Recent content by Isbister

I am selling my black hunting coat. It is in very good to perfect condition, heavyweight cavalry twill with tattersall check lining and three buttons. It is a size 44 long fitting (I am 6'5"). Serious offers invited - if anyone would like photos or specific measurements, please reply.

I suppose it takes all sorts, but I don't know why you bother posting here, on a forum intended for hunting matters, when I get the impression you don't really approve of hunting. But perhaps you can explain to me why a group of people engaging in an activity that is entirely legal, on private...

It's a bit more complex than that - there is resentment of a number of things that the hunt represents to those of the anti mindset. The antis also have a rather grim and joyless determination to impose their own view of things.

It may be the perception that the hunt get a thrill from persecuting foxes - that is the idea that the antis like to cultivate. I can only say that, from my own participation in different hunts, the enjoyment was derived principally from the riding and the sheer unpredictability of the chase. A...

Are you talking about hunting pre-ban? Accidental kills, perhaps? I've seen more than a few kills, but none were 'horrific' - swift and clean are the adjectives that come to mind. The corpse being torn apart by hounds is something that generally happens post mortem, but either way, it's a far...

You may be right. As to the restaurant, it's food is good; the prices are modest; and they don't take bookings. In London, the result is a queue.

There is no direct link between Brexit and hunting; I simply meant that over the last two years or so, the Brexit debate appears to have brought to light a growing streak of intolerance in the country at large that was not so apparent at one time. An inability to appreciate other people's points...

I am beginning to doubt it. Just before Christmas, while standing in a queue outside an Italian restaurant in Borough Market, I (and the entire queue) was harangued by a sandal-clad vegan with a megaphone. Turning it to max, and standing about 10 feet away, he roundly scolded us in a vaguely...

I'm not sure that leaving the sloes in for longer than a year will improve the taste, but I doubt whether any form of decay will set in. I've been making sloe gin for years and some of my most successful vintages have been decanted after only four months. There are various things one can do with...

The vultures are beginning to circle. A resurgent Corbyn manoeuvring for power - it could soon happen. Last one to leave, turn out the lights.

I too am a member of the National Trust - in fact I have supported it for many years, but while in many respects it does a fantastic job, I feel there is something amiss. Last week I believe it was reported that, as some form of interim measure, the NT intended to publicise forthcoming meets on...

It's clear to me that the National Trust is in danger of becoming unpleasantly politicised, and in the wrong way. The business at Felbrigg Hall is an indication that the NT will go out of its way to court the PC element, and a logical extension of that would be to ban hunting on NT property. Of...

Try E-bay - things like vintage crops and saddle flasks seem to sell well there.

^Thank you JM. I don't know if there was anything secret about the hunting community doing what it could - as it always does - to achieve the mirage-like massive Tory majority. At election times I usually receive numerous round-robin emails from my hunt secretary and various others soliciting...

I think it's quite clear what I'm saying. I'm not going to name names, but it would be disingenuous to say otherwise.