Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2015 i The Field

THE Angling Trust is dismayed by Natural England’s recent decision to allow illegally released beavers to remain in the River Otter in Devon for another five years [once it has been confirmed that they are free of disease and of Eurasian origin]. We have been campaigning to have the beavers removed on the basis that the risks to fisheries, of flood and to landscape are too great to allow them to spread across the region and thence into the rest of the country. Last year, we were successful in getting a commitment by the then Secretary of State for the Environment to capture the animals. We were representing our members who, rightly, were concerned that the dams beavers build on rivers could cause flooding and block the migration of fish…

3 LAMBOURN OPEN DAY More than 30 trainers open up yards for charity; www.lambourn.info/open-day . 6 VINE & CRAVEN POINT-TO-POINT Hackwood Park, near Basingstoke, Hampshire, tel 07713158503. 9-11 THE GRAND NATIONAL MEETING Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool, tel 0844 579 3001. 11 THE CARTER JONAS OPEN TEAM CHASE (incorporating National Team Chase Championship) Langston Farm, Little Compton, Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos; teamchasing.co.uk . 11-12 BASC GAMEKEEPERS FAIR Catton Park, Walton-on-Trent, Derby; www.bascgamekeepersfair.co.uk . 11-12 FRAMLINGHAM COUNTRY SHOW (incorporating the Suffolk Food and Drink Festival) Framlingham College, Suffolk; www.framcountryshow.co.uk . 11-29 LANDSCAPES AND STILL LIFE EXHIBITION The Jerram Gallery, Half Moon Street, Sherborne, Dorset. New work from Charles Jamieson, Elsa Taylor and Vivienne Williams, tel 01935 815261. 12 PYTCHLEY POINT-TO-POINT Guilsborough, Northamptonshire, tel…

HAVE you ever wondered why, when you watch someone shoot sporting clays, his or her birds look so slow and yet they always seem to speed up for you? This phenomenon is what scientists call relative velocity, which, in lay terms, means how fast something appears to travel. Well, we have found a way to make clays and birds appear appreciably slower and therefore allow you to be far more successful. How fast a target is actually flying and how fast it appears to be flying are entirely different things. When you look at a moving object you know it is moving because your brain sees the background and the foreground moving away from the rear of the object while the object itself appears to be centred in your visual…

“ SO, Mr Bond, let me show you round our installation. You understand, of course, that we will never allow you to reveal all our secrets.” And with that warning, or something vaguely close, I was shown into the Blaser factory in Isny, Germany and forbidden to shake hands with the robots. Most modern factories have automata and that includes gunmakers, though one imagines they are named Henry and James at Holland & Holland and Purdey. Mostly they are static CNC machines with automotive processes, solid members of the workforce but not ones to enliven a grey Monday morning. But at Blaser (though this cannot be revealed), there is a chirpy robot who bustles up and down the aisles selecting parts for his sedentary colleagues who steadily put in their…

OF all the terrier breeds, it is perhaps the small, white, sealyham terrier, named after the estate in Pembrokeshire where it was first bred in the mid 1800s by Captain John Tucker-Edwardes, that has suffered the greatest mixture of fortunes. In the Twenties, The Kennel Club registered more than 2,000 sealyham puppies annually but in recent years that number has dwindled; there were 68 registrations in 2013. This figure has put the sealyham on The Kennel Club’s Vulnerable Native Breeds list, although, in 2009, a sealyham called Charmin won Crufts. Today, the world of the sealyham is divided into those dogs bred as pets and for show – there is little doubt that they make excellent pets, loyalty, character and cheerfulness being typical traits – and as working dogs. As…

A FEW years ago, naturalist and TV presenter Chris Packham said that, “Children need to feel a tadpole tickling the palm of their hand or pull back a bramble to see a nest. I can still remember seeing my first hedge-sparrow nest. It was almost a life-changing moment. I stood there in awe at these amazing little blue eggs, barely able to believe a bird was able to make them.” These “life-changing” moments are all but lost to the majority of today’s children, who experience nature from the comfort of their living-rooms. The best way to see birds’ eggs now is by visiting natural history museums by appointment, where one can gaze in wonder at a form of reproduction that was a revered symbol of life’s renewal pre-Christianity. Sing that…

THE invention of the wheellock transformed warfare and shooting. The new mechanism, in existence by about 1500, employed an enclosed, sprung steel wheel, wound up by a spanner, that spun and struck sparks from a piece of iron pyrites held in a “dog”, igniting the priming powder in the pan. These locks made it easy to use firearms from horseback, transforming the cavalry, and provided the hunter with an effective firearm that did not smell or smoke like the cheaper matchlock. However, wheellock mechanisms were complex and expensive, so restricted to royalty, nobility and the rich. In England, where the longbow remained crucial for the army for the first half of the 16th century, the use of the wheellock was controlled by a series of statutes. In 1533 the use…

THIS month we look at the latest gun from British gunmaker Boxall & Edmiston. It is a square-bar, 20-bore over-and-under, distinguished by a deeply scroll-engraved action with sideplates. It weighs 7lb and has 30in, Teague-choked, monobloc barrels and an inertia-operated, non-selective single trigger. The gun has an elegant semi-pistol-grip stock with a slim, rounded, field-style fore-end – all made from exhibition-grade walnut. The cost with the upgraded wood would be around £29,000. This is a significant sum but less than one would pay for most bespoke British over-and-unders. Boxall & Edmiston (B&E) began in October 2009 – a partnership between Peter Boxall (late of Holland & Holland and Jaguar cars) and entrepreneur James Edmiston. I took a proposal to them for a new stack-barrelled gun in 2011. A combination of…

MY HOME, Raehills, in the heart of Dumfries and Galloway, was probably no different to other such centres of estate business as we ushered in the New Year with a combination of hope, trepidation and, as always, ambition. Scottish landowners largely maintain a spirit of optimism and get on with life even though our sense of humour is sorely tested at times. We seem to live perennially under the political microscope. Now, as we gear up for 2015, we really are taking a deep breath and praying that, somewhere along the line, the powers that be take on board the fact that landowners can – and do – help them deliver their rural priorities. For the past two years we have been locked into a period of “land reform” review.…

REGINA HEEL BOOT FAIRFAX & FAVOR Handmade Spanish suede with an elegant heel to flatter your feet. Price £325 Tel 01760 338199 www.fairfaxandfavor.com FAMILY EASTER BISCUIT TIN, BISCUITEERS Delectable paschal pets and enticing eggs for after Lent. Price £40 Tel 08704 588358 www.biscuiteers.com COOL BAG THE SHOT BOX Holds eight champagne bottles; ideal for the point-to-point. Price from £195 Tel 08445 044054 www.theshotbox.co.uk SAINTFALLS RAIN CAPE AIGLE Safari style and pockets aplenty to defy those April showers. Price £200 Tel 01608 813860 www.aigle.com UNICORN SCARVES DRAKE’S Mythical charm in a silk/wool blend; choice of three colours. Price £235 Tel 020 7608 0321 www.drakes.com BOATBUILDER SWEATER, INIS MEAIN Merino and cashmere from the Aran Islands. Price €270 Tel 00 353 99 73009 www .inismeain.ie MOLE CATCHERS KIT BEAGLE PRODUCTS Everything you…

In the ShotKam shot (right) the red dot is where the gun is pointing. In the animation (left) the green dot is where the gun is pointing. The shot should be well out and close to where the shooter wants to kill the bird and his eyes are on the bird as it passes his shoulder going away. The mount should begin slowly as the bird passes the shooter, keeping the muzzles well in front of the target close to the kill zone to eliminate chasing the bird. The mistake we see shooters make is to mount the gun quickly behind the bird, which is seen as a crosser as it passes the shooter but will be shot as a going-away bird moving at a very slow pace (in this…

IN common with many, I started my shooting with airguns. The first was my dad’s BSA Airsporter, with which I fired at cans and rabbits before moving through most of BSA’s line-up and arriving at my current air rifle, the BSA R-10. I’ve followed the well-worn path from air rifle plinker to shotgun blaster and rifle stalker and I’ve always had a soft spot for the stealthy shooting required to hunt with an air rifle. THE LAW Airguns are classed as firearms so there are heavy penalties for any offence involving one. In contrast to the situation with rifles, if an air rifle has a power of below 12ft/lb you do not need a licence to own it in England and Wales. In Northern Ireland all airguns with power in…

ACCESSING every corner of a large farm or estate has become markedly easier over the years. Horses gave way to 4x4s, usually Land Rovers, and during the past 25 years 4x4s have been swapped for all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), scaled down, more manoeuvrable versions of themselves. ATVs are now the vehicle of choice for gamekeepers. Starting out as three-wheeled motorbikes, which tended to overturn faster than a squiffy lady in high heels, ATVs were replaced by the more stable and less lethal quad bike, the incredibly robust Honda leading the way with reliability and build quality. All-terrain vehicle or utility vehicle (ATV/ UTV) is now a catch-all description that includes quad bikes, small four- or six-wheeled trucks with simple cabs (Polaris Ranger style) and the rather funky-looking, cab-less, fat-tyred, amphibious Argocat,…

LAST year I was asked to cook a non-lamb Easter lunch for a family in Toulouse. I served braised rabbit with crème fraîche, tarragon, wild rice from the Camargue and honey-roast carrots. The adults loved it but the children were in tears and failed to laugh at the inevitable “hot, cross bunny” jokes. This year, unsurprisingly, I have been instructed to stick to something more traditional. Roast lamb is a popular choice at Easter but as the animal hasn’t had much time to graze on the spring grass the flavour of the meat isn’t yet at its best. For me, this is the opportunity to add lots of bold flavours so here the lamb shoulder is cooked with sherry, bay leaves and thyme and served with saffron potatoes. With the…

I’VE just had the privilege of looking at two rifles in the Browning X-Bolt range. All the rifles in this new range feature a lower-profile action machined from a solid block of forged steel for greater strength. Near the top of the range sits the X-Bolt Super Feather Trigger with a nicely chequered walnut Monte Carlo stock and optional fluted barrel. Costing just £1,100, it represents good value when compared to many of its natural competitors, such as Sako. Furthermore, it boasts good looks, great balance and features that might suggest a more expensive rifle. It deserves to enjoy wide appeal within a rapidly developing and progressive market. New to the range for 2015 is the X-Bolt Hunter Eclipse, which is distinguishable by its laminated thumbhole stock, non-fluted but threaded…

IS there a horsy girl out there who doesn’t long to be in a Munnings painting? We weave our horses through the traffic, dutifully wearing our hi-vis tabards and approved safety helmets, but in our hearts we are hacking across open country in twill balloon jodhpurs teamed with a yellow cashmere sweater and a brown bowler hat. We are A Lady Riding a Bay Hunter. According to Dr Bill Teatheredge, a curator of the Munnings Museum, modern country people have such a strong emotional connection with Munnings because of the artist’s own romanticism towards his subject. “Horses were his life from an early age. When he was at the Mendham water mill in Suffolk, which his father ran, there were horses there the whole time. He rode and hunted and…

A film telling the true story of how a barmaid in a former Welsh mining village bred a champion racehorse will be released on 17 April. Dark Horse: The Incredible Story of Dream Alliance is an account of how Jan Vokes bred a racehorse in 2000 despite knowing nothing about racing. Mrs Vokes had bred pigeons and whippets and saw no reason not to breed a racehorse, so persuaded 23 friends from the village to part with £10 a week to form a syndicate. A thoroughbred mare considered one of the slowest in Wales was bought for £300 and put with an aging stallion. The resulting foal, raised on the Vokes slagheap allotment, grew into an unlikely champion, overcoming injury to win the Welsh Grand National in 2009. The horse…

THERE are only three certainties in life: death, taxes and more property taxes. Tax has dominated political debate recently, not least the tightrope walked between legal avoidance and illegal evasion, although, according to Labour leader Ed Miliband, you are “dodgy” either way. It is difficult to hide bricks and land as they don’t fit into Swiss bank vaults and, hence, are easy fiscal targets. Jeremy Proctor of Bidwells says, “All political parties seem to be committing to maintaining or even reducing basic income tax rates so there will be more focus on capital taxes, particularly relating to higher-value property and the wealthy. These have principally affected London property but rural property will increasingly fall within the scope of these taxes.” Stamp-duty reform hits the higher end of the property market…

WHEN New Hall (now Murray Edwards College) was founded in 1954 to educate women at Cambridge it was with full-on feminist aspirations: men would be allowed in only when the battle for equal places for both sexes throughout the university had been won. Today, the ratio is approximately equal and even the redoubtable Girton College has gone co-ed. Yet there continues to be a huge and lucrative demand for single-sex education for young women, leaving Murray Edwards College with a bit of a conundrum. Women’s shooting has arrived at much the same position. Back in the Nineties, when I started game-shooting, there were perhaps three girls-only days in the country, mainly because it was a challenge to find enough competent female game-shots to fill the line. One early such day…

“WHEN I fished for them I caught an 82 1/2- pounder,” said Editor Jonathan Young. I have to admit that I had never considered catching a conger eel before; they are not the sort of fish that I was wont to pursue. I have heard terrible tales of them coming across the deck of a boat, mouths open and teeth bared, attacking fishermen and crew. I have heard of people foolish enough to angle for them barefoot having toes, if not feet, removed. “You see,” said Pete the Pessimist, revelling in the horror of it, “their teeth face backwards so once they’ve got stuck in, they never let go. What’s more, they spin so that they take off a limb like a chainsaw.” Despite these tales of woe my interest…

ATVs HONDA FOURTRAX Honda created the original ATV in the Seventies and is the world’s leading ATV manufacturer. The Fourtrax has an automotive grade fuel pump (from the Honda CR-V) and plastic CV boots to protect against tearing and perishing. The stiffer, lighter frame enhances ride. 420cc liquid-cooled, OHV single cylinder, 4-stroke engine Switchable 2wd/4wd 250kg carrying capacity 385kg towing capacity 183mm ground clearance RRP £7,188, incl VAT www.honda.co.uk/atv/utilitywork YAMAHA GRIZZLY 700 EPS The grizzly is a familiar name in the ATV world, a tough and reliable campaigner. This model has a host of improvements, including new, lighter tyres for better handling and comfort, wider front- and rear-wheel track for extra comfort and stability, and a new suspension package that delivers increased comfort and all-terrain performance. Revised steering geometry ensures…

PROVENANCE drives auction prices. When that provenance is Sir Winston Churchill, once voted our Greatest Briton, be prepared for fireworks. On 17 December, Sotheby’s held its Daughter of History: Mary Soames and the Legacy of Churchill sale. Many of the items were hers rather than his. Nevertheless, the Churchill name, coupled to the fact that she spent so much time with her father, near guaranteed that the prices paid made the pre-sale estimates look so conservative that even Winston might have wondered at the use of that word. Any items linked directly to the great man himself went ballistic. Rather breathlessly labelled in the trade as a “white glove” auction, it was the very fact that some items were handled by Winston (doubtless minus gloves) and are robust and practical…

EVERY 10 years for the past four decades a friend has bought a new Land Rover Defender and a labrador puppy to go with it. They grow old together but while the Defenders have been traded in, the labradors have gone on to enjoy their retirement. Now, however, my pal finds himself at a crossroads. The Defender goes out of production this year, so he is unsure what to replace it with. He is also considering trying a different breed of retriever and asked what I’d suggest. His shooting dog doubles as a family pet and is used mainly for picking-up. He trains his own dogs, while the family insists on a puppy, not a trained animal. As he wants a retriever the choice is limited to five breeds: Chesapeake…