The sporting lodge has adapted over the years to form the focal point of many estates. In this fascinating and beautifully illustrated book, the authors write not only about the lodges themselves but also about fishing huts and modern luncheon lodges. One of the earliest fishing huts is the delightful Charles Cotton's Fishing House built in 1674 by Izaak Walton's friend. The informative, lively text describes life in the lodge both then and now with glorious first-hand accounts as well as incidental snippets explaining general shooting lodge fare and dining rituals of times past. Gun-rooms and rod-rooms, game books, fishing registers and hunting diaries are all covered. Every major lodge had a range of outbuildings nearby. Those built in coastal locations might include mooring facilities built originally to allow the owner and his guests to arrive by private steam yacht. Sporting Lodges also records some extreme eccentricities, such as the lodge on a remote Scottish island where the conservatory contained heated turtle pools - turtle soup being considered an excellent 'restorative' after a long day's shooting! With its tales from the past and anecdotes from the present, the authors have written a book which creates a superb portrait of this wonderfully British sporting institution.
