Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2019 i The Field

FIELDSPORTS are a way of life. They exist under an umbrella nomenclature that might suggest to the uninitiated that hunting, shooting and fishing are merely sports for sport’s sake, but we know different. The skills and instincts required to become proficient in any of these disciplines takes years to hone, and beginning in childhood is an advantage. What this means for us as a community is that each new person who engages with a fieldsport needs support. The newcomer will have to invest considerable time, energy and financial resources just to get started in pheasant shooting or deer stalking, for example, as compared to many other sports or pastimes, presenting a high barrier to entry. “Every one of us must foster the burgeoning interest of newcomers” High barriers to entry…

WITH the list of birds of conservation concern increasing faster than our statutory conservation bodies are able to address the issues, upland species in Scotland appear to be looking over the same cliff off which those in Ireland and Wales have already fallen. Five species, including the curlew and merlin, were added to the list of concern in 2015 without a single one of the four already on it (black grouse, hen harrier, lapwing and whinchat) being removed. Alarm bells are ringing. A new report produced by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), with co-funding from Scottish Land & Estates and the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, comes 10 years after the GWCT predation experiment at Otterburn. The latter found that wader densities were three to five times higher where gamekeepers…

It was the great playwright John Osborne who once said he could never have lunch in Brighton without wanting to take a woman to bed. Nor, I suspect, do the shooting sportsmen of Sussex do anything when they are driving about the county other than look out for high-flying birds. Shoots here, and there are many large and small in this most sporting of counties, stretch from the testing escarpments of the South Downs right up to the north where it is possible to have a high-bird day with The Shard and St Paul’s Cathedral shimmering in the distance. Amongst these shoots is what might reasonably be called a ‘Golden Triangle’, which centres within a five-mile radius of Bright-ling Park, near Battle, in East Sussex. This is the timeless home…

When someone tells me, on a shoot day or shortly afterwards, that “thewheels have fallen off”, I tend to ask myself if their wheels were ever really on. A competent shot should understand what he or she is doing sufficiently well that complete collapse rarely happens. Those who suffer a dramatic, sudden, fall off in shooting performance are usually those who do not rely on any sort of developed technique (with occasional exception). They don’t really know what they do or what their gun and cartridge are doing together at the terminal end. So, when it all goes wrong they don’t know why or how to proceed to correct it. Being, effectively, clueless may result in panic, making a bad situation worse. So, my first piece of advice is to…

I have been fortunate enough to have watched jaguars in Belize, gorillas in Uganda, lynx in Spain, lions in Botswana, tigers in Madhya Pradesh, Tasmania devils in Australia, but my interest in mammals was first sparked by encounters with the humble hedgehog in my parents’ garden. I found them fascinating, for although you could approach them closely, they would simply roll into a spiky ball. To learn anything about them, you had to stand back and wait for them to uncurl, something that took a lot of patience for a five-year-old. It was, however, a good lesson, as watching anywild mammal requires perseverance, together with a dose of luck. Sadly, luck will not help many of today’s children enjoy similar prickly encounters as mine. The hedgehog, one of our most…

he cliché goes that food for the ordinary sailor on board Nelson’s Navy was at best monotonous and at worst revolting. Tales abound of weevils and rot, of cheese so hard that sailors carved it into buttons, and rats with blackened flesh being baked in a pie to assuage hunger. So much for the horror stories. What about the facts? The logistics were formidable. At the height of the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy had to feed some 150,000 men on board 1,000 ships. There were 821 men on Victory and today’s nutritional calculations show they were fed 5,000 calories a day to cope with a hard and strenuous life hauling three-tonne guns at war. What they ate can be learnt from ships’ logs, letters and the careful accounts and…

Founded just two years ago, Wild and Game took no time at all to convert a noble aim into an impressive range of game products. Steven Frampton and Michael Cannon co-founded the not-for-profit organisation in late 2017, amid their growing concern that game was going to waste. “We suspected that part of the problem was that many people are not sure how to cook and enjoy game,” explains Frampton. “We wanted to convert them, so we decided to recreate classic and much-loved British recipes using game to show how versatile and delicious it is.” The range includes burgers, sausages, pasties, sausages rolls and ready meals, from lasagna to curry. “Our ultimate goal is for game to be a common sight in Britain’s supermarkets,” says Frampton. “We hope that by introducing…

THIS gun is not just different but rather wonderful. It is a Holland & Holland Paradox 12-bore intended for both shot and special bullets, allowing its user to bag birds for the pot and deal with soft-skinned big game as well. If you had a need – as people once did – to bring home peafowl for supper and shoot a leopard killing villagers’ cattle, this is the gun for you. It is built on a round action, back-action, sidelock (there is also a square bar Royal model) and weighs in at a comparatively light 7lb 7oz with 28in barrels. It carries a substantial price tag of £108,000, including VAT, and the Royal version is £138,000 with the Treasury’s slice added. The Paradox test gun is built on the 1885…

MANY years ago I interviewed a gun-dog breeder and trainer with a passion for Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. He assured me, with his tongue firmly in his cheek, that the cavalier was the perfect gamebag gundog. You could pop it in your bag on a shooting day and get it out when it was needed, such as when looking for the runner that all the labradors had failed to find. I reported this in my article, only for a trialler, as renowned for his skill in the field as his lack of sense of humour, to challenge me on the idea of gamebag gundogs. “One breed profile insists the cavalier ‘retains the sporty nature of his spaniel ancestors’” A couple of decades later, I’m coming round to the idea of…

THERE is a disarming honesty about the work of Jack Fetherstonhaugh. His horses are the type that have their noses kissed rather than performing pirouettes and piaffes. A spaniel, frankly, could do with grooming and a terrier glares out of the canvas with a belligerent stare that says: “I have either just been up to something or am about to be.” Fetherstonhaugh confirms this was indeed the case: “That was Bella, a very troublesome dog. That dog would not sit still for a second. In the end we had to photograph her with someone holding her down on the bench. And the family’s toddler was running off and the removal men were in. It was chaos. But that was one I really enjoyed doing, and I think it is one…

It took me a long time to get to the Miroku factory. I acquired my first Miroku in the late 1960s. I sold a collection of Victorian and Edwardian British stamps to fund the purchase of a smart, double trigger, half-pistol gripped, black-actioned over-and-under retailed by Thomas Bland & Sons (when that firm resided at William IV Street off Trafalgar Square). The Miroku, which did me proud for some years, would probably be worth £300 or £400 now – the stamps would buy a suburban house. I remember my mentors at Bland’s – Wally and Jim Caseley – expressing admiration for Miroku, which they told me produced well-made, good shooting guns at an affordable price. This was an era when ‘made in Japan’ was not necessarily a badge of quality,…

Bob Monkhouse was an unexpected ghost sitting on the skiff’s prow as we crept through the muddy flats in search of bone-fish. But there he lounged, the long-dead celebrity of two-channel, black-and-white television and perma-grin host of The Golden Shot. As a game show, it was quaintly weedy and rather unlikely, involving a crossbow fired by a blindfolded cameraman at a golden apple in the centre of a target. Once the immortal catchphrase “Bernie, the bolt” had been uttered, and beardy Bernie had loaded the ordnance, contestants would align the peephole sight fitted to the camera onto the core of the apple. Since they were hardly Bisley riflemen, this involved a great deal of “left a bit, right a bit, down a bit, up a bit” before the final instruction:…

The past 60 years have seen Blaser continue to design, innovate and manufacture hunting products from its headquarters in Isny im Allgäu, southwest Germany. Throughout its history, Blaser has been innovating and developing precision hunting equipment with an uncompromising commitment to quality, tolerance and modularisation. As hunters and pioneers in fieldcraft, the inspiration for our products is developed continually from time spent in the field. This passion and knowledge in turn informs the design and development of the varied product lines we have today. This continued commitment to field-sports is the force behind the Blaser brand. It drives us to develop new products and shows us how we can further improve our existing range. The changing climate means we now produce so much more than just hunting rifles. The objective…

Admiral Lord Nelson’s last signal to the fleet at Trafalgar was: “Engage the enemy more closely.” Given that the British fleet, in two columns, was sailing as fast as it could in light airs, this was perhaps more a morale-boosting exhortation than an order, like his celebrated previous signal, “England expects…” However, in his insistence on close action, Nelson followed British tradition. Admiral Geary, commanding the Channel Fleet in 1780 and tiring of his Rear Admiral’s love of manoeuvres, said, “Now my dear Kempy [Kempenfelt], do for God’s sake oblige me by throwing your signals overboard and make that which we all understand – ‘Bring the enemy to close action’.” As the great naval historian Corbett wrote in 1905, “Throughout the sailing period the dominant weapon was the gun.” The…

Half climbing up the page, half laid on a dissection table, these amphibians are extremely difficult to miss but why would an animal advertise itself in a predator’s world? Hugh B Cott was a gifted artist and Cambridge professor of zoology. He was such an expert in the adaptive benefit of animals’ colour patterns that during World War Two the British War Office consulted him on concealment and disguise. These amphibians are doing the exact opposite of concealing themselves. They wear the colours of toxicity as a form of protection from predators that learn an association via misadventure with wasp-coloured morsels: bright and black bites back. Animal: Exploring the Zoological World, published by Phaidon, is available now (£39.95)…

I’VE been unsuccessfully bidding on arms and armour all year and I’m beginning to understand the pain and depression addicts experience when forced to go ‘cold turkey’. Whether my growing catalogue of failure is because I’ve been feeling more constrained than usual with my daughter’s wedding to finance (job now done); an ever-improving eye meaning I only want the better bits on offer – said items usually drawing the most bids – or the collapsing pound making our auctions ever more attractive to those dratted overseas internet bidders, or a combination of all three, I have no idea. All I know is that I’ve had nothing new to smuggle into the house and then surreptitiously add to an armour – four currently in various stages of construction – or hang…

MY path into the world of land and wildlife management has been a meandering one. Unlike many in the sector, for whom it has been part of life from day one, I didn’t grow up with any family connection to hunting, shooting or fishing at all. Although I’m assured my grandfather was a keen shot, we never met. In fact, by the time I was born both my parents were vegetarians, due to an incident with some overcooked lamb several years previous. Although, ironically, it was lamb that also switched them back to eating meat after more than 20 years, when they began keeping their own rare breed flock. I spent the first part of my life on a croft on the mainland of Orkney, a good place to grow…

MISTRAL GIN (40% vol, £28, Majestic) A pale, pale pink gin from Provence that’s style incarnate. HUNTERS CHESHIRE GIN EXPORT STRENGTH (43.3% vol, £36, Tanners) Brand new and delectable, full of zesty citrus notes and a touch of spice. EIGHT LANDS GIN (46% vol, £39, Master of Malt) From Speyside’s whisky country, an organic gin of real oomph and style. STAFFORD’S DRY CORNISH GIN (42%vol, £39, Distillers Direct) From Colwith Farm, a scrumptiously quirky gin based on their own potato vodka. TINKTURE ROSE GIN (44% vol, £50, Fortnum & Mason) Another cracking Cornish gin made using hand-picked organic English roses. TWELVE KEYS GIN (46% vol, £50, Harvey Nichols) A richly honeyed gin with aniseed-like spice and bold juniper.…

IJF’s Sir Peter O’Sullevan centre opens The third Injured Jockeys Fund (IJF) rehabilitation centre will be opened officially in Newmarket on 11 October. Sir Peter O’Sullevan House, named after the late commentator, completes a triology of IJF centres: Oaksey House in Lambourn, which opened in 2009, and Jack Berry House in Malton, North Yorkshire, which opened in 2015. The charity’s patron, HRH The Princess Royal, presided over the previous opening ceremonies but 20 times champion jockey Sir Anthony McCoy will officiate on this occasion. The £6m centre, which has taken a year to build, has state-of-the-art rehabilitation and fitness facilities, including a gym and a hydrotherapy pool. “It’s unbelievable that we now have three rehabilitation and fitness centres around the country that help and support jockeys both during and after…

FUTURE FOR LEAD Waitrose is one of the biggest sellers of wild game in the country and its decision to source game shot with non-lead ammunition is perfectly pragmatic seen from the position of a retailer looking to protect its market. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has issued guidance regarding the risks of high levels of game consumption and consumption by children and pregnant women. Sourcing non-lead-shot game will allow Waitrose to move away from having to highlight that guidance. Waitrose has apparently sourced all the pheasants and partridges it requires for the 2019/20 season from shoots through one major game dealer. The fact that it has been able to do this highlights the significant advances in the availability and effectiveness of non-lead ammunition in recent years. In particular, the…

Belvedere is a Grade II-listed house with Georgian crenellated architecture in a private setting above the Exe Estuary. The oldest part of the house dates from the 17th century, with 18th-and 19th-century additions. It is set in 13 acres of formal gardens and woodland, including a large paddock, an orchard and a tennis court with a pavilion. The west-facing drawing room provides sunset views over the estuary, while there is also a large wine cellar. A leisure area has been added underground, disguised externally beneath a patio and seating area. It includes an indoor swimming pool with glass doors accessing the patio, a hot tub, sauna and gym. The property has seven bedrooms in total and there is also a one-bedroom, single-storey gate lodge. The village of Lympstone is under…

Motor neurone disease (MND) is an incurable, progressive, life-shortening disease that attacks the nerves in the brain and spinal cord that control how you walk, talk, eat, drink and breathe. This devastating illness had attracted limited public exposure and frustratingly little research until Doddie Weir, the former Scottish rugby union player, revealed in June 2017 that he had been diagnosed with MND. Weir approached the illness with the same courage and determinations that made him one of the game’s finest players, winning 61 caps for Scotland during his career and selection for the 1997 British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa. Since diagnosis, Weir has devoted his energies to a continuous round of fund-raising public appearances to raise money for research into MND and to assist those already afflicted.…

The Kimblewick Hunt is something of a phenomenon of modern hunting. With a vast country that stretches across Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Hampshire, it did not come into being until 2010. Before that, it was the Vale of Aylesbury with Garth and South Berks, which in turn was an amalgamation of the Vale of Aylesbury and the Garth and South Berks. Dig back further, and these two packs were formed from the Old Berkeley, the Hertfordshire, the South Oxfordshire, the Garth and the South Berkshire. In 2010 the hunt decided to name itself after the hamlet in which the Old Berkeley kennels are situated, Kimblewick. Hunt staff still wear the Old Berkeley livery of tawny yellow, a darker shade of the yellow livery of the Berkeley, a throwback…

Anti-clockwise from top left: Silk Country Tie with Partridge Design, The House of Bruar, £30 (0345 136 0111, houseofbruar.com); Silk Cartridge Tie, William Evans, £69 (020 7493 0415, williamevans.com); WR & Co Silk Grouse Tie, Westley Richards, £135 (0121 333 1900, store.westleyrichards.com); Gold Silk Tie, Dapper Fox, £59 (01284 767903, dapperfox.co.uk); Monkey Fine Silk Tie, Oliver Brown, £59 (020 7259 9494, oliverbrown.org.uk); Bondi Printed Silk Tie, Beaufort & Blake, £69 (020 3793 2867, beaufortandblake.com); English Woven Silk ‘Pointer’ Tie, Seaward & Stearn, £110 (020 7403 9770, seawardandstearn.com); Hugo Guinness Pheasant Silk Tie, Holland & Holland, £110 (020 7499 4411, hollandandholland.co.uk); Stag Repeat Silk Tie, Farlows, £69 (01544 322311, farlows.co.uk); Tiny Paisley Silk Tie, Marmaduke London, £69 (07522 677800, marmadukelondon.com); Medallion Silk Tie, Emma Willis, £120 (020 7930 9980, emmawillis.com); Sitting…

On my erstwhile Sussex shoot we used to reminisce fondly about the day Igor came to visit. This was a 100-bird, 10-gun day, so hardly ‘high bird’ – although we did get some very high birds off the South Downs – and the eclectic line-up of shoot vehicles reflected the happy-go-lucky nature of the guns. One day someone invited along Mr Commercial Property. He arrived in a gleaming Range Rover driven by Igor, polite and probably ex-somewhere in the Balkans special forces. Amusement that Igor carried his master’s gun and stood ready to load turned to joy and secret envy when, first drive over, up went the tailgate to reveal a fine wooden cabinet bedecked with bottles and glasses. He then proceeded to construct cocktails. Ditto after drive 2, but…

We tend to know the outline story of the Battle of Trafalgar when, on 21 October 1805, off Cape Trafalgar on the south-west coast of Spain, the British fleet, commanded by Admiral Lord Nelson, beat – thrashed would be a better word, we sank 22 of theirs and they sank none of ours – the combined French and Spanish fleet and, in so doing, ensured that France would not be able to invade Great Britain. “Nelson planned this battle over two dinners aboard his flagship Victory” Nelson planned this battle over two dinners aboard his flagship Victory with his captains. What was radical about this particular plan was that, instead of engaging in single line abreast where each fleet sailed in parallel and knocked 10 shades of nasty stuff out…

DURING the 19th century the gift of a firearm was often used to commemorate important events, not necessarily of national importance but perhaps of local interest. This cased set is such a gift. The gun case contains a percussion double-barrelled sporting gun stocked in walnut with two sets of barrels: one 12-bore for shot; the other .700 rifled, sighted for up to 650 metres and designed to shoot solid conical bullets. The case also contains tools, a shot flask and powder flask in green leather, and a bullet mould. It is lined in red velvet with the maker’s name, Verney, in gold. Gunmaker Claude Verney was based in Lyon. In 1830 he married Antionette Carron, the daughter of a gunmaker, and the business became Verney-Carron, which still makes firearms today.…

A WHOLE roast pheasant served for dinner is undoubtedly a magnificent sight. However, I find this is best done only with the younger birds early on in the season. As the weeks fly by, to get the best results it’s worth either mincing the meat or jointing the bird and using a range of different cooking techniques for the legs and breasts. Poaching the whole pheasant is also an excellent option as not only does it make the meat soft and succulent but you also create an incredibly delicious and nutrient-rich broth. The lasagne and meatballs with broth recipes included here are a perfect way to introduce all family members to game and are also great for shoot lunches. The pheasant leg confit involves a little more preparation but will…

LET’S be honest: no-one jumps into a Forester expecting a torrent of cutting-edge technology wrapped up in the very latest fashionable SUV body. What you’re driving is a no-nonsense SUV (the latest in a long line of Subaru SUVs that were launched before we Brits adopted the term ‘SUV’) with classic Subaru features: the flat-four engine, the permanent 4wd, the respectable ground clearance and all in a practical body shape that looks (if we’re still being brutally honest) a tad long in the tooth. There is, however, exciting news – under the bonnet. The flat-four diesel, developed by Subaru at vast expense and effort, is no longer available. The U-turn by experts on diesel’s ‘planet-saving’ status has hit Subaru harder than most. The company had a product that finally boosted…