Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2022 i The Field

EATING salmon, particularly smoked salmon, was, historically, a treat for special occasions. Back then it would have been wild salmon – before the great decline in populations, prompting the phasing out of the netting industry and the necessity for conservation measures. Wild Atlantic salmon no longer feature in fishmongers or on restaurant menus. From the 1990s, the demise of wild salmon coincided with the inexorable growth and availability of a vastly inferior product: the ubiquitous farmed salmon. The irony is that not only has it replaced wild salmon on the slab but the industry has decimated wild salmon (and sea-trout) runs wherever the salmon farming industry has been permitted across the northern hemisphere. It is no coincidence that most the remaining abundant wild salmon runs are in Alaska, with no…

THE Six Nations is the pinnacle of international rugby in the northern hemisphere, where the best six nations (clue: it’s in the name) in Europe compete against each other in their bid to be crowned champions. Initially, the competition that we all know and love today looked very different. Founded in 1883, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland all met in the Home Nations Championship. Since then, the competition has blossomed significantly. Following an enforced six-year hiatus during World War II, it evolved to include France in its mix – in turn becoming the Five Nations. At the turn of the millennium, the competition rebranded again, giving Italy the green light to come on board and become the sixth nation in 2000. This was just five years after the sport became…

Out of all of the guns that I have owned, bought and, on many more occasions, aspired to buy, wildfowling guns have become my obsession, although it took me a while to discover them. Growing up in a conventional game-shooting household, I came to the conclusion from a young age that shotguns were shotguns and the gun cabinet would feature the traditional, sleek, sidelock and boxlock game guns. The choice of calibre was determined more by how old and capable we were rather than their use on specific quarry. The same applied to cartridges – standard loads went into whichever gun I was lucky enough to be using and were used on all quarry. These preconceptions were thoroughly challenged on one of my first day’s driven shooting. The invitation came…

Since starting the brand in 2014, all three founders have become fathers. In doing so we found ourselves faced with a new design challenge; the art of transporting an expanded flock and its associated cargo. Introducing the Bennett Winch Cargo Range. Even the most discerning minimalist needs to overpack now and again. Be it wetsuits or waterproofs, towels or toys, the range has been designed specifically for those luggage-heavy road trips where capacity is king. T he Large (125L) and Medium (85L) are the workhorses, whilst the Small (50L) is the rugged day tripper. Military grade cotton webbing, Tuscan leather trim and solid brass hardware are built to last a lifetime, and a 600-denier nylon construction makes each bag as lightweight as it is hard wearing. T he Bennett Winch…

ANCIENT ISSUE Q I have a bound copy of The Field, Vol 2, from 1874. I am trying to find the value of this and if anyone is interested in purchasing it. MC, by email A The magazine appears to be Field & Stream, an American publication not related to The Field. I have spoken to Field & Stream, who say they have a full printed archive that dates back to their first issue. The auctioneers I spoke to checked auction records dating back more than 20 years and say that this type of magazine from this era is not uncommon. It is of social and historical interest but not of financial value. Such items are usually sold on eBay and can fetch £15 plus, if two people both bid…

STEPHEN HENDERSON’S studio looks out over the Essex marshes near Hamford Water. He describes the scene: “Winter is here and there are big flocks of teal and wigeon and I can see golden plover and curlew. When there is snow the mudflats are covered and it is completely white, and the dawn comes up and the light is wonderful.” His sculptures of the scene feature just the birds and perhaps a suggestion of driftwood or shoreline in the mount, yet he evokes the whole landscape and, more than that, the history and meaning of that environment. Perhaps this is because Henderson was born and brought up here, in a former bargers’ and even smugglers’ pub, The King’s Head, so maybe the landscape is in his DNA. He explains: “This house…

THE Beretta SL3 20-bore we tested was supplied by GMK of Fareham. The firm is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and for more than 40 of those years it has been the UK’s Beretta importer. This is a gun from Beretta’s Premium range and carries a recommended price tag of £19,250, well above Silver Pigeon and 69 series territory but significantly below the SO sidelocks that begin at £49,000 now (for the SO6 EELL with standard engraving). First impressions of this SL3 are of an elegant, fairly light (6lb 6oz) modern gun with classical styling but a contemporary, streamlined look. The level of finish is above the basic range with deep lustre to the blacking of the well-polished barrels, traditional oil finish and neat, quite fine hand-chequering. Wood quality is above…

AS the patron saint of lovers, beekeepers, epilepsy and the Umbrian city of Terni, Saint Valentine has a lot on his plate. With this in mind, if you are a romantic and plan to celebrate 14 February, a little planning and preparation to help create that perfect day is always a good idea. I’ll leave you to come up with your own gifts and activities but my recipes will make the perfect Valentine’s feast. Kicking off with a stiff cocktail that is deceptively easy to make but has enough bottles, equipment and theatre to look impressive, the seductively red Mezcal Negroni should get your evening off to a cracking start. Both the duck and rioja pie and the tiramisu ice-cream cake can be made the day before, which solves the…

STAR BUY The main property on this estate is a six-bedroom coach house in private parkland, overlooking a lake, together with landscaped gardens, an orangery and a swimming pool. There are six further residential properties in the sale, as well as two groups of traditional and modern farm buildings with potential for alternative uses, subject to planning. In total, the estate runs to 234 acres, including arable land, pasture and woodland and is for sale as a whole or in three lots. Lot 1 is the coach house, three further properties and 86 acres; Lot 2 includes a farmhouse, cottage and five acres; Lot 3 is a lodge, together with 143 acres of pasture and arable land. The estate is halfway between Poole and Southampton, and a mile from Lyndhurst.…

The British sportsman is truly blessed. Hunters travel across the globe to enjoy our rich sporting heritage and experience the challenges and delights that our many quarry species have to offer. But while the variety and quality of sport available here is astonishing, there’s still nothing like a busman’s holiday for game. So if your gun is getting itchy feet we would like to make some suggestions that it would be worth travelling for. Grab your passport and upgrade the roving syndicate to intercontinental. DOVES IN ARGENTINA Action-packed shooting and luxurious lodges go without saying in Cordoba. The doves exist here in such quantities that they are an agricultural pest but create a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Guns. Before you have time to curse a miss you can be pulling the…

Early meets, fast hunts on coyote and a lavish breakfast are all part of an average day with Canada’s second oldest pack, the Toronto & North York Hunt, founded in 1843. The hounds were originally kennelled in the city but, like many other packs, they have been forced to relocate several times to escape the ever-growing urbanisation of Toronto. The tranquil property the hunt club now calls home is situated just outside the town of Creemore, best known for its brewery – although I am told this was not the reason for their relocation. Hunting friendly countryside and obliging landowners led the Toronto to its new home, where sole Master Andy Bite ensures that every visitor is treated as a special guest. The kennels consist of a well-proportioned huntsman’s house,…

Blame Hollywood. While most crime seems seedy at best, there’s a certain panache attached to art heists. The sophistication of the art world translates well into glamorous crime – at least on screen. From How to Steal a Million and The Maltese Falcon to The Thomas Crown Affair, producers and audiences alike lap up the high stakes excitement of the theft of priceless art and antiques. The silver-screen treatment – combined with breathless reportage in the media about real-life art crime – leaves us in wonderment when we hear about heists. We marvel at what we perceive to be the sheer audacity of thieves who execute meticulous raids to steal famous works of art, sometimes in plain sight; we speculate about what sort of Goldfinger-like crime lord has gleefully orchestrated…

One of the more disappointing consequences of the modernisation of our road network is the loss of some of the old ‘street furniture’ that used to be commonplace. One example of this is the demise of the milepost or milestone. Once a common and, no doubt, comforting feature of our roads, they have now largely been replaced by more practical and, almost certainly more accurate, modern signposts and boards. Despite this move towards modern signage, it is still possible to find examples of the old milestones dotted around the landscape. Some are hidden in the undergrowth but there are those that still form a prominent part of the town’s character. In Farnham town centre, for example, there is a fairly large milestone and, just as you leave Esher in Surrey,…

IT’S not often that you see pensioners in the shooting field – canine I mean, not human – as shooting is, for a dog, hard work. Many of us hope that our dogs will carry on working until they are 12, perhaps even 13, but the harsh truth is that most will have stopped around their 10th birthday, and only a few continue until they are 12 or 13. A recent survey of 665 working gundogs found that the average age of retirement across all the breeds was 10. Intriguingly, while the majority of springer spaniels retired at the age of 11, for cockers it was nine, while labradors slotted neatly into the middle at 10. The survey, published in the journal VetRecord, was undertaken by John Houlton, who is…

AFTER a run of headline-grabbing, eye-brow-raising, tyre-smoking Toyotas (Supra, GR Yaris), it’s time to look at something a little more sensible: the new Highlander. I say ‘new’, but it has been proving popular in other parts of the world for more than two decades. Only now has Toyota decided to sell it in the UK. The first thing you notice is the size. It’s supposed to fill the gap between the Land Cruiser and the RAV4, but it seems too big for that. The styling is odd, too. More than one visitor asked if the Highlander was a new Subaru Forester. It was enough to make me reach for the press kit to check it wasn’t another bed-hopping joint venture. The size has its advantages, of course. There are three…

▸ During Europe’s Middle Ages, sparrows were believed to represent peasants and the lower classes. ▸ According to superstition, if a sparrow flies into your closed window and dies, it could signify the death of someone you know. ▸ William Wordsworth’s 1801 poem The Sparrow’s Nest is a tribute to his sister, who he was separated from in childhood. ▸ Sailors would get traditional sparrow tattoos in the hope that their souls might be taken to Heaven if they died at sea — including Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. ▸ In the Bible, sparrows were used as offerings given by the very poor and represented the concern of God for even the smallest and most insignificant lifeforms. ▸ The sparrow was the sacred bird of Aphrodite, the goddess…

Email: field.secretary@futurenet.com LETTERS MAY BE EDITED FOR CLARITY OR SPACE A COMMON CAUSE I write this as an enthusiastic member of BASC who is supportive of its aims. I did not join for insurance but to support a voice for shooting – much the same reason that I subscribe to the GWCT. However, it has occurred to me that something is being missed in terms of campaigning. While it is vital to reinforce the link between shooting and food, and to shout loudly about the environmental benefits best practice brings, we need to pay attention to the culture that underpins us. Fieldsports form part of an unbroken line as old as man himself. Art, cuisine, literature, way of dress, our own terminology – fieldsports are not singular activities but part…

HILL HOUSE HECKFIELD, HOOK, HAMPSHIRE Hill House is a six-bedroom, Grade II-listed period house. There are four reception rooms, with wood burners in both the drawing and sitting rooms plus double doors out to the terrace and garden; the dining room has an open fireplace. The mature gardens are partly walled and there is also a kitchen garden and various outbuildings. The property sits in half an acre and is four miles from Hartley Wintney. Agent: Knight Frank Tel: 01256 630971 Guide price: £1.5m STARFIELDS WHITMORE VALE, GRAYSHOTT, SURREY This is a five-bedroom country house with a detached annexe, set in just over 1½ acres of wooded gardens and grounds next to a stream. Built in 2019 by the vendors, Starfields has four bedrooms and the land includes a vegetable…

Farquhar Atoll is the most southerly atoll in the Seychelles chain of islands, lying just over 700km to the south-west of the main island, Mahe. Even in normal circumstances, trips to these remote places are carefully planned out, with little or no room to alter logistics, so we were fortunate that Covid restrictions allowed us to travel to the Seychelles, providing we abided by all regulations and guidelines. At short notice, we packed bags and set off from Germany, flying via Dubai to the capital of the Seychelles, Mahe, and then to Alphonse Island in a small plane, before the last leg to Farquhar Island. The island has around 22 inhabitants from Islands Development Company (IDC), a small number of houses, next to no pollution and minimal fishing pressure. After…

The relationship between England and France is not always cosy, but there is one sport that brings the two countries together: racing. The French racing scene is on fire and many people here are eyeing it up and wanting to be part of it. The sheer volume of English trainers enthusiastically taking their horses across the water begs the question: just what is it about French racing that is making France the place to be? One of England’s finest exports comes in the form of jumps trainer Louisa Carberry. She and her wonder horse, Docteur de Ballon, have taken France by storm, almost re-enacting National Velvet by claiming back-to-back victories in one of the country’s most famous races, Le Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris. Winning this race is roughly the equivalent…

Sometime on 20 August 1932, East Greenland’s Steenstrup Glacier calved into the Tugtilik Fjord, creating a wave that capsized Henry ‘Gino’ Watkins’ kayak while he was out seal hunting. Having been taught by the Inuit, he was a skilled kayaker but, sadly, this didn’t save him. It’s not known what happened but it’s presumed that, failing to roll back up, Watkins exited into the water, where survival time would be short. His kayak skirt and belt were later found on an ice floe, so the likelihood is that while he was able to get out of the water, the cold would have been equally debilitating on the floe and he succumbed to hypothermia while swimming to the shore. Watkins had become Britain’s leading polar explorer of his time and had…

THE name Velo-Dog, in its various guises, hints at the use to which this little pistol was to be put: to be carried on your ‘velocipede’ – or, as we know it today, your bicycle – to protect the rider. In the early days of cycling, around the 1870s, it was thought that protection would have been needed against robbers or footpads as bicycles were expensive, although this was more of a perception than a reality. But as the century worn on and the threat of theft lessened, there were other problems to be encountered: dogs, especially wild ones, which attacked cyclists in the countryside and in the cities. A means to defend oneself while riding was necessary and a pistol could be a useful accessory, especially if it was…

FOR a striking snapshot of just how radically Britain has changed over the past century or so, head to the kitchen. One wonders what the Edwardians would have made of Yotam Ottolenghi and Jamie Oliver. They might have been rather thrown by pomegranate molasses, but certainly no more so than a modern audience seeking historic inspiration for a showstopper dish. Buckingham Palace, ever the arbiter of taste, marked Derby Day 1906 with a lunch spanning 10 courses. You should be able to recreate the haunch of venison and saddle of lamb (although bear in mind they appeared as a single course), but just try tracking down ortolan. And even the gamest wine merchant might struggle to produce a 40-year-old vintage of still champagne to pair with it. Although most smart…