Porsche and Aston Martin haven’t been the only beneficiaries of the recent boom in City bonuses. There’s a new generation of customers at Holland and Holland, Barbour and Land Rover — stockbrokers, traders and lawyers who are swapping their pinstripes for plus-fours of a weekend, and heading to the country for a spot of shooting. Hunting with foxes may be in abeyance but when the roe deer stalking season begins on the first of next month, there will be more takers than ever, and all the big banks have started organising shooting days at venues like Bisley and the Royal Berkshire Shooting Ground.
The Holy Grail for this new breed of young, competitive hunters is something called the ‘McNab’. Bagging a McNab involves shooting a deer and a brace of grouse and catching a salmon on the same estate in a 24-hour period, though any would-be McNabbers will need to wait until August for the various hunting seasons to coincide.
The term McNab is derived from John Buchan’s 1925 novel John Macnab, which revolves around the efforts of three bored London clubmen to spice up their lives by going poaching on three Scottish estates.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in