Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2020 i The Field

THE Animal and Wildlife bill debate in the Scottish Parliament on 17 June was a sobering experience. Despite strong criticism from all parties about lack of scrutiny, the Scottish Government supported an 11th-hour amendment to license the management of mountain hares. Bizarrely, it happened while a response from Scottish Government to its own report (by the Werritty Panel) is still awaited. This had looked carefully at the evidence and recommended a different approach to mountain hares. Grouse moor managers can be forgiven for anger and bewilderment at such obvious lack of support from their own government when a strong rural economy is badly needed. But despite years of similar attacks, two poor grouse years and not knowing if shooting will even be possible in 2020, the sector is remarkably buoyant.…

The National Garden Scheme (NGS) is reopening some of its gardens on a strictly pre-booked basis. None of them will be able to offer teas under the new guidelines but where there’s space visitors will be allowed to bring their own picnics. This year, 3,700 gardens were scheduled to open under the NGS but the charity had to close gates for the first time since 1927, as a result of the lockdown. In Dorset, Holworth Farmhouse near Dorchester is open daily from 7-31 August. The garden has many unusual trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants. At Castor House near Peterborough (pictured), the 12 acres of gardens include Italianate spring-fed ponds and stream gardens. It is open on 21 July and 23 August. And the four-acre garden at Lewis Cottage, near Crediton,…

EMAIL ALEXANDRA.HENTON@FUTURENET.COM GLASS TRAY MELISSA LA FAVE Vibrant, decorative valet tray, hand-painted and edged with 18ct gold. Available in two sizes and suitably covetable designs. Sits well in drawing or dressing room. ♦ Price 15cm x 15cm, £60; 20cm x 20cm, £85 ♦ Tel 07747 612188 ♦ melissalafavelondon.com CHAMEAU-LITE LCX LE CHAMEAU Unisex, ultra-lightweight 10in stalking boot with anti-fatigue sole, waterproof fabric and breathable LCX lining. Motocross-inspired sole gives great grip on tough terrain. ♦ Price £299 ♦ Tel 01572 772444 ♦ lechameau.com PATHFINDER QUILTED GILET WESTLEY RICHARDS Primaloft-filled gilet with two-way zip and double-entry pockets in wrinkle-resistant fabric. Perfect for sporting travel or as a layer in milder weather. Comes in hunter green, midnight and safari. ♦ Price £625 ♦ Tel 0121 333 1900 ♦ store.westleyrichards.com TWEED LEAD AND…

STAR BUY This coastal estate is just half a mile from Lymington. The Georgian-style house, with its formal gardens, has views of the Solent and the Isle of Wight. There are equestrian facilities, including three oak-framed stables and a tack room, and the 36 acres include paddocks and pasture. Lea House, with the main drive flanked by hornbeam ball trees, comes with a tennis court and spa complex, with an indoor swimming pool, sauna, Jacuzzi, steam room and gym. There is also a pool house with a vaulted ceiling and a kitchen. The six-bedroom property has floor-to-ceiling sash windows and dual-aspect rooms, while the large kitchen opens onto a conservatory with direct access to the terrace. The gardens host an array of ornamental trees, as well as topiary, box-hedge sculptures,…

I was born in the industrial Midlands, a few months after the ending of the last unpleasantness with our German friends. Someone had evidently told the man who ran the Luftwaffe that an awful lot of ball bearings, nuts and bolts, and machine tools were made in our town and his chaps clearly thought that it was their bounden duty to the Fatherland to put a stop to it. As a result, I grew up surrounded by bomb sites and by people who had, as part of their daily lives, pulled the dead and injured from ruined buildings, put out fires, tipped sand on incendiary bombs, filled holes in the road so the buses could run and wondered what to do about the 1,000lb landmine that was sitting in their…

I thrill to Bernard Cornwell’s The Last Kingdom books and TV series (Netflix). Long-haired Danes attack Anglo-Saxon defenders with sword, axe and spear. Bones shatter and flesh is pierced. However, while the graphic depictions of the befores, durings and afters of that long ago struggle for England are doubtless accurate, history indicates that most of those warriors – unless they had a Darwin Award death wish – were usually circumspect about getting into a fight unless they were pretty sure they were going to win. Battles tended to be difficult to predict and the consequences of defeat could be cataclysmic. Nearly the entire Anglo-Saxon (English) ruling class was wiped out at Hastings in 1066. Imagine yourself a soldier before a fight, whether against a band of berserker Vikings, the cocksure…

THIS month’s test gun is a 20-bore AyA (Aguirre y Aranzabal) Legend De Luxe over-and-under imported into the UK by ASI of Snape (who also bring in Rizzini guns from Italy and EGE shotguns from Turkey). Weighing in at 6lb 11oz, the Legend has 30in barrels with 3in chambers (fleurde-lys superior steel proof) and a tapered and ventilated top rib. The single trigger is selective and there are multichokes. The wood – well-figured Turkish walnut – is finished with hand-rubbed oil and hand-cut chequering. There is an open radius pistol grip and a rounded fore-end. First impressions are of a carefully conceived, well-presented game gun. AyA is best known for its side-by-sides, especially its Holland & Holland sidelock clone No 1 and 2 models. In years past, its budget Yeoman…

IT has been incredible watching the food industry adapt over the past six months. Amongst the sad news of permanent closures and cancelled events there have been many inspiring stories of fast, innovative thinking that has allowed business in various creative forms to continue. Those of you worried that the food side of this season’s shoot days will be comprised, fear not. The shoot lunch can still be a highlight of the day. While buffets and squeezing into bothies are a no, fancy picnics for one that can be bagged up and handed out for you to enjoy in the open are game on. Individual lunches can be handed out in paper bags or small cool bags, and you can add style by wrapping items in brown paper and string.…

IF you are ever lucky enough to have a close encounter with a capercaillie, perhaps early one morning on your way home from a dawn roe stalk, the experience can be quite alarming. There is an initial impression of a big, shiny, black thing and a general feeling of what the hell is that? But the chances are that you haven’t experienced a capercaillie in the wild, as there are now only about 1,000 of them clinging on in Speyside. So it’s just as well that Justin Prigmore is passionate about painting and conserving Scotland’s heather-based answer to the condor. “I love capturing the size of them and their feistiness,” enthuses Prigmore. “I have probably spent more time professionally with capercaillie and their conservation than anything. I did my Master’s…

LETTERS MAY BE EDITED FOR CLARITY OR SPACE CHURCHILL’S WHITE HEN The first date in my gamebook recording shooting at Llanarmon – then as now owned by the McAlpine family – was October 1966. Matthews was the headkeeper, whom they had inherited from ‘Bend’Or’, the Duke of Westminster. It was then customary for the headkeeper to join the party at the end of lunch (in the Tower) and report to the host. I learned from Matthews about the day in 1938 depicted in the article on Winston Churchill [The personal armory of Sir Winston Churchill, July issue]. The lunchtime report was as follows: “Gentlemen, we’ve had a good morning… we shall have two more drives this afternoon… and Mr Churchill will carry the white hen.” Nigel Kenyon,Windsor, Berkshire HARRIER SCARCITY…

Every grouse butt possesses a personality of its own. However good the shooting, I feel a touch deprived if I find myself taking up position on a moor behind a mere shield of wooden slats. Give me, instead, one of those works of the keeper’s art, a drystone wall semi-circle, topped with a couple of decks of peat and heather. A concrete floor seems a shade overdone. But settling down to begin a day high in the hills, deep inside one’s own little sporting rampart, gets the whole occasion off on the best possible footing. I also like a butt with a short horizon. The longer I have to look at those oncoming birds, soaring and dropping with the contours across a mile of hillside, the more sure I am…

FEW jobs require such a multitude of talents as that of a professional huntsman. The skill required to hunt a pack of hounds one takes for granted, along with the ability to ride across the stiffest of country without falling off. A knack for butchering fallen stock is essential, as well as being an accomplished mechanic in order to keep the hunt lorry functioning. A deft touch with a paintbrush is handy to ensure that the kennels always look their best, too. But perhaps the most underrated necessity is charm, which is far more than raising a cap on hunting days. A good huntsman has to be able to persuade subscribers and supporters to walk hound puppies, not the easiest thing to do when we all know that a foxhound…

IT may seem a tad churlish after all the months of madness to be mourning the loss of just a little car – but this is the Motoring Column. We are sad with good reason, because the little car in question is the Suzuki Jimny. We at The Field like the Jimny. It’s just our sort of vehicle: chock-full of character, quirky, diminutive and astoundingly confident off-road. When the all-new version was launched in 2019, we greeted it with much enthusiasm: a great little country car had been updated brilliantly. But we spoke too soon. No sooner had it hit the showrooms than Suzuki announced that the great green authoritarian fist of environmentalism had crushed the Jimny’s bright future. But why? How could it have upset the environmentalists so much?…

CH-ch-ch-ch changes (Turn and face the strange)/Ch-ch changes, just gonna have to be a different man are the lines that have been coursing through my brain synapses for the past few months. I have always loved the music of David Bowie and how well he crafted his lyrics. Changes ranks highly on my Spotify compilations or, as the kids refer to them: ‘Phil’s Big List’. But like many of my now antediluvian generation I had forgotten most of the words. Especially the verse that goes: And these children that you spit on/As they try to change their worlds/Are immune to your consultations/They’re quite aware of what they’re going through. Thanks, Google. Though now, I do remember angrily spitting out those words in my bedroom, as I contemplated the injustices of…

Dog trainers are warning that separation anxiety could become a problem this month, when puppies have to be left alone for the first time as their owners start returning to work. There was a surge in demand for puppies during lockdown. “People have gone crazy buying pups but are not thinking about the training,” said dog training advisor Marcus Denoon. Weimaraners and German shepherds are most likely to experience problems, he warns. “We can understand why many would want to get a puppy now – they have such a positive impact on our wellbeing and mental health, and provide invaluable companionship,” said Bill Lambert, a spokesman for the Kennel Club. However, new owners “need to make sure they can care for a dog properly for its life, including when we…

There may be an absence of strawberries and panama hats but packs of hounds from around the world will nonetheless be showing their finest on their flags at the first International Virtual Hound Show (IVHS). Taking place from 17 July to 14 August, the initiative was launched after the COVID-19 outbreak meant all usual hound and puppy shows were cancelled. Hounds from registered packs from the UK, Ireland, France, North America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia have been invited to participate. Classes for foxhounds, staghounds, harriers, beagles, basset hounds and minkhounds will be held in 30 ‘virtual rings’. Judging will be carried out by experts and a public vote. “These are extraordinary times but this initiative gives the hunting community an opportunity to unite and showcase its passion for hounds…

The Royal Marines Commandos believe that if you want to win a conflict on the ground, you must first seize control of the narrative. Country sports are in a war right now and we have comprehensively lost the battle of words. If we are ever to take back initiative in the debate, then we must have a narrative – and the story we should tell is of Howesyke and shoots like it. Howesyke Shoot at Thoralby, near Leyburn in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, won a Purdey Gold Award in 2018. The award citation mentioned shoot owners Rob and Helen Brown’s work in woodland and heather restoration, as well as a successful black grouse re-establishment scheme. The judges commented: “Mr and Mrs Brown have transformed a hitherto intensively managed hill…

In 1897, a young soldier named James Brander-Dunbar, of Pitgaveny in Morayshire, sent a gentleman’s challenge to Lord Abinger at Inverlochy Castle, betting him £20 that he could not stalk and kill a deer on his land without being caught. This tale of impudent bravado by a larger-than-life regular British Army officer, who saw active service in the Boer War, the Sudan campaign of 1903-4 and the First World War, was plainly still doing the rounds of Highland bothies and shooting lodges in the 1920s. Certainly John Buchan, by then a bestselling author of adventure stories (among many other things) and a keen stalker and fly fisherman, caught wind of it and used the tale for the starting point of his novel, John Macnab. After the book was published in…

By the 1930s, the Holbech clan had lived in Warwickshire for more than 700 years. Ronald Holbech was director of Banbury brewers Hunt Edmunds and active on the board of Banbury hospital (where the children’s ward is still named after him). He was also an alderman for the County of Warwick. A family gambler had lost the Canalettos, a Panini, and most of the money, but Ronnie Holbech, necessarily careful with cash, was a racing man. He stewarded at Towcester, Stratford, Warwick, Worcester and Cheltenham. He was also an owner and dreamed, as they all do, of winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup. His silks were designed to symbolise the gilded froth effervescing up and over a pint of Hunt Edmunds Supreme Pale Ale: old gold, with a white belt and…

TAKING THE LEAD Q Can a landowner ask dog walkers to put their dogs on leads? I had a problem with a chap with two loose dogs that took down two hares, killing them. I saw him pass the sign that read: ‘Dogs must be on a lead, please’ but he took his dogs off the lead. I remonstrated and was subjected to abuse; he said he was on a footpath. This is a County Wildlife Site – and the nesting season. I lost a dog a few years ago after it was attacked by another dog on my own land. This worries me a lot. Any advice would be gratefully received. SF, Bedfordshire A The Countryside Alliance kindly offered the following advice. Use of a public right of way…

THE name Sir Edwin Landseer is well known as that of probably the most popular 19th-century painter of animals and sporting scenes in Britain, being particularly noted for his Scottish and animal paintings. His fame was such that Queen Victoria commissioned numerous pictures. Following Landseer’s death in 1873, the Queen turned to another artist to supply her with animal paintings, this time a Scot, Gourlay Steell (1819-94). Born in Edinburgh, Steell studied in the studio of Robert Scott Lauder (1803-69), one of the founders of the Royal Scottish Academy, and Steell would himself became a regular exhibitor at the Academy, being elected an associate in 1846 and an academician in 1859. Fourteen years later, he was appointed animal painter for Scotland to Queen Victoria. He quickly became the most popular…

ON more than one occasion while living in the UK over the past two years, I have caught myself looking out at the beautiful countryside and feeling almost as if I were at home. Although the past several years of my life have been spent living in various cities in the UK and US, my rural roots run deep. Originally from a small town of just 368 people, my family has been raising cattle and farming the same land for more than 140 years. I acknowledge this may not be considered noteworthy in the UK, but in the US this has earned us special recognition from the Arkansas Agriculture Department. While my rural upbringing gave me an appreciation for fieldsports, it wasn’t until I moved to the UK that I…

2018 ERRAZURIZ ESTATE CABERNET SAUVIGNON (£9.49, Waitrose) Beautifully made, crowd-pleasing Chilean red ideal for post-lockdown gatherings. 2017 TANNERS DOURO RED (£8.70, Tanners) Rich, juicy and concentrated Portuguese red ideal for barbecues. The magnums are even better. 2018 DEFINITION GRUNER VELTLINER (£9 if you mix 6 otherwise £11, Majestic) A delicious expression of one of the most versatile and food friendly of wines. 2017 CH ROUMIEU (£10 per 37.5cl, Co-op) Nothing better with strawberries and cream than this multi-awarding-winning, brilliantly priced Sauternes. PROSECCO TREVISO IL FOLLO (£13, Lea & Sandeman) Prosecco that’s classy enough on its own but also great as a base for all manner of cocktails. OXFORD RYE ORGANIC DRY GIN (£39.50, Oxford Artisan Distillery) A spectacular new version of the gin that’s as good with tonic as it…