Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2017 i The Field

 When it comes to Scotland in August, one thinks grouse and the Festival. An additional attraction this season was the Private View at Dundas Street Gallery for sporting artist Clare Brownlow, opening her first solo show. Hints were made that a new feather would be added to her toolbox The unique sporting collection drew an appreciative and jolly crowd, including Field contributors and some curious festival-goers who couldn’t resist the artwork’s appeal. A striking neon flamingo, resplendent in the window, welcomed guests and introduced Brownlow’s latest collection. established country paintings shared gallery space with new ventures into seafood and bug life. All were created using her distinctive technique, which forgoes the paintbrush in favour of a pheasant feather, alongside the brand-new addition of gold leaf, which delighted the art lovers…

The addition of the Duncombe Park shoot in North Yorkshire to the Mount St John Sporting portfolio in 2014 was quite a coup – and not just because the vast estate doubled Mount St John’s (MSJ) territory overnight. The shoot takes its name from a magnificent stately home standing in 300 acres of parkland close to the market town of Helmsley, long-time seat of the Duncombe family whose senior member takes the title Baron Feversham. Beyond the park lies more than 13,000 acres of breathtaking countryside, including the Deer Park, Riccal Dale and Beckdale – names that are familiar to shooting men and women from across the world, for the Duncombe Park shoot has been building an international reputation for excellence ever since the 1960s, when Prince Radziwill acquired the…

There are few areas in a chap’s life in which he’s permitted to be properly flamboyant. Cufflinks and waistcoats top the list but these do not materially improve your comfort like those other great collectables: shooting stockings. For who has not had their day marred by too-short stockings from which your breeks escape infuriatingly every time you flex a knee? This is the chief complaint to emerge in my entirely unscientific preparatory poll of stocking connoisseurs, closely followed by “razor sharp heels or toes fatally holing them after one or two outings”; and sons “pinching my socks when they can’t find theirs”. The solution to many of these problems is either: a) copy George Vestey and “stop at House of Bruar every trip North and buy inexpensive ones for about…

“A remarkable amount of work has taken place since Storm Frank struck” When Storm Frank hit the Dee Valley on 31 December 2015, it wasn’t just the river that was affected during this catastrophic eruption. People’s homes, shops and livelihoods were left in ruins as the area experienced the most devastating flood that it had ever witnessed. Caravans, cars and the local buses rolled downstream, thousands of people were left without power and flooded homes had to be evacuated. The only saving grace was that no one was killed. The river system’s infrastructure suffered badly, too, as a result of the storm, with historic huts, beats and pools washed away. The hard labour and expense that has gone into getting the river back on track is incredible. An optimist would…

My spaniel, Rowan, is a serious hunter of moles. She stalks slowly round my paddock, head cocked to one side, listening for her quarry. It’s hard to know how much of her mole-hunting is based on sound or scent, and it has to be admitted that her success rate isn’t great – just sufficient to keep her keen. Such an interest in the subterranean world suggested that, given the right training, she might be just as keen to hunt for truffles. I had never heard of spaniels being used for the job, so I did some research on the best breeds. I was told that in Tuscany they cross their local, multipurpose gundog, the lagotto romagnolo, with truffle-sniffing pigs to produce what are known colloquially as digs or pogs. This,…

Aeons ago, I was walking our dogs with an ex-Army, “petrol head” chum of mine. Dud normally only likes the finest of motors. Aston Martins and Maseratis, certainly; he had owned and raced them. Bentleys: “Yes, great racing heritage.” Rolls-Royce: “No.” Although whether this was because I had once revealed that my father pootled around in a 1926 Rolls drophead, or whether through some deep-seated and genuine scorn for a non-racing marque, I have still to divine. So, to describe Dud as a motoring perfectionist is to do the word a disservice. Emerging into a clearing, Dud pointed and started to gibber. All I could see were ancient tractors, owned by Lester, our occasional handyman. Lots of them. Some old and rusty, others ready for action. While I knew that…

On 18 March, 1314, the people of Paris were treated to some entertainment gruesome even for the time when four old men, among the most celebrated knights of the age, were burned to death on the “Isle of Jews” on the Seine. Seven years earlier, France’s king, Philip IV, had stunned Christendom with an order to arrest all 15,000 members of the Knights Templar in France for crimes “horrible to contemplate, terrible to hear of... an abominable work, a detestable disgrace, a thing almost inhuman, indeed set apart from all humanity”. Now Jacques de Molay, the group’s Grand Master, along with three other members of the military order, were tied to stakes on a pile of wood and, in front of an awestruck, silent crowd, incinerated. The Templars were accused…

there were many answers I could have given to this but then I thought about all the things I have in the back of my car, without which I would be lost. then it struck me that the best bit of shooting kit I had was actually the device that houses all this kit throughout the season in the back of my car. My wonderful, handmade (by me), shooting box. Ok, I know it’s not a stunning, £8,000 piece of furniture made out of burred walnut, just a simple-looking device born out of my garage from some MDF. In terms of practicability, it is brilliant. the shooting box has a sliding compartment underneath, into which you can slide at least four guns, still in their slips. they are then safely…

“The action is well engineered, well finished and attractively engraved. Overall, the gun rates high for specification and finish” THIS month, with the game season in full swing, we are looking at a William Powell 16-bore “Phoenix” model over-and-under. It is a round-body gun made in association with B Rizzini, the well-known Italian manufacturer based in Brescia. The Phoenix, meanwhile, is part of Powell’s “Continental range” – a collection of guns specified and finally regulated in England but made with associates abroad (in the case of Powell, Rizzini and Arrieta). I have shot a number of Powell Continentals before and been impressed with them. They were more than merely re-badged “Euro-guns”; considerable effort had gone into the specifications (drawing on the long gunmaking expertise of the famous old British firm).…

“I am captivated by the Test, there is so much that excites me – the history, the culture and the traditions of the river” CHALK is, of course, literally in every bone of artist Simon Ryder’s body. It is also, metaphorically, in his soul. A Hampshire man, he was recently artist in residence at the Winchester Science Centre and admits: “I am so fascinated by chalk – by the end of the residency I was producing drawings in chalk on blackboard.” This developed into the intriguing Giants of Albion exhibition at Winchester Cathedral in 2015. Ryder says: “I grew up on the South Downs and I am passionate about that landscape; knowing about the chalkstreams is all part of that.” It was as inevitable as water seeping its way through…

In 1979, Peter de Vink, a Dutchman working for the Edinburgh fund managers Ivory and Sime, took a 27-year sporting lease over 12,000 acres of the Arniston estate, which lies along the Moor-foot Hills 11 miles from Edinburgh. Since coming to Scotland in the 1960s, de Vink had always cherished the dream of creating his own sporting estate from scratch. The opportunity came in 1987 when Simon Stodart of Smiths Gore, the managing agents for Arniston, advised him that a small, outlying, 800-acre hill farm was for sale. Huntly Cot was a typical Moorfoot stock farm, with 460 acres of low ground round the farmhouse and steading, rising steeply up the face of Huntly Cot Hill to 340 acres of overgrazed heather moorland. Apart from a scattering of old hardwoods…

So that’s it, I thought. I had secured a job in London – reporting for a Fleet Street newspaper 60 years ago. It was a great opportunity but it seemed I would have to give up my passion, nurtured in my native Dorset, for riding to hounds. I should have remembered the plot of one my favourite books, Handley Cross. Jorrocks, a successful grocer in St Botolph’s Lane, every Saturday during the season drove a chaise from the City through South London to enjoy riding to hounds. “His great chestnut horse, with his master’s coat-tails flying out beyond his tail, will long be remembered in the outline of the Surrey Hills,” wrote RS Surtees. Jorrocks’ view on sport from the capital was simple: “Doesn’t the best of everything come from…

Britain is said to be exceptionally rich in aged trees by comparison with other parts of mainland Europe and, in particular, for its ancient yews and oaks. Recent research demonstrates the point. Fred Hageneder, in his book Yew, says: “Today, Germany, Austria and Switzerland together have less than 10 ancient yews left, France, Spain and Italy have somewhat higher counts but Britain, thanks to graveyards and remote cliff populations, has about 1,300 ancient and veteran yews.” In his new book, Ancient Oaks in the English Landscape, Aljos Farjon points out that whereas in the whole of the rest of Europe there are less than 100 ancient oaks with a girth greater than nine metres, in England alone there are more than 120 and the known number is still rising. The…

The Famous Old House Gallery at Long Melford is nestled in a quiet corner of West Suffolk right on the border with Essex. The building is a beautifully restored, Grade II listed, timber framed building dating back around 500 years. The front façade still retains exposed timbers as does the interior. On the ground floor there are five fireplaces including a magnificent large inglenook fireplace in the main room. There are six gallery rooms that have been meticulously and painstakingly renovated to create a perfect setting to show original fine art masterpieces. There is a light and airy room which was converted from an old commercial kitchen and this is reserved to show more modern and contemporary pieces. The ethos of the business is to provide Fine Art paintings and…

AUTUmN’S harvest is rich in colour, scent and flavour and as the weather cools we are naturally tempted into eating the heartier and more nourishing food that’s so abundant right now. This month’s recipes may seem a little time consuming but they are worth the effort and give you an excuse to loiter in your warm kitchen. There is a tasty hare and homemade gnocchi recipe that showcases two of the season’s biggest stars, squash and wild mushrooms, plus slow-cooked pheasant with chickpeas and herbs – the perfect comfort food. I have also given a recipe for apple butter, a concentrated apple purée; great if you have a bumper crop. I don’t see it often in the UK, which is surprising given how many apples we have, but it is…

“The disturbance of a late, wet harvest leaves the field vulnerable to soil damage” GETTING stuck in mud over the axles demonstrates nature’s challenge to machines. The perfect storm for mud-wallowing tractors occurs during seasonally dreadful weather on bare ground bound loosely by a superficial root structure. The autumn maize harvest has it all, with 20 tonnes of machinery providing scope for humiliation. Sown in spring, an old American adage benchmarks a good maize crop as “knee high by the fourth of July” but advances in breeding make thigh or even waist high not unusual. With pre-emergence herbicides to keep weeds at bay and bolstered by a dose of mineral fertiliser, maize gives large yields of a high-energy crop that is attractive for forage production – not just for 365-day…

“What a refreshing change the Giulia is. It’s beautiful, lively and with bags of character” IT has been some time since Alfa Romeo showrooms had a D-segment car for sale. “D-segment” is otherwise known as “compact executive” and accounts for nearly 10% of car sales but Alfa has had nothing to take on the hordes of BMW 3-series, Audi A4s and C Class Mercedes. The small Mito and smallish Giulietta have lurked unconvincingly at the bottom of the range, and the barking 4C at the top, but not since the demise of the 159 have you been able to get a motorway fastlane hogger. So the new Giulia was the perfect test car for a 500-mile round trip to Yorkshire for a boy’s graduation. My first impressions were mixed. Yes,…

Prince Charles is giving the opening address by video at a conference to discuss an innovative scheme to get farmers working together to improve the environment. Organised by the GWCT, the first Farmer Cluster conference is being held on 12 October at the Royal Geographical Society. Speakers from Natural England, GWCT, the Wildlife Trusts and RSPB will be addressing delegates. Farmers from Hampshire and Suffolk will be giving first-hand accounts of the benefits of setting up a cluster. The concept was devised in response to Sir John Lawton’s 2011 report Making Even More Space for Nature, which called for conservation to be bigger and more joined up. Developed jointly by Natural England and the GWCT, the idea was piloted in 2013 mainly through farmers in the GWCT’s grey partridge count…

COMPILED BY ALEXANDRA HENTON ♦ EMAIL ALEXANDRA.HENTON@TIMEINC.COM 1 MUGS PHEASANT PLUCKER & SON Celebrate 1 October with a brace in bone china. Perfect for a pre-shoot cuppa. • Price £13 • Tel 01476 573385 • www.pheasantpluckerandson.com 2 PRO HUNTER ICON SUIT HARKILA Jacket with action back and game pocket. Trousers are equally lightweight and tough. • Price £600 jacket, £400 trousers • Tel 01844 237944 • www.harkila.com 3 PACO DOG KIT JOHN FIELD Essential gundog travel kit, includes bowls, water bottle, lead, towel, blanket, peg with pocket for a whistle. Waterproof inside and out. • Price £140 • Tel 020 7408 4411 • www.london.berettagallery.com 3 4 KEXBY COAT ALAN PAINE Alcantara-trimmed collar tops a waterproof and breathable cotton-blend outer. Useful size range in khaki, olive or navy. • Price £225 • Tel 01623 415760 • www.alanpaine.co.uk 5 GAITERS LE CHAMEAU Hard-wearing, waterproof…

A Macnab to be bagged here on this mixed 5,570-acre sporting estate on the beautiful west coast of the Isle of Lewis on the shores of Little Loch Roag. There is red deer stalking, grouse, woodcock and snipe shooting, as well as salmon, sea-trout and brown trout fishing. The vendor also owns another 5,000 acres to the north and east. This area is subject to common grazing rights and will be retained by the seller who will grant the purchaser of Scaliscro an exclusive sporting lease for 175 years for a peppercorn rent. The challenging Hebridean terrain is perfect for wild, walked-up shooting, with the deep peat hags providing exciting stalking, as well as a number of lochs on the estate for fishing, plus three miles of coastline. The 11-bedroom…

I do not think any of us could have failed to notice the recent upsurge in interest in dress code, supported by features in magazines and comments in the press and media generally. A typical headline on the subject drew my attention: Tory ball no longer for elite as black ties are axed. There is no doubt that, for the dress conscious, we are living in interesting times, which begs the question: is there a dress code for shooting? There is undoubtedly a dress code expected for special occasions, exemplified by those engaged in certain jobs or professions – the military, the Navy, the Church and Court all have long-established standards of dress. However, how we dress, when we dress and why we dress as we do is dependent on…

Gumboots are a peculiarly British phenomenon and a mark of the true country person. Indeed, no country home is complete without a mound of boots stacked up at the back door or in the boot room, ready to be pulled on and covered in mud. Many are the walks after lunch on a Sunday when gumboots of all shapes and sizes are produced for a quick yomp across fields before guests depart. But where did the footwear originate from and why have we taken it so much to heart? This essential piece of kit dates back to the 19th century, when the North British Rubber Company began manufacturing rubber or “gum” boots at scale. American businessman Henry Lee Norris was keen to exploit the rubber vulcanisation process discovered by fellow…

Venison is on the move. UK retail sales have soared as, prompted by a gaggle of celebrity chefs, consumers discover the delights of this lean, low-fat alternative to other red meats. In 2013, Waitrose reported a 92% increase in sales; in 2015, Sainsbury announced that its December venison sales were up by 115% over the previous year; and in summer 2014, consumer behaviour analysts Kantar Worldpanel reported a year-on-year increase in UK venison sales of more than 400%. That market growth represents good news for Britain’s deer farmers, who now have a golden opportunity to replace imported venison with the home-grown version. “We’re currently importing about 1,200 tonnes of venison and the market growth at present is being fed from New Zealand,” says John Fletcher, past chairman of the British…

Coffee, the proper stuff that is, has undergone a revolution in recent times, with thriving independent cafés now serving artisan brews around the country. But despite its style and energetic buzz, speciality coffee can seem complicated and expensive. Do you need to join long queues in trendy cafés or buy fancy kit and become a barista at home? No wonder most of us reach bleary-eyed for the cafetière, vaguely scoop what we think is the right amount of coffee and plunge when it feels sort of ready. Caffeine is deeply habit forming; as much a need as a taste. Why bother to change? Yet there’s clearly much to learn and enjoy. I ventured forth, cup in hand, to find a way through for the non-hipster. Artisan roasters are the best…

THE shenanigans at home continue. Having got the “support” of my children – “It looks great, Dad” – I waited until the house was empty before affixing the double-handed “Spanish” fighting sword I had bought in June at Thomas Del Mar’s Arms and Armour auction to the dining-room wall and awaited repercussions, as one does in these somewhat fraught situations. Thank the good Lord, it looked as splendid and imposing as I had hoped and, once spotted, although not exactly greeted with delight, the long-haired chief interior designer conceded that it did add a certain je ne sais quoi to the room – although quite what that quoimight be she had no desire to discover – and, after repositioning it decorously on a slant, as against a “boring” vertical (take…

 AH, autumn, glorious autumn, season of mists and mellow fruitfulness and, if all goes according to plan, buckets and buckets of Pinot Noir. It’s a grape variety that really comes into its own at this time of year and I reckon there’s nothing better alongside roast grouse, partridge, pheasant or duck; steaming hunks of venison or wild-boar stew. Somehow the vegetal, earthy, mushroomy, truffly, gamey, grubby characteristics of fine Pinot seem to echo those of this wonderful season. I plan to drink pretty much nothing but all the way up to Christmas. “Not only is it the perfect partner to game, it’s also the only red wine that can partner cheese” They call it the heartbreak grape, partly because it’s such a tricky bugger to grow (being thin-skinned and susceptible…