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| Mark Cunliffe-Lister and his dog, Myrtle |
Rain was forecast, but it hasn’t arrived. Instead a late summer sun beats down on the Yorkshire moors, creating a shimmering heat-haze above the purple carpet of heather.
The silence is disturbed only by the hum of bees and the distant cry of a kestrel. The scene is one of unchanging, undisturbed and unparalleled British countryside.
There is more to this timeless scene, however. It is the first day of the grouse-shooting season (traditionally 12 August) at the Swinton Park estate in North Yorkshire and, strung out behind a low stone wall, a line of nine guns is waiting.
