Country Life 19 October 2022 looks at springer spaniels, Manet, the nature writing of ‘BB’ and meets bladesmith Owen Bush.

Masterpiece

Jack Watkins admires Stubbs’s racehorse portrait Gimcrack

With a spring in his step

The Welsh springer is a brainy, loyal dual-purpose spaniel, observes Katy Birchall

Dreams are made of these

Ten field sportsmen and women reveal their perfect days with rod or hawk to Octavia Pollock

Blades of class

Claire Jackson meets imposing bladesmith Owen Bush and dares to swing one of his sharp and gleaming swords

When the heat is on

John Hoyland canvasses gardeners and designers about the plants that best survived the drought

The man that shocked France

Artistic recognition came too late in life for Édouard Manet, regrets Michael Prodger