Country Mouse

Spring fever

POINT-TO-POINTS can be all things to all people: there is racing, of course, starting with ridiculously fast pony-racing, but so much else, too. My own preoccupation this spring was the family dog show, a terrifically English event, with sleek whippets, noble pointers and cheeky dachshunds filling the rope ring, clutched by eager children and nonchalant fathers. Tiffin, my miniature-poodle puppy, won two rosettes and snoozed comfortably in his ribbon-adorned crate afterwards as I helped serve tea and cake to owners and officials in the hospitality tent. Elsewhere, falcons swooped and terriers raced, hounds paraded and copious cider was served to the thousands of people delighted to be returning to the course at Parham in West Sussex. The hunt coffers received a welcome boost after the parched Covid years and the untiring efforts of those behind the scenes were fully rewarded.

Later that month, I experienced another delight of the English spring for the first time. Although threatened in many places by loss of habitat (page 88), nightingales still sing on an ancient common managed by the Sussex Wildlife Trust. As dusk fell and the blackbirds and blackcaps quietened, their liquid song poured from the brambles. According to our guide Peter, there were no fewer than five males competing lustily for the attention of potential paramours. Long may their courtship continue.