Innehållsförteckning för February 2023 från The Field

HUNTING Kind was launched in February 2022 with the aim of representing hunting from the grassroots up to our nations’ parliaments. Its central objective is to protect our way of life by articulating its cultural significance. To me, natural hunting encompasses any activity involving sighthounds, scent hounds, terriers, falcons and ferrets, with a crossover into some of the work of gundogs. Natural hunting is a key thread in the tapestry of our way of life: the hunting kind. When the baguette finally received protected UN heritage status, I was delighted. What has this got to do with hunting, you may wonder? French bread’s new footing is part and parcel of joining UNESCO’s list of ‘intangible cultural heritage’. Surely, when one thinks of Britain, hunting falls into that category. The French,…

THE GREAVES DACRE, PENRITH The Greaves is a new, detached four-bedroom house with a patio wrapping round it, together with a five-bedroom former farmhouse as ancillary accommodation and a range of traditional outbuildings. It also comes with 21 acres of agricultural land, divided into five paddocks, in a riverside setting within the Lake District National Park. In all the property extends to more than 25 acres, including gardens and woodland. Agent: Finest Properties Tel: 01434 622234 Guide price: £2 million THE OLD RECTORY LOW ROW, BRAMPTON This six-bedroom old rectory, stretching to 4,000sq ft, was built in around 1867 and comes with two acres of gardens and grounds. Sitting above the River Irthing, the property features a sitting room with a bay window, while the kitchen looks out over a…

Guns may shake hands with the keeper at the end of the day, but his efforts would be nothing without this under-acknowledged back-of-house crew, fuelled by sausage rolls and camaraderie THE end of January marks a split in the shooting community. While many of the keenest Shots have already put away their gamebooks until autumn, thousands of others are busy checking kit with a twitchy excitement more usually associated with the start of the season. Finally, after months of chilly flag-waving and bramble-clambering, it’s time for the beaters’ day. Despite five intense months of turning out in all weathers to trudge across the top of the Cotswolds, there wasn’t a single jaded soul in evidence among the steadily swelling crowd who gathered at the Cold Aston Shoot lodge on a…

WHILE we will never tire of championing all things British in field-sports, there is a wealth of gundog breeds around the world that give our home-bred stock a run for their money. Here are 25 that possess an enticing combination of sporting prowess, a keen loyalty and a certain je ne sais quoi from their native land. AMERICAN COCKER SPANIEL Having arrived in America aboard the Mayflower, this breed must have been keen to set foot back on dry land as it quickly established its reputation as a specialist in seeking and flushing woodcock. It boasts a more profuse coat than its English counterpart and is smaller, too; it is the shortest sporting dog on the American Kennel Club register, standing at 15in. AMERICAN WATER SPANIEL Native to Wisconsin, this…

THERE are wardrobe staples and sartorial icons. The safari jacket sits above all: a garment colossus that is hugely evocative, ultimately practical and still the stuff of high fashion. In all likelihood it is what Henry Morton Stanley was wearing to utter his immortal words to Dr Livingstone. It was certainly appropriate garb for Victorian adventurers, much used alongside snarling beasts and rifles to illustrate the dust jackets on tales of derring-do. And no lesser person than the hero of the siege of Mafeking (now Mafikeng), Lieutenant-General Lord Baden-Powell, chose a distinctly safari-meets-military uniform for his boy scouts before it found its way into our own wardrobes via high-street chains. The safari jacket style may now be ubiquitous but its origins mean it retains an aura of excitement. It is…

THIS month we look at the new London-made Sporter from Purdey in 12-, 20- and 28-bore. All three versions are built on dedicated actions and offered with high-performance, steel-proofed, demi-bloc barrels. The guns are equipped with Teague interchangeable chokes (fixed chokes remain an option), a solid, tapered rib and single, non-selective, triggers. First impressions are excellent; the guns look and feel right. They benefit from 15 years of experience of the action type. Much development has gone into their engineering, aesthetics and practical function (something Purdey does not take lightly). The testing of the prototypes, which took 18 months to make, has also involved the extensive use of steel shot. I have been lucky enough to shoot all Purdey’s recent over-and-unders, and even contributed slightly to the original project for…

IT WAS the night before Olympia Auctions’ 9 November, Asian and Islamic Works of Art sale and I was fretting. I’d spotted a fine ‘Damascus’ tile – tip-top for tiles in the 16th century – estimated at £400 to £600. Plotting how to ‘win’ at an auction is not unlike planning a day’s shooting. First, the initial thrill when the catalogue goes online and I spot something I really want; the shooting invite. I now have the date, I have the object(s) – next comes the research. Although I cannot be accused of researching a shoot – I once turned up expecting pheasants and instantly had to recalibrate as I got partridges instead – this is essential to your chances of a successful auction. Or, put another way, the less…

FEBRUARY, I admit, is not the best time of year for finding new British seasonal ingredients. In the kitchen, I feel my root vegetable and cabbage repertoire is almost exhausted and the excitement of new spring produce a little way off. This, however, makes it the perfect time to look further afield for mealtime inspiration. So, this month’s recipes include ideas from around the world and highlight how incredibly versatile game is. Based on a much-celebrated national dish from Albania, the fried flat meatballs with tangy feta and fresh mint are perfect for a family supper. Traditionally made with lamb, chicken or beef, I think they work brilliantly with pheasant, too. The flavourful partridge Cape Malay curry is inspired by the recipes slaves from Malaysia and Indonesia introduced to South…

PAW CONTROL Police officers in Texas were surprised to find that a vehicle being driven erratically around a car park had in fact been commandeered by a dog. The animal had become restless waiting for its owner to finish shopping and bounced around the car accidentally starting the engine. The car crashed into two other vehicles but fortunately no one was injured. CLOSE-KNIT COMMUNITY A flock of sheep in Mongolia has been filmed walking continuously in a near-perfect circle for 12 consecutive days. The video was posted online and many viewers saw the sheep’s act as a ‘sign of the apocalypse’. Scientists, however, suggested that the behaviour was more likely a result of an infection sometimes known as ‘circling disease’. TO CONTACT THE NEWS DESK MESSAGE US VIA OUR SOCIAL…

Eating out RESERVATION THE BLACK SWAN AT OLDSTEAD Where: Oldstead, North Yorkshire YO61 4BL. What: Top-notch field-to-fork dining on the edge of the North York Moors. If it’s difficult to grow or rear locally, you won’t find it on the menu at the Black Swan – one of the first recipients of the Michelin Green Star for sustainable gastronomy. Its owners, the Banks family, have lived and farmed the area around Oldstead for generations, and are passionate about showcasing the area’s produce with their super-seasonal tasting menus. Head chef Callum Leslie works closely with nearby shoots, which include some of the finest sporting estates in the country. Fermenting, pickling and prolonged ageing allow home-harvested ingredients to be used year-round, such as salt-aged mallard from the Rievaulx estate served with pickled…

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THE Field is enormously proud to have started the Macnab Challenge, a sporting endeavour based on John Buchan’s novel John Macnab, which requires skill and tenacity on both hill and river in pursuit of salmon, stag and grouse. The Field’s Macnab Challenge is kindly sponsored this year by Blaser and Sentinel Aviation, a combination bound to see you make it to the hill when you need to be there, and with all the requisite kit to take on the challenge. This year, 10 sporting adventurers followed in those hallowed footsteps and, as ever, their experiences were most remarkable. “I don’t think we will ever better that day,” says David Rudge, estate manager of the Rhiedorrach Estate. To shoot a brace of grouse, grass a stag and land a salmon all…

IT WAS standing room only at St Gregory’s Church in Bedale on a cold February morning in 2017 as hundreds of friends gathered to celebrate the short but joyous life of Andrew and Miranda Osbornes’ 25-year-old daughter Amy, who had gone to bed one evening and never woken up. Amy had succumbed to sudden arrhythmic death syndrome, a rare condition that causes the heart to stop beating without warning. No one who heard Andrew’s eloquent and moving tribute to his daughter that February day nearly six years ago will be in the least surprised by the news that the former huntsman and current chairman of the Masters of Foxhounds Association has his own unique plans to support the cause. “I was planning on sailing across the Atlantic,” he reveals, “but…

The first map of Wales as a separate country also reflected the international links of Britain with the Continent. Llwyd was given a royal stipend to produce a map of Wales for inclusion by Abraham Ortelius in his atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, which was first published in 1570. Although Llwyd’s ‘Cambriae Typus’ was sent to Ortelius in 1568, it did not appear in print until the 1573 Additamentum to the atlas, by which time Llwyd was dead. A History of Britain in 100 Maps by Jeremy Black, published by British Library Publishing, hardback (£40)…

THE hounds had been speaking to the line for at least two minutes, and every second their baying became louder and more excited: there was no doubt about it, they were heading my way. My thumb hovered over the safety catch of my carbine. Suddenly a fine roebuck appeared and I instinctively lifted the gun to my shoulder. However, I didn’t pull the trigger, for I knew that not far from me was a fellow chasseur. My split-second hesitation was sufficient for the buck to make his escape, leaving me curiously relieved rather than disappointed, and able to enjoy the pack of beagles streaming past me. This proved to be the only chance I had to shoot during my day with a beagle gun-pack in the foothills of the Pyrenees…

IN the late 18th and early 19th century, sportsmen and their ever-obliging gunmakers would often experiment with what was possible for use in the sporting field. The idea of multiple barrels would seem to be an obvious idea to explore. Two makers in particular can be associated with this concept; one was Henry Nock and the other was Alexander Forsyth. Nock’s sporting multi-barrel gun was a derivative of the seven-barrel naval volley gun that had been designed by James Wilson and made for the Royal Navy in 1779 by Nock, of which he would only make 655. Forsyth, on the other hand, designed his seven-barrel sporting guns specifically for the sportsman and almost certainly made them to order. The subject of this article is a Forsyth seven-barrel ‘goose’ rifle that…

IN the tropics snipe shooting has a deep attraction for all, but it especially appeals to the impecunious youth who, practically for the price of his cartridges, can enjoy sport the mere mention of which would make the mouth of a more wealthy sportsman in England water. Being unburdened with an excess of the riches of this world, I paid great attention to snipe and their whereabouts when abroad, and by dint of a little energy and much luck got on to some of the best ground in Ceylon. It was late in November and my friend and myself listened to the great doings of others, receiving ocular proof of their veracity but failing in every attempt to get a hint as to where the bags were made. Vague allusions…

Six male and six female hen harriers have been brought from France and Spain to form breeding pairs in a project run by Natural England on Salisbury Plain. The aim is to release at least 100 over the next five years. However, the RSPB does not support the reintroduction and there is evidence – obtained by the Countryside Alliance under the Freedom of Information Act – that the charity prevented an attempt to reintroduce the bird in 2019, which it denies. The RSPB has also attempted to stop the trial brood management of hen harriers. Adrian Blackmore, a director of the Countryside Alliance, told The Field: “With their sabotaging of Natural England’s introduction of hen harriers in 2019 and last year’s legal challenge, the RSPB is clearly trying to disrupt…

The charity WildFish is campaigning for urgent action after it was revealed that water companies dumped raw sewage into UK rivers for 2.7 million hours in 2021. The Government’s Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan is contradictory, according to WildFish chief executive Nick Measham, as it sets targets that would allow water companies to continue dumping unacceptable amounts of raw sewage over a prolonged period. “The plan’s failure to deal with the vast majority of relevant outfalls and the production of sub-targets and headline targets, which have no basis in the application of the existing regulations, is unacceptable,” he told The Field. WildFish has instructed environmental law barristers to bring the challenge to court.…

Research by the GWCT has found that the aquatic plant water crowfoot has many benefits for young Atlantic salmon and that active management of it could be important for the conservation of the declining species. Water crowfoot is a classic component of chalk rivers and is most affected by low flows, pollution and physical loss from weed cutting or swan grazing. Dr Jessica Marsh designed an experiment on the River Frome in Dorset whereby water crowfoot was redistributed to create areas of low, medium and high plant cover. Sites were monitored for two years to investigate the effects on factors such as abundance, growth rates and how they help young salmon and trout. The experiment revealed that the fish benefited directly from the shelter water crowfoot provides, and indirectly through…

Although not a late night – most present were hunting next day – spirits were rightly high at a party to launch Adrian Dangar’s history of the Hampshire Hunt, which was every bit a celebration of team effort. Sir James Scott, chairman of the Hunt Trustees, was among several people on the evening to give a warm speech thanking all those who had played their part in seeing the book published for their enthusiasm and commitment. The energetic trio of Hopper Cavendish, a Master for 18 years and former hunt chairman, past secretary Nigel Webb and Charlie Corbett were central to not only rallying support for the project but also taking its North Yorkshire-based writer on an extensive tour of the Hunt’s country and people while he carried out his…

STAR BUY This estate in the New Forest National Park is on the market for the first time in nearly 400 years. The main Jacobean manor house, Grade I listed and flanked by parkland and woodland, has seen two Georgian wings added, and later restored, as well as a large Victorian kitchen. There is also a Grade II-listed clock house, stables, outbuildings and a cottage. Features of the seven-bedroom Newhouse include a hall with an 18th-century staircase and a double-height drawing room. The north wing has a dining room with panelling and oak columns. The estate comes with 277 acres of land, including lawned gardens and a walled garden, while the parkland has three lakes. The property is seven miles from Fordingbridge and 10 miles from Salisbury. Agent: Strutt &…

YORKSHIRE’s status as ‘God’s Own Country’ is one easy to wholeheartedly endorse, with its undulating landscape, extraordinary sunrises and sunsets, quaint country pubs and sporting inhabitants. The last have lured me up to their stomping ground for more than a decade, and each time a new friend is made and another caper is conjured up to ensure a return as soon as possible. Steph and David Easterby, my hosts near Sheriff Hutton, are stalwarts on this front. A Meet on the lawn of Aldby Park, on the boundary of North and the East Riding of Yorkshire, followed by a hunt ball at Langton Hall, was indelibly inked in the diary. A Meet on the day of a hunt ball is always popular. Aldby Park proved the point, with visitors…

IT MIGHT or might not have been an eland. Dusk is short in South Africa, the light was fading and we were barrelling home for cold beers and an Afrikaner supper of warthog and pumpkin fritters. But our host, Joubert Coetzer, said it was. And he knows, having been born and bred on the veld. Nonetheless, the eland looked a little lost, an extra that had walked on to the wrong film set, for this part of the Free State does not fit the romanticised ideal of Africa of plains game and predators, the ‘big five’ being pursued hotly with camera and binoculars. Such wildlife does abound in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park in the Maluti foothills but here, in the outskirts of Welkom, the land is modern and…

FOR a scientist, Clementine St John Webster creates very painterly art. She takes this as a compliment, explaining: “My background is in science. I took my degree in biology at Oxford. I think art and science are much the same thing – and really that’s what got me into Oxford, because I had done art and they recognised art and science as connected disciplines. In both you have to try to visualise things in order to understand them.” St John Webster’s mind has worked like this right from childhood. She says: “I was dyslexic, so I always drew more than writing. When it came to revising for my exams, I did it through drawing.” St John Webster’s idea of visual aides-memoires is now well regarded among educationalists. At the time,…

ONE morning in the autumn, I helped my daughter to dig ‘bootlaces’ – the subterranean rhizomorphs of honey fungus (Armillaria mellea) – out of the topsoil beneath her lawn. Bootlaces are well named since they are wiry and black, although scraping the surface reveals white underneath. The work was hard but the sun was shining and the banter excellent, so I didn’t mind. Some years earlier, a previous owner of this garden must have cut down a tree without (pause for a fit of the vapours) digging out the roots, which had been penetrated and then killed by rhizomorphs. Over time the bootlaces have spread outwards, only announcing themselves each autumn when honey-coloured fungi push up through the grass. We could have found a more enjoyable job, but I persuaded…

I HAD a soft spot for the original Nissan Juke. It seemed halfway between ‘funky’ and ‘barking mad’, with its unconventional styling and weird little touches; check out those dinner plate headlights, which might not actually be in the right place to be headlights, those bulging rear wheel arches, the ‘overshot jaw’ bumper, the centre console styled, they say, on a motorbike’s fuel tank. And those wacky colours. People loved it, and it sold by the million. We country folk waited (in vain) for a 4x4 diesel commercial farm runabout version, only because it would have, surely, to be called a Jukebox. The new Juke has been somewhat ‘defunked’ (a word one doesn’t see often enough in The Field) and, inevitably, has lost some charm. The cabin has a few…