AT THE beginning of April we are going to Percy's 90th birthday party. His modesty prevents me using his surname and all that it is important to know is that the Almighty cracked the mould that made him many years ago. He is a true countryman and modern society no longer creates his like.

His surname has strong Viking links, which show in his height and chiselled features.

He was born at Clifton one year into the Great Sacrifice and he spent all his working life on and around the estate. When he left school it was to go straight on to the land where the horse still ruled and rotational farming was practised.

Had he been born when I was, he would have had similar opportunities to mine and, with his brain, he would have gone far beyond the rural community into which he was born.

He has high integrity, is totally dependable and always retains a touch of humour in all he does.

When I appeared in his life he was the farm bailiff on the Clifton Estate Home Farm; he was halfway into his life and I was half his age. The times were all about the modernisation of farming and I was charged with changing the mixed arable, beef and sheep over to a dairy and arable enterprise.

Percy, without faltering, stepped up a gear, adopting the new regime and all it entailed with aplomb. I had neither his confidence nor experience and occasionally, when getting out of my depth, I would bite at Percy - he coped with me in a masterly way, taught me a lot and I shall always be grateful.

A lot of the time, it has to be said, he didn't approve of some of my up-to-date innovations, but he was prepared to learn and he did so, leading a team of six men into a totally new era.

One thing I realised early on was that his boot across a field or in a yard of cattle told all that couldn't be learnt from books, but which was always invaluable information.

Even in the hottest weather, he always wore a waistcoat, a watch and chain in one pocket and a small piece of lead pencil in another. That little piece of graphite recorded vital information and also improved the spark on small petrol engines reluctant to start.

For the latter part of his working life, he worked with my wife and me in the heady days of the first imports of Limousin cattle. Once more, he adapted to a totally new system, often having to be host to visits to look at these new cattle when we weren't about. We attended shows and sales all over the countryside, but he had no wish to travel. To this day he can still remember the names and breeding of many of our top animals.

Sadly, he and Muriel never had children, but our children had him and they look back today with fondness and gratitude at his wisdom and kindness.

Percy decided to retire at 65 in the belief that he had worked for 50 years and he might as well take advantage of what time he had left. That, of course, was a quarter of a century ago, during which time he has lived in Aiskew, coming up to visit us occasionally always keeping in touch with the countryside he loves so much.

At his party he will cut a remarkable figure, still upright, abreast of the present and with a sparkle in his eye. TV, sport and travel have not featured much in his interests, but he is well-informed from radio and newspapers and is as soundly opinionated as anyone I know.

The question is, though: are we still creating characters such as this? I doubt it and without them life is all the poorer.

Percy is not unique.

I think of Doug, some years younger and still riding out, shoeing the odd racehorse and never afraid to confront a delicate problem with hard honesty.

Of Bert, older than Percy, still with an incredible eye for stock and with a memory better than men half his age.

Then there is James who rose to high office but always preferred the estate he created and the sport and people on it.

And there is Colin, farmer and entrepreneur, who has hunted for 60 seasons with the Bedale hounds.

That Act, to him and the rest of this group, is a disaster at the latter part of their lives, each of them still capable of hard work and confronting the problems of life today.

None of these men gives a damn about political correctness, www doesn't feature in their every day living, but above all they all are good with people, with a clear understanding of right and wrong and, crucially, each is determined to stand up for all that should rightly be.

We live in a fast-moving society demanding broadband to accelerate further the speed of the internet. We want trains to go at twice their present speed and air travel to go at that of Concorde. Old standards are passed over, with good manners, politness, honesty and consideration for others going out of the window.

Percy, Doug, Bert, James and Colin, with their 500 years' experience and still with the mental power to assess and form opinions, could make such a huge contribution to the problems that confront us, but of course that is not to be, though I bet an awful lot of us would like to return to the standards of yesterday while keeping so much of what is good in the modern day.