Putting The Cat Among The Fish

On an annual pilgrimage to Scotland in pursuit of silver salmon, Richard Parker enjoys the many charms of the Jaguar XJ R-Sport saloon

- Richard Parker

AS has become traditional in September, I was heading north with the Editor as (always) passenger in the neverending quest for the leaper. Over the years, our transport has been on an upward trajectory, from the baseline of a Range Rover in about 2005. This year, I was promised an icon, a car of legend and, to most, extraordinary sculptured beauty bearing a prancing horse on the bonnet and boot.

When endeavouring to maximise the prospect of catching a salmon, timing is everything; you need to hit a weather pattern promising clouds and rain. I discovered that timing is important for prancing horses, too. The week I was chauffeuring Country Life’s own giant of letters to Scotland turned out to be the same week as the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The consequence was that Ferrari no longer had a car available for two middle-aged fishermen. All press cars understandably followed roads leading only to West Sussex, not a place renowned for its run of autumn fish.

However, there’s another leaping creature to add to the menagerie and it was the Jaguar that came to our rescue. Jaguar may not have quite the immediate cachet of Ferrari, but, on our drive up, it occurred to me that cats catch more fish than horses, which just might be a good omen.