Scurries and scrambles at country fairs are great fun for you and your gundog, just as long as you don’t mind ending the day a bit hot under the collar
Spaniel with dummy
Dogs are great levellers. Picture the scene: you have gone to the local country fair and paused to watch the gundog scurry. The standard isn’t high, so you decide to give your dog a run. It may be several months since the end of the shooting season, but a retrieve as easy as this should be simple.
You queue for ages but when your dog finally gets its turn it fails to spot the dummy that has been thrown for it. Instead, it ambles out, stops for a sniff and then cocks its leg, causing a ripple of laughter from the spectators. It then ignores the whistle, until, eventually, you have to catch it, retreating thoroughly humiliated.
Scenes like this are to be seen at all gundog scurries, even at the CLA Game Fair. As with all sports, the secret of success is training and preparation, so if you plan to run in a scurry this summer it’s essential that your dog understands what is expected of it. Just chucking a few dummies on your next walk isn’t likely to help. What you will have to do is replicate the event you are going to enter.
Most scurries have a similar format: a blank shot is fired from a starting pistol and an unseen dummy-thrower casts the dummy some 30yd or 40yd from where you are standing. Usually the dummy-thrower will try to attract the dog’s attention so it sees the retrieve. Seasoned dogs will be looking for it, while those with no experience will more likely be looking at you.
To practise, you need to recruit a friend to act as a dummy-thrower; chucking it yourself won’t do. Replicating the blank shot isn’t essential but may help. However, some dogs dislike the crack of a .22 blank and this may put them off. In most tests, dummies are thrown into cover, usually a pile of brashings, so if you take your preparation seriously this is what you need.
A common alternative to the standard scurry is a blind pick-up, when the dog has to find and retrieve several dummies that have been hidden. Most retrievers love doing this but, again, experience is essential for success, though this is one event you can replicate without help. Both scurries and pick-ups are invariably against the clock, so the more you practise the fitter and faster your dog will get.
Fortunately, most gundog competitions are divided into two classes, novice and open, ensuring that dogs with little or no experience don’t have to compete against serious handlers running field-trial champions. The novice is for dogs that have never been placed in a competition. As with all canine competitions, professionalism is creeping into the world of the scurry and there are a number of serious handlers with specialist scurry dogs. These are rarely trialling dogs but are, typically, spaniels or labradors trained to run – and retrieve – as quickly as possible.
These scurry-specialists travel the country competing, for there are serious prizes at stake. The biggest competition in the UK (and almost certainly the world) is the Great Wall Motor World Series Gundog Championship with Chudleys Dog Foods. Qualifying events are held at the four Countryman Fairs, with the final at the Midland Game Fair in September. Here a Great Wall pickup, worth £14,000, is awarded to the winner.
The first time I won a prize was in the scramble at the CLA Game Fair (both dog and handler have to compete a course against the clock, collecting dummies on the way). My spaniel and I ran at 9.30am, setting a pace that remained unbeaten until 4.30pm. Frustratingly, a labrador then shaved a second off our time and so we had to settle for second.
Organising and running a gundog scurry for a charity dog day has been an illuminating experience, revealing just how little training most dogs receive. The majority of my entrants have been pet gundogs that have never retrieved anything other than a tennis ball. Thus most prefer balls to dummies, so I give handlers a choice of retrieve. It’s remarkable how many owners are convinced their dog can do better, so make repeated entries at a pound a go. It’s a great fund-raiser.
Lastly, a word of warning. Most serious scurries can only be won by proper gundogs. At the CLA Game Fair a few years ago, a lurcher trained as a gundog outpaced the labs and spaniels, performing spectacularly quick retrieves. Unfortunately, it was disqualified for being the wrong sort of dog, despite claims in the programme that “all breeds are welcome”. They are until they start winning.
David Tomlinson is organising the scurry at the Elveden Dog Day in Elveden, Suffolk, on 14 July 2014.
What to drink on hot summer nights, at garden parties or just on lazy sunny afternoons? Sangria of course, here's how to make this moreish fruit cup
Sangria
Move over Pimms, sangria is making a come back this year so if you are entertaining over the summer here is all the help you need for drinks in the garden.
Serves 8
1 bottle dry white wine (sauvignon blanc, verdejo or pinot grigio)
150ml (5fl oz) white rum
200g (7oz) strawberries, hulled and chopped
1 peach, 2 apricots, 1 nectarine, stoned and roughly chopped
500ml (171⁄2fl oz) ginger ale or lemonade for a sweeter drink
You can make the base of this cocktail up to six hours beforehand. It’s best drunk with lots of ice and some of the fruit, so choose big glasses to serve.
Mix everything in a jug apart from the ginger ale. Leave in the fridge until ready to drink. To serve, place lots of ice in a glass and fill two-thirds full with the wine mix allowing some fruit to plop in. Top each glass with chilled ginger ale or lemonade. Sangria sorted.
We must let M&S know their decision not to stock grouse is a cowardly move
Brace of grouse. Delicious to eat
M&S ARE NO LONGER STOCKING GROUSE
The decision by M&S not to stock grouse this year is very disappointing. Last year’s sale of grouse by M&S proved a rip-roaring success. The sporting world was delighted that grouse, a most delicious and healthy gamebird was introduced to a wider audience.
THE GLORIOUS 12TH
For people who enjoy grouse shooting the bird has always had a place on the table. The traditional roast grouse recipe is a favourite among many London restaurants. On the Glorious 12th of August each year there is a race from moor to table, to see who can be first to cook and serve the inaugural bird of the season.
THE BENEFITS OF GAME
The sporting world understands the economic benefits of game. And the health benefits of eating grouse and other game. It is imperative that game is brought to the kitchen table of the general public who have no other access to this delicious bird.
ENDING SOON: WIN £1,000 of Cordings of Piccadilly. Send in your groovy pictures to be in with a chance.
Groovy in The Field in association with Cordings of Piccadilly
Are you Groovy in The Field and keen to win £1,000 of Cordings clothes?
There is not much time left to send in your Groovy in The Field pictures to The Field. Looking groovy in summer kit? Take a snap and beam it over and you could win a fantastic prize – £1000 of Cordings of Piccadilly kit.
You can be Groovy in The Field at a garden party; at Ascot, Henley or Wimbledon; at the puppy show, Proms or polo; and of course at the Game Fair; in casual duds or full finery, in the country, in town or on tour. (For a hint see the images above).
GROOVY IN THE FIELD AT THE GAME FAIR
We had a great response at the CLA Game Fair as people visited the stand and had their pictures taken looking Groovy in The Field.
To enter, simply take a picture on your smartphone (or camera) of you looking your Grooviest in The Field and send it to us at groovyinthefield@ipcmedia.com or tweet us at #groovyinthefield
If you need some inspiration, a smoking jacket or tails could be thoroughly Groovy in The Field.
Terms and conditions
The closing date for entries is August 1st. The grooviest and the overall winner will be announced in the October (clothing) issue of the magazine.
By entering this competition and submitting your photographs you grant IPC Media an unlimited irrevocable licence to publish your photographs in print and in any electronic publications.
Grouse is a bird best served in classic style. This traditional roast grouse recipe is the only one you need for the best of British gamebirds
Traditional roast grouse recipe
A TRADITIONAL ROAST GROUSE RECIPE
There is no need to mess about with a young grouse. One of the best ways to eat grouse is as it has always been. A traditional roast grouse recipe consists of roast grouse, bread sauce and game chips. This triumverate of traditional ingredients is the highest pinnacle of sporting scoff.
This traditional roast grouse recipe respects the main ingredient, grouse – which doesn’t need to be dallied with - and lets the natural flavours come through.
Despite the robust smell of the bird, the meat is not as strong as you would think. It is totally individual and delicious, and very healthy (apart from the wine you have to drink with it, of course). There is no need to hang grouse before cooking a traditional roast grouse recipe.
WHAT TYPE OF GROUSE?
If you are have been grouse shooting then you will know if you bird is old or young. It is considered best to roast young grouse. If you have an old grouse see below for Mike Robinson’s chef’s trick for roasting old grouse successfully.
A TRADITIONAL ROAST GROUSE RECIPE
(best for young birds)
Serves 4
Ingredients
■ 4 young grouse
■ Salt and pepper
■ 8 crushed juniper berries
■ 8 sprigs thyme
■ 8 rashers streaky bacon
■ A little fat for roasting
■ A couple of handfuls root vegetables
For the bread sauce
■ 400ml (131⁄2fl oz) milk
■ 1 white onion studded with 5 whole cloves
■ 4 slices white bread, crushed
■ A good pinch mixed ground spice
■ Salt and pepper
For the game chips
■ 1 large frying potato, such as Maris Piper
■ Oil for deep frying
■ Salt
For the gravy
■ 200ml (7fl oz) veal/game stock
■ A good splash sloe gin
■ 100ml (31⁄2fl oz) light red wine
To garnish
■ Local watercress
■ Home-made or high-quality redcurrant jelly
How to cook the traditioanl roast grouse recipe
To make the bread sauce
Bring the milk to the boil with the onion in it. Let this infuse for about 20 minutes, then remove the onion and add the breadcrumbs, spice and seasoning.
The sauce needs to be of a loose, dropping consistency. Set aside and keep warm.
To cook the game chips
Peel the potato and slice it very thinly (NB: this should be done before the grouse is roasted). Rinse it thoroughly in cold water two or three times to remove as much starch as possible (this makes the potato crisps crispier). Pat dry, and deep-fry for two to three minutes, until golden brown. Season with a little table salt and set aside.
To cook the grouse
Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6. Season inside and out, put the juniper berries inside the cavities of the birds, tuck a sprig of thyme under each leg and lay two rashers of streaky bacon over the breast of each grouse.
Colour in a roasting tray with a little clarified butter or duck fat. When sealed on all sides, roast for between 16 and 20 minutes, depending on size. Remove from tray and keep warm. Add the root vegetables to the roasting tray. Tip any juices from the birds into the tray as well as any offal – this will add to the flavour – and scrape up any sediment
that’s in the tray. Add the stock, sloe gin and red wine. Simmer gently for five to six minutes, pass through a fine sieve into a saucepan, and check the seasoning.
HOW TO PRESENT A TRADITIONAL ROAST GROUSE
Carve the breasts and legs. Arrange the streaky bacon next to each bird on a warm dinner plate. Put a pile of game chips next to the bird with a sprig or two of watercress. Pour any excess juices into the sauce, then pour the sauce over the birds and serve with warmed bread sauce and a pot of redcurrant jelly.
NB: keep all the carcasses for making good game stock; you can always stockpile bones in the freezer and make a decent batch when you have a good quantity.
AN OLD GROUSE CAN BE ROASTED TOO
Mike Robinson has an interesting technique for an old bird. The traditional roast grouse recipe is not the only way to cook the bird. You can roast grouse in a different way.
An old grouse roasted well
Serves 4
■ 1 litre (13⁄4 pints) chicken stock
■ 4 grouse
■ 100g (31⁄2oz) butter
■ Sea salt and black pepper
■ 4 large bunches thyme
This is not so much a recipe as a technique. There is nothing worse than a dry old grouse, or any gamebird for that matter. Start by bringing the stock to the boil, then turn it down low. Remove the legs from the birds (we generally save them up and cook them as an appetiser) and plunge the crowns in the simmering stock. This captures the moisture in the meat and ensures a perfect result.
Remove them after 10 minutes and allow them to cool a little. Next, brush them with melted butter, season well with salt and pepper, and shove a bundle of thyme up each bird’s bum. Then brown them well in a pan and roast them in a 180°C/350°F/
Gas Mark 4 oven for six minutes.
Take them out and rest for five minutes before carving. Serve with fried garlic potatoes, bread sauce, beans and some very expensive red wine, perhaps a burgundy.
The Field was published throughout the First World War, here is unique archive material from the time. In the countryside we were bloodIed but unbowed by WW1
WW1 Hussar and Royal Engineer
THE FIRST LEADER PRINTED IN THE FIELD DURING WW1
“It has been difficult to realise that life in England must, after all, in its broad lines, go on much the same in spite of the storm that is being pitilessly sown across the Channel and the North Sea… We may remember that in the hour of our peril our domestic quarrels are forgotten, and the sons of our Dominions over seas are hastening to stand shoulder to shoulder in our lines in the fight that is to fix the future of all our generations to come. With that thought before us, we can keep calm even if we have to face an enemy within these shores; for we can at any rate determine that very few of the invaders shall get home again. And there is not a man or woman who cannot take a part in what is the privilege, the duty, the stern necessity of all. “They also serve who only stand and wait.” That is often the hardest task of all. It is always the woman’s. Let us remember that, and help them in their time of need until their men might come home again. And for the rest, let us do with all our might that task which happens to be set before us, whatever it may be. For life, as has been said, must go on, in its broad lines, in every city and hamlet in this realm essentially unchanged, in spite of all the outside turmoil. Those who are not in the actual fighting line (and they will grow fewer every week) have to keep the ordinary life of the nation in steady continuance. It will be not only legitimate and natural, but it will be right that they should keep in sound health of mind and body by reasonable recreation of every ordinary kind. Sport has made many of our best sailors and soldiers better in their warlike trade. Sport can also keep fit and ready those who may in the end be either called into the last desperate stand or ordained to supervise incessantly those wheels of life and industry which no community can afford to let run down. We hope, therefore, that as little sport as possible will be abandoned in these islands during the bitter weeks to come; for it will help not only the body but the mind. The only nations which can hope to survive the crucial test will be those whose citizens can preserve unswerving courage, patient resolution, and an infinite trust that God will shield the Right.”
THE COUNTRY ADAPTS
Great Britain had been at war for only four days when the words above appeared in The Field’s leader column but they were to set the tone for the magazine and, one might say, the nation during what was to develop into the First World War. However, it would grind on for four years rather than the painfully optimistic “weeks to come” referred to more often in the early stages.
Life in the British countryside was to be changed ineradicably and yet remain miraculously constant in the way that people went about their business in determined fashion, cocking a snook at “Prussia’s aggressiveness” by maintaining a sporting life at home and interest abroad that belied the cost being extracted to achieve our aims in battle and ultimately secure an Allied victory.
Artillery at The oval in Kennington during WW1
Life in town didn’t survive unaltered, either. Going about one’s business in Kennington one could see the Oval taken over by the Artillery, gun horses grazing on the hallowed turf, but we reassured cricket fans that the pitch and field had been carefully railed in so there was no danger of hoof damage to the square leg. On Epsom Downs there was the comic spectacle of semaphore training. And in St James’s Park one would be as likely to come across the Grenadier Guards’ transport section as a dog walker.
WW1 CAVALRY
The cavalry have always been photogenic and we were able to illustrate “what the men can teach their animals to do” at the Neveravon School, set up to produce expert riders and horsemasters and teaching techniques that will be familiar to any Pony Club member today such as learning to “jump without reins or stirrups, come down steep banks…” It was thought to be “a fine institution with good grounds” where, “it is considered that if a horse’s natural paces are properly developed and he becomes a first-rate charger and hunter, the practical objects of horse training for war have been achieved”.
Horses, still a mainstay of agriculture and, of course, sporting life, were soon in great demand but rather than bewailing their loss as remounts and to the front we were able to congratulate ourselves on producing perfect chargers and extol the relative merits of hunters and polo ponies for the job. Both exemplary. “The badly bred horse, short of quality and inclined to be common, is of no use whatever in a cavalry charge, for he lacks the courage and pace of the high-mettled hunter, as also the lasting power. It is well known that a hunter in good condition will do his fifty or sixty miles a day with very little trouble to himself, and the average working day in a hunter’s life involves not only a very considerable amount of fast work, but the jumping of a great number of fences. Here, then is the material from which good cavalry mounts are made.”
But do not imagine that The Field or the nation developed a myopic view of the world, seeing life only through the prism of war. We had waved Sir Ernest Shackleton off on his ill-fated but heroic expedition as war was breaking out and maintained a weather eye on the world that was, like Shackleton’s team, not in combat in Europe.
A record tuna of 710lb reached our pages from Nova Scotia, brought to boat with a mere 200yd of line on Mr Mitchell’s rod after a battle of eight and a quarter hours. “After the first rush which ran out about 200 yards, he held it on less than 75 yards, and for the last three hours the struggle was on about 20 yards. It towed his skiff some eight miles off shore, and then about four back to land before it was gaf-fed.” For obvious reasons our correspondent was keen to know Mitchell’s fighting weight.
ASTONISHING RETRIEVE
Gundogs have ever been fascinating to sportsmen and I would challenge any modern reader to match the “Plucky Retriever” who had his battle on Skye and was triumphant in retrieving a seal of 6st 11lb. “[The shot seal] was not much hurt and rushed into the water, the dog followed it and caught hold, both went down together in the sea. On re-appearing the seal was swimming fast but Cuchellin rushed after it and caught hold, and they sank again completely. This was repeated five times. The fifth time they came to the surface Cuchellin had kept his grip on the back of the seal’s neck and proceeded to swim ashore with a paw on either side of its body.” Submariner, nil; outgunned Scots sailor, a very definite 1.
On a more practical front, readers advocated “wild food”, the recommendations to eat seaweed, rabbits and game in general through tough times sounding very much like cookery writers today. Other topics included donation of blankets (by boat owners) and binoculars (by stalkers) to our armed forces and the merits of arming sentries with shotguns – apparently the use of No 4 or No 5 shot was “absurd apart from at very close range”. A pressing concern for one elderly reader was to maintain his fitness and riding muscles without a horse.
In the issue of 22 August 1914 The Field announced in the Farm pages that, “In a pathetic paragraph on its front page the Journal d’Agriculture Pratique (an excellent farmers’ paper printed in Paris) announces that it is obliged to cease publication. ‘Our whole staff… has gone to his post in battle to defend his country. Our subscribers will therefore appreciate the circumstances which necessitate our decision to stop the paper for the time being; and they will, we are sure, associate themselves with our prayer for the success of the French arms.’ Every journalist and agriculturalist in England will hope that prayer may speedily be granted.”
CONTINUOUS PUBLICATION
The Field was able to continue publication without interruption throughout the conflict. Our then weekly recipe of sports (field and recreational), farming, agriculture, aeronautics, travel and the natural world grew to include the armed struggle. Table-thumping leader columns and an important historic record of the progress of the war are here but, delightfully, there is room for important issues of the day such as how the fish are moving on the Itchen or the feeding value of bracken.
Business very much as usual then, except, of course, it wasn’t. In the first December of peace we announced with dismay that “In 1919 there will be a new and hitherto un-known generation of rowers who have never been to Henley Royal Regatta.” Well, there had been a war on.
Every month The Field features an image from a naked charity calendar. We are now searching for new 2015 calendars. Do you know of one?
The Garrison Girls feature in the August issue of The Field magazine
The Field is known for finding the very best in naked charity calendars. They are sourced from game girls and hunting hotties countrywide. Enthusiastic Young Farmer’s Club members are always keen to strip down and sit on a bale. The Naked Strewth has a cult following among those in the know.
NAKED CHARITY CALENDARS
We are now searching for 2015 naked charity calendars. The critieria are simple. It must be for a good cause, so any deserving charity would fit the bill. The photographs must be of good quality. And the photograher must be happy for us to use the naked charity calendar images in the magazine.
RAISING MONEY FOR CHARITY
The 2014 Naked Strewth has seen a flurry of top notch naked charity calendars feature in The Field. These naked charity calendars have included the inimitable Garrison Girls raising money for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The Hotties Helping Heroes raised £9000 for Help for Heroes. The Foxy Hunters are always popular and have raised a great amount for the Air Ambulance. An invaluable service for any sportsman.
The Field gives a donation to each charitable cause for the naked charity calendars used.
THE 2015 CROP
Do you know of any naked charity calendars that make the grade? If you do please email field_secretary@ipcmedia.com with the details. We are searching for the very best naked charity calendars for 2015 now.
Top Tips for shooting grouse including what to wear and how to shoot your share
Grouse shooting at Helbeck. A grouse coming over the hill.
Having seen some of the best grouse shots in action, these are my recommendations for a happy and successful day grouse shooting.
DON’T hit the booze, either the night before or on the day. Alcohol slows your reactions and grouse shooting requires full concentration, both to make a bag and be safe.
DON’T wear a white shirt. White acts as signal – think rabbit scuts and pigeon wing-bars – and you don’t want to alert the grouse to your presence in the butt.
DON’T stare at the heather for 30 minutes before the grouse arrive. Your eyes will tire. Try and relax until the drive really starts.
DO Wear yellow shooting glasses, both to protect your eyes and to enable you to pick out the grouse quicker against the background.
DO Stay still in the butt. Like pigeon, grouse can spot movement and take avoiding action instantly.
DON’T try and take the birds 60 yards in front. A few full-time grouse shots can do this but the majority of decent shots wait until the birds are well in range. Think of when you’d take pigeon coming into a decoy pattern and you won’t go far wrong. Better to drop one or two out of a covey than fire four unsuccessful shots.
Having said that, if the grouse are not coming to you, but crossing your bows 40 yards out, then DO go for the shot.
DO mark the position of the flankers carefully, especially if you’re in one of the three end butts. Position yourself in the corner of the butt nearest the flankers and concentrate on the safe area to your right or left, according to which end of the line you’re standing.
DON’T take singletons or pairs going straight to your neighbour. You won’t win friends so doing. But do try and drop the back birds of a covey going towards your neighbour.
DO mark your birds carefully and keep a running tally with your loader. Don’t expect him to do this, as he’ll be busy loading.
If your butt has a very short horizon, it’s a downwind drive and the wind is strong, DO consider taking the birds behind throughout the drive.
Do make certain you thank the beaters, pickers-up and keepers whenever the opportunity arises. Grouse shooting is a team sport and they will have put in huge effort to provide you with sport.
Make sure to thank the beaters and pickers up whenever possible.
Why are the robust but charming Scotch roses overlooked these days? They may have thorns but never get black spot and don't need pruning. Perfect for country-house gardeners.
C426MD Rosa spinosissima 'Dunwich Rose'
Scotch roses were all the rage in Regency times, with some nurserymen listing more than 200 varieties. But by the middle of Queen Victoria’s reign, they were described as being “quite out of fashion” and today few commercial nurseries list more than three or four varieties, and even these are mostly hybrids.
The fall in popularity of these ferny-leaved, scented shrubs is usually put down to their abundant prickles and over-abundant names. Their thin, bristly stems do not lend themselves to the budding techniques used to propagate modern roses and the descriptions that appeared in early garden lists were so unhelpful that their Who’s Who has never been sorted out. At least half-a-dozen different roses, for example, have been named as “the true Mary Queen of Scots”. Varieties were named after Sir Walter Scott’s heroes, classical Greek gods, Scottish towns and English aristocrats – and almost all have vanished.
As one expert puts it, “I can often tell you that a particular rose is not what it says on the label. But, on the other hand, I am unlikely to be able to put a definitive historic name to it.”
EARLY SEASON ROSES
The time to go looking for Scotch roses to discover their charms for yourself is early in the season, typically before the main flush of garden roses comes into flower. They are small shrubs, 4ft to 5ft tall, with a single, exuberant burst of blooms in May through to mid June. They are often survivors from an earlier era, many having formed a thicket that has occupied a sunny corner for ever, or possibly even longer than that. They cover most of the rose spectrum as far as colours are concerned, in singles, semi-singles and doubles, often in marbled and tinted variations. The flowers are about 2in (5cm) in diameter and later produce distinctive spherical black hips.
They are named “Scotch” – or “Scots”, if you prefer – because they were first developed as a garden race from the native Rosa spinosissima by the Brown brothers of Perth, who took their seed from the wild roses of nearby Kinnoull Hill. By 1803, they had eight double varieties on the market; by 1820, one London grower had “hundreds of new varieties in the sale catalogues” and Scotch roses were everywhere.
A particularly famous Scotch-based hybrid is the “Yellow Rose of Texas”, which accompanied the pioneers in the West and is said to persist beside long-abandoned cabins across some of the harshest landscapes of North America. Some Americans still have a soft spot for our little spinosissimas. I recently came across a New England web contributor who wrote, “What escapes me is why they are so overlooked. They aren’t gushed over the way so many of the other old roses are… They are the most low-maintenance, reliable, cold-hardy, toughest and most demure of all the roses we grow. Most in our collection are ones that we ‘found’ on our many excursions to old cemeteries near and far and they endeared themselves to us because of their tenacity and will to survive.”
Typically, an old Scotch rose bush is loved because “it was given to my grandmother”. The shrubs send up suckers, the shoots gradually extending the thicket. These suckers are easy to pull up and transplant.
A ROSE SAFE FROM RABBITS
The shoots have numerous bristles and thorns, which make them unattractive to rabbits although they are browsed by deer. They are difficult for the rose grower to handle and if grafted on to his usual briar stocks may turn into gawky specimens that need almost as much pruning as hybrid teas. Rose-growing nurserymen think of the Scotch roses as “largely uncommercial”. So your best hope of developing a collection is to beg for suckers and grow them on their own roots.
The happy hunting ground for Scotch rose fanciers has always been the north-east of Scotland, where the old varieties linger in the gardens of croft and castle, but ancient bushes can turn up anywhere. Woburn Abbey once had a collection of several hundred named types, now lost, but doubtless one or two survive in Bedfordshire cottage gardens.
The repeat-flowering roses that came on the market in the mid-1800s pushed the Scotch roses into near-extinction. They could not compete with large blooms and a long season, but they have the virtues of charm and good health. They need no pruning and the truly old-fashioned ones never have black spot on their leaves, which should recommend them to most country-house gardeners.
Blue cheese is not just for Christmas, a new generation is soft, creamy and suitable for summer
Beauvale blue cheese from Cropwell Bishop Creamery
Traditionally, blue cheese is a winter favourite but a new style of British blue that’s soft and creamy offers up some beauties that work well in summer, too.
One of the most delicious of the new blues is Beauvale, produced by Nottinghamshire-based Cropwell Bishop Creamery, which is known for its delicious Stilton. The cheese has a balance of sweet yet matured milk, with a sumptuously spreadable texture and the quiet power of the flavoursome blue veins running through. This is the sort of mouthful that makes a cheese-lover purr with pleasure.
Producing a new cheese, especially a blue, is some task. Four years of trial and error went into Beauvale before Cropwell Bishop felt confident enough to put the cheese on the market.
“With cheese-making you have to be patient,” explains the company’s Robin Skailes.
“A tiny change to the recipe or temperature will make all the difference but you can only do one change at a time. If you do two, you don’t know what’s made the difference. Then you have to wait sometimes for 10 weeks to see if it works.”
Part of the inspiration for making Beauvale was to provide a hand-made British substitute for all the soft blue cheeses we import from the Continent.
The craft and good farming behind the best British cheeses makes a real difference. Some of the Continental blues, such as Gorgonzola, have a white curd because the cows do not live outside eating fresh grass. Beauvale’s creamy hue comes from the grass that the cows eat.
Sales of Beauvale were initially limited to the specialist retailer Paxton & Whitfield, then to local shops near the dairy and a few delis. The cheese only got national distribution this spring, appearing on the deli counters of 100 branches of Waitrose.
Softer blues are easy to cook with as they melt into a sauce and are easy to spread on bread or dab over a salad. Skailes uses Beauvale to replace Gorgonzola in simple pasta sauces, melted with cream and prawns or with bacon and mushrooms, and he puts it into quiches.
Blues are also great with summer fruit, such as apricots and peaches. For an excellent, easy starter, Skailes cuts down to the base of a fig so it opens out into quarters, puts a lump of Beauvale in the middle, sprinkles it with walnuts and puts it in a hot oven for five minutes before drizzling with honey.
One of the pioneers of new British blues was Ticklemore Dairy in Devon. In the Eighties, cheesemaker Robin Congdon set out to use unpasteurised ewe’s milk to make a version of Roquefort. Beenleigh Blue is now regarded as a modern British classic. Ticklemore also produces Harbourne Blue with goat’s milk, and Devon Blue with cow’s milk, so you can taste the difference between the three kinds of milk and how they produce markedly different versions of blue cheese.
The sheep’s milk for Beenleigh Blue is taken from January to June and the cheese is then matured for different lengths of time. Eating the cheese in the summer months, rather than just in winter, emphasises the deeply seasonal nature of this artisanal product.
Congdon’s successor as cheesemaker, Ben Harris, describes the cheese’s summer character as “fresh, lemony and tangy” before the flavour gets deeper and more powerful from the longer maturation. The texture is more crumbly at this time and creamier later. Some prefer the cheese younger; others when it’s older.
We do seem to love our blues. Neal’s Yard Dairy, the leading advocate of British cheeses, reports that its Colston Bassett Stilton is the bestseller in its Covent Garden branch, coming even before the magnificent Montgomery’s Cheddar.
The Colston Bassett sold by Neal’s Yard is made to a special recipe, with the cheese pierced for its blueing at a later stage so that the curd can mature without the blue becoming too rampant. The caramel, salty, creamy flavour of this cheese is special. When shopping, I tend to try it alongside another star blue, Stichelton, and see which tastes better on the day.
Stilton is traditionally eaten at Christmas, partly because the four-month-old cheeses sold in December contain milk from the lush, late-summer grass. But these harder blues are good all year round and also worth making part of a summer cheeseboard as an alternative to the more Continental-style softer blues.
All blues should be kept cool, especially in the summer. The mould matures faster in the heat and can become a touch too spicy if left to run away. Some like it hot; many do not.
Do you make the best home-brew? A hip flask is essential sporting kit and we want to know what you are making to put in yours from classic sloe gin to jelly baby vodka
Distillery orchard
Your winter-warming concoctions are probably brewing already but will they meet our hip flask challenge? We had a blast trying last year’s bevvies and look forward to tasting whatever you come up with this time.
To enter, send a small bottle of your brew (non-leaking), stating the main ingredients, its age, your name and address and the recipe for making it, to Alexandra Henton at The Field, Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU. Entries will be judged by James Chase from Chase Distillery and a panel of expert tasters, with helpful asides from The Field staff.
Closing date for entries is 1 December 2014 and the winners, together with the 10 best recipes submitted, will be featured in the March 2015 issue. Alas, we cannot return any of the entries. They will have been sacrificed during the judging.
CATEGORIES FOR HIP FLASK DRINKS
TRADITIONAL category is open to all classic, spirit-based concoctions that use hedgerow and garden harvest, such as sloes or rhubarb
OFF-PISTE category is for modern recipes, such as toffee vodka and last year’s inventive winner beetroot and horseradish vodka.
PRIZES
Your winter-warming concoctions are probably brewing already but will they meet our hip-flask challenge? We had a blast trying last year’s bevvies and look forward to tasting whatever you come up with this time
'Reach for the Skye' is a great combination of whisky, raspberry and mint. Perfect for the sunshine and showers of the changing season. A whisky cocktail even purists could approve of
Whisky Cocktail with raspberry and mint
I knew I had reached West Coast Scotland. Sun, rain and mist battled to be the prevailing weather, all within ten minutes. Dark and glistening burns tore through the moody purple heather that carpeted the craggy rocks and my mobile phone signal became as rare and elusive as a golden eagle.
My destination was the Isle of Skye, one of Scotland’s most stunning west coast islands. A place brimming with opportunity to do strenuous activities such as walking, climbing, fishing and boating – I just came for the food. There were several renowned restaurants that I had been longing to try and the local venison, scallops and wild mushrooms had been begging me to eat them. The trip also provided the opportunity for me to visit my first whisky distillery.
I am going to give you a cocktail in honor of my new found deeper appreciation for whisky, try it before the summer is over to make the most of the juicy raspberries. At great expense to my head I tried it with various whiskies and found the west coast peaty /smokey ones like Laphroig or Talikser went stunningly with the raspberries and mint. I am anxious that Scotland may not let me back in if I start sloshing their single malts into cocktails but maybe I could persuade them if I made them one of my ‘Reach for the Skyes”
WHISKY COCKTAIL METHOD
Serves two – twice!
Sugar syrup (100g caster sugar, 100g water heat the sugar and water in a saucepan until the sugar has dissolved. Leave to cool)
200 ml whisky – a smokey single malt if you dare
juice of one lemon
juice of two limes
In a shaker (I used a kilner jar) add the cooled sugar syrup, whisky, lemon and lime juice, 16 ripe raspberries – or there abouts, 10 bruised mint leaves (rub then briefly between your hands) and 8 pieces of ice. Close the lid and shake for at least 30 seconds. The aim is to muddle the raspberries with the rest of the ingridiants to get a crimson liquid. Pour over ice placed in your chosen drinking glass and add a few fresh raspberries and mint leaves to garnish.
Retrieving is likely to be the most important thing you want your gundog to do, here are simple tips for successful retrieving.
Even the crème de la crème of top professional retriever or spaniel trainers would agree that handling a gundog is not rocket science. For a start, much as we love them, we have to admit that our dogs are not furry astrophysicists. Apparently they are not even the brightest of our domesticated animals – parrots have a bigger vocabulary and horses have a better memory. Apart from their extraordinary noses, our dear old gundogs are really pretty dim, so training and handling them has to be made very simple. Why then do we humans seem to find working a gundog such an extremely complicated feat?
So far, I’ve only ever met one dog that was brighter than I am. FTCh Kelmscott Whizz (Lynn) merely required to be let off the slip lead and then I would walk along quietly behind her, trying to get in her way as little as possible. HM The Queen felt much the same about her great labrador retriever, FTCh Sandringham Sidney, who, she said, regarded her as little more than a means of transport from one drive to another. But when communicating with even these brainiac dogs, we still use words of one syllable: “come”, “sit”, “stay”, “fetch”, “get on”, “get out”, “hup”, “heel”.
It’s not as if we have to learn Mandarin, or even German, to be able to tell them what we want them to do. If we can order a cup of tea in the south of France, “je would like a cup of tea… Tea,” then surely we can give our dogs the command to fetch a dead bird. From observation during the shooting season, it seems not. There will be handlers yelling “get on” when they mean “get out”, and then wondering why the dog has suddenly abandoned its retrieve and started hunting. There will be dogs getting away with all manners of misdemeanour. Yet the dogs are essentially well-trained and willing animals and their owners are often high achievers in other spheres (possibly even rocket scientists). So what goes wrong in the shooting field that causes the team to fall apart?
Common sense, or lack of it, is usually at the heart of gundog handling issues. Watching a dog fail on a retrieve or seeing birds repeatedly flushing out of gunshot range, it is usually easy to spot the very simple mistake early on that allowed chaos to ensue. A frustrated fellow gun told me that his dog doesn’t handle on retrieves, despite having been professionally trained. But it was a case of the gun not handling his dog, rather than the dog not handling the retrieves. When under pressure, the gun got stressed and muddled up his commands without being aware that he was doing it. The common sense solution was for him to slow down, take a deep breath and give his dog just one simple command at a time so neither of them would be confused.
Common sense provides the answer to many such gundog problems, and yet it is the one thing most frequently left behind. You remember your whistle, the slip lead, the gun, the dog – even a water bottle – and then you climb into the vehicle without any more thought of what you are actually going to be doing. Common sense didn’t get packed.
Even if you aren’t particularly serious about your dogwork, it does pay to have a brief think about what you will require the dog to do when you arrive at the shoot. It is very little extra effort to get your brain in dog-handling gear and the rewards are huge in terms of improving the dog’s performance. Dogs that are thought of by the whole shoot as being pretty mediocre can be transformed just by their owners engaging a little common sense in how they handle them.
On most shoots, retrieving is really the acid test of the dog’s work, and if this is going badly the whole day can be spoiled. So the next time you send your dog on a retrieve, think first. Do you really know where you should be sending him? In other words, did you definitely mark the bird down? Have you lost the mark? Is there any chance that the bird could have run? If there is a possibility that you are wrong about where the bird is, don’t continually keep handling your dog to the one spot where you thought it was. The bird may not be there – and if it isn’t, then the dog can’t retrieve it. Common sense, and yet all the time I see people handling their dogs away from where the bird turns out to be, and into an area that is completely empty.
Amateur and novice handlers are generally best advised not to over-handle their dogs on retrieves in any case. When it comes to matters of scent, dogs usually know best. If you put a dog and a man in a wood to see who finds a rabbit or a bird first, the dog will win 99.9 % of the time – so what is the point of bossing your dog around when searching for lost game? But in the stress of the moment some handlers forget that you need completely different techniques for different aspects of work in the field.
I recently helped one of our pickers-up search for a couple of lost birds. These had been strong runners when they fell during the drive, and by the time we were sweeping through the wood for them, they could have been enjoying a glass of cider in Bristol for all we knew. Yet I was surprised to hear the picker-up continually using his whistle to pip his dog in to him and, watching the dog’s pattern, it looked more as if it was hunting-up game for a gun to shoot. Common sense dictates that when searching for long lost game, the dog needs to range as wide as possible to take in the maximum amount of ground. There’s no need to keep the dog within gunshot range, because you aren’t shooting.
So, next time you send your dog on a retrieve, take a moment to remind yourself what kind of a retrieve it is, and what the most appropriate technique will be for finding it. This is all blindingly obvious – and therefore not very impressive. It’s in our nature to want to show off a little bit with our gundogs, and common sense is one of the least showy of all gundog handling attributes. Trawling the internet for a lot of fancy equipment is inevitably a more tempting proposition than sitting down quietly and concentrating on working out what went wrong on the shoot. But if you are even a little bit serious about working your dog, you should face that tedious second option.
All the very best gundog handlers have this in common – they spend a lot of time thinking about what they are doing. It doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself out shooting with your dog, just engage your common sense for a moment and everything will fall into place.
BASIC BLUNDERS WHEN RETRIEVING
Working your gundog successfully is a matter of straightforward common sense. Keep it simple, avoid these common errors and you will have a wonderful shooting season ahead.
Not using a proper whistle For precise commands in all weathers and situations, without disturbing game, use a suitable whistle.
Inconsistency The single biggest cause of training failure is not enforcing commands. Let the dog get away with something just once or twice and he will quickly learn that it is OK to disobey commands.
Wrong commands Check carefully that you don’t blow “stop” when you mean to blow “come”. It’s surprising how frequently it happens, especially with verbal commands such as “get on” and “get out”.
Dog too far away Don’t allow your dog go galloping off far beyond your ability to do something about it if things go wrong.
Disorganisation Forgotten equipment, lateness, lack of concentration are all symptomatic of a failure to engage fully with what you and your dog are meant to be doing.
Poor planning Know what you want to achieve, and how you are going to do it, every time you work the dog.
Handling away from the retrieve Don’t take the dog away from one place and make it hunt another when, in fact, you have no proof the retrieve is there.
Confusing hunting and searching Hunting for unshot game needs a close, tight pattern within gunshot range; searching for lost, wounded game needs a wider scope.
Ignoring wind direction Game sense is really important; devote time to understanding wind and scent.
Mixed messages A continual stream of commands is confusing for both dog and handler.
Debate the conservation effects of country sports and hear what the antis are saying about your sport
World Land Trust Chris Packham and Bill Oddie
Take your chance to debate the impact of country sports on the countryside. The World Land Trust (WLT) will hold its second public meeting with conservationists including Chris Packham, Bill Oddie, Mark Avery, and Andrew Gilruth at the Royal Society of London on 2 September 2014. “An open debate about the impact of sport hunting on wildlife and conservation is long overdue and it is time for arguments for and against hunting to be exposed to public scrutiny,” said John Burton, WLT Chief Executive.
Chris Packham
The World Land Trust describes itself as “an international conservation charity, which protects the world’s most biologically important and threatened habitats.” Founded in 1989, it has funded partner organizations around the world to “protect and sustainably manage the natural ecosystems of the world.” The event also provides the opportunity for members of the hunting and shooting community to show support for their sport and its importance to conservation.
Speakers in favour of the conservation benefits of game management are:
James Barrington animal welfare consultant, a former hunt saboteur and Executive Director of the League Against Cruel Sports
Andrew Gilruth, Director of Membership and Communications at the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust.
Speaking against the conservation benefits of game management are:
Chris Packham, a patron of the Woodland Trust
Bill Oddie a WLT ambassador and council member
Garry Marvin, a social anthropologist and Professor of Human-Animal Studies at the University of Roehampton
Mark Avery, formerly of the RSPB
John Burton, Chief Executive of World Land Trust.
John Burton “looks forward to discussing what actions can be taken to end this controversial, but seriously damaging practice [of hunting].”
During the First World War British troops were equipped with a modified 1888 weapon but the Lee-Enfield would become the quickest-firing bolt-action rifle of the 20th century
FILE 1914-1918. Picture from first world war. British soldiers in a trench at the western front in France.
There are many iconic images from the First World War but perhaps the most enduring of them is the British Tommy wearing a wry smile and with a fag hanging from his lower lip, his cap on the back of his head and his trusty Lee-Enfield rifle slung over his shoulder.
The rifle that the regulars of the British Expeditionary Force carried into France in August 1914 was officially known as the “Rifle, Short, Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk III”. This was abbreviated to SMLE and immediately bastardised into “The Smelly” in soldiers’ vernacular. Although the SMLE Mk III was introduced into British service in January 1907, it was simply a modified version of a service rifle adopted much earlier – in 1888.
In 1871, the British Army was equipped with the legendary Martini-Henry rifle, which fired a gargantuan 483-grain, .450-calibre lead bullet from a necked-down .577in cart-ridge case. The single-shot Martini was a good, soldier-proof rifle but the perfection of a nitroglycerine-based powder by the French chemist Paul Vielle in 1884 rendered it, and every other military rifle, obsolete overnight. Vielle’s powder produced very little smoke to betray the rifleman’s position and could be used to drive copper-jacketed 8mm bullets at velocities in excess of 2,000ft per second. The adoption of the Modele 1886 Lebel rifle by the French immediately prompted every other major power to start to develop a small-calibre, smokeless-powder magazine rifle.
By this time, the British military authorities had become aware of the work of a Swiss officer, Colonel Eduard Rubin, who was experimenting with small-bore rifle bullets propelled with compressed charges of black powder. In 1888 Britain bought 350 of James Paris Lee’s patent rifles chambered for the .303 Rubin cartridge, which had a rimmed case and its bullet held centrally by a washer. After some further development, Britain’s first .303 service rifle, the Lee-Metford Mk 1, was adopted officially on 22 December 1888. This combined the Lee’s action (with its eight- round magazine) with William Ellis Metford’s seven-groove rifling and a modified version of Rubin’s cartridge. In 1895, the rifle was modified again with an enhanced 10-shot magazine, improved five-groove rifling developed at the Royal Small Arms factory at Enfield and a smokeless cartridge that used cordite as a propellant. This was the first in a long series of .303 Lee-Enfield rifles.
The Long Lee-Enfield, as it became known because of its 30in barrel, was the standard British rifle throughout the Second Boer War (1899–1902). It was supplemented by a carbine version with a 21in barrel carried by the cavalry. The Royal Irish Constabulary had its own special carbine; this version would accept a bayonet, presumably for crowd control.
The British were routinely outshot by the Boers with their state-of-the-art Mauser Model 1896 rifles. Although the Lee-Enfield had a 10-shot magazine it had to be loaded with individual cartridges, which took time. The Mauser’s magazine could be loaded with five cartridges in a single action by means of a charger. This gave a higher rate of fire. The Mauser’s 7mm cartridge was ballistically superior and enhanced the average Boer’s al-ready impressive marksmanship skills.
After the Boer War, the military sought to remedy the Lee-Enfield’s shortcomings. In what was a classic example of British government thriftiness and pragmatism, the SMLE was born. The basic concept was that there should be a standard rifle for all arms of the service, whether infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineers or the Royal Navy. This would be capable of having its magazine loaded by the use of two five-round chargers of cartridges. The bayonet would no longer be supported by the barrel but fixed to a separate nose-cap that incorporated “ears” to protect the foresight.
The new universal rifle had a 25in barrel, a 10-round magazine and a Japanese-inspired sword bayonet with a wicked, 17in blade. The barrel was encased in a wooden hand-guard. Although the SMLE was only an updated version of an earlier rifle, it was to become the quickest-firing and most effective bolt-action battle rifle of the 20th century. The British regular soldier was expected to be able to fire 15 aimed shots a minute from his rifle. The SMLE’s effective range in competent hands was about 400yd. However, it was fitted with long-range sights calibrated from 1,600yd to 2,800yd. These were intended for mass volley fire when large bodies of men fired at large targets, such as an artillery battery at long range. The cleaning kit – a brass oil bottle and a pull-through – was carried in the butt.
In 1914, tensions in Europe were running high. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Archduchess Sophie in Sarajevo on 28 June caused international outrage and polarisation. A month later, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and within days all of Europe followed suit. Britain went to war with Germany on 4 August.
The alliance with France required this country to deploy the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), consisting of about 80,000 men. This was a tiny army by European standards and may have led to Kaiser Wilhelm’s apoc-ryphal “contemptible little army”. Although surviving British soldiers dubbed themselves the “Old Contemptibles”, there is no evidence to suggest that the Kaiser ever used this term. If anything, it is likely to have emanated from British GHQ as a piece of propaganda.
The Germans invaded neutral Belgium to try to take Paris in a surprise manoeuvre. The BEF fell back in good order in front of the German advance until it reached Mons on 23 August, digging in on the Mons-Conde canal to protect the French flank. As the Germans advanced, they came under withering rifle fire. Some of them believed the volume of fire came from the mass deployment of machine guns rather than riflemen. Eventually, determined German attacks forced the British to withdraw. However, the casualties inflicted on the Germans at Mons and Le Cateau on the 26th allowed the BEF to disengage, joining the French for the Marne counter-offensive in September. The British lost about 1,700 men at Mons; the Germans about 5,000. Mons has acquired a semi-mythical status as epitomising British pluck in the face of overwhelming odds. At the time, the myth of the warrior Angels of Mons was widely repeated.
Thereafter, the tactical significance of dis-ciplined, long-range rifle fire declined as armies dug in. Artillery and machine guns predominated. Rifles were of little use in a trench battle in which opponents fought with grenades, revolvers, knives and even clubs. However some SMLEs were fitted with telescopic sights and proved to be effective in the battle against German snipers. Others, fitted with cups, were used with blank cartridges to launch Mills grenades. Some were fitted with devices to cut barbed wire. The actions of damaged SMLEs were used as firing units for Stokes trench mortars. In January 1916, a simplified version of the SMLE was introduced. This was the Mk III*, which did not have long-range sights or magazine cut-off. Several types of .22 SMLE were produced for training.
After the First World War, the SMLE was redesigned to have better sights, a shorter bay-onet and heavier barrel for accuracy. That rifle eventually became the Lee-Enfield No 4, which went into production in 1941. Ironically for a rifle known as the Lee-Enfield, the No 4 was not built at Enfield, production taking place in Liverpool, Birmingham, Yorkshire, the US and Canada. The No 4 was a wartime rifle that used components made in small factories without skilled labour. The rifles were assembled centrally using mainly female labour. The SMLE remained as Britain’s ser-vice rifle until sufficient No 4s were available.
The SMLE soldiered on in the hands of the Home Guard and with Commonwealth forces such as those of India and Australia. The last SMLEs were made in India in the Sixties.
The SMLE is an iconic rifle and is great fun to shoot – .303 ammunition is readily avail-able. If you want one you must apply for a Firearm Certificate and join a Home Office- approved rifle club. I own several variants of the SMLE, including one made in 1913. In this, the 100th anniversary year of the outbreak of the First World War, it has a special place in my collection. When I look at it I wonder whether it was at Mons. If there were warrior angels on that desperate battlefield, they would have worn khaki and carried SMLE rifles.
As interior design or a record of your sport, trophy heads and more modest examples are striking whether boiled at home or sent to a taxidermist
Chris Rogers preparing a deer trophy
When news broke that the so-called “Emperor of Exmoor” may have been felled by a “hunter’s bullet”, the indignation voiced by the national media was matched, albeit more discreetly, by a knowing sigh of resignation from Britain’s deerstalking fraternity: the unseemly rumpus must have been caused by an overseas hunter of trophy heads. Trophy-hunting, it is assumed, is something which only Johnny Foreigner would indulge in. The very thought of it seems somehow unBritish.
But think again. Trophies are as much a part of the sporting scene in Britain as they are anywhere else in the world. While we may not place as much emphasis on the medal potential of the head of a stag or buck as some European hunters do, which of us does not wish to bring back from the Highlands a splendid hat-rack to remind us of that lengthy crawl through the peat hags, of a shot well taken and a beast brought down in the heather? We have for centuries decorated our homes with trophies of the chase, be they the antlers of the deer we have taken or the masks and brushes of foxes, hares and other beasts killed by our hounds.
SIZE MATTERS FOR TROPHY HEADS
The point is well made across the pond by Dennis Walrod who, in his book Antlers, comments that, “If anything, Europeans are more obsessed with antlers than we Americans are. Even now, most any pub in Germany or England will have a set of antlers on display against an impressive oak plaque; much of the time, they are just little spikes that we’d only make into knife handles.” So there we have it: to the US hunter, size matters, whereas to the average Brit, it’s just having the trophy on the wall as a physical reminder of a successful hunt that’s important.
Trophies on the gunroom wall also represent a statement of hunting prowess, and it seems that this statement can be emphasised in two ways. Either you can have big trophies, or you can have lots of trophies. The latter route is perhaps taken to its extreme in the Stag Ballroom at Mar Lodge, the walls and ceiling of which are covered with skull mounts, mostly shot on the estate between 1870 and 1910, many of them by the Royal Family. The interior of this timber building, formerly used by the estate staff for dances, really is a remarkable sight.
Today’s stalking guest in the Highlands is unlikely to have the opportunity to amass such a collection. A regular visitor, however, could quickly fill the walls of his dining-room or stairwell. In most cases, the process by which a trophy is prepared is something of which the guest is blissfully innocent. It is generally delivered to the lodge by the estate stalker on the day of a guest’s departure in exchange for the usual discreet wad of notes. It is handed over, cleaned, cut and ready for fixing to a suitable wooden shield or plaque.
SKINNED AND BOILED
Preparing a skull mount is, however, incredibly easy, and anyone shooting a worthwhile head in circumstances where professional assistance is not available needs nothing more than a skinning knife, a saw and a large pan of boiling water. The first job is to skin the skull completely, remembering to skin right up to the tops of the pedicles. Then, using the saw, cut the skull to your preferred length so that you can fix it easily to the flat surface of a shield or plaque. Traditionally, Scottish stalkers have favoured the long nose cut, made below the eye sockets, which removes the upper teeth but leaves the oval nose bones on the trophy. Alternatively, the short or standard cut may be made from behind the back of the skull through the lower third of the eye sockets. There exist various jigs with which to hold the skull while you are cutting it, but I have never found any of these to be satisfactory and I prefer simply to place the head on a concrete floor and hold it firmly while judging the cutting angle by eye.
When the skull has been cut, place it in a pan of boiling water so that the water covers the pedicles but not the antlers. A fallow or red will require three quarters of an hour, while a muntjac will need just 20 minutes. Beware though: the smell of boiling heads may not worry the stalker, but the stalker’s wife will most probably find it highly obnoxious. I recall once making use of an enforced period of sporting downtime by boiling out a bronze-medal muntjac head on Christmas day. The rest of the family was relaxing around a log fire when the most dreadful whiff started to permeate the entire house.
I have not been allowed to forget the occasion.
WILD BOAR ON THE WALL
When the skull has boiled sufficiently that all the gristle and membrane starts to pull away from the bone, run it under cold water to cool it and then pick and scrape it clean with a short-bladed knife. Then carefully cut away the dense mass of nasal bone on the underside of the trophy, rinsing it all the time under the cold tap as you do so. I find a scouring pad very useful to finish the upper surface of the bone. Then set the skull mount aside to dry.
Deerstalking supplies firms are able to provide some very nice wooden shields on which to display your trophy, though I have to say that I prefer to make my own plaques from heavily weathered oak floorboards. I find that the deep figuring of the scrubbed oak perfectly complements the texture of bone and antler to make a natural-looking wall mount.
There is a trick, however, to fixing one to the other. You may buy a mounting bracket which is inserted into the skull and bolted directly on to the plaque, but beware, these brackets have been known to come loose in the warmth of a centrally heated house, at which point your precious trophy will crash to the floor and shatter. Much safer is to fill the back of the skull with a two-part epoxy filler and press into it a short piece of wood. When the filler is set, you may drill through from the back of the plaque and screw into the wood to fix the skull in place. This fixing is absolutely firm and quite invisible. It is quicker and cheaper to screw through the two holes in the front of the skull with brass screws, but such a fixing looks exactly that: quick and cheap.
There may come a time when you are lucky enough to fell a beast that is worthy of sending to the taxidermist in order to have it prepared as a full shoulder mount. High ceilings are essential if one is to display a collection of red deer or African game to full effect. Because they lack the headgear, however, wild boar will fit a room with a relatively low ceiling, and they make a hugely impressive shoulder mount.
The demand for trophy mounts is large and growing. “People aren’t just buying old, bleached boggle-eyed mounts from the great taxidermists like Roland Ward, Peter Spicer or Edward Gerrard; they’re increasingly interested in modern work,” says hunting trophy specialist Adam Schoon of auctioneers Tennants. “The quality of modern work is sensational, and fashion dictates that the better looking the specimen, the greater the demand will be.” Particularly active in the market is the interior decorating fraternity, who may be looking for a centrepiece for a dining-room, hall or restaurant, but there is still strong demand from trophy collectors seeking unusual species.
When the beast is lying beside you on the hill or the forest floor and you have a rush of blood to the head sufficient to make you decide that your trophy is to be sent to a taxidermist, then think carefully about how you proceed. A professional guide will know exactly what to do, but if you are on your own, then remember that many potentially wonderful specimens have been ruined by thoughtless use of the knife. “The most important thing is to make sure the skin is taken from behind the shoulder,” says taxidermist Colin Dunton. “Split the skin down the back of the neck with the larger species – a muntjac’s neck can be peeled like a sock. Then cut behind the shoulder and front legs, detach the skin up to the base of the skull and remove the skull at the atlas joint.”
BIRDS AND BEASTS
It is easy to forget these things in the heat of the moment. On one occasion in the surge of excitement at having shot a medal muntjac, I hung the beast up by its back legs to gralloch it as I usually do and had cut the neck almost down to the throat before I realised what I was doing. Fortunately the taxidermist made a good job of stitching the skin back together.
It is best to freeze your trophy prior to despatch to the taxidermist. Do not attempt to salt it. “Twenty years ago it was a complete nightmare,” says Dunton. “There was lots of stuff coming in cut short and in a terrible state, but now virtually everyone seems to know what to do, probably as a result of all the international hunting which goes on.”
Trophies do not end with large mammals. Birds are the subject of some stunning trophies, and a pheasant, partridge or grouse makes a splendid decoration in a shoot room. I have a magnificent cock pintail, struck through the neck by a single pellet from my punt gun. When I picked it from the water, it was so pristine that I simply had to take it to the taxidermist. Another trophy is my son’s first woodcock, shot when he was 12 years old in the company of my father.
But although most birds are mounted so that they appear alive, I also have a brace of stuffed pheasants dangling from orange binder twine just as though they have been lifted from the back of the gamecart. When hung in the gunroom or in the kitchen alongside a bunch of onions or garlic, they add exactly the required touch of sporting authenticity and ambience without dripping blood or becoming foul-smelling after a couple of weeks.
This September head to Fulham Palace and find that country life has come to town
The Country Life Fair takes place this autumn
The first Country Life fair takes place on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 September 2014. Our younger cousin has gathered together all things bright and beautiful in the country to showcase the best of the bucolic in SW6.
The venue, Fulham Palace, will have resident gardeners on hand to talk about the history of the Palace flora, as well as exhibitors selling the best in plantlife and garden furniture, and horticultural experts on hand to answer your gardening dilemmas. A country kids zone with a mobile farm will keep whipper snappers royally entertained, and the Aga demonstration kitchen will host chefs keen on the country life, such as Tom Parker-Bowles and Rachel Green.
The Country Life property pages will be brought to life with experts on hand to advise on sales and renovation, as well as the Country Life cellar.
Tickets for The Country Life Fair are available from £23. Be sure to book yours now.
Watch Philippa Davis spatchcock a pigeon for the barbecue as part of this great recipe, it works just as well under the grill
Spatchcoking a bird makes it easy to cook well, both in the oven and on the barbecue. This video shows you how and all the ingredients are listed here.
Serves 4 as a main course
4 spatchcocked wood pigeon
Pigeon Marinade
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
½ tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp chopped marjoram
1 tbs olive oil
Method
Mix all the marinade ingredients together and spread over the bottom of a dish. Place the spatch-cocked pigeon flesh side down in the marinade. Leave for ½ – 1 hour.
Meanwhile prepare the chopped salad…
Chopped Salad
½ cucumber
½ red pepper
½ green pepper
2 spring onions
150g diakon radish
50g flat leaf parsley
50g mint
50g coriander
1 medium tomato
2 sticks celery
Chopped Salad Dressing
1 lemon
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs linseeds
1 tbs sumac
Salt and pepper to season
Method
Mix all the dressing ingredients in a big bowl.
Finley chop all the vegetables and herbs and add to the dressing
Mix well and check for seasoning.
Yogurt Za’atar
6 tbs plain yogurt
2 tsp za’atar
1 clove garlic
salt and pepper
Crush the garlic with a good pinch of salt using the back of a knife or with a pestle and mortar.
Mix the crushed garlic in with the yogurt and add the za’atar
Season with pepper then check for seasoning (adjust as needed).
To cook the pigeon…
BBQ the marinated pigeon starting skin side for about 3 – 4 minutes each side.
Leave to rest for about 4 minutes (The meat is delicious when still pink)then serve with the chopped salad and seasoned yogurt.
Advice from Mike Yardley on technique for shooting partridge and enjoying the best sport possible whether on an English or red legged partridge shoot
Partridge shooting
The partridge, that most English of gamebirds, will soon be on the sporting and culinary menu. I have a particular love for a fast and furious partridge day. It is English shooting par excellence. Finding the right day, however, is essential.
Many shoots sell partridges, mostly at around the same price, but not all birds are equal. Look for those that provide birds really worth the trouble and expense and that constitute proper sport (rather than being merely feathered clay pigeons pushed up to make someone a few bob).
It is not just about price, of course. It is also about attitude and location. My own preference is usually, not exclusively, for the old East Anglian estates. You need to pick a place that has the right owner or shooting tenant and the right keeper with real passion (such as Peter Jones at North Mymms, who combines all roles). As they say in the Army, time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted.
Personally, I don’t need numbers: 100-250-bird days provide an enjoyable experience as, sometimes, bigger days do not. I shot a 350-bird day a while back at a famous estate and remember thinking the last 100 birds were forced and a waste of my host’s money. But that’s not to say the bigger days are in any way wrong provided the quality is there.
Red legged partridge
TWO STYLES OF PARTRIDGE SHOOTING
What else makes up a great shooting experience? There are two styles of presentation in Britain. Partridges are either high, perhaps too high, mini-pheasants in effect, or they’re redlegs shown like greys in the tra-ditional English manner over spinneys and copses. Both are challenging. Then there are the many shoots where the partridges are somewhere in between, with the birds com-ing over at 20yd to 35yd. These, too, can give good sport if approached in the right way.
One of the most challenging partridge-shoots that I have ever been to presented fast, strong, birds at mid height but, critically, at longer (but not silly) range. Shooting with a 28-bore, the birds coming fairly evenly (something so hard to achieve), I had one of the best partridge days of my life. The keeper stood behind me and we took tremendous satisfaction in the longer birds when the wind got behind them. (The smaller-bore gun improved my day and, tightly choked, promoted head-down, hit-or-clean-miss shooting.)
If you do go on a bad shoot, the birds will be too weak and easy and you will get no pleasure from it. You will also perform poorly, because your heart will not be in it. You may have to endure lunch listening to your new-gun neighbour’s interminable and smug account of his extraordinary consistency and kill-to-cartridge ratio. In fact, one of the great truths of shooting is that no one is much interested in anyone else’s shooting unless he is a royal or named Digweed (which amounts to the same thing in our eccentric community). Shooting poor-quality birds is bad for your technique and for the reputation of the sport as well as your pocket. Poor-quality partridges, like poultry pheasants, are not only boring but no test of a sportsman.
Don’t expect high birds where the topography makes it unlikely. Partridges naturally hug the ground rather like grouse but flying slower, somewhere near the 30mph mark usually, whereas grouse and pheasants are up to 10mph faster under normal con-ditions (and sometimes much more). I am not particularly fond of high partridges, anyway. The concept of beating guns with distance irritates. I like to shoot good, strong partridges at sensible ranges presented in the classic English manner or walked-up over pointers – which still has a special charm. Indeed, the partridge was once our most popular gamebird.
TRADITIONAL ENGLISH
The traditional English way of showing driven partridge, developed in the mid 19th century, suits their natural flight pattern very well. To do it justice, one should try to take birds well out in front, at 30yd or thereabouts. This is truly challenging wing sport and allows for a second shot. A bird behind, however, at £30 or more a pop, is barely worth the effort and certainly not the money. That comment leads me to note that finding the right group of people to shoot with is as important as finding the right shoot – you need fellow guns who share your sense of sport: safe, jolly guns who recognise what a good bird is and won’t raise a gun to a poor one unless it’s to administer the coup de grâce.
To be a decent partridge-shot, keep quiet both when walking to and on the peg. In my experience, partridges are more sensitive to sound than just about any other feathered quarry species. “Live on peg” is often the rule when partridge-shooting (and if in doubt ask). Keep your wits about you and stay alert and don’t go for early pigeon. Partridges tend to come on rapidly and unexpectedly. You must be able to spring into action quickly. You must constantly be thinking about safety, too. With lower birds and more open chokes (not my preference, but commonly used) there is a real need for caution. Think about your arcs of engagement and safety angles carefully before you start shooting.
With English partridges, the cardinal sin was “browning” a covey, in other words not picking your mark but firing into the concentration of birds. With modern redlegs, es-pecially in early season, the problem can be a mass of birds that’s not quite a covey but more than enough to confuse. You must pick your bird every time. Decide on it as a safe and proper shot and “stare it to death” as you bring the muzzles to it. Partridge-shooting can be a fast business but you must not rush. Good preparation and address will help. When the action starts you may want to have a fairly high ready position, so the gun does not have to travel far to the shoulder. I don’t normally worry greatly about seeing lead deliberately at close and mid ranges provided visual discip-line and focus lock are maintained. But there are some caveats.
Close birds (the one’s you shouldn’t bother with and/or come on you suddenly) and tall ones are often missed in front. This is because they are not flying as fast as you might think. Keep the gun high and don’t let yourself get wrong-footed. I tend to shoot game in Stanbury fashion with front shoulder over front foot (the left as a right-hander) and straight but relaxed back. But occasionally a lower – but shootable – bird will catch me out to the right, most notably when I am flank gun with no one to that side. Not having time to move my feet, I may adopt the Robert Churchill technique of deliberately transferring the weight on to the right foot to facilitate this shot (this is may be practised on a skeet layout on a clay-shooting range on stations six and seven shooting at the “high house” bird).
The height of the birds depends on topography
NO NEED FOR LONG BARRELS
Don’t be overgunned. You will not need a long-barrelled, heavy 12-bore. My suggestion is for a handy 12-bore with barrels of conventional length or a 30in 20-bore. Side-by-side or over-and-under does not much matter but the speed of loading of the side-by-sides because of their increased gape may be worth considering. You will not normally want your high-pheasant gun on a partridge shoot.
Don’t overdo the loads, either. Partridges are small birds and don’t need large shot sizes or extreme payloads (though I must confess to a degree of hypocrisy on this and the previous count as I tend to shoot 5s at just about everything these days through my 32in Guerini 20-bores). Sub-1oz (24g or 25g) of 6 shot will do the job perfectly well and be easy on the shoulder, too. If you use more than an ounce, it is only for confidence.
Returning to technique, keep an eye on line. Very few birds are truly straight on. Remem-ber to keep the barrels perpendicular (over-and-unders) or parallel to line (side-by-sides)when they are anything other than true, straight incomers. Or, if you prefer, shoulders parallel to line. On higher birds make an effort to start on the tail feathers or just behind and push through. Note the line, “insert” the muzzles on it and push on holding line as you swing. If you fail to connect on high partridges consider whether you are missing in front (be-cause they are not quite as high as you think). Or, if you are really convinced you are behind, start by deliberate effort with the muzzles a yard or two behind the bird – in other words, about as far behind as you wish to go in front.
BE ON RED ALERT
Always stay on red alert when there are birds in the air. Make sure your neighbours realise, as you do, that one must commit to the shot instantaneously as birds break hedges. “After you”, isn’t going to work here because the birds are not “committed” to line. It’s probable that you will “poach” birds that might be your neighbours’. Don’t let this spoil your day but sort it out with the team before the day (the host should do this). Assess the ground. Take a good look at the height of the hedge and if the shot’s safe be prepared to shoot birds that cross your front, too. You will often see them following the line of the hedge (and being missed repeatedly by the rest of the line). If possible, avoid shooting behind; if you have to, because a bird is pricked, be extremely careful and consider where others may be.
My advice for partridges, in a nutshell, is to scan your zone in front, ready for that sudden but well-considered shot or two. See the first bird, point your gun at its head, push on and fire. Next customer… Don’t over-swing, always remember the line, always see sky. If you move your feet, keep returning to centre as soon as you can. Watch out for the smaller body and different colour of Englishmen and let them fly on. Don’t overlead but do keep your head down and your eyes focused until you see the bird’s head fall.
In edited extracts from the reminiscences of his owner/rider, Jack Seely, we learn of the aptly named Warrior’s extraordinary exploits during the First World War. He has now been awarded the Dickin Medal, the animal Victoria Cross, for his role as a war horse.
Major General the Rt Hon Jack Seely on his war horse Warrior
The story of my horse Warrior will show that not only did his vivid personality help me to gain the confidence of thousands of brave men, when without him I could never have achieved it, but that by his supreme courage at a critical moment, he led me forward to victory in perhaps the greatest crisis of the War.
I thought from the first that we were in for a long war, but I did not think that we should be in France together for more than four years, nor did I dare to hope that we should both re-turn alive. I rode Warrior in shellfire – sometimes so heavy that he was almost the only survivor – but never once did he attempt to bolt or do any of the things which might be ex-pected of an animal reputed to be so naturally timid as the horse. No, my stout-hearted horse not only kept his own fear under control, but by his example helped beyond measure.
BATTLE OF YPRES
At the First Battle of Ypres, when the British army found themselves confronted by four times their numbers of most courageous men, with an overwhelm-ing superiority of artillery gathered from all parts of their long battle line in France, then every man, from general to private soldier, and every horse, had to play his part. I did not know before that men could be so self-sacrificing and so brave. They all knew that if they failed, and the Channel ports were captured, it was all over with the Allied cause, and, perhaps, with England too. So they fought for weeks on end in blood, and mud, and misery with a spirit never equalled in the history of the British army. From there I was sent to report on the front held by the Indian contingent, and took Warrior with me. It was the wettest and gloomiest part of the line, and rifle-fire was continuous. Each side wanted to find out what the other was worth, so once again Warrior found himself exposed to that dangerous thing, rifle -and machine-gun fire.
Then I was to command all the available Canadian cavalry, to be formed into a mounted brigade, three thousand men and horses, comprising cavalry, artillery, engineers, sig-nallers and army service corps, a wonderful command for any man to be privileged to lead. Warrior was my passport wherever I went. As I rode along, whether it were in rest billets, in reserve, approaching the line, or in the midst of battle, men would say, not “Here comes the General,” but “Here’s old Warrior.”
This time Warrior had not got all the ad-vantages of being “attached to General Headquarters”. On the contrary, he found himself tethered behind a little haystack into which shells and long-range bullets would thud from time to time. But he had become war-worthy. He did not flinch or tremble, though the din of battle was deafening, and when darkness fell, and I mounted him to ride round the lines, he was cool and self-possessed. To reach the front line we had to go over a ridge which should have been in full view of the enemy, but a row of trees screened one from view. It was all the more safe if we rode there, because we covered the distance in about one quarter the time, and were therefore four times more likely to come off unscathed.
THE SOMME
As winter came on we all had a harder time. It was a very wet season, the ground was soggy, trenches were filled with water, and we were constantly getting bogged.
But it was, nevertheless, at this time, and in both succeeding winters on the Western Front, that we learnt that the horse is the only certain means of transport. The horse is vital to man in modern war. All mechanical contrivances fail when the mud gets deep; the horse suffers, but some survive to pull up the batteries, to bring up food and ammu-nition, to drag back the melancholy lines of ambulances.
The sombre close of the Battle of the Somme was cruel to horses no less than to men. The roads were so completely broken up by alternate frost, snow and rain, that the only way to get ammunition to the forward batteries was to carry it up in panniers slung on horses. Often these poor beasts, who were led forward in long strings with three shells on each side of them, would sink deep into the mud. Sometimes, in spite of all their struggles, they could not extricate themselves, and died where they fell.
Many times I accompanied these melancholy convoys with Warrior. He, too, would sometimes sink through the frozen crust into the oozing white mud below, but he was very strong, and when I jumped from his back he would somehow manage to get out. One of our troubles was that famous airman Richthofen. His observers would spot these convoys, and direct artillery fire on them, often with great effect; they would even swoop down and attack with their machine guns. On one occasion when Warrior was stuck fast a German flew down and emptied his machine-gun belt at us. Once a great shell fell near him and he was completely buried under the falling earth except for one forefoot. But with the help of a little digging we got him out unharmed except for a lameness in the off-fore.
The horses suffered terribly at the Battle of Paschendaele, even more than in the Battle of the Somme a year before. But one of the finest things about the English soldier of the front line was his invariable kindness and, indeed, his gentleness at all times to the horses. I hardly ever saw a man strike a horse in anger during all the four years of war, and again and again I have seen a man risk his life, and, indeed, lose it, for the sake of his horse.
The wet and the mud told upon Warrior’s health. Even his indomitable spirit began to grow weary and he had lost some of his spring.
MOREUIL RIDGE
On the night of March 29 we camped at a little village called Boves near the main line from Paris to Amiens. Things looked very black. I knew that if the Germans reached the ridge covering Amiens, the French and English armies had orders to fall back, the French on Paris, the English on the Channel ports.
I was woken where I was sleeping close to Warrior under a wall to hear that the German advance had continued, that they had captured the vital Moreuil Ridge, but that our infantry were holding on, much reduced in numbers. I was directed to take my brigade in that direction to help. It seemed clear that unless we recaptured the Moreuil Ridge it was all over with Amiens, and probably with the Allied cause. Sitting there on Warrior’s back I decided to attempt the apparently impossible – to recapture the Moreuil Ridge.
Warrior was strangely excited, all trace of exhaustion had gone; In some strange way, he knew that the crisis in his life had come.
The colonels of each of my regiments came galloping up. We consulted briefly, and orders were written for the attack. The plan was that I should cross the little river separating Castel from the Bois de Moreuil with my staff and my signal troop, and, as the brigade advanced, should go forward with the signal troop and plant my little triangular red flag at the point of the wood. Our infantry were only 400 yards from this point and were firing into the wood.
It seemed clear to me that under cover of their fire I could establish the flag and headquarters at the point of the wood so that every man could see, as he passed our infantry front line, that the first phase of the battle had been won. Warrior took charge and galloped as hard as he could straight for the front line.
There were about 20 of us all told when I halted for a moment and looked round to give final orders. I turned in my saddle and told my comrades that the faster we galloped the more certain we were of success, that I would tell the infantry to redouble their fire as we passed through them, and that the day was as good as ours. But I could hardly finish my sentence before Warrior again took charge.
He was determined to go forward and with a great leap started off. All sensation of fear had vanished from him as he galloped on at racing speed. There was a hail of bullets from the enemy and perhaps half of us were hit, but Warrior cared for nothing. His one idea was to get at the enemy. He almost buried his head in the brushwood when we reached the point of the wood at the chosen spot. We were greeted by 20 or 30 Germans, who fired a few shots before running, doubtless thinking there were thousands of us following.
Corporal King jammed his lance with the red flag into the ground, the survivors jumped off their horses and ran into the wood with their rifles, and the first phase of the battle was over. It was an odd way to use a signal troop.
When the war ended Warrior returned to the Isle of Wight. On 30 March 1922 he sailed home to victory in the Isle of Wight point-to-point on the anniversary of that great day when he had galloped through the British and German front lines to save Amiens and the Allied Cause. He had quite a gay time each winter, for not only did I go foxhunting with him whenever I had the time, but he became the family hunter. My son Patrick hunted him constantly, and often found himself near the head of the hunt, partly because he wished to be there, and partly because Warrior would not allow it to be otherwise.
Warrior: the amazing story of a real war horse, published by Racing Post Books
