February 2022

The Field

Champion of Britain's countryside heritage

The Field1 min read
The Field
Editor Alexandra Henton Deputy editor Ed Wills Editorial assistance Carla Passino and Madeleine Silver Group production editor Diane Cross Group art director Dean Usher Art editor Steve Mumby Picture editors Max Tremlett and Karen Whitehead Advertis
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On Our Plates Or In The Rivers?
EATING salmon, particularly smoked salmon, was, historically, a treat for special occasions. Back then it would have been wild salmon – before the great decline in populations, prompting the phasing out of the netting industry and the necessity for c
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Field In Focus
TO CONTACT THE NEWS DESK MESSAGE US VIA OUR SOCIAL CHANNELS OR SEND AN EMAIL TO CARLA.PASSINO@FUTURENET.COM With Field contributor David Tomlinson arguing that ‘when it comes to dogs, especially working gundogs, most of us are inordinately conservati
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House Sparrow
▸ During Europe’s Middle Ages, sparrows were believed to represent peasants and the lower classes. ▸ According to superstition, if a sparrow flies into your closed window and dies, it could signify the death of someone you know. ▸ William Wordsworth’
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Six Nations
THE Six Nations is the pinnacle of international rugby in the northern hemisphere, where the best six nations (clue: it’s in the name) in Europe compete against each other in their bid to be crowned champions. Initially, the competition that we all k
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Kit To Covert
♦ EMAIL SARAH.FITZPATRICK@FUTURENET.COM Gunshot sound suppression, Bluetooth compatibility, lightweight and durable against sweat, water and dust. Uses 2AAA batteries. ♦ Price £109.99 ♦ Email uk-eurosupport@isotunesaudio.com ♦ uk.isotunessport.com Da
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Letters
Email: field.secretary@futurenet.com LETTERS MAY BE EDITED FOR CLARITY OR SPACE I write this as an enthusiastic member of BASC who is supportive of its aims. I did not join for insurance but to support a voice for shooting – much the same reason that
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Worth One’s Salt
PROMISES, promises, promises. A modern-day pledge is meaningless in a world heavy with bluster and lies, with debate and compromise for wimps. So, when just about every company under the sun commits to becoming carbon neutral, don’t be surprised when
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Country Estate Of The Month
STAR BUY The main property on this estate is a six-bedroom coach house in private parkland, overlooking a lake, together with landscaped gardens, an orangery and a swimming pool. There are six further residential properties in the sale, as well as tw
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Six Of The Best: Hampshire, Surrey And Sussex
Hill House is a six-bedroom, Grade II-listed period house. There are four reception rooms, with wood burners in both the drawing and sitting rooms plus double doors out to the terrace and garden; the dining room has an open fireplace. The mature gard
The Field3 min read
Keeping A Record
NDC As another season draws to a close, I find myself leafing back through the pages of my gamebook as I write up the last few days’ sport. I have always kept a gamebook and as time marches on, I’m increasingly glad that all those days are recorded f
The Field6 min read
Sporting Adventures Abroad
The British sportsman is truly blessed. Hunters travel across the globe to enjoy our rich sporting heritage and experience the challenges and delights that our many quarry species have to offer. But while the variety and quality of sport available he
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To Book Your Break
Price $19,560 per day for exclusive and all-inclusive use of the lodge and shooting; single Gun $5,868 per day Tel 01295 661033 williampowellsporting.co.uk Price $2,100 per person, includes three full days of hunting plus a fourth day free). Exclude
The Field6 min read
A Companion For The Foreshore
Out of all of the guns that I have owned, bought and, on many more occasions, aspired to buy, wildfowling guns have become my obsession, although it took me a while to discover them. Growing up in a conventional game-shooting household, I came to the
The Field8 min read
Surf’s Up In The Seychelles
Farquhar Atoll is the most southerly atoll in the Seychelles chain of islands, lying just over 700km to the south-west of the main island, Mahe. Even in normal circumstances, trips to these remote places are carefully planned out, with little or no r
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The Roll Call Of 2021 Macnabs
"We need to do something drastic. Nothing seems to be working,” said Ward Svarvari’s gillie at breakfast after three days of flogging the North Esk river to no avail. “These Atlantic salmon were maddening,” remembers the American, who had made the tr
The Field1 min read
The Capacity For Adventure
Since starting the brand in 2014, all three founders have become fathers. In doing so we found ourselves faced with a new design challenge; the art of transporting an expanded flock and its associated cargo. Introducing the Bennett Winch Cargo Range.
The Field7 min read
Coyote Country
Early meets, fast hunts on coyote and a lavish breakfast are all part of an average day with Canada’s second oldest pack, the Toronto & North York Hunt, founded in 1843. The hounds were originally kennelled in the city but, like many other packs, the
The Field6 min read
Course Française
The relationship between England and France is not always cosy, but there is one sport that brings the two countries together: racing. The French racing scene is on fire and many people here are eyeing it up and wanting to be part of it. The sheer vo
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France’s Most Famous Races
Possibly the jewel in the French racing crown. The present sponsor, Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club, has enabled the race to become the second-richest flat race on turf, with a prize pot of €5 million, attracting the best three-year-olds (and older)
The Field8 min read
A Crime Of Fashion
Blame Hollywood. While most crime seems seedy at best, there’s a certain panache attached to art heists. The sophistication of the art world translates well into glamorous crime – at least on screen. From How to Steal a Million and The Maltese Falcon
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Henry ‘Gino’ Watkins an Arctic adventurer’s legacy
Sometime on 20 August 1932, East Greenland’s Steenstrup Glacier calved into the Tugtilik Fjord, creating a wave that capsized Henry ‘Gino’ Watkins’ kayak while he was out seal hunting. Having been taught by the Inuit, he was a skilled kayaker but, sa
The Field6 min read
Showing The Way
One of the more disappointing consequences of the modernisation of our road network is the loss of some of the old ‘street furniture’ that used to be commonplace. One example of this is the demise of the milepost or milestone. Once a common and, no d
The Field1 min readFinance & Money Management
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Country Queries
Q I have a bound copy of The Field, Vol 2, from 1874. I am trying to find the value of this and if anyone is interested in purchasing it. MC, by email A The magazine appears to be Field & Stream, an American publication not related to The Field. I ha
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Country Estate
ARA ARARAUNA Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots, by Edward Lear, 1832 This blue-and-yellow macaw is one of 42 hand-coloured lithographs that make up Edward Lear’s Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots. Published i
The Field6 min read
The outlaw Charles Ross
A CONFESSION: I sometimes over analyse things, a trait I suspect I share with many writers. I’ve recently been fretting about a newly bought WJ Jeffrey box-lock, which is ‘only’ chambered for 2½in cartridges. My chum, Dan – who knows more about shoot
The Field2 min read
The Velo-dog
THE name Velo-Dog, in its various guises, hints at the use to which this little pistol was to be put: to be carried on your ‘velocipede’ – or, as we know it today, your bicycle – to protect the rider. In the early days of cycling, around the 1870s, i
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Art In The Field
STEPHEN HENDERSON’S studio looks out over the Essex marshes near Hamford Water. He describes the scene: “Winter is here and there are big flocks of teal and wigeon and I can see golden plover and curlew. When there is snow the mudflats are covered an
The Field1 min read
The Boot Room
Handmade in North Wales, these oak leaf-designed candle sconces are enough to make one long for evening so you can light them, bringing cheer to any gloom. Made of brass and silver solder, each piece is sustainable and unique. Allow to tarnish natura
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Serving A Red Herring
FOR a striking snapshot of just how radically Britain has changed over the past century or so, head to the kitchen. One wonders what the Edwardians would have made of Yotam Ottolenghi and Jamie Oliver. They might have been rather thrown by pomegranat
The Field4 min read
Beretta SL3 20-bore
THE Beretta SL3 20-bore we tested was supplied by GMK of Fareham. The firm is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and for more than 40 of those years it has been the UK’s Beretta importer. This is a gun from Beretta’s Premium range and carries a recomm
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Rose Cameron
MY first day’s hunting was with the Essex & Suffolk when I was nine years old and we were living in Colchester with the Army, but it was with the Bedale during the next two seasons that I really caught the bug. By the time we returned home to Glouces
The Field4 min read
Taking A Well-earned Rest
IT’S not often that you see pensioners in the shooting field – canine I mean, not human – as shooting is, for a dog, hard work. Many of us hope that our dogs will carry on working until they are 12, perhaps even 13, but the harsh truth is that most w
The Field4 min readRegional & Ethnic
A Romantic Repast
AS the patron saint of lovers, beekeepers, epilepsy and the Umbrian city of Terni, Saint Valentine has a lot on his plate. With this in mind, if you are a romantic and plan to celebrate 14 February, a little planning and preparation to help create th
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Drink To Me Only…
I’M usually excused from Valentine’s Day duties, having had the foresight to get married on 11 February all those years ago. Mrs Ray turns a blind eye to what she – rather unfortunately – terms the VD celebrations, on the strict understanding that I
The Field1 min read
Six Of The Best Valentine’s Wines
(£13.99 per 37.5cl, Majestic) The finest of all sweet wines for partnering chocolate, with a cheeky love heart on the label, too. (£15.99, Simply Wines Direct) Soft, smooth, mellow red from California, ideal for quaffing on a rug by the fireside. (£2
The Field3 min read
Conservation And Sport
Duff Hart-Davis has written a spellbinding tale about an extraordinary conservationist: Jim Corbett. Such are the author’s skills as a countryman that the reader can almost feel the insect bites and tension in the jungle of late-19th-century Northern
The Field2 min read
Toyota Highlander Excel
AFTER a run of headline-grabbing, eye-brow-raising, tyre-smoking Toyotas (Supra, GR Yaris), it’s time to look at something a little more sensible: the new Highlander. I say ‘new’, but it has been proving popular in other parts of the world for more t
The Field4 min read
From The Archives
Turkey in Asia is a good shooting country. Small game abounds and one can count on a good mixed bag of migratory birds: woodcock, quail, snipe, duck and such like. Red and grey partridge are ubiquitous, francolin only being found in Cilicia. Wild boa

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