Attired for autumn

The changing of the seasons leads to an inevitable shift in the sporting wardrobe as flat caps, fore-and-afts and ratcatchers come out of hibernation, say Neil and Serena Cross

- Neil and Serena Cross

NDC NOW THAT autumn is stealing in on us from the hedge bottoms like a musty amber vapour and the evenings are feeling much cooler and shorter, it is time for that great annual treat of shaking the moths out of the tweeds.

My relationship with Tinea pellionella, the case-bearing clothes moth, is both obsessive and fiery because we live in an old, damp house that is full of tweed and taxidermy. This is effectively like the Food Hall of Fortnum's to those tiny, powdery destroyers or, more correctly, their hateful little grubs.

But I digress. My battery of Haggarts Pattern 101 sporting tweeds is so hairy and tough that the moth larvae break their teeth on it and it emerges gloriously unscathed at this time of the year. The cashmere might look like the ensign off the stern of HMS Victory at Trafalgar but the tweeds live on.

As a daily wearer of the flat cap, it is now at least starting to earn its keep again after a summer of being left on the dashboard or stuffed in a coat pocket. The cooler weather means that other titfer treats can be retrieved from antlers or cupboards and put to good use again. I particularly enjoy a good fore-and-aft or deerstalker (with or without flaps) when woodcock shooting in the worst westerly weather. That rain-catcher on the back is a wonderful piece of design and keeps the dry-collared morale up all day.