Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2016 i The Field

“Where fieldsports are concerned, an independent UK might see benefits” IN the run-up to the referendum, both sides should perhaps have heeded Rudyard Kipling’s poem, Norman and Saxon : The Saxon is not like us Normans. His manners are not so polite. But he never means anything serious till he talks about justice and right. When he stands like an ox in the furrow – with his sullen set eyes on your own, And grumbles, “This isn’t fair dealing,” my son, leave the Saxon alone. In fairness to the Prime Minister, he appreciated that the British did not think they were getting a fair deal from the EU and tried his best in February to wrestle concessions from Brussels. But he failed to gain enough on financial regulation, migrant benefits…

A River Champion Award has been launched by Tweed Forum to mark its 25th year. The award will recognise those who have made an outstanding contribution to protecting the 5,000sq km catchment of Scotland’s second largest river. The award is open to residents of the Scottish Borders and Northumberland and should include work undertaken since 2010. Applicants need to describe in no more than 200 words the reasons for their nomination and send it in by 23 September. The winner, to be announced in November, will receive a glass trophy by Scottish artist Jane Raven. “The protection and enhancement of the Tweed’s land and waters relies on the collective efforts of a large and diverse range of people, including farmers, gillies, fishermen, foresters and volunteers on both sides of the…

RANNOCH TARTAN DRESS BARBOUR Fit for a hostess in the Highlands. Tartan-tastic. Price £119 Tel 0333 259 9922 www.barbour.com GROUSE CUFFLINKS PATRICK MAVROS Marvellously rendered, on a new spring mechanism. Price £180 Tel 020 7052 0001 www.patrickmavros.com ANTLER CHAIR HOUSE OF BRUAR Experience the whole of the Highlands from your seat. Price £1,695 Tel 0345 1360111 www.houseofbruar.com CRYSTAL DECANTER ARTEL Handmade mahogany crystal. Glasses to match; more fauna, too. Price £533 Tel 01625 464307 www.rachelbatesinteriors.com DE-LUXE RECORD ALBUM SKILTONS BESPOKE STATIONERY Leather bound with room for 200 game cards. Easy to personalise. Price £395 Tel 01746 862003 www.skiltonsbespokeshootstationery.com WELLINGTON BOOT BAG THE ENGLISH ROOM Heavy duty, durable and showerproof. Four colour combinations. Price £76 Tel 020 7930 9926 www .theenglishroom.com ATK PRO ALL-TERRAIN KART MY BRILLIANT COMPANY For ages 14-70…

“All fish count and the winner is the angler who catches the greatest total length of fish” THE venerated ancestors of fly-fishing, such as Frank Sawyers and GEM Skues, perfected their art on clear, calm streams. Fast forward to the present day and the range of species pursued and habitats in which flies are cast has increased exponentially. Few anglers can have failed to notice the rise of saltwater fly-fishing over the past couple of decades and intrepid UK anglers now head off, fly-rod in hand, to chase mackerel, pollack, bass and a host of other species. Saltwater fly-fishing is practised around pretty much the whole of the UK, however, the species favoured differs depending on location. In the south-west, bass are king, with good reason. They readily take flies,…

SOME are in their forties and veterans of two Olympic Games; one is barely out of school. Britain’s shooting team for Rio is a diverse but dedicated group and any of its members could win a medal. In this sport, you never quite know which of the world’s top 20 is going to dazzle on the day. “Getting to the Olympics is one thing; getting to the finals is another,” says Peter Wilson, who won gold in the double trap in London. None of the six heading to Rio has yet made an Olympic final. So what does that take? “They will need to be well practised, in the form of their lives and they’ll need to play down the expectation,” replies Wilson. “You can’t really prepare for the pressure,…

“Churchill saw his early life as part of his destiny, as a preparation for the highest office” WHEN Sir Winston Churchill is mentioned, most people think of an elderly statesman in his Second World War heyday, puffing jauntily on a cigar and giving the V-sign on his way into Number 10 Downing Street. Politics and history buffs will also think of the changing fortunes that characterised Churchill’s long and frequently disastrous career before the dramatic days of 1940, perhaps bringing to mind the famous photograph of Churchill and Lloyd George on Budget Day in 1910, or Churchill’s tenure as First Lord of the Admiralty in the Great War. Relatively few, perhaps, will evoke the far-distant years of Churchill’s youth or connect the rotund and distinctly unathletic Prime Minister with a…

ALTHOUGH the main shooting season has begun, there is no need to plunge your kitchen into hearty autumnal mode. Many summer ingredients, such as tomatoes, peppers, peaches and figs, are at their best right now and work extremely well with game. So keep dishes light and make the most of the garden’s seasonal bag. GRILLED RED MULLET WITH RUSSIAN BEETROOT SALAD Serves 4 as a starter or light lunch 4 small red mullet, scaled, gutted and gills removed 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil For the beetroot salad 1 tbsp finely chopped dill 1tbsp horseradish cream 1 tbsp sour cream 1 tbsp mayonnaise Juice from half a lemon 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1 medium beetroot, peeled and grated raw 1 large carrot, peeled, cooked and cut into 1cm…

THE “sweet 16” is enjoying a renaissance, with several makers now offering new guns, including this over-and-under from Boxall & Edmiston (B&E). The comeback of the 16 has been heralded before, though appears to have more substance now with more guns appearing and a growing band of enthusiasts. But the practical issue, as ever, is availability of cartridges. When found, these are typically available in three loads: 26/26.5g, 28g and 30g. The former two predominate and 28g is more popular than it was. Until recently, Eley offered a 32g Alphamax (now discontinued) and, in the US, a 3in, 16-bore has been developed for heavier payloads. Aficionados will tell you, meanwhile, that the 28g (1oz) load is a near-ideal, “square” load. I used both the 26g and 28g loads to win…

I’VE never really got my head round the concept of a car company having a “premium” section, making cars that are better and more luxurious than the standard products. Toyota does it with Lexus and Nissan has Infiniti. It seems to suggest that the basic name is not worthy of the finest machines. And then there’s the concept of the SUV. As a farmer, I’m duty bound to scoff at them and their drivers. Along comes the Infiniti QX70 Ultimate, however, and I find myself smitten. It wasn’t the “luxury” stuff that won me over at all, it was the basics. Access, for instance, is brilliant, thanks to the SUV shape, and headroom is plentiful – even with the sunroof. I love the ergonomics: the dials are simple and perfectly…

ONE of the great joys of interviewing artists is discovering their subject matter. Horses gallop through the conversation, shaking their manes; honey-heather grouse moors fly into focus. In the case of Jim Starr, it’s a little disconcerting to have a roughly life-size bateleur eagle glaring down at you from the canvas. A single speck of white on the eagle’s eye conveys exactly the contempt with which it views its prey, and you, and probably the world in general. “Maybe it’s a self-portrait?” jokes Starr. Definitely not. If any of his works is a self-portrait then it has to be his heron, standing in the mud of the Thames near Hammersmith Bridge at low tide. “I got this amazing commission to do a series of massive landscapes of London and the…

To celebrate its bicentenary, the Meynell Hunt commissioned sporting artist Daniel Crane to produce a picture of huntsmen and hounds crossing some of the best grass country. Funded by 20 donors, it took a year to plan and three weeks to paint. “I wanted the painting to pay tribute to the Derbyshire countryside and its custodians,” said Richard Hingley, a long-standing hunt supporter and husband of Mary Hingley, the hunt’s only lady Master; Hingley commissioned the picture as a fundraiser for the hunt. Entitled The land in trust, the fields remain. Two hundred years, our sport retained, it shows Jamie Nicklin, huntsman for the past decade, on Ginger with the Meynell and South Staffordshire hounds near Dalbury Lees. Each of the donors will receive a signed, numbered, limited-edition print of…

“ ‘Life goes on. Competitively priced farms and estates still generate interest’ ” WITH a degree in Classics from Oxford, Boris Johnson should know that, as a Latin gerund, referendum has no plural. Despite campaigns of, at times, colossal misinformation and contemptible behaviour, the EU Referendum, even it becomes Referenda – or maybe Referen-dum and Referen-dee, as the whole thing is as nonsensical as Alice in Wonderland – will go down as one of the most momentous events in modern British political history. The Brexit drama of 24 June marched to the beat of a million opinions: professional, amateur and absurd. Apparently, the property market stopped, although that was according to Mr Tumble of Tumble & Weed estate agents. Jackson-Stops & Staff, keen for a counterpoint amid the supposed din…

AS I sit in my office writing this on a cold, wet morning with a strong wind blowing, it conjures up my favourite images of grouse-shooting. People often ask me to name my favourite quarry and, as I have stated before, it is a difficult question to answer but one quarry that would be right up there in the top two or three would be October/November driven grouse in the conditions outside my office today. It is, without question, the Sport of Kings. Pretty much all of the other gamebirds we pursue can be reproduced in an artificial form. This cannot be done with the grouse and for the purists who own grousemoors, and the guns that chase the country in the pursuit of that red-letter day on the grouse,…

“Moorland ensures a rich biodiversity, in which all forms of wildlife can flourish’’ THERE has long been a recognition that landowners need to improve their profile and tell the world how they are delivering for Scotland. Grouse management occurs in some of our most remote regions and there exists a significant knowledge gap between those familiar with estates and the rest of the population who have never visited one and have little understanding of rural affairs. This lack of contact can lead to misunderstanding. The Gift of Grouse campaign was launched last year to address this and provide a platform on which to showcase the work carried out on sporting estates and explain how people and communities prosper thanks to the shooting industry. It focuses on four key pillars: tourism…

“If Scotland’s purple heathlands lose their appeal, schools and hotels will likely suffer’’ THE Scottish Government is proposing new laws that are aimed at broadening ownership and access to land, including the reintroduction of taxes on sporting estates. This could have dire effects on the economy. Scotland’s habitat is a major factor in its past and present economic success and while not all the tourists who travel through its rural hinterlands and majestic wild places have shooting in mind, management of the countryside for sport and wildlife has, to a large degree, created this scenery and spurs the demand to experience it first hand. The consequences of the change are hard to predict but if added financial constraints lead to Scotland’s exquisite purple heathlands losing their appeal, then village schools,…

CLIMATE change, diseases, pests and pollution: a toxic combination. These factors are now combining to extend a serious risk to the well-being of the UK’s historic woodlands. This unholy alliance will influence our lives, businesses and has the ability to pose a substantial danger to the health of our natural wildlife. However, if we move and take action now, we can facilitate ways of preserving the vitality of our woods and trees, and of giving them protection against both present threats and the emergence of future ones. The benefits of trees and woods are known to be many and wide-reaching: they provide useful cover for all types of game; they are a source of firewood and timber; they engender an amenity landscape for pleasurable walking or riding; and they also…

ANYONE who has ever trotted through the great house at Burghley will have spotted a cheerful portrait of a smiling, bewigged figure. It is of the great landscapist Lancelot “Capability” Brown, who was involved with projects at Burghley for the ninth Earl of Exeter (redesigning the park and gardens, building new stables and coach houses) between 1755 and 1779. The portrait shows a long-nosed but cheerful face, laugh lines around his eyes and his mouth pursed with the hint of a jokey smile. Brown looks like he was a man who loved his work and would have been congenial company. Both of these factors no doubt contributed to his phenomenal career as one of the most successful landscape designers in British history – and one with no serious revival between…

SOME lucky people are going to be travelling north for the grouse this month, while I will be heading to the deep south of France, doubtless to get my head shot off by the local boar hunt (I only just survived one such expedition last summer). With that in mind, I’ve long been asking the specialist gun auctioneers to tell me when they have a grouse gun for sale. Sadly, these creatures are now becoming as hard to find as unicorns or “Bin Ladens”, the ubiquitous €500 note: you’ve heard of it but never seen one. “What,” I hear some of you ask, “is a grouse gun?” Simple: the first trigger pull fires the choked barrel as the incoming grouse are at their maximum range and the second the unchoked…

WITH a few tweaks, Tikka has relaunched its much-respected T3 Lite as the T3X, adding just £30 to the price. This represents a self-confident move at a price-sensitive end of the market and is sure to win the company further market share once stalkers have had time to compare this product with others available at a similar price. So are these modifications genuine improvements or cosmetic enhancements? In all honesty, a bit of both. While the steel recoil lug, which replaces an aluminium one, and the widened ejection port, which allows for much easier single-cartridge feed, are clear and measurable design improvements, I am less sure about the foam-filled stock, which is supposed to reduce noise if knocked in the field. A metal bolt shroud that replaces a plastic one…

AFTER six tremendous seasons, with high bags on most grouse moors and longstanding records broken on some, the forecast for the 2015 season came as a shock. Many were hit by the worst breeding conditions in living memory and it was predicted that 40% of days could be cancelled across the North of England and Scotland. Worst affected by the prolonged adverse weather were high, wet moors and those in Cumbria, the Peak District, Western Pennines and Dumfriesshire, where the Moorland Association predicted 70% of days would be lost. Moors on the eastern side looked more promising, particularly on lower, drier ground, but even here a drop of 30% was considered realistic. After a long, harsh winter, heather was late greening up, leaving pre-nesting hens in poor condition. Snow, sleet…

SOUND the trumpets, fan the field-sports flames and stand to attention – the most arduous, skilful and exciting sporting adventure gets underway this month: the Field Macnab Challenge in association with the Pol Roger Portfolio (consisting of Pol Roger Champagne, Glenfarclas Whisky and Hine Cognac), who we are delighted to welcome as our sponsors for the third year running. Just as the Macnab possesses compelling elements – salmon, stag and grouse – so do our sponsors, with a heritage and sporting nature that fits seamlessly with this, the ultimate sporting challenge. Anyone planning a Macnab would do well to buy in supplies for the hill, lodge and anticipated celebration. We’d recommend a tot of Glenfarclas in the hip flask, a flute of Pol Roger when the deed is done and…

IN 1967, concerns over the unsustainable exploitation of salmon combined with the devastating impact of UDN disease led to the formation of the Atlantic Salmon Trust (AST). As the Trust heads towards its 50th year, it is a perfect time to reflect on where the future lies in a competitive fishery management world. Perhaps surprisingly, there is no other organisation that purely and unequivocally represents salmon and sea-trout. AST’s vision is for the fish to return and breed from their rivers of origin in sufficient quantity to ensure that stocks are held at sustainable levels. It has spent 49 years initiating research and management solutions to this effect and whilst cognisant of other interests it represents only one: salmon and sea-trout. This gives the AST a clear perspective when it…

AS a thrill-seeking member of the field there are runs you dream of and when they happen you live off them for life. One such is described by Major Yeates in Somerville and Ross’s great hunting book, In Mr KnoxÕs Country. He comments breathlessly: “What followed was, I am told, a very fast 15 minutes; for me, time was not; the empty fields rushed past uncounted, fences came and went in a flash, while the wind sang in my ears, and the dazzle of a morning sun was in my eyes. I saw the hounds occasionally, sometimes pouring over a green bank, as the charging breaker lifts and flings itself, sometime driving across a field, as the white tongues of foam slide racing over the sand.” But, as the Irish…

DESPITE my profound love of England, I always wanted to explore the people and places of the world; I also had the wish to throw off my shoes, kick over the traces of urban living and write on a tropical beach. One day, someone mentioned that his son lived in Brazil. “Brazil!” my wife and I chorused; we surfed the net enthusiastically. Brazil was “discovered” by Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral, who entered the harbour he called “Rio de Janeiro” (River of January) in January 1500. He began to colonise the land, exploiting its natural resources of timber and minerals. The indigenous population was gradually enslaved and, supplemented with African slaves, tended the crops of sugar cane and coffee. Even before the slaves were emancipated by The Golden Law of…

UNTIL recently, seaweed was regarded as cultish food, to be found in Japanese-style packets in health food shops. Britain may be an island surrounded by the slippery stuff but it was not for supper. But then it began to appear all over the place in many forms: trendy high street snacks and those addictive little Japanese crackers; seaweed oils and green-flecked butters in high-end restaurants. Seaweed began to get mainstream press as a superfood. It is famous for having almost the perfect combination of the micronutrients we need for life, along with a good whack of protein. What’s more, a recent study by the University of Newcastle showed that alginates in seaweed seem to lessen the amount of fat absorbed by the body from the gut. Stick-thin fashionista Victoria Beckham…

SOME years ago I went to the last day of the cocker spaniel championship at Sandringham. It was a stunning January day: blue sky and heavy frost, the temperature well below freezing, just the sort of weather, you would have thought, for enjoying some good spaniel work. Though I walked with the gallery all morning I never saw a dog in action, as the cover was too thick, the spaniels too small. It was a stark reminder that, generally speaking, field trials make a poor spectator sport. That’s certainly true of all spaniel trials and, often, for retriever trials, too. Watching a line of guns, handlers, stewards and judges trooping in line through a field of sugar beet is not the sort of spectacle that is likely to excite anyone…