His pride and joy
RICHARD NEGUS IS A PROFESSIONAL HEDGE LAYER AND WRITER. HE IS A KEEN WILDFOWLER AND HAS A PASSION FOR GREY PARTRIDGES
parents bought me a second-hand Diana Model 23 .177 air rifle in 1984. The bluing was well on its way out and the cheap beech woodwork bore the marks of a life of hard graft. A series of hatches were etched into the stock, like those marked on walls by sentence-counting prisoners, doubtless denoting quarry accounted for by the previous owner. Plain, worn and underpowered as it was, to me my first gun was as beautiful and as precious as a Purdey. That West German rifle, along with a small brown terrier of dubious breeding called Skip, led
