Patrick Galbraith: ‘The man had a blood blister on his lip, a gold earring and a Jack Russell in a crate in a pushchair. “The wife’s,” he said, noticing me looking at the dog’

Anyone who laments a lack of tolerance in the country ought to visit the Appleby Horse Fair, says Patrick Galbraith.

It seems that every few weeks there’s another spiky think-piece in the papers about the countryside being a hotbed of intolerance. Sure, Suffolk isn’t Soho, but I’ve always found rural Britain curiously open minded.

When I was in Dumfriesshire, there was a farmer called Hamish who lived in a knackered caravan with his boyfriend. Hamish’s…