We’ll all end up on our deathbeds eventually, but it would be nice to make it there with no regrets. Here are Victoria Marston's 39 steps to living your best (gentleman’s) life.
Here at Country Life, we pride ourselves on our ability to know a gentleman when we see one, which makes putting together our annual Gentleman’s Life supplement — our essential guide to all things chivalrous — an absolute treat for us as well as, hopefully, our readers.
Among our usual pearls of sartorial wisdom, you’ll find this aspirational bucket list of all the experiences we believe a true gentleman should have before he breathes his last in order to live a life less ordinary. Because after all, this is still Country Life – you can’t expect us to take it all too seriously.
1. Have a child named after you. Or, at the very least, a former flame’s dog
2. Learn to foxtrot
3. Open an expensive bottle of Champagne for no real occasion – with a sword
4. Make an anonymous donation
5. Learn to pilot a plane or fly a helicopter (or both, if you’re feeling flashy)
6. Plant a tree
7. Take part in the father’s race at your child’s sports day
8. Shear a sheep and help to deliver a lamb, calf or foal
9. Learn another language (and seduce someone using it)
10. Have a bespoke suit made on Savile Row
11. Run a marathon
12. Write a letter or give a speech that moves someone to tears
13. Train a dog – properly
14. Cook a meal entirely from produce you have either caught, killed or grown
15. Dye your hair an outrageous colour
16. Buy (or, at least, bid for) an entire barrel of Burgundy
17. Quote a poem, both spontaneously and in a relevant situation
18. Climb a mountain or sail an ocean
19. Design a piece of jewellery for your beloved
20. Hit a six
21. Break up a fight using your wit, not your fists
22. Have one of your children admit you were right about something
23. Risk a month’s salary on a bet
24. Buy a one-way ticket to an exotic destination
25. Collect a library that requires a ladder
26. Ski a black run
Credit: Matt Power
27. Construct a Lego Batmobile (or a castle, depending how you roll)
28. Plough a field, preferably on your own tractor
29. Write a song for someone
30. Make the news for something non-scandalous
31. Read War and Peace – and the complete set of ‘Harry Potter’ books
Hadrian’s Wall from the top of Hot Bank Crags; in the distance is Winshield Crags.
32. Walk the length of Hadrian’s Wall
33. Buy a very silly car (we’ll let you define silly)
34. Rescue someone, be it a fair maiden or a lost child
35. Own a pair of smoking slippers
Long exposure of a train passing over Ribblehead Viaduct, whilst the incredible Milky Way rises above.
36. Take a godchild to their first Michelin-starred restaurant
37. Demolish something substantial, either with a JCB or with explosives
38. Sleep beneath the stars
39. Get married – at least once
Bucket list inspiration: A trip to the bottom of the ocean to see RMS Titanic while sipping a 1907 Heidsieck Gout Champagne
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