The Old Swede: August 22th, 2025
The World Beyond the Gunroom: A weekly dispatch from the edges of tradition, craftsmanship, and refined field life.
Off-Road Well
The Rigby Defender — Safari Spirit Meets British Steel
In collaboration with Squire Editions, Traditional English Cases (TEG) and the legendary gunmaker John Rigby & Co. collaborated on a Rigby Defender—a bespoke expression of British adventure built atop the strength of the Land Rover Defender 130. Designed with the modern hunter-explorer in mind, the Rigby Defender is not a showroom gimmick, but a functional, field-ready vehicle imbued with craftsmanship that mirrors Rigby’s storied guns.
The truck features canvas and leather interiors, engraved Rigby crest accents, gun slip racks, and compartments designed for ammunition, optics, and even full-length rifles and shotguns. These vehicles can be commissioned through Squire Editions, making each subsequent vehicle bespoke, a collector's piece for those whose hearts live between the range and the hill.
The styling evokes safari roots: classic green bodywork, gunboxes, pressurized water supply, and large canvas awning. The result is a Defender that looks equally at home in the Scottish Highlands, Tanzanian bush, or the gravel drives of West Sussex.
More than a promotional vehicle, the Rigby Defender is a moving tribute to sportsmen, explorers, and those who still write their stories across vast, wild maps.
Read more about the Rigby Defender
London Best
Dunhill at Bourdon House — Field Luxury with a Mayfair Address
Just off Berkeley Square in Mayfair, Bourdon House is the former London residence of the Duke of Westminster—and since 2005, home to Alfred Dunhill’s flagship store. But to call it a "store" is misleading. It’s a manor of masculine elegance, where luxury lives in leather, metal, and quiet precision.
Inside, Dunhill offers more than bespoke tailoring. One finds handmade luggage, cigar accessories, sporting watches, and writing instruments crafted with obsessive detail. The Barber at Bourdon, a private grooming room in the basement, is run with Savile Row-level discretion. Upstairs, the Dunhill Clubroom is a members-only lounge where one can sip Scotch beside an oil portrait, often in the company of those who shoot, race, and collect with purpose.
Field jackets here are made with Ventile cotton and finished with horn buttons. Cufflinks are cast in automotive aluminum. Everything whispers of British legacy, adapted for the man who still packs for both mountains and museums.
Whether you're fitting a suit or choosing a weekend bag in Havana leather, Bourdon House reminds you: field life doesn’t end when you return to town—it evolves.
Suggested Read:
Alfred Dunhill: The Art of Living
Art & Ephemera
Rodger McPhail — The Grouse in Stillness and Sky
Regarded as one of the most gifted living wildlife artists in Britain, Rodger McPhail captures the grouse moor like no one else—blending anatomical precision with an uncanny sense of field rhythm. His grouse paintings are not just beautiful; they are faithful. They speak of wind, scent, altitude, and tradition.
Whether in flight or paused among heather, McPhail’s red grouse are depicted with the eye of a sportsman and the soul of a naturalist. His technique—layered watercolor and oil, often with dry-brushed detail—offers both motion and quietude. You’ll find no sentimental over-romanticizing here. Just the wild bird, as it is.
His works have appeared in the Royal Academy, the Game Fair, and in private lodges across Scotland and Yorkshire. Originals, when available, command high prices, but his signed prints remain sought after by Guns who recognize in his brushwork something they’ve seen through their barrels: a flash of chestnut wing and the roll of sky.
To own a McPhail grouse is to own a stillness—a brief pause in the ancient pulse of the moor.
Suggested Read:
Rodger McPhail: An Artist by Nature
Gamekeeper Journal Entry
Highland Notes — Loch Aber Beat, September 1926
"Rain early, lifting by 0900. Found fresh slot near the Glen side — stag likely passed before dawn. Wind west, held steady. Shifted the line above the scree. Beaters in good order. His Grace’s guest shot a fine 8-pointer, broad chest, dark horn."
So reads the September 1926 entry from the Loch Aber Beat Book, preserved in the Highland Estate Archives. These ledgers offer something beyond game tallies—they are an intimate chronicle of weather, quarry, dog work, and the quiet observations of men whose eyes never left the horizon.
The unnamed keeper noted that "the ponies took well to the slope, though the garron kicked at the second load." Such entries remind us of the interdependence between man, beast, and landscape—a triangle of patience forged in mist and effort.
What endures in these pages is not nostalgia but accuracy. A good stalk doesn’t announce itself. It whispers through bent grass, garron hooves, and a distant crow.
Suggested Read:
The Keeper’s Book — Sir Peter Jeffrey Mackie
British Campaign Lore
Traditional English Gun Cases — Walnut, Felt, and Monogrammed Steel
The English gun case is more than a container—it is a legacy box. Often bespoke and passed through generations, these cases embody the same craftsmanship as the fine guns they protect.
Classic formats include the oak and leather case for travel, the lightweight canvas-over-wood case for field use, and the motor case adapted for the age of the estate car. The interiors are lined with baize or red felt, fitted precisely to the action, barrels, and fore-end. Good examples include compartments for oil bottles, snap caps, cleaning rods, and a hand-engraved nameplate.
Gunmakers like Purdey, Holland & Holland, Westley Richards, and Boss & Co. commissioned specialist case builders—such as Brady, Huey, and Swaine Adeney Brigg—to make each box a work of both engineering and elegance.
Today, vintage cases in excellent condition are highly collectible—especially if still bearing the brass corners, riveted leather strapping, and period shipping labels from W. J. Jeffery or Woodward.
A fine gun deserves a proper home—and the case, like the gun, should tell a story even when silent.
Suggested Read:
The British Gun Case: 1780–Present — Alistair Rolls
Shooting Estate or Club Invitation
Mark’s Club — The Mayfair Retreat of Guns, Statesmen, and Old Friends
Tucked away on Charles Street in the heart of Mayfair, Mark’s Club remains one of London’s most discreet and impeccably run private members’ clubs. Established in 1973 and now part of The Birley Clubs, Mark’s is known for its paneled dining rooms, impeccable service, and quiet appeal to those who prefer heritage over hype.
While not a shooting club in the strictest sense, its member list no doubt has those of Britain’s field sports culture, land agents, Highlands estate owners, and shooting guests who know their loaders by name. Conversations can drift between pheasant counts, Purdey commissions, and Burgundy pairings.
With its custom wallpaper, comfortable chairs, and house rules that allow for dogs, Mark’s feels like a proper drawing room after a long day on the hill. The terrace bar is a favored spot for cigars post, Chelsea Flower Show, and post-Grouse season. Their cigar humidor holds some of the finest cigars available, and if you're unsure what to pick, ask their in-house Cigar Sommelier.
Here, deals are made over cigars and a glass of fine scotch. And while you won’t find shotguns in the cloakroom, you will find the people who know what it means to carry one well.
Suggested Reads:
Mark’s Club: A Private Portrait — Simon Loftus
Quote from the GunPlow Library
"Clubland is another country, redolent of the past, but, for its few thousand regular inhabitants, still an important part of their daily lives;… a place both luxurious and shabby, full of marvellous possessions and curious bric‑a‑brac accumulated over three centuries."
— Anthony Lejeune & Malcolm Lewis, The Gentlemen’s Clubs of London
GunPlow Classic Library Coming Soon
