Dick Burton wins The Open Championship 1939

Burton in full swing

Lancashire golfer Dick Burton made history when he won The Open Championship of 1939.

In the build-up the tournament The St Andrews Citizen newspaper stated: ‘In no event is it more difficult to act the prophet than in an Open Championship, and the task of spotting the winner is no more easy this year than on any former occasion’.

It tipped Henry Cotton, making a bid to win the title for a third time, stating ‘it is difficult to imagine anything nearer perfection in golf, and by popular choice he is Britain’s No.1 hope.’

Interview: Exeter Chiefs' Chris Budgen

There are not many players in Aviva Premiership Rugby who will this season be reflecting on an international victory over an Australian international team in Auckland, but Exeter Chiefs’ Chris Budgen is one.

The 38-year-old tighthead prop is more than just a stalwart of the Chiefs’ scrum. He is also a serving soldier and, last October, was a key part of the British Army team that won the International Defence Rugby Competition.

The event, which took place in Australia and New Zealand, brought together 12 military and police rugby teams both from established rugby playing nations and from further afield – the Chinese People’s Liberation Army fielded a team.

Review: Royal Manuscripts at the British Library

The British Library’s current exhibition, Royal Manuscripts The Genius of Illumination, is a triumph.

The show draws its material primarily from the Royal Library that was given to the nation in 1757 and includes more than 150 of the most exquisite and ancient illuminated manuscripts to be found in Europe.

Visitors enter past a short display that describes how such manuscripts were made – by monks and scribes writing and illustrating upon parchment made sheepskin and vellum, from calfskin.

Their paints were created from the likes of lapis lazuli (blue) and minium (red) – hence, the display explains, the word miniature.

Review: Dickens and London at the Museum of London

The new Dickens and London exhibition at the Museum of London explores the life and works of the great 19th-century novelist against the backdrop of the city that inspired him.

This fascinating show runs until 10 June 2012 and forms part of the celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of the writer’s birth.

A visit to the exhibition is an atmospheric experience. Throughout, the ambience is one reminiscent of gaslit streets, moonlight or shadows – the type of backdrop against which one could easily imagine a Dickensian scene being played out.

As they enter, visitors are met with three giant screens that flick from scene to scene of Victorian London, showing not only how busy the place was, but also the wide variety of people who made a living within it.

Holland: below the waterline in Flevoland

They’ve got sea eagles down there now,’ says pilot Joop Peek, indicating a patch of rough grassland and trees adjoining Holland’s Markermeer lake, near Amsterdam.

‘You wouldn’t want one of those to hit the aircraft,’ he adds, jovially, ‘they’re the size of a door. And they can easily fly up as high as we are now.’

We’re looking down, slightly nervously now in my case, on the nature reserve of Oostvaardersplassen. From 400 metres, we can see a group of wild Konik ponies moving en masse across a patch of mottled green grass – providing a brief glimpse of ancient Europe on one of its newest expanses of land.

Five minutes earlier we had taken off from the airfield at Lelystad, from which you climb for 13 metres before reaching sea level. This whole region, Flevoland, was reclaimed from the sea in the 1950s and 1960s.

Jason Robinson – a career off the rugby pitch

England rugby ace Jason Robinson, OBE, finally hung up his boots at the end of the 2010-11 season, the last act of his career on the pitch being helping Lancashire side Fylde to promotion to National League One.

Since then, however, the former Sale Sharks, England and British Lions full-back has been keeping busy, launching his own leisurewear brand, while working as a rugby ambassador with HSBC.

Robinson has recently returned from a trip to Bahrain and Abu Dhabi promoting the game at grassroots level.

‘It was brilliant,’ he says. ‘I hadn’t been to the Middle East before and it was great to meet people out there both from the expat and the local community.

Controversial figures excel in Bonhams’ arms and armour sale

A sword and pistols belonging to two swashbuckling 19th-century military men achieved impressive prices at leading London auction house Bonhams last week.

A Lloyds Patriotic sword awarded to Captain Arthur Farquhar (RN) was sold for £79,250 and a set of duelling pistols once owned by Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Thornton achieved £67,250.

David Williams, director of antique arms and armour at Bonhams, said: ‘The market [for arms and armour] remains buoyant with interest coming from round the world for what was an outstanding collection of material. Interest in collecting antique arms and militaria continues to grow.’

Farquhar, was commander of HMS Acheron, but lost his ship and 67-man crew to a much larger French man of war after an encounter off Malta, while he was protecting a convoy of merchant ships.

Estonia: natural wonders of Soomaa national park

I am in Soomaa national park, Estonia, standing in the middle of one of Europe’s largest peat bogs, with what look like red tennis rackets strapped to my feet.

And I’m conscious that one false step could lead to me ending up to my chest in cold, muddy water.

‘I don’t know about that bit. It looks a bit too wet,’ Algis Martsoo’s warning comes just in time. I still have chance to change direction and skirt around a sinister-looking patch of black mud splashed with sporadic greenery.

Still, if one must be in the middle of a bog, Martsoo is a good person to be with. As a ranger, ecologist and guide at the national park, he is something of an expert in local habitats and to spend an afternoon in his company is to take a crash course in one of the continent’s rarest landscapes.