Innholdsfortegnelse for Aug-2018 i The Field

ON any weekend during the school holidays, the forecourt of Dover’s cross-Channel ferry-port would have been bumper to bumper with cars and caravans. On a wet Wednesday in November, it was deserted. As I drove slowly towards the waiting car ferry, I was an easy target for the uniformed figure ahead. “We’re not police, we’re not customs, we’re port security,” he explained. “We’re only looking for one thing: weapons. Do you have any weapons?” “Well, as a matter of fact, yes,” I answered. “I’ve got a 12-bore shotgun, a hunting rifle and 200 rounds of ammunition.” His jaw dropped: nobody had ever answered “yes” before. I paused for effect. “And I’ve got a shotgun certificate, a firearm certificate, a French hunting licence and a European Firearms Pass.” “Y-you’d b-better come…

MORE than 450 members of the City of London’s worshipful companies assembled at the Holland & Holland Shooting Ground for the annual Inter Livery Shoot, one of the biggest events on the livery calendar. Organised splendidly by Chris Parr, liveryman of the Environmental Cleaners, teams representing 61 companies were faced with 80 clays, all thrown as simultaneous targets. Dwell too long on one and the other had gone to ground. Reflecting the change in fashion, 80% of competitors were armed with over-andunders, 20% with side-by-sides; 15 years ago the percentages would have been reversed. But the key to success is not the format of the barrels but where you point them, as amply demonstrated by the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers’ D team – Messrs Hawes, Williams, O’Dowd and Lovel –…

THE GLEBE HOUSE NEWTOWN, FAREHAM, HAMPSHIRE This former Georgian rectory has the classical proportions of its period. It is a seven-bedroom country house in 10 acres, including paddocks, and has been extensively refurbished. There is a tennis court and swimming pool with a pool house and an insulated triple garage. Agent: Savills Tel: 01962 841842 Guide price: £3.85m THE OLD MANSE OF TOWIE GLENKINDIE, ALFORD, ABERDEENSHIRE This Georgian manse is built of harled stone under a slate roof. It is Grade B listed and dates from the early 1800s. It has five bedrooms and the grounds bound the River Don, with trout fishing rights. There is also a steading in the sale with development potential. Agent: Galbraith Tel: 01343 546362 Offers: in excess of £550,000 CLEVELAND HOUSE BATH, AVON This…

PITT HOUSE KINGSKERSWELL, NEWTON ABBOT, DEVON This is a five-bedroom, Grade II-Listed, 16th-century, thatched Devon longhouse. The kitchen has two sets of doors opening up onto the garden and the property includes many original features. The garden is largely lawn, with a seating area, garage and outbuildings. Agent: Marchand Petit Tel: 01803 847979 Guide price: £695,000 MANDALAY BASSENTHWAITE, KESWICK, CUMBRIA Mandalay, a former Victorian vicarage, has a kitchen and breakfast room with granite work surfaces, limestone flooring, integrated appliances and a central island. In the Lake District National Park, it has five bedrooms, a wine cellar and grounds of just over four acres. Agent: Finest Properties Tel: 01768 744324 Guide price: £3.45m WATERCROFT PENN, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE The kitchen/breakfast room in this six-bedroom, Grade II-Listed house has a range of high-end units,…

When does a day’s driven grouse shooting start? Is it when the convoy sets off up the moor, snaking behind and in front of you up the estate road into the heather? Is it when you get up in the morning, full of excitement and rush down for a massive shooting breakfast? Or did it begin months ago with the chicks hatching and the keepers anxiously watching the weather? Perhaps even earlier than that, with the heather management and estate maintenance all year round? Really, the day at Wemmergill Moor, Teesdale, started 175 years ago with the first recorded shoots on the moor, then owned by the Bowes family. Yet there is also a good case to be argued that my day’s shooting at Wemmergill last summer had begun only…

At a Game Conservancy dinner not so long ago, a guest bid a vast sum to take a 250-bird day only to realise, as the hammer went down, that the auctioneer was saying “for pheasant”. The telling of this story, at a shoot lunch where I was present, attracted howls of mirth. For the guns were, to a man, grouse specialists and the unwitting bidder had thought he was buying a day amongst Lagopus lagopus scotica. There is a magic about grouse and the Twelfth that sets minds racing and hearts beating. It is without question the highest form of driven game shooting, unique to the British Isles, and creates an envious sporting, social and, it must be said, economic benchmark, whenever a shooting party gets together and talks about…

I would wager that a significant proportion of The Field’s readership would be able to name the constituent parts of the Macnab Challenge. Most, I suspect, would have given passing thought to completing said challenge but few will have progressed further. One reason for this is that the number of Macnabs completed each year is low. It is generally a difficult challenge to complete, but therein lies its appeal. Conditions on the day, wind and water, are in the lap of the gods and often unhelpful. It is nothing short of miraculous if one of the three species concerned does not deviate from its usual pattern of behaviour. However, one element within your control is the location. What are you actually looking for? A family holiday from which a Macnab…

I recently travelled across the UK to interview farmers and gamekeepers for a new collection of case studies published by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT). These “working conservationists” are engaged in a range of different businesses, from Mark Chattey farming beef on 284 acres in Devon to Tom Orde-Powlett managing conservation projects on the family’s 12,500-acre estate in Wensleydale, but all share common ground in their passion for nature. The GWCT champions such individuals because the future of British wildlife depends on them and others taking their lead. The RSPB rightly states that, “Nature reserves and protected areas are a good start. But on their own, they are not enough to deal with these challenges.” The issue is one of scale. When you consider that farmland covers around…

“We have overlooked and undervalued and underfunded our rich circus heritage” Circus has an image problem. For decades, the tawdry attractions of the big top, with its tigers, tightropes and trapezes, seemed to wane. It remains the poor relation of the performing arts, perhaps because the training can be arbitrary, the lifestyle nomadic and, after all, when did you ever hear of anyone running away to join the ballet? However, it seems to have evolved into something more sophisticated, more respectful of its heritage. For many loyalists, circus retained its brassy allure throughout this transition and their devotion is paying off. So prepare to dust off your sequined, feathered, high-legged one-piece and cartwheel down to the original pop-up attraction at the end of your road. Attendance appears to be on…

IN the sporting collection of the Royal Armouries is a most unusual gun, one, moreover, that has a medical story attached, an unusual attribution for a sporting gun. The gun is Russian and their sporting gun tradition is both familiar and, at the same time, different to that in Britain. This gun was made in about 1760 by one of the best Russian royal gun makers, Ivan Permjakov, who worked in the royal workshops, initially under the supervision of the Ober-Jägermister, the royal head huntsman, and then as an Imperial gunmaker from about 1755 to 1773. He worked in St Petersburg making target and hunting firearms for both Empress Catherine II and her son, Czar Paul I. He also maintained the hunting weapons, which numbered in the hundreds, that were…

2017 BEYERSKLOOF PINOTAGE (£6, Sainsbury’s) From the fabled Beyers Truter, whose wines have done much to make Pinotage acceptable. 2016 CO-OP TRULY IRRESISTABLE PINOTAGE (£7, Co-operative) Fresh, juicy, tasty and corkingly good value. 2015 DARLING CELLARS CHOCOHOLIC PINOTAGE (£9, The Drink Shop) Just like Italian Amarone this is made with a proportion of dried grapes. 2015 THE SOCIETY’S EXHIBITION PINOTAGE (£10.50, Wine Society) Produced by the great Abrie Beeslaar at Kanonkop and absurdly drinkable. 2012 SPRINGFONTEIN TERROIR SELECTION PINOTAGE (£16.50, Private Cellar) This stunningly vibrant, succulent example is impossible not to like. 2015 ASHBOURNE (£45, The Wine Reserve) From Anthony Hamilton Russell, the wine that first persuaded me that Pinotage could be great.…

I’M so divided about this huntress term. Of course, anything that is positive and brings us closer to the equality of the sexes is great. But a nurse is a nurse, if you know what I mean, and I am a hunter. I grew up in Sweden and it was normal for my father, grandfather and uncle to take children out and share their lifestyle, teaching us about nature, wildlife, predator control and gamekeeping. I was out hunting with them every week before I could walk. My mother left when I was one and my father retained custody. When not in kindergarten or at school I was his shadow while stalking, his carrier while shooting rabbits or birds, and picked up the shells at the shooting range. My father was…

According to my shotgun certificate, the Menzies arsenal currently includes: 1 x Beretta Silver Pigeon 12-bore over-and-under; 2 x Churchill 20-bore side-by-sides; 2 x Arietta 20-bore side-by-sides. And, since you ask, officer, there is indeed a very good reason why I need each and every one of my five shotguns. The Churchills are for grouse and partridge shooting early in the season (and for showing off); the Ariettas are for driven pheasant as the season progresses and rough shooting over my dogs; the 12-bore is for clay shooting and lending to guests of a results-oriented persuasion. So far so incredibly spoilt. What I dread is the next government crackdown that will force me to choose to keep just one of my double-barrelled friends. Would it be the Churchills for their…

GETTING PEOPLE TO EAT GAME Public voting to decide the finalists in the first Eat Game Awards – run by BASC’s Taste of Game, James Purdey & Sons and Boisdale Restaurants – opens on 12 August. There were more than 2,300 entries across the 10 categories, including Best Added Value Game Meat Product, sponsored by The Field, for example a pie or ready meal. Winners will be announced at a dinner at Boisdale Canary Wharf on 9 October. All proceeds are being donated to the Country Food Trust. To vote, go to: www.eatgameawards.co.uk CULLODEN THREATENED Plans to turn a small equestrian centre on Culloden Moor into a holiday and leisure complex could lead to the loss of a historic landscape, believes the National Trust for Scotland and the 1745 Association,…

This residential and sporting estate is set on the Cowal Peninsula. The main property, Glenstriven House, has 10 bedrooms with views over Loch Striven. There are also four other cottages and houses in the sale, including a lochside cottage, a galleried lodge house and a converted smokehouse. Among the outbuildings are a panelled shoot room and a keeper’s maisonette. The estate even has its own private pub, the Glenstriven Arms, which was converted from an old generator building. There are just over 1,000 acres in total, including coastal gardens, 834 acres of hill and 79 acres of woods. The sport includes a high-bird pheasant shoot and red and roe deer stalking. There is sailing and sea fishing and the estate has its own pier and slipway. Glenstriven is 49 miles…

As August rolls around, many people start beetling off towards rocky Cornish beaches, the flat broads of Norfolk or Pembrokeshire’s delightful coast. Not at Field Towers. Here, August heralds the most revered time of year, the start of the sporting season and our favourite sporting adventure, The Field’s Macnab Challenge, is underway again. John Macnab, written by John Buchan in 1925, is a tale of derring-do and robust spirit that still inspires sporting sorts today and is required reading for any aspiring Macnabber. The Challenge, based on the notion of Buchan’s book, has long been on sporting bucket lists. The Classic Macnab entails catching a salmon on the fly, grassing a stag and bagging a brace of grouse between dawn and dusk. The rich colours of the purple heather, home…

“We hooked and lost a few, and netted five – every one the epitome of a wild trout” We were in the wilderness known as the Flow Country in Caithness. There was a quad bike to make the journey to Loch nam Fear feasible and I experienced as much excitement and adventure just getting to the loch edge as I would expect from a day’s fishing – grit your teeth, relax your body, hang on and everything will be just fine. That was the mantra I repeated to myself as we bounced and slithered to the loch’s edge. Dismounting by the side of the pretty loch, I gathered myself together, rigged up my gear and had a long look round. I was going to boat-fish a loch that hadn’t seen…

“People get these cute puppies but don’t want to know about the adult dog” It is bad luck for Britain’s gundogs that they carry the hopes and dreams of a nation on their furry shoulders. If we buy a black labrador, surely the mortgage on a country cottage will follow? With a springer spaniel lying in front of it, the microwave is almost an AGA. And having a cocker makes you a member of the county set. But, sadly, no gundog can fill your shelves with pots of homemade jam or blag you an invite to appear on Countryfile. Instead, that little bundle of status symbol rapidly grows up to be no more or less than what it is: a gundog. As gundogs do, it chews; it retrieves (steals); it…

I remember the first time I visited the Bay of Plenty on the west coast of Scotland as if it were yesterday and the fizz of baitfish rupturing the sea swell attack the smaller fish with such ferocity that the ebbing tide left behind quivering silver heaps on the damp seaweed. I left a few hours later lugging a rucksack full of mackerel and buckets of whitebait to feast on for months to come. That discovery was made nearly a decade ago but the Bay of Plenty has rewarded the long walk out to her shores every summer since, and offered up beneath a hot blue sky. Shoals of mackerel lurked offshore and every few minutes they charged into the clearer shallows to memorable sightings of sea eagles, roe deer…

Philip Astley must have been a frightening vision on the battlefield. When the average British male was 5ft 6in, he was over 6ft and built like a tank; combining this physique with a stentorian voice, the father of modern circus was certainly imposing. Born in the coaching town of Newcastleunder-Lyme in 1742 to the black sheep of an otherwise respectable family, Astley had a turbulent relationship with his cabinetmaker father. He joined the 15th Light Dragoons where he excelled and became an outstanding equestrian. Indeed, he would write a book on horse husbandry and there is a tale that during a storm at sea he dived into the raging waters to save a horse that had been washed overboard. Upon leaving the Army, he founded a riding school in Lambeth…

I HAVE the solution to one of your biggest shoot season conundrums. Sadly, it’s not how to get extra invites to the moor or guarantee your dog doesn’t embarrass you. No, it’s how to ensure the whole experience doesn’t end on a low. Bringing home some of the bag to eat is hugely rewarding, especially knowing how much work, love and skill went into getting it. So, the final stage, consuming it – which is, personally, my favourite bit – should be perfect. We all know that lean meat, like game birds, can easily become dry and tough if not handled well. So, my top tip for this season is designed to stop that happening: brine the meat. Brining is a simple process that involves immersing an ingredient in a…

PURDEY’S new over-and-under, the Trigger Plate model, is made entirely in England. It is a side-plated, 30in-barrelled gun with a detachable trigger-lock, intended for both game and clays. It hits the scales at a beefy 8lb 11oz (although the design allows that figure to be reduced to around 8lb). Clearly no lightweight, first impressions are unequivocally good even with a bottom line of £55,000 plus VAT (about half the current cost of a Purdey-Woodward sidelock over-and-under). There is a clear, familial similarity with the Purdey Sporter that was made in association with Perugini and Vissini for more than a decade (itself inspired by the Perazzi MX8 generic-action type). But the new, Hammersmith conceived and crafted Purdey has some unique and interesting features. The re-profiled barrels are demi-lump (the over-and-under equivalent…

THE magnificent, early summer wildflower displays of our species-rich pastures have dwindled, first setting seed and then falling victim to hay cutting or a mob of ruminants. Leggy grasses in the margins and untended setaside appear strikingly scorched with their desiccated seed heads. Mown and grazed pastures crave a drop of moisture to green-up again. As the splendour and beauty of these floral displays pass the heat of summer intensifies and our attention turns to the management of our most precious flower-rich farmland. More than 400 plant species – a quarter of Britain’s total floral diversity – are found in meadows and grasslands and many would be absent without management. Grazing livestock is the most important tool to maintain this conservation interest; the hay maker a close second. Traditional cropping…

FOUR weddings and a funeral? Pah, Hugh Grant had it easy. Child’s play. I’ve just done four weekends on the trot: two 21st parties and two funerals. I’m partied out and we have only just made June. The funerals (technically one was a memorial service) went particularly well. Principally because the person we were all mourning was especially loved. Everybody was genuinely sad and there was nothing to fight about. “Don’t worry, Dad, they won’t all come, and we agreed to stop the disco at 4am. What’s your policy on fairylights and inflatables?” Unlike a friend I have, whose aunt is affectionately known as “Bed and Breakfast Aunt”. Whenever she visits a new property she insists on being shown around every room of the house. At the end of the…

“Try before you buy and go for the gun that makes your heart sing” When the time comes to choose a sporting companion for days in the field, where should you start? I’ve shot dismally, and well, with 12-, 16- and 20-bores. Having eschewed the 20 brigade for my current 12-bore incarnation, on a recent fast and furious sim day a strange 20-bore was thrust into my hands and it shot merrily. So my advice would be don’t discount anything, try before you buy and go for the gun that makes your heart sing and your mount swing… it may not be the model that you were expecting. My current 12-bore is a well-cherished old soldier. But here is the pick of the new shotguns on the market at the…

Forget the lunchtime yoga, more ladies are finding that casting classes and days on the river are a perfect way to unwind – and they make good pupils, too I went into a tackle shop earlier this year and was asked if I’d ever been fishing before,” says Anne Woodcock. “There’s just an assumption that women don’t fish.” Woodcock knows otherwise. She is the person behind www.ladiesfishing.co.uk,a website that promotes her own — and other people’s — ladies’ fishing and charity days, which may cost as little as £55 a day. The photo heading the site’s Facebook page (Anne Ladies Fishing), of Woodcock and friends in heels and skirts brandishing fly rods, makes it plain that there is nothing unfeminine about a fisherwoman. “I started with a day organised by…

It is not often in life that the source of unimaginable relief comes in the form of a scrubby sheep track cutting its meandering way through the heather. Two hours into our walked-up grouse day high on a Perthshire moor, I stumbled onto the path of our ovine friends with the enthusiasm of a shipwrecked sailor glimpsing a British frigate flying the Union Jack. There might have been a small cry of joy. Not enough to flush the game, of course. The snaking track led down towards a small burn that would need crossing (the athletics required on a grouse moor are significantly more challenging than those required on smart, lowland circuits) and as I descended, losing sight of the gun to my left behind a fold in the hill,…

Sonya Wiggins is on a mission. She wants to tell the world about grouse shooting – not just the sport itself but how it benefits the moors managed for the shoot and how much it means to communities in the uplands, both socially and in terms of the pounds in their pockets, which are not easily come by in these dwindling rural communities. She also wants to share the fact that grouse is pretty good to eat. Her Yorkshire Dales Moorland Group was formed in 2015, alongside many other such groups in England and Scotland at the time. “There was a lot of bad press going on and people had just decided that it was time to shout about the benefits,” she explains. So a group of estates in the…

“The jack in question carried us a good eight miles with ruler precision” Hunting was one of the mounted sports that the British savoured in the subcontinent. Madras hosted the earliest hunts but the country was not ideal, alternating between the mire of paddy fields during the monsoon and hard, dusty plains in winter; the plains they hunted around Delhi and Lahore were hard and dusty, too. On the other hand, the Ooty Hunt, whose first regular pack was formed in 1869 (the hunt itself dates back to 1835), hunted over the Wenlock Downs – 30 square miles of reserve forest and grazing land described as home country the likes of which no other pack in India can boast. Of all the hunts in India, and there were 12 of…

“The Pharos stood largely intact for 1,500 years, until the earthquakes of 1303 and 1323” The story of lighthouses stretches back more than 2,000 years to an astonishing structure built on the north coast of Africa circa 280BC: the Pharos of Alexandria. This was not the first light maintained for the benefit of mariners but its legendary reputation made it a reference point for every engineer who aspired to lighthouse building into modern times. The Pharos was named for the island on which it was built, a strip of limestone lying off the port of Alexandria on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, linked to the land by a causeway. Traditionally, its architect is said to have been a Greek, Sostratus of Cnidus. However, much that was written about the Pharos in ancient…

THE internet may be taking over – “spoiling” is another word that leaps to mind – the gladiatorial thrill of a visit to an auction but there are still times when those in the room can gain distinct advantages over their wired-up competitors. When everything is selling then it is probably immaterial whether you are at home, coffee or drink in hand, tapping the “Buy Now” button, or sitting on a hard chair in an airless room waving your mitt at the rostrum. However, it is when things are not selling that the buyer in the room can sometimes get the drop on those on the internet, especially with more esoteric “collectables”. It just takes a few key buyers to be absent or extra choosy for that section of an…

ONE of the frustrations of judging a competition is not being able to enter it, as I have found as one of the judges of The Field Gundog Awards. Not that my spaniels would be contenders for any of the more serious awards but I would enjoy having a crack at the Gundog Photograph of the Year. I’m a professional writer, not photographer, but I’ve long found satisfaction in illustrating my articles with own photographs. Dog photography is fun and not difficult. However, my best shots have always been taken by chance rather than design, when light, background and subject have all combined successfully. I’ve set up numerous shots but, perhaps reflecting that I’m an amateur, they have rarely been as pleasing as spontaneous photographs, especially those taken on a…

THE list of reasons why I was definitely not going to like the Skoda Karoq was short but comprehensive. First, it’s a victim of Skoda’s silly spelling regime. Second, my test car was only two-wheel drive and therefore not a proper SUV at all. No more justification needed. However, once the Karoq arrived in the yard, it began to win hearts. It’s a sort of watered-down version of the Kodiaq (see spelling niggle above) and, if anything, is even easier on the eye. It’s not at all unlike the original BMW X3, which I loved but no-one else seemed to. But it didn’t win points by being spectacularly good at anything. It was just really good at being capable. The seating position was raised but not by too much, which…

How lucky were the sporting ladies of the Golden Era (1890 to 1930), who were able to dress impeccably for the sporting field in elegant, tailored clothing that flattered their feminine shape. Then came rationing and decades of women’s country clothing that lacked a certain savoir faire. Fast forward to the 21st century and the famine is well and truly over. Crack open the fizz or a tequila or two and welcome a new golden era. We now have women who have been brought up on the fields of hunting, shooting and fishing, and whose pedigrees extend to understanding and enjoying the unison of functionality and style in ladies’ sporting fashion. Lady Melissa Percy is one of four children, two girls and two boys. She explains: “My dad never differentiated…

“I enjoy it because it is a bit more of a thrill doing something different” There is a picture in my parents’ house that has been there since I was a child. It is a John Leech print entitled Gone away, showing a young girl jumping a hedge off a road sidesaddle. The girl is focusing hard on the hounds, which are rapidly disappearing out of frame while a chubby man in livery is trying in vain to stop her. The caption reads: Old Coachman: “Now Miss Ellen, you know your Pa said you was to take great care of Jerry!” Miss Ellen: “So I will Robert and that’s why I am taking him off the nasty hard road poor thing!” I have always admired this sassy, wasp-waisted heroine in…

Picture a hunt meet. A well-groomed woman of Cooper-novel credentials trots past, turning heads, unfamiliarly glamorous. She calls, “Hello!” and you realise it’s your neighbour, last seen mole-eyed, mud encrusted and with hay in her hair, now quite transformed. In To Whom the Goddess (1932) by Lady Apsley and Lady Diana Shedden, an instruction to uphold one’s (and thus one’s hunt’s) reputation by being perfectly maintained suggested slathering Vaseline over the face for a good waterproofing. Times, thankfully, have moved on. Skincare is still high on the agenda but with a modern interpretation. Make-up artist Amalie Russell says, “Hydrating and protecting are the two most key factors for skin when out in the elements. To do this a good tonic is key, making any skincare base comfortable. It locks in…