Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2024 i The Field

DELUXE GAMEBOOK Fine Shooting Accessories A hefty book (27cm x 39cm) favoured by serious shots and those keeping estate records. Price from £595 fineshootingaccessories.com LEATHER GAMEBOOK The Stamford Notebook Co Available in four colours with personalisation and gilt edging optional extras. Price from £59.95 stamfordnotebooks.co.uk HALF-BOUND LEATHER GAMEBOOK Cordings Handmade in England using 160gsm paper with gold giltedged pages. Price £95 cordings.co.uk SMALL GAMEBOOK Noble Macmillan This hand-bound book of 64 leaves can be personalised: the ideal gift for a keen shot. Price from £95 noblemacmillan.com CLASSIC GAMEBOOK Locketts Hard-wearing book handmade in England in a choice of blue or green. Price £101 locketts.co.uk…

NDC IT IS heartening to see Great British Game Week thriving after a decade of inspiring countless converts to the pleasures of game on the table. The great thing about this initiative is that it completely debunks the stereotypes that existed for so long and combined to prevent game meat from breaking into mainstream meal planning. Rather than chewing our way through a somewhat dry pot-roast pheasant, while lubricating its passage with large quantities of ‘fighting claret’, we now see game as an ingredient in the full panoply of provender, from canapés to carpaccio. The stuffy old myth of game being a snooty and mysterious product only eaten by certain sectors of society was probably a direct hangover from the ancient and draconian game laws. These protected not just the…

AWELL-KNOWN motoring journalist once described a Ford Probe as being able to “snap knicker elastic at 50 paces”. Shooting brakes – the good old shoot bus – might not have quite the same dramatic effect but they do evoke great affection, warmth and a little amusement. Imagine owning a 1928 Rolls-Royce as a gun bus. Andrew and Margaret Gemmill had not but that’s what happened. “We were having rather a boozy lunch watching Sworders’ online auction of the Guinness Sale at Elveden. I was only after a set of dining-room chairs,” Margaret admits. “The auction went on till early evening and we were still sitting at the table drinking; the Rolls-Royce was the next lot and ‘Why not?’ we all said,” she laughs. Morning and sobriety arrived: “We woke and…

I’VE GOT a broken shoulder and a broken wrist, we moved into kennels at 6pm yesterday and there is still stock out everywhere,” Andrew German, huntsman to the High Peak Harriers, told me when I arrived at their new kennels one bright November morning. It occurred to me that this was not the best preparation for the Hunt’s Opening Meet of 2023. Yet one should never underestimate hunting folk when it comes to pulling sporting rabbits out of a hat, and my day with the High Peak Harriers proved to be an object lesson in how to produce great sport against the odds. Just arriving at the High Peak’s kennels at Smerrill Moor is enough to fill you with hope. Nestled in the heart of the Peak District between Matlock…

▸ Breast-high: warming air allows scent molecules to rise up through evaporation and convection so that even ground scenters can carry their noses high. ▸ Dead ground: lower-lying, colder or wetter patches sometimes cause gundogs to lose the scent even of a bird lying dead. ▸ Running mute: it is a fault for hounds not to make music on a trail but equally a fault for gundogs to speak when they find. ▸ Lining: whereas hounds need to follow a line, gundogs should quarter methodically when searching for game and only follow the line of wounded quarry. ▸ Quartering: all gundogs and hounds do this when searching for the initial scent but, once they have it, the next stages are different. ▸ Back track: hunting the scent backwards from the…

MENTION Churchill and Africa in a sentence together and two contrasting images are likely to come to mind: the young, dashing reporter making a name for himself in the Boer War, and the rotund, cigar-chewing elder statesman on visits to British forces in North Africa more than 40 years later. Readers of Churchill’s sparkling book My Early Life will remember that he was in Sudan in the late 1890s, when Lord Kitchener undertook to avenge General Gordon by defeating the Dervish army. Art connoisseurs will also know of his frequent trips to Marrakech. But there was another Churchillian visit to Africa that often escapes notice, when – as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies – he embarked on an extended tour of British East Africa from October 1907 to January…

To see more of Steven Keating’s work, visit the Rowles Gallery, 53 Mill Street, Ludlow, Shropshire SY8 1BB. Tel: 01584 872123. Visit: rowlesgallery.com Art in the field Painter Steven Keating channels his emotional response to the world around him into his art with spectacular results, says Janet Menzies WE ALL see things differently, and this is often literally the case for artists. Claude Monet explained: “My bad eyesight meant that I saw everything through a fog. It’s very beautiful and it’s what I would like to be able to represent in my art.” Vincent van Gogh’s letters often complain about his eyesight, and art historians have wondered if works such as Starry Night owe something to myopia and astigmatism. His strong yellow palette is put down to xanthopsia, a condition…

WORKING your gundog in the beating line, or as a picking-up dog, is seldom thought of beating line, or as a picking-up dog, is seldom thought of as a high-risk job. Well, it’s not usually for the handler but it can be for the dog. In 40 years of working spaniels I’ve had to make four emergency visits to the vet with an injured animal. In each case the dog survived, though it needed weeks to recover. No doubt those who have employed bigger canine teams than me, or who have worked more days a season, will say that I (or rather my dogs) have escaped lightly. Three of my emergencies were caused by the dog running into a fallen branch and stabbing itself. On the most serious occasion my…

Send queries to Rosie Macdonald, Country Queries Editor, The Field, Future Publishing PLC, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR. For more, visit: thefield.co.uk Email country-queries@hectareshouse.co.uk Follow Rosie on Instagram @dizzy_m In a bind: who can repair a cherished old book? I have an old leather-bound Q children’s book in need of some repair. Are you able to point me in the right direction? MJG, Somerset A John Plunkett Bookbinding & Repairs in Great Dunmow, Essex offers a specialised service in leather and cloth binding repairs. He also conserves and rebinds books. Due to the nature of this work, there is usually a six-month waiting list as there are many books in various stages of conservation in Plunkett’s studio. In the first instance, please email photographs of the book highlighting the…

Buttery cornbread with cheese and chives I was first introduced to cornbread when cooking for some American clients on a shoot in Wiltshire. At their request, I made a batch of cornbread for them to take out with their Elevenses. My first attempt apparently was “not bad for a Brit” but would benefit from a little more butter. This feedback came as something of a shock because as a chef, and as someone from the West Country, I had never been accused of holding back on the dairy. Comments duly noted, I set to work tweaking my recipe to produce the cornbread below, which not only has a fantastically rich, buttery crumb but also a generous sprinkle of tangy, fatty cheddar cheese. Makes 16 squares 120g yellow cornmeal (fine or…

IT’S NO exaggeration to say that game shooting has been through turbulent times in recent years and has faced all manner of challenges, from the COVID-19 pandemic and rising costs to avian influenza with its impact on gamebird release and licensing. This season most pheasant and partridge shoots are back to ‘normal’, although grouse shooting has remained dismal. Many shoot managers are now considering how the new Government will view shooting and what the long-term prospects are for the sector. Game managers are mindful that there is now a grouse moor licensing scheme in Scotland. The Welsh government is committed to bringing in a similar system next year for all released gamebird shoots, and in England we already have regulations for gamebird releasing on or near European designated sites (Special…

THIS IS an Exmoor sporting and livestock estate of 256 acres that has been in the current owners’ livestock estate of 256 acres that has been in the current owners’ family for three generations. The farm forms part of an established neighbouring shoot and there are also single-bank fishing rights on the River Exe. Running to 3,350 square feet of accommodation, the south-facing, stone-built farmhouse under a natural slate roof boasts five bedrooms and three reception rooms, including a dining room with timber flooring and an inglenook fireplace. There is a courtyard and an old milling and shearing building among a range of traditional stone barns. The more modern buildings at either end of the farm are for livestock and machinery. A mixture of pasture fields and steeper grazing fields,…

THE PHYSICAL beauty of game inspires poets and artists, and can stop most of us in our tracks. Hides in myriad tones of bronze, feathers in stained-glass hues and boar… well, a row of piglets trotting after their mother couldn’t be any more adorable. You certainly never forget the first time you see emerald flashes from teal wheeling in the sky or a silhouette of antlers against a sunrise. But what’s just as uplifting are the health benefits of eating these beauties. In comparison with other meats, game would be the undisputed Top Trumps winner. Pheasant has more protein, less fat, five times as much iron and three times the selenium of chicken, and half of the calories. Venison has extremely high iron, zinc and protein levels and, compared with…

HUNTING with dogs is one thing, and hunting with hounds is quite another. Dogs do things differently from hounds. Whether they are gundogs (spaniels or pointers, for example) or hounds such as foxhounds and bloodhounds, every breed and type of dog working in the field has its own approach. Modern bloodhounds have been trained to hunt the clean boot. Spaniels are best following bodily odours on the ground. Pointers are air scenters. Some hounds – greyhounds, for instance – are sighthounds and will ignore their noses in favour of their eyes. In the bitterly divisive days when the Hunting Act 2004 was passed, one small detail was particularly hard for hunting folk to swallow. The phrase ‘hunting with dogs’ seemed deliberately calculated to cause offence: because foxes and other banned…

IT IS NOT unusual for guns to have a lesson before the start of the season to get their eye in, while gundogs and hunt horses might expect a little training to keep them performing at their peak but, surprisingly, anglers are often less inclined to call for professional assistance. It might be tempting to think that fishing is one of those things you can pick up as you go along and that one just has to get one’s line in the water. However, there is a little more to it than that. I spent years thinking fishing was all pretty much luck – hearing tales of beginners catching a salmon in their first morning and passionate lifelong fishers not actually banking a fish for years or even decades –…

ALL COMES to those who wait” is what we tell our children as they scream for a sugar rush. Conversely, with my literary agent hat on, I tell my authors to sharpen their elbows if they want to see success. Take it from me, most celebs who stiletto their way to the top of the media tree have a very different mantra: “Grab it when you can, and to hell with waiting.” Likewise with auctions. If you want something special, then hesitate at your peril. I doubt I am unique among collectors in torturing myself as I leaf through old catalogues, muttering “If only I’d grabbed that, at that price, back then”. However, an auction ended yesterday that unexpectedly turned into the exception that doubtless proves this rule. What happened…

I KNOW one should never wish one’s life away but I am heartily sick of this year’s gardening season and am thankful that it’s over. An extremely wet and cold spring badly held up the sowing of hardy vegetables and annuals and sent molluscs – especially the horrible brown slug – into overdrive, cutting dahlias off at the knees and causing the complete disappearance of beetroot and lettuce seedlings overnight. Many an evening, when taking the dogs out, I had to tiptoe across the lawn so as not to squidge the blighters at every step. Then we in the Midlands enjoyed a sunny, rainless August that dried up the borders, which made the digging out of perennial weeds impossible and meant the summer flowers went over too quickly. However, having…

THIS SEASON has helped us perhaps more than any previous one to realise the strong position in the world of sport which is now held by covert shooting. It has shown us the almost complete failure of the partridge and the partial failure of the grouse, while the pheasant shooters are taking part, as usual, in excellent sport in almost every well-known game preserve. During the past six months the good luck of the pheasant shooter has never really been questioned, although in various places there has been serious mortality from pneumonia and enteritis. Reliance was placed all through, as it has been every summer and autumn for years, on the gamekeepers knowing their work and doing it. The weather, it is true, has been the worst on record during…

Wallace warns of two-tier policing for hunting community Former defence secretary and British Hound Sports Association (BHSA) board member Ben Wallace has claimed that hunt followers and saboteurs are not treated equally by the police. Wallace has called for England’s most senior police officer on foxhunting crime to be “removed” if he cannot police in an equal and fair way after the police officer claimed trail hunting is a “smokescreen for illegal hunting”. Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Matthew Longman, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on hunting with hounds crime, is said to have declined an invitation to attend the BHSA’s National Trail Hunting Day in September, held at 30 locations across England and Wales to demonstrate that it is a legal and law-abiding sport. He had previously stated the…

THIS YEAR The Field Top Dog Awards, kindly sponsored by Skinner’s, culminated in a celebratory lunch held at Defender Burghley Horse Trials in September. As the canine winners arrived, accompanied by their owners, it was the perfect chance for them to meet both each other and the judges: Editor Alexandra Henton, Ben Skinner from Skinner’s and David Tomlinson, The Field’s sporting dog expert. The President’s Marquee was soon brimming with different breeds, from Belgian malinois and duck-tolling retrievers to spaniels, a Border terrier and The Field’s resident labrador. As the awards got under way, the Editor introduced each worthy winner as Ben Skinner presented the prizes: a Skinner’s goody bag and covetable Top Dog certificate. Best retrieve (spaniel, labrador or pointer) category winner Finn raised a chuckle as he leapt…

IF, AS American naturalist Henry David Thoreau wrote, you walk in the woods and come out taller than the trees, then Jon Lambert must dwarf the nation’s forests like Gulliver in Lilliput. Lambert is a founding partner of Goldcrest Land & Forestry Group. The son of a Hereford cattle market auctioneer and now living in the Scottish Borders, Lambert regularly shoots, fishes and stalks – forests switching between office and playground during more than 30 years of woodland sales across the UK. From the bottom of the market at the turn of the century, forestry enjoyed a bull run of capital appreciation – averaging 15% a year – from 2005 to 2022. Capital values then dropped back around 15% to 20% on 2022 prices, with timber prices extremely low over…

I’M FASCINATED by anniversaries. It’s not an obsession (annivomania?), just an interest I discharge periodically by referring to one of my reference books, which contains a list of ‘notable’ dates. It was during one of these explorations that I first saw: ‘Born 1724 – John Smeaton’. I’d never heard of this ‘John Smeaton’, so my interest was piqued. An account from his biography reads: ‘A modest character who didn’t like to boast, the truth remains that John Smeaton stopped London Bridge from falling down, built the most iconic lighthouse in the world and is name-checked on NASA’s website.’ Smeaton was born at Austhorpe Lodge, four miles east of Leeds. He was the eldest of three children delivered to William Smeaton, a lawyer, and his wife Mary. Accounts suggest he was…

THIS MONTH we look at two special rifles: one old and rare, the other relatively new and special rifles: one old and rare, the other relatively new and frequently seen. They are the Sako VL63 Finnwolf deluxe lever action and the still current Mauser Model 12. Both are chambered in .308 Winchester. The Sako weighs in at a mid-weight 9½lb with a Schmidt & Bender 7x50 scope and 23in barrel, while the 22in-barrel Mauser fitted with Zeiss 3-12 glass tips the scale at a handy 8lb 6oz. The Sako was once offered in .243 too, and the Mauser (available with a wooden or synthetic stock) has a huge list of calibre options still, including .243, 6.5x55 Swedish, 6.5 Creedmoor, .270 Winchester, .308, 30-06, 7x57, 7x64, 7mm Rem Mag, 8x57, 8.5x55…

ITS DOWN-TO-EARTH name belies what a quite extraordinary enterprise this Yorkshire farm shop has become and what it achieves every day in championing local produce. Fodder is a Yorkshire Agricultural Society (YAS) project started after the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak to not only offer a much-needed retail outlet for local farmers but to also provide wider assistance to the rural community. “Fodder stands for everything we, as a farming charity, believe in: a passion for Yorkshire, its farmers and local producers,” says Jo Francisco from YAS. “And we are the only farm shop cafe of its kind in the UK where 100% of our profit goes back to the charity, which helps children, teachers and rural people through education, development and support.” Many farm shops make great play of limiting food…

THE LAKE District has romance stitched into its reputation: those winsome trees perched stitched into its reputation: those winsome trees perched atop a rocky outcrop stir even the stultified into creativity. There are the Poets, of course, although I have always found them a little more sapping than spiriting. And then there are the people; hand-holding couples strolling blissfully through fields as I left Windermere station for Ambleside, having dodged the rucksack-wielding holidaymakers on my way to bagging a taxi. It was confirmed – I was in the Romantics country, the perfect spot for a quiet getaway with someone jolly. The weather was having an unprecedented run of September sunshine (it was the hot topic of local conversation). And I had brought the dog. Rothay Manor, built in 1823 by…

Crossword Across 1 Part of shotgun where cartridge is loaded (6) 5 British breed of red/white cattle; English county town (8) 9 Shoot – and dismiss (4) 10 Scottish seaside town on the Deveron… prohibition on fly-fishing initially (5) 11 Conservation body publishing the Red List of Threatened Species (1,1,1,1) 12 Head protection when e.g. drey-poking squirrels (6) 14 Fierce, narrow stretch of River Wharfe – part of furthest ridge (3,5) 15 Smooth-skinned, creamy-white early potato – isn’t now mashed (7) 16 Surcingles, say, fitted round horses (6) 18 A dog baring its teeth does so (6) 20 George ___, multi world champion clay pigeon shot (7) 22 Dabbling duck with spoon-like beak (8) 24 Tuberous plant with showy flowers, often stored over winter (6) 26 Fish-rich river flowing from…