In the late 1980s, I was involved in the making of two series of programmes for Channel 4, entitled Village Show. We visited flower shows all over the kingdom, including one close to where I lived. I remember the director saying to me, with a melancholy shake of the head,…
In John Martin Robinson’s magnificent book A Guide to the Country Houses of the North West (1991), there are many examples of the private mansions of Lancashire that no longer stand or have been ousted into commercial or municipal use. Against this backdrop of progress, the 14th-century Inn at Whitewell,…
It is not every day that you take a bite from a police dog. But this is exactly what I am doing thanks to the persuasive skills of the Countess Bathurst, the chatelaine of Cirencester Park, Gloucestershire. She’s described by the Duchess of Rutland in her popular podcast Duchess as…
This month’s test focuses on a best 32in Arrizabalaga sidelock side-by-side pigeon gun. It is equipped with an inertia- operated, non-selective single trigger, a flat file-cut rib and chokes fixed at 1/2 and 3/4 (relatively open by pigeon gun standards). The gun has side-clips to the barrels, a capped full-pistol-grip…
I can’t help it. Every time a friend tells me that they bought their house because of the wonderfully friable, medium loam soil in the garden, I gnash my teeth. How I should love such a house. But I chose to live in Northamptonshire, where there’s a good chance any…
As one gratefully breaks away from the M1 and sets sail west past Chesterfield’s crooked spire, it is when the hedges give way to stone walls that the transition to the Peak District is marked. I spent much of my childhood yomping around bits of Derbyshire as my father was…
Being the fishing consultant for Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing has been the best gig of my professional life. I’ve been part of a great team of talented, dedicated professionals, and been given a ticket to travel to the most wondrous rivers and lakes in the UK. Above all, though,…
This month we look at two EJ Churchill Hercules guns. The guns, a 12-bore and a 20-bore, are over-and-unders made in association with Battista Rizzini in northern Italy but benefit from EJ Churchill’s gunmaking, game-shooting and instructional experience. EJ CHURCHILL HERCULES REVIEW Both guns are sideplated and profusely engraved with…
The Arch at Fonthill is cartoon grand: a soaring masterpiece built in 1755 to mark the entrance to the original Fonthill estate and welcome a steady flow of Georgian A-listers from Turner to Byron who visited this rolling corner of Wiltshire. THE ARCH, FONTHILL Perched on the hill beyond is…
This month we look at a Franchi Esprit side-by-side 20-bore from GMK. It has a single selective trigger, multi-chokes and weighs just 5lb 12oz. Our test gun has 28in steel-shot-friendly, fleur-de- lys-proofed barrels equipped with a traditional game rib, and is also available in 20- or 12-bore with 30in barrels.…
