A BRACE of English setters, creamy patches in a haze of purple, are working into the wind ahead. They’re covering the moor quickly, but as effortlessly as the zephyr trembling the bell heather. Abruptly, the lead dog—the older, more experienced bitch—stops her tacking as the scent of grouse fills her nostrils. Seconds later, the younger dog also collects the waft and they lower their supple bodies, head level, to gather in and analyze the strength and direction of the smell. At this stage, they are still dog-like—but, as the scent grows hotter, they grow more feline, placing each slow step with the care of a stalking tiger. Finally, they halt. They have ‘set’ their game.
Within feet is a covey of grouse, the birds’ eyes fixed on the setter and hers on them in what seems a hypnotic trance. If unbroken, it could last for 20 minutes as prey and predator wait for the other to move first and react accordingly. However, the dogs’ handler quickly arrives, together with two guns, who position themselves on either side of the setters. The play now reaches its final act. The dog man urges his charges forward, the covey explodes from the heather and the guns select the bigger, darker cock grouse, two of which tumble by a burn to be rapidly retrieved by a grey-muzzled labrador, for retrieving is his prerogative. The brace is put carefully in the game bag and the setters flow out to find the next covey.
For lovers of wild places, wild game, and skilled dog work, harvesting game over setters and their cousins, pointers, is a sport of soul-lifting beauty and an ancient one. Peregrines, not shotguns, once worked with pointing dogs to bag grouse and still do on moors rented by falconers. Setters were used to freezing the covey as men, often poachers threw a net over it.
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin August 11, 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin August 11, 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Put some graphite in your pencil
Once used for daubing sheep, graphite went on to become as valuable as gold and wrote Keswick's place in history. Harry Pearson inhales that freshly sharpened-pencil smell
Dulce et decorum est
Michael Sandle is the Wilfred Owen of art, with his deeply felt sense of the futility of violence. John McEwen traces the career of this extraordinary artist ahead of his 88th birthday
Heaven is a place on earth
For the women of the Bloomsbury group, their country gardens were places of refuge, reflection and inspiration, as well as a means of keeping loved ones close by, discovers Deborah Nicholls-Lee
A haunt of ancient peace - The gardens at Iford Manor, near Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire The home of the Cartwright-Hignett family
After recent renovations, this masterpiece of Harold Peto's garden-making must be counted one of the finest gardens in England
It's the plants, stupid
I WON my first prize for gardening when I was nine years old at prep school. My grandmother was delighted-it was she who had sent me the seeds of godetia, eschscholtzia and Virginia stock that secured my victory.
Pretty as a picture
The proliferation of honey-coloured stone cottages is part of what makes the Cotswolds so beguiling. Here, we pick some of our favourites currently on the market
How golden was my valley
These four magnificent Cotswold properties enjoy splendid views of hill and dale
Mere moth or merveille du jour?
Moths might live in the shadows of their more flamboyant butterfly counterparts, but some have equally artistic names, thanks to a 'golden' group, discovers Peter Marren
The magnificent seven
The Mars Badminton Horse Trials, the oldest competition of its kind in the world, celebrates its 75th anniversary this weekend. Kate Green chooses seven heroic winners in its history
Angels in the house
Winged creatures, robed figures and celestial bodies are under threat in a rural church. Jo Caird speaks to the conservators working to save northern Europe's most complete Romanesque wall paintings