The Old Swede: July 25, 2025
Sporting history and lifestyle — A celebration of mobility, manners, memory, and the mapped world beyond the estate
Off-Road Well
Ural Gear-Up — The Gentleman’s Sidecar for the Long Road East
The Ural motorcycle was born in Soviet factories under license from the BMW R71, forged for hard winters and harsh terrain. Today, the Ural Gear-Up retains its rugged simplicity: a 749cc air-cooled flat-twin, shaft drive, reverse gear, and a steel sidecar you can load with a labrador, grouse gun, or brace of mallards.
This is not a bike for speed. It’s a vehicle for backroads, gravel, and character. The sidecar’s drive wheel is selectable, turning mud and snow into mere obstacles. Hunters across Montana and Scotland are discovering the charm of the Ural, not least because you can run it on cheap fuel and fix it with fence wire.
Add a waxed-canvas roll, an oilskin coat, and a flask of Glenfiddich, and you’ve got the makings of a 1930s expedition, whether it’s down the Karakoram Highway or into your neighbor’s pasture after storm-felled oaks.
Suggested Read:
Riding the Iron Rooster — Paul Theroux
London Best
Berry Bros. & Rudd — Wine Merchants of St James’s Since 1698
Tucked behind a modest Georgian façade at No. 3 St James’s Street lies the oldest wine shop in Britain: Berry Bros. & Rudd, established in 1698. For over three centuries, this family-run institution has supplied emperors, explorers, and every British monarch since George III.
Berry Bros. curates not just the world’s finest clarets and Burgundies, but also its rarest spirits. From silent-still whiskies to pre-war Cognacs, they bottle under their own label and age in their ancient vaults. Their No.3 London Dry Gin, a mainstay of the classic martini, is as crisp as their tailcoats.
Their vaulted cellars still host private tastings and club dinners, just as they did for Wellington’s officers and Churchill’s wartime reserves. More than a shop, it is a cathedral of palate, diplomacy, and legacy.
Suggested Read:
Wine & Spirit: 300 Years of Berry Bros. & Rudd — Simon Berry
Art & Ephemera
The Bishop of Bond Street — A Top Hat, A Terrier, and a Vibrant Life
William Bishop (1797–1871), Westley Richards’ Legendary London Agent
Known to all of London as “The Bishop of Bond Street,” William Bishop was more than just Westley Richards’ agent—he was a phenomenon. From around 1815 until his death in 1871, Bishop ran the company’s Bond Street showroom with theatrical flair, dressing in black, never removing his top hat, and turning the shop into a social salon for officers, aristocrats, and sporting men.
His approach to salesmanship was unmatched. Bishop hosted boxing matches, rat hunts, and dueling demonstrations in the showroom, creating a magnetic atmosphere that made Westley Richards a destination as much as a gunmaker. As one chronicler put it, “The house in Bond Street became quite an Institution.”
He was also a man of eccentric conviction. After his beloved dog Tiny was stolen, Bishop discovered that English law criminalized stealing a collar, not the dog. Outraged, he pushed through Parliament what became known as “The Bishop’s Act” (Dog Stealing Act of 1845), a rare case of personal grief sparking public law.
By the time of his death in 1871, Bishop’s name was so synonymous with Bond Street that London cabbies needed no further direction—just “to the Bishop.” His portrait, surrounded by dogs and sporting trophies, still hangs in Westley Richards lore as a tribute to the man who blended salesmanship, sport, and showmanship into a singular art.
“Westley Richards owes much of their success to the personal skill and management of the Bishop of Bond Street.”
—G.T. Teasdale-Buckell
Gamekeeper Journal Entry
“Red in the Hedges” — Summer Notes from Suffolk, 1924
"Four foxes this week. One came straight for the feed bins. I’m certain it’s the same bitch as last year—light on her pads, and bold. Set fresh snares in the south wood."
So begins a terse but telling entry from William Hollis, gamekeeper on the Wetherham Estate in Suffolk. His journal, recovered in a trunk during a 1983 barn restoration, provides a rare window into the rhythm of post-war gamekeeping.
By July, his poults were feathering, and the stubble edges buzzed. Hollis noted a trio of coveys near the stone bothy but worried over a buzzard pair. He sent a boy into town for barley and penned notes on trap repair and net mending. Most days ended with a pipe and a dram outside the pen shed—proof that solitude and stewardship were lifelong companions.
Suggested Read:
The Keepers of the Kingdom — David Jones
British Campaign Lore
The Safari Bar — A Cabinet of Bottles, Maps & Myth
The finest stories never start in a drawing room—they start at the Safari Bar. In every hunting lodge and colonial house from Nairobi to Rhodesia, the bar was the command post: a map-covered table, a teak sideboard, and a drinks cabinet humming with history.
Sir Denys Finch Hatton preferred whisky cut with rainwater. Roosevelt liked bourbon before elephants. At Treetops Lodge in Kenya, guests signed the logbook beside bottles labeled by expedition: “Aberdare, ’36,” “Meru, ’49.” A safari bar was an archive of hunts and a ritual of return.
Modern sportsmen recreate the magic with globe bars, rattan stools, and vintage safari trunks stocked with Amarula and aged Speyside malts. A true safari bar isn’t designed—it’s accumulated, one bottle and one tale at a time.
Suggested Reads:
Out of Africa — Isak Dinesen
Rum, Rites and Rifles — C. Lockhart-Devon
Shooting Estate or Club Invitation
Hudson Farm Club — Sporting Sanctuary in the Highlands of New Jersey
In the wooded hills of Andover, New Jersey, lies one of the finest private sporting estates in North America: Hudson Farm Club. Once a Gilded Age retreat and now spanning over 4,200 acres, the estate was revitalized and stands as a model of private conservation and luxury field sport.
It is also home to the historic Griffin & Howe, offering clay courses, driven pheasant instruction, precision rifle training, and access to bespoke Purdeys and custom Mausers. The on-site gunroom caters to both seasoned collectors and young sportsmen looking for a first fit.
With world-class lodge, dining, habitat management, and a veteran-supporting foundation, Hudson Farm upholds the tradition of European excellence, without the flight. It is a place where tradition, stewardship, and sport meet in quiet perfection.
Learn more about Hudson Farm Club
Learn more about Griffin & Howe
Suggested Reads:
The American Gunroom — Charles Whitley
