The Field December 2019

BEING traditionalists, country people still send Christmas cards, many representing the sports they love. So among the flocks of angels and stabled oxen on the chimney piece there’ll be flighting pintail, partridge coveys, a fox in the snow and a stag bellowing its challenge over the glens. Most field sports are represented, a reminder of that common bond of friendship, whatever our chosen pursuit, that’s reinforced when we shake off the festive fumes and turn up to support our local pack at the Boxing Day meet. This mutual affection was most visible at the countryside marches in support of hunting, culminating in the biggest on 22 September, 2002, when more than 400,000 marched through London. Many reading this will have taken part and will remember it always. What’s less well…

THE best choices to make in life are often some of the most challenging ones. When Debbie Harris received an invitation out of the blue to exhibit her horse and hound paintings at the French Game Fair at Chambord, she didn’t know what to do. “I was approached by a lady in France who had seen a little piece about me in a magazine, and she invited me to come and exhibit at the French Game Fair. I was 23 and a single mother at the time, and feeling very isolated. Then, suddenly, there was this invitation from a French lady I had never met. I was thinking of all the reasons why I shouldn’t go but I knew I had to give it a chance, so off I went.…

Salisbury cathedral sounding good again Salisbury Cathedral’s ‘Father’ Henry Willis organ arrives back this month after a £700,000 restoration that involved cleaning its 4,000 pipes and repairing the mechanics, bellows and reservoir. Designed for the cathedral in 1877 – the £3,500 cost was gifted by local patron Miss Chafyn Grove – the organ replaced an older instrument, parts of which are still in use at St Thomas’s church in the city. A grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund coupled with generous private donations and inventive local efforts, have raised three-quarters of the repair funds needed. Last August, an organ prom was held in the cathedral, there were Behind the Pipes special tours and an auction of promises held in October. “There was decades of dust in the pipes and they…

CONSERVING GROUSE Habitat restoration alone will not deliver viable grouse populations, states the final report on the Langholm Moor Demonstration Project, which has studied moorland management for birds of prey and red grouse over the past decade. The report shows how game keeping benefitted a range of threatened bird species and said new legal predation options may be needed to allow grouse numbers to recover from low densities. IT’S A HOOT IN DORSET A record number of tawny owls hatched in Dorset in 2019, according to a survey by local bird experts and Forestry England. When the Milton Abbas nest box monitoring scheme started in 2014, only 13 of the boxes were occupied. This year, 22 were used with a record 66 eggs laid. Survival rates for young birds rose…

Until 14 Exhibition: A Day at the Races Melton Carnegie Museum, Thorpe End, Leicestershire. Tel0116 305 3860; meltonmuseum.org 30 Nov-16 Dec Africa Exhibition Rountree Tryon Galleries, Petworth, West Sussex (until 4th in barn in Kirdford). Artists include Emily Lamb and Keith Joubert. Tel01798 344207; rountreetryon.com 1 Hursley Hambledon Point-to-Point Larkhill, Wiltshire. Tel01730 829313; hursleyhambledon.com 6 Sankta Lucia – Festival of Light York Minster, Deangate, York (7.30pm, arrive early). Tel: 01904 557200;yorkminster.org 6-7 Betfair Tingle Creek Festival Sandown Park, Esher, Surrey. Tel0344 579 3019;thejockeyclub.co.uk/sandown 7-8 Westcountry Equine Fair Westpoint Arena, Clyst St Mary, Devon. Tel01392 421500;westcountryequinefair.co.uk 8 Carmarthenshire Hunt Point-to-Point Ffos Las Racecourse, Trimsaren, Kidwelly, Wales. Tel07989617001; ffoslasracecourse.com 10 Holts Fine Modern and Antique Guns Church Farm Barn, Wolferton, Norfolk. Tel01485 542822; holtsauctioneers.com 11 Gavin Gardiner’s auction of Fine…

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