Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2020 i The Field

HOW incredibly fortuitous that the COVID-19 lockdown was imposed at the start of an utterly glorious spring, with nature at her most benign for decades. The dawn chorus was truly exuberant and wildflower growth breathtaking, with verges on country lanes gleaming white as wild parsley, stitchwort, white dead nettle and hawthorn came into blossom. Gorse, buttercups, meadow vetchling, cowslips, celandine, dandelions, yellow rattle and bird’s-foot trefoil threw a golden sheen across heaths, wood margins and meadows. Woodlands carpeted in bluebells, clusters of purple-flowered bittersweet, pink purslane, blue forget-me-nots, red campion, wood sorrel, blue speedwell, wild garlic and sweet woodruff, in their last flush of growth before the leaf canopy closes over them. A haze of yellow, pink or white blossom surrounded laburnum, ash, horse chestnut, crab apple, rowan, elder, sycamore…

SOCIAL: INSTAGRAM It has been a boozy month for Fielders, with World Cocktail Day and World Whisky Day calling for a raid on the drinks cabinet. Online we shared our summer staple, homemade Pimm’s (satisfyingly stronger than the shop-bought stuff) and The Field’s favourite cocktails to make at home, from a heather martini to an Old-Fashioned. We asked readers what they thought would make the Fieldiest cocktail via Instagram Stories and sloe gin proved a popular ingredient. “Hedgerow Royale – sloe gin, brandy and champagne,” suggested one. “Sloegasm – sloe gin and champagne,” countered another. “Sloe gin, heather and wild garlic martini shots from an empty cartridge,” joined one more. Other suggestions included an early morning bullshot, pheasant punch, Norfolk nog and the blackberry and Earl Grey gunner. “Just a…

Two inspirational books stand out from my childhood: Ian Niall’s classic The Poachers Handbook and Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald’s It’s My Delight. Both offer valuable and timeless advice on how to live off the land, albeit not always on the right side of the law. The modern take on foraging, or hunter-gathering from the wild (call it what you will, but let’s avoid ‘poaching’ in a magazine of this calibre), is sometimes a bit heavy on edible flowers and common weeds and rather light on feather, fur and fin. My personal preamble through the seasons is chiefly concerned with food that is the main event rather than extraneous ingredients that merely add flavour to established dishes. TV presenter Ben Fogle has revealed a few rugged individuals living the hunter-gatherer’s dream in wild…

SHOTGUNS PAIR OF 12-BORE ‘THE AUTOMATIC’ SHOTGUNS BY WOODWARD & SON Churchill’s favourite shotguns, ordered in 1899 by Charles Spencer-Churchill (1871-1934) 9th Duke of Marlborough (1892-1934) to be a 25th birthday present to his cousin, Winston Churchill. They were delivered on 6 October 1902. By 1902, Churchill was an MP (elected in 1900 for the Oldham constituency), which is why the address on the oak and leather case is his rooms at Westminster. They are a pair of single-trigger, hammerless ejector guns known as the ‘Automatic’ model, with half pistol hand stocks. The 29in barrels are of Whitworth steel and were of all cylinder choke. They have arcaded fences and the protruding tumbler pivots are marked with cocking indicators. 12-BORE, LEBEAU-COURALLY, MODEL 106 Built in 1938 by Lebeau-Courally in Liège…

EVER since I was regaled by a friend with stories about the golden mahseer, its illusiveness and fighting prowess, a trip in pursuit of it has been on my bucket list. In October, I decided the time had come to strike it off. The mahseer is India’s iconic sporting fish, offering enormous sporting potential and requiring much skill to catch, spinning or on the fly. It lives in fast-flowing rivers and is renowned for its power, with specimens as large as 100lb having been caught. Traditionally, the local population caught them for food by bait fishing, but there has been a significant decline in stocks. Consequently, in recent years a strict catch-and-release policy has been adopted. The weather conditions in October are far more to my liking than earlier in…

After a dire winter for winter wheat and a pandemic forcing milk to be dumped and impeding the fruit harvest, it’s been a bleak time for farming. Yet alongside these problems is an ongoing challenge that land managers everywhere cannot overlook: teaching Britain’s children about the land. Educational charity The Country Trust has done this for more than 40 years, with around 20,000 children a year — primarily from disadvantaged schools — now joining its free visits to farms and estates through its farm, food and countryside discovery programmes. When I first joined a Trust visit some 25 years ago I saw pre-iPad generation children fingering tulips to see if they were plastic, and one who speculated that it was “the Social”, rather than Lord Leverhulme, who paid the wages…

THE growth of trade between European countries, particularly Britain, and Africa grew in quantity and importance throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Guns, particularly trade guns, would play an important part in this. Indeed, by the early part of the 19th century unparalleled quantities of flintlock guns were being exported in exchange for a broad range of primary goods, such as palm oil, ivory, gold and, prior to 1807, slaves. There were two types of guns traded to Africa: surplus military weapons being ‘sold-off’ and guns specifically produced with the African trade in mind. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars there were thousands of surplus muskets acquired by companies for trade. Former British military muskets were valued in Africa for their quality, the crowned GR stamped on the lock…

YOUR dog has just performed the best retrieve of her career, watched by all the shooting party. As you walk back to the game cart, proudly carrying the cock pheasant that she has found, one of the guns wanders over to have a word. “Great retrieve. If you ever breed from your bitch, let me know as I’d be really interested in having a puppy.” You had long thought it might be good to have a litter of pups, but such a comment makes you consider the possibility more seriously. Breeding a litter of puppies from your much-loved shooting companion can be hugely satisfying but at the same time nerve-wracking. It will certainly be hard work, while the experience will be memorable, if not profitable. I write with the experience…

Soon after he won the gold medal in Australia in 2000 I had the pleasure of meeting British Olympic hero Richard Faulds. Not only is he an exceptional shot but also a great ambassador for the sport of shooting, both competition and game. A quiet and modest man, his responsible attitude to shooting – and the politics that surround it – is an example to shooters and non-shooters alike. A year after he triumphed at the Olympics I found myself honoured to stand beside the great man at the awards ceremony of the European Side-by-Side Championships, he having won the hammerless class and me the hammergun class with Grandfather’s 1877 gun. The fact that he had a score of 92 against many competitors and I had 77 against few puts…

The organisations that represent live-quarry shooting have said that they want to move away from the use of lead shot over the next five years. Quite an ambition, and something some gun and cartridge manufacturers have been working on for years. But is it attainable within the limits of science and today’s guns? Hitting a bird with enough energy to produce a clean kill is the core skill of every shot. In the gameshooting world, lead has been the projectile of choice for centuries. It is dense, soft and cheap, and a perfect material to transfer energy from gun to target. But, as we now know, its chemistry has a harmful effect in living organisms. That evidence obliges us to look for alternatives to reduce the overall effect on our…

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When you think of a castle, what comes to mind? A romantic château in the Loire? A whimsical schloss in Bavaria? Our very own Windsor Castle, the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world? Perhaps few of us would think to look over the Severn to Wales, but we certainly should. For the land of rugby and sheep and leeks and unpronounceable place names is the castle capital of the world, with more per square mile than anywhere else. Of the 600 castles that once stood, around 100 are still in existence, either as restored structures or ruins, and just under half of those are under the auspices of Cadw, the Welsh government’s historic environment service. This is a huge number for a tiny country. It is even more…

THIS month’s test looks at a Chapuis C35 20-bore imported into the UK by GMK of Fareham, better known for its Beretta and Benelli brands. Beretta has, however, now taken an interest in the long-established French gunmaker (as it has in GMK itself). Chapuis Armes, based near St Etienne, is a mid-sized firm that has adopted some modern methodology but retains an artisan approach. It produces both shotguns and rifles, and also owns the manufacturing rights for Manurhin revolvers. The test gun weighs in at 7lb and boasts a non-selective mechanical single trigger – so, it is not dependent on recoil to activate the mechanism and multichokes. It sits in a range that includes similar guns with extra finish and sideplates. For example, the C135 model above the C35 shares…

THE sun is shining, the Usk valley is that vibrant lime green you only get in spring, bluebells and milkmaids surround the house, the orchard is in full blossom and the much-needed rain has finally come, so the smell is sensational. I was brought up on the Usk and am incredibly lucky to have had sporting parents. My first trout at four, perched on Mum’s knee in the middle of the river; my first day’s hunting at eight; first bunny at 12; first grouse at 14 – a Welsh one; first stag at 15; and my first salmon at 16 on the Spey. Mum and Dad encouraged us to have a go at everything. I hunted with the Beaufort for 28 seasons but stopped when I had our boys and…

SIX OF THE BEST LOCKDOWN SPIRITS AND LIQUEURS CROFT PINK PORT (£10.50 per 50cl, Sainsbury’s) Who’d have thunk it? Pink port: glorious on its own, well-chilled, and spectacular in cocktails. DISARONNO VELVET CREAM LIQUEUR (£18 per 50cl, Drinks & Treats) The perfect guilty secret: an amaretto cream liqueur that’s gorgeous over ice or ice cream. QUAGLIA APERITIVO BERTO (£19.25 per litre, Whisky Exchange) The quintessential Italian aperitivo, it knocks spots off the Aperol spritz. GRAND MARNIER CORDON ROUGE (£26, widely available) Superb on its own over ice, in cocktails or in puddings. CADELLO (£30 per 50cl, Honest Grapes) Ridiculously moreish Italian liqueur that beefs up all manner of cocktails. GLENMORANGIE 10 YEAR OLD ORIGINAL (£33, widely available) The single malt whisky most consumed by the Scots themselves and an absolute…

SO, coronavirus is the new Brexit. Nothing else can get a look in. And, God forbid, it might just last longer. Already two distinct camps have formed. There are those who frankly do not care a fig about catching it and just want to go back to life BC (Before COVID) – which includes Dave in the local garage. Dave is 73 and has never had a day off work in his life, other than two weeks in hospital when his young assistant inadvertently crushed him under the car jack. I had initially declined the grimy biro thrust at me by an oily paw to sign for some petrol on account. My reluctance to grasp the Covidy pen was received with a snort of derision, “Aw dear, calm yerself lad,…

The Wild Meat Company’s game roulade (pictured), made from pheasant and wild duck, won the Best Added Value Game Meat Product category, sponsored by The Field, at the 2019 Eat Game Awards. Former agricultural consultant Robert Gooch, who founded the company with butcher Paul Denny in 1999, said online sales have “gone through the roof” during the COVID-19 crisis. “We can’t keep up with demand,” he said, with venison mince overtaking wild rabbit as the most popular product. Originally set up as a traditional game dealer, the company has tried every route of finding a market from delivering to restaurants to farmers markets but found online to be the most profitable. All the game, apart from wild boar and grouse, is sourced locally and processed by the 10-strong staff at…

Along with the gun, we grow fond of our kit, every item chosen carefully to maximise our enjoyment of moor, marsh and covertside. Little has changed in the design. It worked for our forebears. It works for us. Sometimes it’s smart but often it’s battle-scarred. The leather’s a little scratched, the shooting stockings have the odd hole – badges of honour, the price paid willingly for another blessed day with friends and family in the glorious British countryside. “There is only one drawback to favourite kit – we hate being without it. A forgotten item mars the day so we know we should make a list. But, of course, we never do.”…

It was the penultimate drive and one of my favourites. Although I was on the end of the line, this drive always offers good birds throughout and at the right-hand end in particular. There had been some excellent birds so far and I reloaded my gun and waited for the next flurry. As I focused my attention to my front again, a hen bird lifted over an oak tree and presented a nice shot. I had already started to my raise my gun when a fantastic cock bird came into view. He had broken over the tall chestnut trees on the far bank and was seemingly nearly double the hen bird in height. I changed my footing, readjusted my gun and gave the cock bird some decent lead. Upon the…

One of the founders of The Field in 1853 was Robert Smith Surtees, the creator of John Jorrocks MFH, whose Victorian hunting exploits are hilariously similar to the modern-day sport. So we love Surtees. But we hate Surtees’ arch-rival, Nimrod. Writing as Nimrod, Charles James Apperley’s hunt reports for The Sporting Magazine had a huge following. They were to sports journalism what Hello! magazine is to current affairs reportage. Thanks to Surtees, however, he is best known neither as Nimrod nor Apperley but as Pomponius Ego, the pompous sporting writer who does a hunt report on a day with Jorrocks’s Handley Cross hounds. The two chapters in Handley Cross that relate this incident sum up not only hunting’s past failings but also its problems today, 15 seasons after the passing…

STRANGE times in the auction world and not necessarily in ways you might at first think. In came the lockdown and, I rather assumed – as I’ll bet did most auctioneers – that it was adios to the heady days of bidders splurging eye-watering sums on things they might well want but most certainly do not need. But not a bit of it. Many post-lockdown auctions have, it appears, been going gangbusters. You may wonder why. I have my own pet theory. All over these closed-door islands, folk are unexpectedly getting to know their loved ones far better than they ever expected; far more suddenly than they ever expected. Given a choice between endless ‘quality time’ with their significant others and getting to know their beloved collections, I’ll wager many…

OVER the past few months I have become increasingly grateful to two food sources at our house: the garden and the chest freezer. Along with the pigeon, slugs and beetles, I am delighted with the results of all the extra effort and time that has gone into the veg patch this summer. In fact, in times like these it is so satisfying eating home-grown produce and such a relief not to rely wholly on the shops; I am even able to overlook the occasional hole in a leaf or missing patch from a row. The chest freezer had a tidy up in March. Everything went into neatly labelled and organised bags, and since then it has been a bountiful food source. There were quite a few UFOs (unidentified freezer objects),…

HERE’S a little challenge: assemble, in your head, the ultimate ‘fish out of water’ vehicle. One that, in theory, would look about as at home in a sunken Hampshire lane as I did at the Royal Opera House on my one and only visit. It would need to be big – big enough to send walkers and cyclists scurrying up the chalky banks. It would need removable body parts – doors, roof sections, boot covers – and a fold-down screen; all dead handy for one afternoon in a year, assuming you’ve got somewhere to store all the bits. It would, of course, have four-wheel drive but the sort of set-up that makes my John Deere have a crisis of confidence and hide in the back of the barn. Throw in…