Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2020 i The Field

CHRISTMAS and hunting with hounds have always gone together like goose and dumplings; port and hangovers; Brexit and screaming at an aunt across the dining table. The Boxing Day and New Year’s Day meets are the fulcrum of the hunting year; the best opportunity to showcase our sport to a disconnected public. The UK isn’t alone in making the link: continental traditions reflect this enduring connection between Christmas and hunting. Germany’s dark ages proto-Santa drew on pagan mythology; their Yuletide gift-bringer was the Norse god Wotan (from whom, according to potentially apocryphal genealogies of the Kings of Wessex, HM The Queen is descended). When not riding out on midwinter nights to deliver presents, Wotan led wild, chaotic hunts through the sky. Any mortal who glimpsed his hounds was dragged away…

THE NEXT GENERATION It is vital to encourage the next generation into the field but when is the best age to start? “The earlier the better,” argued one Fielder. “As soon as they can walk,” agreed another. Others suggested it depends on the child. “One age doesn’t fit all, common sense and keen interest from the child and physical ability will lead to the ‘starting age’,” suggested one. “Whenever they feel ready,” added another. “There were children at my shooting club with their dads and the children were in single digits,” shared one Fielder. “They were enjoying themselves and that’s the key.” FIELD MISSIVES Make the inbox a rather more enticing prospect with a missive from The Field. If a month is too long to wait for the next issue…

NETHERAVON HOUSE NETHERAVON, SALISBURY, WILTSHIRE Netheravon House is a Georgian country house, dating from around 1734. It was originally built as a large villa and hunting box for Henry Somerset, the 3rd Duke of Beaufort, and later extended. The eight-bedroom house is Grade II*-listed and is built of mellow red brick under a tiled roof. It includes a cinema room and a boot room. It comes with 4½ acres of land, the gardens leading down to the River Avon. Agent: Strutt & Parker Tel: 01722 344011 Offers in excess of £2.3m THORNE PAINSWICK, GLOUCESTERSHIRE This Grade II-listed, twin-gabled property needs modernisation. Its period features include exposed beams, inglenook fireplaces and Cotswold tiled floors; there are also two Doric Roman columns. The four-bedroom house dates back to the early 17th century…

How many times have you picked up a gun and thought, “I could really shoot with this – it feels just right.” Whenever you throw a gun up to your shoulder and it feels just right, you have confidence in it instantly and, my goodness, most of us need all the help we can get when shooting. On the other hand, some guns feel like lumps of lead, uncomfortable and not fit for purpose. Although a great deal of this ‘feel’ is to do with factors such as stock dimensions, the main reason for a gun feeling instinctively ‘right’ is down to gun balance. How often have fellow sportsmen mentioned that their guns are an extension of themselves, instilling confidence, and for the most part this is down to gun…

Nostalgia is a trap for the unwary. Those who love to hunt, shoot and fish are particularly vulnerable with, in some cases, a bit of justification. What salmon fisherman, in their right mind, would not feel nostalgic for even an average season of 20 or 30 years ago? Where would you find a stag hunter who did not look back with fondness to the 1960s and ’70s? That said, it is fatal to let the past ruin the present. The old hunting saying, ‘That there is no such thing as a bad day, it’s just that some are better than others’, still approximates to the truth. The other trick with nostalgia is that usually we see ourselves as differently as the times we revisit. My own nostalgia trip sees me…

SNOWED IN HAMPER DAYLESFORD Go nowhere fast with the essentials for a festive evening in, including organic mulling spices, tin of biscuits and orange panettone. ♦ Price £200 ♦ Tel 01608 731700 ♦ daylesford.com THE CONFECTIONER’S DELIGHT CHARBONNEL ET WALKER This should see you through the 12 days and beyond, with truffle assortments, mint thins and champagne hearts. ♦ Price £120 ♦ Tel 020 7318 2075 ♦ charbonnel.co.uk THE ISLE OF COLONSAY HAMPER INVERAWE Scottish, smoked essentials including ham, sliced venison, trout pâté, cheese truckle and more. ♦ Price £130 ♦ Tel 0344 8475 490 ♦ smokedsalmon.co.uk COMPLETE CHRISTMAS MEAT BOX RHUG ESTATE Stock up for the entire festive season with Rhug Estate’s complete Christmas meat box, including a Dee Valley Bronze Organic Turkey. ♦ Price £235 ♦ Tel 01490…

How we decide to celebrate Christmas is generally determined by our childhoods. We either ape family tradition or rail against it. Just as chocolate Advent calendars were Christmas kryptonite when I was little, so my own children are subjected to tasteful German ones imported at tremendous expense when they’d much rather gorge themselves into a Cadbury’s-induced coma. But our festivities fall within certain very British parameters; and while we share certain traditions with our European neighbours, they have some different, and perhaps more expansive, celebrations of their own, marking Advent and various feasts right up to – and even beyond – Epiphany itself. Many readers of The Field will be familiar with how Christmas is celebrated in the most frequented holiday destinations in Western Europe: from the galette des rois…

When a horsey girl grows up and becomes a chief executive the first thing she does is buy herself quite a decent competition horse. However, this expensive 16.2 hands high beast is known to her and all her friends as her ‘new pony’, because there will never again be an animal as special and remembered as the childhood pony. That enchanted bond is expressed forever in the work of artist Anne Bullen, in her illustrations of pony stories by the Pullein-Thompson sisters, Monica Edwards, Violet Needham and so many others. Bullen was already an established artist in 1936 when Joanna Cannan commissioned her to illustrate her seminal pony book, A Pony for Jean. As a teenager, Bullen had won the Royal Academy President’s Prize for the 14- to 15-year-old age…

WHAT’S your favourite part of a sporting day? For me, it’s the waiting: sitting on your horse by a hedge at dawn on an autumn morning, or admiring the woodland before the first pheasant comes over. It is the same for landscape artist Oliver Akers Douglas. He, too, is engaged by the sporting scene at the moment just before it springs into life. “I don’t know what it is but I get very excited when I can see precisely what I want to do in depicting a time and place and then, after a lot of waiting, it comes together,” he admits. “I spend time watching for the right scene. There is a long build-up and then something is really impressive and grips me and I rush to get it…

THESE are dark days indeed and I can’t think of a finer way of putting a spring into our collective step than by uncorking one or more of these cracking wines, sourced especially for us by leading independent wine merchant Private Cellar and offered here to readers at a generous discount. Nicola Arcedeckne-Butler, Private Cellar’s buyer, is one of just 409 Masters of Wine in the world. She’s nothing less than a vinous bloodhound and manages to rootle out hidden treasures, handmade by true artisans, that you simply won’t find anywhere else, least of all on the supermarket shelves. Arcedeckne-Butler suggested a number of wines and, selfless soul that I am, I tasted my way through them all on your behalf, narrowing the selection down to these four belters, chosen…

EMAIL FIELD.SECRETARY@FUTURENET.COM INK DIAMINE Limited-edition coloured inks inspired by the festive season. Choose from mulled wine to polar glow. Covetable for keen calligraphers. ♦ Price from £8, depending on colour ♦ Tel 0151 524 3800 ♦ diamineinks.co.uk MUG KILLY & CO Decently sized, earthenware mug with tapered handle and without the chunky-dribble edge, designed by the artist, Killy Williams. Made in Stoke-on-Trent in a wonderful array of cheering colours and animal designs. ♦ Price £20 ♦ Tel 07968 973764 ♦ killyandco.com CARTRIDGE BAG AND GUNSLIP FINE SHOOTING ACCESSORIES Finest ostrich leather traditional cartridge bag in five sizes, and matching gunslip, single or matched pair. Numerous customisations available. ♦ Price from £510 cartridge bag; £725 single gunslip; £1,400 double ♦ Tel 01913 233843 ♦ fineshootingaccessories.com BAUBLE GLYNDEBOURNE Fine bone-china tree decoration…

In the incomparable hunting ghost story The Shadow on the Moor, the Percy hounds are under the command of “the finest huntsman ever breathed”. Yet his heart is dark and after he kills his whipper-in, Black Tom is led on and on by a spectral fox to crash down a chasm to his death. The author, Alan Ian, 8th Duke of Northumberland, knew his country as well as his descendants did and do. Joint Master Michael Hutchinson, who has followed the Percy for 60 years, remembers the 10th Duke as a “very skilful huntsman; the less he did, the more he did” and casts current huntsman Robert McCarthy in the same mould. “The hounds love Rob. They talk about the golden thread, well, he’s got it in spades.” “Belvoir Poacher’s…

Many have looked out from the confines of the domestic bunker during the recent crisis to watch the wildlife teeming in the garden. In my case, this has included dozens of temptingly plump woodpigeon, squirrels and a couple of rats scrambling around my drains. This, of course, provides the potential for a ‘Lockdown Safari’ and some interesting inclusions under ‘various’ in the gamebook. Then, we come to the subject of suitable kit. The sporting weapon of choice for garden work would be a .22 or .177 air-rifle. The day of the dedicated small-bore ‘garden gun’ has passed. I can’t help reminiscing en passant that my first shotgun was a Webley 9mm rimfire, first shot at a Jacob’s Cream Cracker (then the luckless brown job that came to eat the bits). Airguns…

THE INJURED JOCKEYS FUND A wintery beach scene by Caroline Cook is one of several designs supporting injured jockeys past or present and their families. ♦ Price £7.50 for 10 ♦ Tel 08080 453453 ♦ shop.ijf.org.uk THE LIFE GUARDS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST The Queen’s Life Guard leaving Horse Guards, by Margaret Johnson, to support members and former members of The Life Guards (Household Cavalry) and their dependents. ♦ Price £5 for 10 ♦ Tel 01753 755061 ♦ householdcavalry.co.uk GWCT Packs of five cards for 2020, including Grouse in Snow by Jason Lowes (below) and a mixed pack of five designs from cartoonist Loon. All proceeds support the Trust’s vital scientific research programmes for conservation. ♦ Price from £5.50 for 10 ♦ Tel 01425 652381 ♦ gwctshop.org.uk THE AIR AMBULANCE SERVICE…

The Landscape Photographer of the Year competition – the idea of landscape photographer Charlie Waite – is now in its 13th year and, once again, teeming with exceptional images. The Classic View class is the ultimate pairing of photographic skill and the exquisite natural beauty of our countryside and seascapes. Your View allows for an enhanced rendering of the natural world. They are among the classes showcased in the 13th edition of the book of the competition, comprising the images judged as commended or higher.…

THIS month’s test looks at a Piotti 32in over-and-under supplied by Tony Kennedy, the well-known West Country dealer based near Launceston in Cornwall. Kennedy, a keen and competent game shot himself, was the man who first brought Kemens into the UK in a big way. He has much experience with high-end over-and-unders and, as well as Piotti and Kemen, has imported the best by Desenzani, Bertuzzi, Bosis and Fabbri. Some years ago, I was his guest in Italy, visiting several of the high-end Brescian makers, including Piotti. The latter firm much impressed with its combination of classic bench-work with some – but not too much – modern methodology. My abiding impression was of careful work and skilful engineering by a dedicated team of artisan gunmakers with a passion for quality…

THIS year certainly turned out to be full of surprises for us all but I see absolutely no reason for letting the shenanigans of 2020 sway the merriment and quality of our Christmas feasts. In our house, the larder will probably be a little less outrageously full and the fridge door may even shut without a shove but it will be business as usual as far as the wine cellar, my cheese order and our Christmas lunch is concerned. Having had our turkey fix at Thanksgiving – and taking advantage of a depleted guest list – we have decided on roast goose. I intend to have a table groaning with sides, which will include this month’s stuffing and sauce recipes, in the gleeful knowledge that there will be leftovers to…

AS a long-term sufferer of CADDAD (Christmas-Affected Doom, Depression And Despondency), I look forward to this season of supposed peace on Earth and goodwill to all men with more than a little dread. This year, of course, my trifling ailment has been soundly trumped by CADDAD#2 (Covid-Affected Doom, Depression And Despondency). Indeed, we’ve been asked to prepare for a digital Christmas. Well, sod that, I’m going to prepare for a liquid Christmas and strongly suggest that you do so, too. First things first: sherry. It’s vital to have some in the fridge for when the moment strikes. There’s nothing more invigorating at 11am than a slug of bone dry Fino and the Tesco Finest* Fino (£6 per 37.5cl, Tesco) is spot on, produced by Gonzalez Byass and full of nutty…

YOU’VE got to hand it to Toyota. It’s not too proud sit down with another company (in this case, BMW) and thrash out some collaborative ideas. Such a process usually means that one company is somewhat on its uppers (Alfa Romeo/Nissan, Triumph/Honda), but that’s not a phrase that applies to either of these industrial giants. And the results of these collaborations often fail to set the world on fire (Alfa Romeo Arna and Triumph Acclaim). The Toyota/BMW project was not even supposed to be primarily about the Supra. They’ve been diligently working away together for ages on ‘green’ fuels of the future, notably hydrogen. It seems they got distracted. I have a vision of a long lunch break, when someone said, “Sod this for a game of soldiers; let’s knock…

A blueprint for the shooting sector has been created by The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), which launched its ‘Principles of Sustainable Game Management’ in October. The framework promotes best practice and sustainable game management in shooting, and has been adopted by seven other countryside organisations, including the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation, the British Game Alliance and the CLA. This framework aims to both deliver a biodiversity net gain and complement Defra’s 25-year environment plan. BASC and the Countryside Alliance have also adopted the principles, which include ensuring that all game fit for human consumption is eaten, that bags are based on a sustainable yield, and that predator control – while vital – does not jeopardise the population or conservation status of the species. Caroline Bedell of BASC said: “More…

A training centre has opened in Walsall to bring on the next generation of saddle, bridle and leather-goods makers and support the town’s high-quality leather businesses. The Walsall Leather Skills Centre, based at The Bridge, is funded by the Saddlers Company Charitable Fund, the principal charity of the Worshipful Company of Saddlers. The charitable fund worked alongside Midlands-based training company Performance Through People (PTP) to convert vacant shop premises into a training workshop. A wide range of saddlery and leather-goods courses are on offer. The training schemes will mix workshop time and training with employers. PTP managing director Rob Colbourne says the centre will create much-needed local employment. “There has not been leather or saddlery training centres in Walsall for a significant time, so anyone looking to learn had to…

LETTERS MAY BE EDITED FOR CLARITY OR SPACE DEFENDING COUNTRY WAYS What a good read your editorial was in the November issue [Editor’s comment, In defence of fieldsports], about our precious countryside, its heritage and traditions. We must strive to protect the skylarks, curlews and lapwings nesting on the moors and the yellowhammers, sparrows and many other small brown birds in the lowland areas. For this to happen our gamekeepers’ services are vital. Trail hunting, point-to-points, county shows, shooting and fishing and other rural activities are enjoyable pastimes. Far better than the activity of some visitors, who leave large amounts of litter in the countryside or are responsible for fly-tipping, or the intimidating gangs involved in illegal hare coursing. Then there are the thefts of fuel, farm machinery, quad bikes…

A west Suffolk residential estate with a seven-bedroom, Grade II*-listed, Georgian manor house – approached via a drive through parkland and across a 17th-century bridge – at its centre. Set in 158 acres of parkland, woodland and farmland, it originates from the early 18th century and was later re-modelled. There is a cottage wing, a lodge cottage, a flint barn and stables converted into entertainment rooms for corporate or private events. There is also a two-acre lake, an outdoor swimming pool, tennis court, a walled kitchen garden and even airstrips and hangars. The property, with planning consent to build 10 holiday lodges on conservation land, is for sale as a whole or in five lots. It is 36 miles from Cambridge City Airport. Agent: Strutt & Parker Tel: 01223 855841…

RECENTLY, I received an invitation to the funeral for a turkey. Due to the coronavirus, the funeral is to have a limited attendance of 30 people and will be held on 25 December. While the family don’t want flowers, contributions of potatoes, carrots or alcohol will be accepted. I still have no idea how I’ll be spending Christmas. I think I am still in the early enough stages of relationship status to spend it apart without any great swathes of guilt (right?) Mr D has a tendency to trawl a number of locations on Christmas Day but I have the fear that should I not be at ‘home home’ on the 25th that Father Christmas may neglect to leave me a stocking and then, frankly, Christmas will be ruined for…

A few years back, Christmas brought a unique book into my possession. It is not by a famous author, nor has it ever been, or ever will be, in the bestsellers lists. Rather, it is the game register for Chris Oliver, who, from the 1937 season through to that of 1970-71, was gamekeeper on Lilburn Estates in Northumberland for the Collingwood family. Lilburn Estate had arrived in the Collingwood family through one Thomas Clennel, following which, in the 1820s, Henry Collingwood caused the present Mansion House, Lilburn Towers, to be constructed. Over the 34-year period covered by the register, Oliver (who appears as CJO in the game register) shot on his own 90 times and as a guest of his employers on no less than 157 occasions. From the immediate…

We are driving to the River Palena on the final morning of our Patagonian fishing adventure when an elegant pampas cat emerges from dense Valdivian rainforest and slinks slowly across the dirt track in front of us – an animal so rare that it’s only the second one our guide, Reinaldo, has ever seen. Like the other experienced fishing guides employed by the newly opened Rio Palena Lodge some 80 miles inland from Chaiten on the Pacific coast, much of Reinaldo’s life has been spent in the great Chilean outdoors, so I take the sighting as a good omen for what lies ahead. Not that it seems possible to improve upon the fly-fishing adventures our group of four had already sampled during the previous three days. Our team is headed…

Can any other form of communication be as laden with promise or savoured with such anticipation as an envelope elegantly addressed in calligraphy? Spying such correspondence on the doormat provokes a frisson of excitement that the sound of an email notification from your device will never rival. Furthermore, it isn’t just the boast-worthy content – an invitation to a day’s shooting, a drinks party or a wedding – that prompts us to prop it on the mantelpiece. Much of the appeal is in the opportunity to admire the handiwork and artistry, too. Since the end of the 18th century, when Edward Johnston, widely regarded as the father of modern calligraphy, and artists and designers such as William Morris brought it to wider attention, calligraphy has enjoyed a revival. More recently,…

The murder of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the cathedral, just after Christmas, was the medieval equivalent of the assassination of JFK. It sent shock waves across the country and further afield. Small wonder then that his shrine became the most popular pilgrimage destination in England until the Reformation, and that his story has gone on to inspire poems, plays, paintings and books – even an opera. The story that persists in the public imagination – of knights responding to a disgruntled monarch’s despairing lament by slaying the meddlesome cleric at the high altar on Christmas Day – isn’t entirely apocryphal. Indeed, one of the reasons it persists is its perennial popularity with writers. It was embedded in the canon of our literature in the 14th century by…

A FIREARM can be as much a burden as it is a useful tool, with gunmakers constantly striving to create ever-lighter and more easily portable pieces. Whilst modern manufacturers have access to a wealth of strong, lightweight materials, such as polymers and aluminium, in days past the trade was much more restricted. Using only iron, steel and wood, makers had to explore novel concepts in order to provide a more comfortable experience for their gun-wielding clients. In the collection of the Royal Armouries is a gun that demonstrates one approach to the issue. Dating from the early-19th century, it is signed by John Barton, a London maker active in Haymarket from 1795. Barton first established himself in partnership with Robert Wogdon, the renowned maker of duelling pistol Together, they would…

WHEN it comes to dogs, especially working gundogs, most of us are inordinately conservative. The majority of us remain faithful to the same breed throughout our lives: if you were brought up with labradors or spaniels, then they are the breeds that you will acquire. There are, of course, many people who have changed allegiance but they are the exceptions that prove the rule. I’ve been a spaniel person for all my life. I had a cocker spaniel as a child and have subsequently had English springers for nearly 40 years, but when my last spaniel died I gave serious thought to getting something different. As a professional gundog correspondent, I’ve had lots of experience of different working breeds. I’ve spent time in the shooting field with almost every gundog…