The Old Swede: August 15th, 2025
The World Beyond the Gunroom: Where heritage motors, London tailoring, sporting traditions, and fine art converge with the scent of gun oil and old leather.
Off-Road Well
Dakar Porsche — Stuttgart’s Desert-Bred Outlaw
In 1984, Porsche stunned the rally world with the 953, a heavily modified 911 Carrera built to compete in the grueling Paris–Dakar Rally. It wasn’t just an experiment—it was a revelation. Fitted with long-travel suspension, a reinforced chassis, and Porsche’s first-ever four-wheel-drive system, the 953 conquered dunes, gravel, and searing desert heat to take first place under René Metge.
It wasn’t the fastest Porsche ever made. But it may be the boldest.
The DNA of the Dakar legacy lives on in today’s 2023 Porsche 911 Dakar, a tribute model raised 50mm above standard, equipped with Pirelli Scorpion A/T tires, and optional Rothmans livery. It’s absurd, luxurious, and totally capable. You can take it from Mayfair to Marrakesh without blinking.
The Dakar Porsche has become a symbol of elegant audacity—a gentleman’s scalpel forged for the wild. For those who think the Land Rover defines sporting class, the Dakar 911 offers a sharper, faster rebuttal from the tarmac-turned-trail.
Learn more about Porsche 911 Dakar
Suggested Read:
Rally Giants: Porsche 911 — Ian Wagstaff
London Best
William Evans — Gunmaker of Quiet Refinement Since 1883
Founded in 1883 by a former Holland & Holland stocker, William Evans has carved out its niche as one of the most understated and quietly esteemed London gunmakers. Still operating from 67a St. James’s Street, Evans serves the traditional sporting man who appreciates quality without ostentation.
Best known for its lightweight side-by-side game guns, the house specializes in 12- and 20-bore models often seen in the hands of discerning Guns from Gloucestershire to Glenlivet. Their focus is on shootable elegance—guns that balance naturally and carry easily from peg to covert. Each is bespoke, but never brash.
Evans also offers a curated selection of field wear and accessories, from cartridge bags and slip cases to tweed shooting coats and moleskin trousers. The shop atmosphere evokes another era: wood-paneled walls, vintage fly reels, and the faint scent of linseed and smoke.
While others chase the exotic or avant-garde, William Evans remains faithful to the ideal that the true sportsman’s reputation is felt, not flaunted.
Suggested Read:
London Gunmakers — Nigel Brown
Art & Ephemera
The Weiss Gallery — Tudor Power and Portraits at 59 Jermyn Street
The walls of The Weiss Gallery, discreetly nestled on Jermyn Street, do not hold landscapes or still lifes—they hold gazes. Specializing in Tudor and Stuart portraiture, this gallery presents some of the finest examples of English power, vanity, and martial glamour ever committed to oil.
To walk through the Weiss is to meet Henry VIII’s courtiers, Cavalier generals, and velvet-draped ladies who once brokered land, titles, and war. Many pieces are by painters like William Larkin, Cornelius Johnson, and Sir Peter Lely—artists whose subjects posed not for posterity, but for persuasion.
The detail is riveting: starched lace, gold thread, bejeweled hilts, and penetrating eyes. These are not romantic renderings—they are reputations frozen in varnish. Each painting is meticulously researched, often revealing family lineages, battlefield honors, and royal connections. The gallery itself—dark walls, brass lighting, and Georgian glass—is as dignified as its contents.
Collectors of sporting, military, or aristocratic heritage find the Weiss an irresistible trove. After all, what better addition to your gunroom than the painted stare of someone who wore a doublet and ordered a volley?
Suggested Read:
Dynasties: Painting in Tudor & Jacobean England — Karen Hearn
Gamekeeper Journal Entry
“Wind Before the Drive” — Ledger of H. Godwin, Wiltshire, October 1911
"Mist sat heavy on Rook Covert. Four brace flushed early. Beat line held well until the south hedgerow, where a cock flushed low and fast toward the turnip rows. Sir M. took him clean. One fox spotted crossing the frost path by the stone wall. Terriers tomorrow."
This 1911 entry from Henry Godwin, keeper on the Little Barrow Estate in Wiltshire, captures the timeless choreography of a driven shoot. The tension before the horn. The adjustments to wind. The pride in a well-timed shot.
Godwin kept meticulous field notes, detailing feed patterns, predator activity, and beaters’ assignments. His October notes, particularly near the Full Moon drives, show an almost poetic awareness of sound and movement—"faint wingbeats like torn silk" appears in one margin.
He also recorded dog behavior, commenting on his Labrador bitch “Nellie” for “stealing a partridge, but too sweet to scold.” These notes—recovered during a barn clean-out in 1976—now reside in the Wiltshire Heritage Archive.
They remind us that every polished gun and silk-lined case began with a dawn mist, a bramble snag, and the judgment of men whose names never made the guest list.
Wiltshire Heritage Archive, Collection #347B
British Campaign Lore
The Livery of the Peg — The Meaning Behind a Sportsman’s Dress
In the world of British driven shooting, appearance isn’t vanity—it’s tradition encoded in cloth. The tweed shooting suit, the plus fours, the checked shirt, and the tie—even when tucked into a fleece—represent more than etiquette; they are the uniform of a centuries-old code of conduct.
The practice of donning specific shooting attire traces back to the Victorian gentry, who adopted functional fashion to manage heat, brush, and movement while remaining distinct from their beaters. Tweeds were dyed to match moor and woodland. Breeks allowed freedom of leg. The tie? A nod to order and heritage.
But these aren’t just traditions for tradition’s sake. Estate photographs, from Holkham to Duncombe, show generations outfitted with near-identical precision. To dress appropriately is to honor your host, your dog, and the birds themselves.
Today, modern fabric technology offers waterproof tweeds and articulated cuts, but the silhouette remains. A well-tied tie on the peg is not affectation—it is the sign of someone who’s been asked back before.
Shooting Estate or Club Invitation
The Royal Automobile Club — A Sporting Man’s Base in St. James’s
Located at 89 Pall Mall, the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) is one of London’s most distinguished private members’ clubs. Founded in 1897, its purpose was to champion the cause of motoring in Britain—but over time, it became a broader haven for elegant leisure, networking, and cultural tradition.
The Pall Mall clubhouse features grand interiors: oak-panelled lounges, the famed Long Bar, a magnificent Great Gallery, a stately library, and private dining rooms used for member events, lectures, and formal dinners. The club also houses a Turkish bath, billiards room, and historic archives of motoring culture. While there is no public record of formal connections to shooting councils or sporting estates, many members historically held interests in a variety of traditional British field sports.
Though its primary mission remains motoring and hospitality, the RAC’s setting in St. James’s—near gunmakers, tailors, and gentleman’s outfitters—has made it a cultural neighbor to Britain’s traditional sporting class.
Suggested Reads:
The Royal Automobile Club: A History — David Venable
