Innehållsförteckning för December 2015 från The Field

The Dorset home of author John Fowles is welcoming budding writers and holidaymakers after a £1.8 million restoration by the Landmark Trust. The ambitious project to restore Belmont, an 18th-century Grade II* seaside villa in Lyme Regis, took two years to complete and used traditional crafts skills. After detailed research, the original building was restored to the way it would have looked when the pioneering 18th-century businesswoman Eleanor Coade lived there. She owned Belmont for 40 years after building up a successful artificial stone business. The façade is now a striking pink, as in Mrs Coade’s day, and her parlour has been reinstated. The building is “a fitting monument to the genius of Eleanor Coade”, said Dr Anna Keay, the trust’s director. “Visitors will now be able to stay in…

1 GAVIN GARDINER’S AUCTION OF MODERN & VINTAGE SPORTING GUNS AND RIFLES Sotheby’s, New Bond St, London W1; www.gavingardiner.com. 4 & 5 CHRISTMAS CAROL CONCERT York Minster, York. To book (tickets cost £12-£25), visit www.yorkminster.org. 56 WESTCOUNTRY EQUINE FAIR Westpoint Arena, Clyst St Mary, Exeter, tel 01392 421500; www.westcountryequinefair.co.uk. 10 HOLT’S SALE OF FINE MODERN & ANTIQUE GUNS Princess Louise House, 190 Hammersmith Road, London W6, tel 01485 542822; www.holtsauctioneers.com. 10 SOUTHAMS’ AUCTION OF MODERN SPORTING GUNS & ANTIQUE ARMS Bedford Auction Centre, 26 Newnham Street, Bedford, tel 01832 273565; http://guns.southams.com/forthcoming-sales. 11 WINE AND GAME TASTING WITH CHRISTMAS SHOPPING Park Lodge Shooting School, West Cowick, E Yorks; email Geri.Buckley@basc.org.uk. 12&16 CHRISTMAS WITH THE CATHEDRAL CHOIR Exeter Cathedral, Devon. To book, call 01392 285983. 13 HURSLEY HAMBLEDON POINT-TO-POINT Larkhill Racecourse, Wiltshire…

1 BRYNTOWY MANSION Langunnor, Carmarthenshire Agent Savills Tel 02920 368930 Guide price £2 million This six-bedroom, late-Georgian, Grade II-listed country house is in an elevated position in the Towy valley, overlooking the river on which it has fishing rights. It is set in 15 acres just to the east of Carmarthen and comes with a cottage, stables, tennis court and swimming pool. 2 FAIRFIELDS FARM Whitwell, Ventnor, Isle of Wight Agent Biles & Co Tel 01983 872335 Guide price £2.1 million This Georgian house on the Isle of Wight comes with a range of 18th-century barns, with planning consent for four holiday lets, stabling and a “glamping” site. There is also a swimming pool. The property has just over 17 acres and is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.…

WHAT is the essential item for a successful day of pike fly-fishing on a chalkstream? Well, according to River Test riverkeeper and monster pike captor Jon Hall, it is a gentleman’s comb. But more on that later. For me, chalkstreams are placid places, with gin-clear water, shallow runs over sparkling gravel and swaying beds of green ranunculus, where the closest thing to aggression is the slurp of a brown trout sucking in a blue-winged olive that has carelessly come into range. Pike, on the other hand, have something of a fierce reputation as the freshwater equivalent of mako sharks, indiscriminately preying on fish, birds and tiny mammals, and have no place in this rural idyll. In fact, they do. Pike keep chalkstreams pure. It is a fish of which Charles…

IT is often assumed that classical music is an essentially urban pursuit. Think of symphonies, concertos and operas and the image that comes to mind is probably black tie at Covent Garden or Union Jack waistcoats at the Proms. Whether at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh, the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester or Wigmore Hall in London, generations of urbane concert-goers have listened to serenades and string quartets in the most civilised of surroundings. Composers and musicians, too, are not generally known for being hearty outdoor types, seeming to prefer the glittering lights of salons and conservatoires to the damp, parochial countryside. Overall, the connections between Salzburg and salmon fishing, or piano recitals and point-to-points, look pretty weak. But this overlooks the huge role that the countryside and rural pursuits have…

OF all the symbols of Christmas, none is more synonymous with the spirit of goodwill, peace and joy than holly with its shiny, dark-green, spiky leaves and brilliant, blood-red berries. Holly is everywhere at Christmas; it is sung of in carols; is the principal illustration on thousands of Christmas cards and the stuff of welcoming wreaths; it decorates our homes and no flaming Christmas plum pudding is properly dressed without a sprig of holly berries browning in the flames. Since the 1850s, when the Victorians created Christmas as we know it today, tons of holly have been auctioned annually at the Tenbury Wells Holly and Mistletoe auction. Tenbury Wells sits beside the River Teme where Shropshire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire meet in an area particularly suited to holly. For 150 years,…

DAILY Express, 4.6.1902: “Capt. Powell-Cotton, Northumberland Fusiliers, who left London on an expedition to Central Africa, reached Lake Baringo on April 24, all well...” The Times, 21.11.1902: “Reuters News Agency learns that Capt. Powell-Cotton was at Kavirondo on October 9, then starting for Mount Elgon...” Glasgow Evening Times, 10.7.1903: “Mr PHG Powell-Cotton is on his way home after a long expedition in Central and East Africa, and it is anticipated he will have ready for his publisher, Mr Rowland Ward, the customary record of exciting experiences...” Just over a hundred years ago, in the Edwardian heyday of the British Empire, the explorer and naturalist Percy Powell-Cotton (1866-1940) enjoyed remarkable celebrity as a kind of performer in a Theatre of Empire. His travels and hunting exploits, in the Himalayas during the…

WHEN I started as a professional stalker some 30 years ago most stalkers used Parker Hales or BSAs, with only the enlightened few choosing Rugers, known, then as now, for rugged reliability, smoother actions and greater accuracy. Since then the MK 1 and the MK 2, both boasting a level of over-engineering for their expected use, have enjoyed excellent reputations as reliable sporting rifles and the Hawkeye is the latest incarnation. Featuring a precision-hammer-forged barrel with new integral scope mounts and the Mauser 98-style bolt with twin opposing lugs, the rifle has a new trigger mechanism known as the LC6 and comes factory screw-cut for a moderator. Perhaps the first surprising element is that the barrel is fully bedded rather than free floating. Most stalkers believe that floating barrels are…

ANOTHER month, another niche market muscled into by Mercedes. This time it’s the compact crossover segment: cars not much bigger than a hatchback, but with a slightly higher driving position and four-wheel-drive for those occasions when off-road beckons. Though the new GLA ticks all the above boxes, its low roofline can make getting in a challenge for the old and stiff. The full-length sunroof gobbles up more headroom, so an outbreak of seat lowering is in order, which tends to eliminate the high driving position – often the compact crossover’s main selling point. Then the pedals were too close, so the seat went back, along with the steering wheel, but that left the parking brake a ludicrously long reach away. Mercedes has always had a thing about parking brakes, stubbornly…

DESPITE their undoubted magnetism, dogs generally do not inspire great art. There is Landseer, of course, and Warhol painted his dachshund, while George Rodrigues created the Blue Dog series. But there is really no canine equivalent of Audubon’s birds or Stubbs’s horses, leaving dogs in art from Gainsborough to Gaugin with little more than a walk-on role. However, if the work of Bee Griffith continues to develop, it seems there may be hope that canines could put a paw in the direction of becoming a painterly portrait subject. Graduating from Goldsmiths College in 2012 with the Burston Prize for painting, Griffith went on to be shortlisted for the Catlin Art Prize, which showcases the work of a select handful of young artists with “the potential to make a significant mark…

A collection of vintage tractors built up by a Norfolk farmer broke 20 records when it was sold at auction for the first time this winter. Paul Rackham, a 79-year-old Norfolk farmer, spent 25 years amassing the biggest private collection of vintage tractors in Britain. He travelled all over the world to accumulate 240 rare old agricultural machines, many of which needed extensive restoration. He put the collection up for auction after reluctantly accepting that his family did not share his enthusiasm for amassing tractors. Auctioneers Clarke & Simpson and Cheffins sold the collection in two lots: 180 went under the hammer in September and the final 60 sold on 14 November. A Marshall MP6 sold for £80,500, setting a new UK record for a vintage tractor. “All were bought…

CLAIMS that as many as 50 million gamebirds are released in the UK each year are based on a misunderstanding of official figures and are a significant overestimate, according to extensive work carried out by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC). The association’s own assessment, based on reliable data drawn from the government, the gamebird feed industry and shooting providers, gives the more realistic figure of 34.9 million. BASC has been concerned for some time about the existing estimates of around 50 million pheasants and partridges being released each year in the UK. It is our view that these are based on questionable extrapolations from the independent 2006 PACEC report and a misunderstanding of government statistics. While there is no reason to doubt the PACEC gamebird estimates, nor…

1 WARFLEET LODGE Dartmouth, Devon Agents Marchand Petit Tel 01803 839190 Guide price £1.6 million Warfleet Lodge, dating from the 19th century, was built in the Gothic Tudor style and has views over Warfleet Creek and the River Dart. The living-room is dominated by a back-lit inglenook fireplace. The overmantel is supported by Corinthian columns with carved decoration. 2 SEDGEBROOK GRANGE Pitsford, Northamptonshire Agent Richard Greener Tel 01604 230222 Guide price £2.6 million This Georgian-style property was built in the Thirties as a wedding present, which seems very generous. The nine-bedroom house has an open-hearth fireplace in the drawing-room with an ornate marble mantel and surround. It has formal grounds and a paddock; 13 1/2 acres in all. 3 LEE PLACE HOUSE Pulborough, West Sussex Agent Savills incorporating Smiths Gore…

THERE’S something magical about the sweeping chalk downland of Berkshire, and especially so at the Astors’ Kirby House shoot, near Hungerford, where every drive has an interesting story to go with its challenging pheasants and partridges. The day The Field visited was wild and blustery, and when one of the guns, Rod Parker, explained, “The shoot centres round Walbury Hill, which is the highest hill in the south-east of England – there is nothing until you hit the Ural mountains,” it was easy to believe him. As the shoot vehicles wound their way up and over Gallows Down, our host, Katherine Astor, told the story of Combe Gibbet, from which it takes its name. In the 17th century, George Broomham and Dorothy Newman, star-crossed lovers from different villages, were conducting…

IF looks could kill, they probably will – certainly when it comes to gundog field trials. The death stare you receive from the handler of a promising young novice dog when it is sent out on the near-impossible task of retrieving a strong runner you have just shot, makes you wonder why you ever agreed to host the beastly trial in the first place, particularly as your keeper has been grumbling about it for months. Actually, disgruntled competitors and stressed-out gamekeepers are the least of your worries when it comes to holding a field trial, especially one of the big annual national championships for each of the main breeds. The last time the Cocker Spaniel Championship was hosted by the Duke of Buccleuch at his Queensberry estate, one of the…

PERILLA Alpaca country socks hit the mark for anyone who struggles with itchy wool next to their skin. Alpaca fibre is hypoallergenic and repels bacteria and odour too. So socks can be worn for a week if necessary. Available in gorgeous bespoke gift boxes with up to four colours and four different sizes. Tel 01886 853 615; www.perilla.co.uk HULL CARTRIDGE COMPANY Used by both World Champions and renowned game shots, ensure you too load only the finest ammunition into your gun this season. Hull Cartridge high pheasant extreme, with hard hitting performance and XTRM shot, is available from 32g through to 36g in fibre or plastic wad. Part of the drop dead gauges range, these cartridges guarantee confidence in the fi eld. www.hullcartridge.co.uk BRANDECOSSE A robust yet elegant…

MUSTELIDS generally have a murderous reputation. That of otters as fish-killers immediately comes to mind. Stoats and weasels have always been described in bloodthirsty, even vampirical terms, their ability to kill affording them near-supernatural powers. In 1801, for example, The Cabinet; Or the Natural History of Quadrupeds, Birds, Fishes and Insects (published anonymously) maintained that a stoat “kills both the rein-deer and the bear”. How, you may wonder. “It jumps into one of these animal’s ears, and adheres so fast that it cannot be disengaged.” There were tales that children were not safe in their own homes. Richard Jefferies, author of The Gamekeeper at Home (1906), wrote, “Labouring people – at least the elder folk – declare that they have been known to suck the blood of infants left asleep…

IN June, HM the Queen cut the celebratory fruitcake of the Centenary AGM of the National Federation of Women’s Institutes. Then a slice from a battalion of cakes, made a couple of months in advance in order to mature, was given to each of the 5,000 members who had been bussed in from all around the country. Fruitcake is as British as chilly beach picnics. Anyone who has been to a meet, shoot or point-to-point knows a good one from a bad. At Easter, it gets marzipan eggs on top and becomes simnel cake. At Christmas it is covered in hard, white icing, which makes it even harder to cut (Her Majesty joked about this as she struggled and was given a helping hand by the Princess Royal). For a…

FORGET hoodie-wearing ne’er-dowells lurking in underpasses, when it comes to knives those clad in cords are most likely to be carrying one. A well-made, folding knife is an essential piece of kit for the countryman, and those with a penchant for pocket knives are many in number. However, unlike a weakness for watches or vintage cars, this hobby is discreet and mostly hidden from view – just like the knives themselves “I use a pocket knife at least twice a day. I feel undressed without one,” declares Adam Gilchrist, who runs Veedon Fleece. “They are extremely useful for unlacing the bales that our carpets arrive in from Kathmandu. It’s second nature to put one in my top-left pocket, so much so that I’ve been caught out at airports and the…

WHISKIES GALORE QI am coming to the UK in late December to shoot in Oxford, Suffolk and Norfolk. I have tried Scottish whisky and now like it. I gather it is being made in England as well and would like to try and fit in some tasting when over. Can you suggest where? RS, Canada AWhisky produced in England is known as English whisky. St George’s Distillery is home to the English Whisky Co and began its production in 2006. It is situated in Roudham, Norfolk and once a month offers a two-hour tour of the distillery and barrel warehouse with the chief whisky maker. There is an opportunity for an hour’s whisky tasting of not only St George’s whisky but many other whiskies from around the world. Evening tours…

MOST of us take animal breeds for granted. There have always been labradors and springer spaniels in our lives, and we assume that there will always be. The truth is that these familiar breeds are seriously endangered, their future genuinely in doubt. Breeds aren’t natural: they have been created by selective breeding that has lessened the animals’ genetic diversity by ensuring that they reproduce true to type. The breeds we are so familiar with today were fixed by breeding father to daughter, even brother to sister. Today such levels of inbreeding have been outlawed by the Kennel Club (KC), which refuses to register puppies from such close matings, but that doesn’t stop unscrupulous breeders from following such practices. The name on the pedigree may not be the genuine sire. An…

I HAVE always found writing the Christmas Article a bit daunting. Edicts from on high impress upon you the need for a bit of gravitas but with a hint of sleigh bells. High-minded without too much Howardian frivolity and definitely no mention of pigs’ heads. I am sure Her Majesty, scratching her brow, crown in hands, must experience a quandary akin to this as she considers, to coin a phrase, the epiphanic moment that shapes her Christmas Message. “Might I suggest Maaahhhm, the changing of the reference to your government from Pigs’ Heads to that of Gabardine Swine?” My epiphanic moment – actually there were two – came earlier in the year. The first was as my son and I watched the news – young Syrian women and children being…

WHILE their arable cousins are busy chasing pheasants, livestock farmers seldom take a break in the winter months. They make an exception, though, for the Royal Welsh Winter Fair. Last year a record 33,000 people attended the two-day fair, held for the past 25 years at Llanelwedd, Builth Wells. The purpose-built site in the middle of Wales hasn’t a motorway in sight, but in early December it’s teeming with livestock and Christmas shoppers. “We give everyone who comes through the gate a great welcome and show what we can offer in a small corner of Wales,” says show director William Hanks. His father Derick helped set up the first fair with four fellow members of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society. They saw an opportunity to have a Welsh version of…

REINDEER HIDE BURROW & HIDE Rudolph in a rug. Price from £150 Tel 07793 034306 www.burrowandhide.com CHOCOLATE BAUBLES ROCOCO Coloured cocoa butter on best chocolate. Four designs. Price £5 each Tel 020 3691 5719 www.rococochocolates.com WASH BAG CHASE AND WONDER Screen-printed by hand in England. Price £22 Tel 01829 720011 www.chaseandwonder.com DRESSING GOWN EMMA WILLIS Antique Paisley wool, hand-cut and sewn, Christmas wrapped. Price £1,300 Tel 020 7930 9980 www.emmawillis.com RANIA SHIRT T.BA Elegant Spanish classic in crêpe, for Continental cool. Price £138 Tel 0121 333 1900 www.westleyrichards.com MONTGOMERY FOOTMAN’S BOX, WHITTLE & WALLIS Fashioned from French oak. Price £695 Tel 07977 466820 www .whittleandwallis.com MABEL AIRER, AIRY FAIRY Attach it to any Aga. Available for other range cookers, too. Price £130 Tel 01398 371624 www .theairyfairy.co.uk DARZI JACKET DARZI…

SO the Rugby World Cup ended for the home unions in the quarter-finals. Actually, England were home before the postcards, which, considering their matches were held in England, was quite a feat. When the northern hemisphere gets mauled by its southern counterparts – or in the case of Scotland, robbed – recriminations fly. Why are they better? Before the England-Australia game there was even a “big food fight” in the Daily Telegraph: Australian forward is a barramundi, English opponent a haunch of venison – you get the idea. But when it comes to property there is no contest; the home nations win the World Cup every time with no contentious last-minute penalties. As Australia wallowed, or wallabied, in victories over England, Wales and Scotland, fans should have waved The Field…

MASTERS of hounds are notoriously unsentimental about their horses. It is considered somewhat lacking in masterly machismo even to refer to a horse by its name. So, like heroes in epic poetry, hunters are known by an epithet, generally based on colour, gender or breed. Hence “the bay”, “the mare” or “the warm-blood”. Sometimes the titles relate to less permanent attributes of the horse in question, such as its age or how recent its acquisition. This can be confusing for grooms. The Master may stride into the yard with the order, “I’ll have the grey first and the Irish mare at second horses.” Since his horses include two greys, one of them a mare, and nearly all are Irish-bred, this may cause stable staff to go into something of a…

AT the Boxing Day meet last season, I overheard a small boy on a leading rein say to his mother, “Why is that hound missing half its tail?” To be told, as countless generations have before him, that a dog has a tail but a hound has a stern – and remembering the difference – is terribly important. The gravitas of this introduction to the language of fieldsports was not wasted on our budding Nimrod for, as we moved off, I could see his brow furrowed in concentration. Knowledge of the complex terminology of every aspect of the chase has been essential to the education of young gentlemen since antiquity, when hunting for survival developed into the true sport of kings and princes. The pharaohs of ancient Egypt invented fieldsports,…

“AN £18,000 Wendy house that is fit for a king” announced a July headline, reporting that Prince George had been given a 12ft x 6ft shepherd’s hut on wheels, complete with day bed and wood-burning stove, as a first birthday present. Me? I would dearly love a hand-built shepherd’s hut hidden away in the garden, but the brutal reality is that the young prince really will have to up his game if he is to look the children of the truly wealthy in the eye. Blue Forest makes the sort of tree houses that should keep even the most spoiled of oligarchs’ children quiet for an hour or two on Christmas morning. While prices start at about £20,000 to £25,000, one recent bespoke project cost £1.5 million. Mid-range, a mere…

MONDAYS and Thursdays are busy days for hill farmer James Tilley. Twice a week this resourceful 23 year old, who took over the family farm a year ago, following his father’s early death, packs and despatches the boxes of eggs that he supplies to Fortnum & Mason and a clutch of fashionable London restaurants, including Oblix and Chiltern Firehouse. With views across the Clwydian Range in North Wales and, on a clear day, long vistas towards Snowdonia, Tilley’s farm has a remote, lost-in-time feeling. An appropriate base, then, for a family which claims among its forebears a 4th century AD Roman emperor, Magnus Maximus, and his Welsh wife, Saint Elen. There is limited imperial entitlement on a sharp autumn Monday morning, when the mist lies dully pewter across grass close-cropped…

THE question I get asked most at this time of year, besides can I come and cook Christmas dinner, is how to make the food aspect as stress-free but special as possible. My reply? Preparation, planning, spices and booze– for the food as well as guests. Aromas of cinnamon and nutmeg and wafts of brandy or sloe gin coming from your kitchen will get everyone in the winter holiday mood and having pre-prepared dishes or recipes that are quick to assemble but still impressive makes the whole event more enjoyable for everyone. This issue gives you a decadent scallop canapé, a quick and beautifully spiced festive salad and a chocolate pud that is perfect to have on standby (if you can resist eating it straightaway). I hope these recipes make…

OUR test gun is a new over-and-under from William & Son. It’s a 12-bore with 30in barrels, a low-profile and hand-engraved action and weighs just over 7lb. I have admired and shot William & Son’s guns many times. The firm makes an elegant sidelock side-by-side and has also produced bench-made sidelock over-and-unders. The mechanics of this gun’s trigger-plate action are made by computer controlled machinery, as is now common, but it benefits from traditional London barrel work and regulation and hand-engraving by Peter Cusack as well as London finishing. Paul West, William & Son’s gunmaker, initiated the project about two years ago. He was looking to create a new gun in association with another British maker with the necessary hi-tech machining facilities. “The whole point was to get a well-specified,…

This special tailor-made package for The Field readers is your chance to experience the best dove shooting in the world, enjoy fine dining, stay in stunning lodges and enjoy the best Argentina has to offer. David Denies has the experience to ensures a smooth, worry-free trip. “Dove shooting in Argentina is one of the world’s greatest shooting experiences and no one organises it better than David Denies. I’ve been with them three times and each trip was memorable for the quality of sport, accommodation and food”JONATHAN YOUNG, EDITOR, THE FIELD…