the meal as possible. I hate the idea of wasting any of the heat and that delicious smokiness but also, if you are the chef, it’s much easier to cook everything in one place rather than having to keep popping back into the kitchen to finish dishes off. Also, you don’t want to feel that you are missing out on any of the fun. This approach can backfire, of course, if the heavens open and you’re left outside alone to do battle…

“An exceptionally pretty gun and one that shot extremely well. Felt recoil was below average, trigger pulls good, general function excellent” THIS month’s test explores a 12-bore Beretta 695 over-and-under game gun in 30in, multichoked form. It weighs in at 7lb 9oz. The test gun is not a limited edition as such, although only 100 are being made available initially (with a 20-bore and a Sporting 12-gauge on the way). The RRP is £4,125, pitching it above the firm’s base models but significantly below the sideplated EELL, which starts at £6,450. The 695, which Beretta bills as leading the 69 series line, is, in essence, a deluxe version of the 690 (launched in 2014) with fairly tight, deep-chased scroll engraving (achieved using new, five-axis laser technology) and significantly upgraded wood.…

DEEP, rich, Bournville-coloured soils disappear into the far-reaching horizon, dissected by a network of ditches slicing neatly into the land’s surface. Narrow, arrow-straight roads perch on top. Grain silos tower in the landscape; irrigation rigs line up to create an artificial weather front; machinery loaded with horsepower tracks a metronomic rhythm back and forth across vast fields, many measuring a hundred acres or more. From potatoes to carrots, sugar beet and some of the highest yielding cereal crops in the nation, the Fenlands of East Anglia are at the heart of England’s bread basket. The ability to crop this prime land has only been made possible through incredible feats of engineering dating back to the Romans. Since the 17th century, wind, coal, diesel and now electric pumps have succeeded in…