North, on the Twelfth
Grouse season opens on the Twelfth of August, and it has done so since the Game Act of 1831 settled the matter. Red grouse cannot be farmed or found anywhere outside the heather moorland of the British Isles...
Countryside
Mr Christie's Idea: The Making of Glyndebourne
The man who built Glyndebourne liked to receive his guests in lederhosen. John Christie was a Sussex landowner of ample means and firmer opinions, and by the spring of 1934 he had arrived at the view that what the English countryside chiefly wanted was Mozart
The Boxing Day Meet
The day after Christmas is the great day in all the hunting counties," wrote Trollope. St. Stephen's Day brings out the regulars, the once-a-season followers, visiting relations in borrowed boots, and half the village. It's magnificent chaos, and not remotely about the actual hunting.
The Last Wild Game
Ask a keeper to promise woodcock and watch the evasion begin. They arrive from Scandinavia when weather pushes them south, refuse to be managed, and preserve what most shooting has eliminated: genuine uncertainty.
The Grey Partridge and What It Tells Us
The grey partridge belongs to a particular kind of English countryside – one that existed before intensive farming, before broad-spectrum pesticides, and before the landscape was asked to produce quite so much, quite so quickly.
Christmas Cards Without Leaving the House
Not everyone can make it to a London stationer before the Christmas run begins. Fortunately, several sources worth knowing have made it rather easy to order quality cards without leaving one's desk. These are not the digital print-on-demand services that clutter the internet, but rather...