|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rural
|
     |
| Click
here for current Cover to Cover Rural
titles on ABE Will open in a new window - prices in UK Pounds. |
I suppose the pleasure of country life lies really in the eternally renewed evidences of the determination to live.Vita Sackville-West, Country Notes |
| Selected Titles: |
 |
A
Gamekeeper's Note-book Owen Jones & Marcus Woodward Intro by John Humphreys Excellent Press 1st thus 2002 This classic country book was first published in 1910 during the heyday of the grand sporting estates of England. The Edwardian gamekeeper was the ultimate professional countryman, responsible for raising birds on a large scale and in charge of the protection of game over substantial acreage. To succeed, he had to know everything about the wildlife on his patch and also about his crafty and sometimes dangerous adversary, the poacher. A Gamekeeper's Notebook provides an absorbing account of the keeper's daily life and work month by month through the seasons. It reveals the secrets of the trade, the ways of the pheasant and the stoat, the hare and the magpie, the partridge and the fox, the badger and the crow, as well as the methods of the night poacher, with long net and snare. It is probably the most authoritative book of its kind ever produced. Large 8vo. Mint in a Fine wrapper. Facsimile of the original 1910 edition. 640 gms £60.00 |
| Shooting
and Gunfitting Arthur Hearn Herbert Jenkins 5th printing no date A lifetime's experience of gunfitting and shooting bas gone. to the making of this invaluable book. Both the beginner and the accomplished shot will find it indispensable, and they cannot but study it with interest and profit. Practically every aspect of shooting is covered-safety first, cartridges, loading, marksmanship and the right way to shoot, the shooting position, and gunmounting. Grouse, partridge, pheasant, and other game shooting are dealt with fully. It also includes chapters on plating and patterns, barrel bores and barrel lengths, re-stocking, gun-cleaning, and a great variety of other matters of vital interest to all sportsmen. "A remarkably good book written by an expert." SHOOTING TIMES. 8vo. Dustwrapper in a library-type protector, very minor wear + very slight dulling to dustwrapper, gift inscription to front free endpaper, otherwise VG++ in a VG++ wrapper. 300 gms £10.00 |
 |
 |
The
Second Meadow For three months Archie
Hill did what we have all dreamed of - he turned his back on civilization
and, with the minimum support of a gun and a tent, refused all human contact
and lived rough in the woods. This extraordinary book documents that experience
in all its hardship and richness - for in the process Archie Hill saw
the whole world with a fresh eye. He communicates his insights in strikingly
vivid prose which has the qualities and inspiration of poetry. |
A Backwoodsman's Year R W F Poole Michael Joseph 1st 1990 What, you may ask, is the definition of a backwoods man? R.W.F. Poole says, 'Backwoodsmen live in remote areas of the country from which they seldom emerge. On occasion, you may encounter them in cities when they have to visit their "man of business" or have their bi-annual haircut. You can recognise them by their high complexion and the smell of mothballs from their suit that was almost certainly their father's before them. But, in the end, a backwoodsman's life lies down secret lanes and upon windswept hills: they like dogs, old friends, old clothes and, it has to be said, old port.' R.W.F. Poole has been fortunate enough to live and work in some of the most beautiful parts of England. He has been privileged to catch a glimpse of, and even be a part of, an England which may soon be gone for ever. In this immensely entertaining book, he writes about his life as a backwoodsman so that it can be read when the time comes for the politicians and bureaucrats to catch the remaining members of the breed, stuff them and stick them in a museum. He tells of the days of glorious hunting, and inglorious hunt balls; he recalls dramas in the lambing shed, and he describes the occasional forays that all backwoods men allow themselves -like the farmers' suppers, hound shows and lobster fishing. All these are threaded with achingly funny anecdotes taken from his previous colourful experiences as Master of Hounds and stalwart of the English country scene. Fine in a Fine wrapper. Signed by the author on a bookplate to the front free endpaper. 410 gms £25.00 |
 |
 |
The Land Where I Belong Aubrey Seymour Roundwood Press 1st 1968 Farming has often been described as 'a way of life' as distinct from 'a living,' and countless numbers of town dwellers cherish an envious respect for the countryman's lot. Sadly but inevitably, the age-old picturesque pattern of green-finger, stock-sense husbandry has yielded to the rule-of-thumb techniques of factory-style production; and sadly, too, few who have witnessed the transformation at first hand have recorded their reactions and their memories of the pleasures and hazards of old-time farming ways. Aubrey Seymour answered the call of the land in the draught horse cultivation days of the early years of the century, and became his own master before he was twenty. He experienced some of its harsher disciplines across the Atlantic on the prairies of Manitoba at the age of sixteen, and subsequently returned to his native Midlands to farm in Warwickshire, where he still lives in active but contemplative retirement at Shipston-on-Stour. The Land Where I Belong - the title is a happily apt quotation from 'The West Wind' of John Masefield - is a remarkable testament of devotion to a farming career extending across six decades. Mr Seymour's vivid reminiscences of a quietly eventful lifetime close to nature and happily bound to the soil provide a piquant insight into a rural economy that has changed a1most beyond recognition since his chi1dhood. His acutely developed powers of observation and his incisively retentive memory are free from the falsifying self-delusions of nostalgia, however. 'I have been a farmer, on and off, for over sixty years,’ he writes in unrepentant conclusion in his final chapter. ‘I have not made a fortune, but I have had a wonderful life, and if I were given the chance to begin again as a boy, I should choose to be a farmer again.’ His book is not only the portrayal of a wonderful life richly endowed with interests and satisfactions, but also an unassuming literary achievement that will bring new delights to all who have reveled in the farming classics of A. G. Street and Adrian Bell. Beyond its invaluable record of agricultural conditions since the turn of the century, its sensitive but entirely unromanticised perceptions of wild life habits and behaviour attain a lyrical quality that justifies comparison with Selborne’s Gilbert White, enlivened by shafts of gently philosophical humour worthy of Izaak Walton; the author’s chivalrous approach to the pursuit of ‘fur, feather and fin’ will be warmly approved by all field sports enthusiasts. Indeed, for everyone who loves the English countryside in all its varied aspects and activities, this is a book to be welcomed and enjoyed at first acquaintance and to be re-read and dipped-into time and again with renewed and enhanced appreciation. Chips + wear to dustwrapper, especially to the top edge, otherwise VG++ in a VG+ wrapper. Extremely scarce. 448 gms £65.00 |
The Complete Gundog John Humphreys David & Charles 1990 There are many books available on gun-dogs but few, if any, written by more than one person. This new and comprehensive guide, edited and compiled by top sporting journalist John Humphreys, uses thirteen — all international experts - including some of the legendary names in the gundog world: Bill Meldrum, HM The Queen's head keeper at Sandringham; John Halstead of Drakeshead, breeder of many a field trial champion; Peter Moxon, for forty years the Shooting Times gundog columnist, and many more. There has never been a time in the history of shooting when dog work has been more keenly followed: the view is widely held that a shooting man or woman who ventures forth dogless is poorly equipped indeed. In this unique book, each contributor takes one aspect of the subject and examines it in depth, drawing on his or her own experience and expertise to provide the detailed knowledge so essential to success. From breeding and early training to field trials and working at the highest level in the shooting field, every aspect of gundog work is covered. A wide range of breeds is also discussed, with generous reference to the increasingly popular HPRs. Linking the main chapters are case histories of a succession of one-man labradors owned by the editor, each different, and each with a lesson to teach. There are also hitherto unpublished stories of dog work in the shooting field by HM The Queen, and much more. John Palev's superb illustrations, black-and-white pictures from Dave Parfitt and some remarkable colour photography by J.L. Barnard complete a sumptuously illustrated and richly informative book, which will prove invaluable to the beginner and experienced sportsman alike. 4to. VG++ in a VG++ wrapper. 850 gms £20.00 |
 |
| TOP |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|