Innholdsfortegnelse for 30-Dec-2015 i Country Life

Longest honeymoon The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh They made a happy return to Malta, where they spent the first years of married life Shortest honeymoon Sebastian Coe The president’s seat at the International Association of Athletics Federation has turned out to be much hotter than he expected Knowing when to retire A. P. McCoy The record-breaking champion jockey timed it perfectly, still at the top of his game Most spectacular own goal VW Spent 80 years building a brand based on integrity, reliability and loyalty, then trashed it Famous Englishman hidden among the flowers Mark Griffiths For the scoop of the year in revealing Shakespeare’s true likeness in Country Life Wowing the world before you’re a year old Princess Charlotte The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s baby daughter…

Quiz of the week 1) Blow, blow, thou winter wind is a poem from which Shakespeare play? 2) The Union Flag combines the crosses of which three saints? 3) What was the original title of British soap opera Emmerdale, from 1972 until 1989? 4) Boudica was queen of which tribe? 5) Which recently deceased actor played Luftwaffe officer Maj Horst Mohn in the 1970s BBC series Colditz? Words of the week Moliminous (adjective) Momentous, of great importance Quidnunc (noun) A gossip Ergasiophobia (noun) Fear of, or aversion to, work 1) ‘As You Like It’ 2) St George, St Andrew and St Patrick 3) ‘Emmerdale Farm’ 4) The Iceni 5) Anthony Valentine…

NOT to be usurped by Brussels sprouts and red cabbage, this crunchy vegetable is just as entitled to a place on the dinner plate as more traditional, festive contenders. Fenland celery was first introduced onto the menu by the Victorians about 150 years ago. It was grown from September, picked in early December and then rushed down to London on the new railway lines to take its place next to the cheeses on Dickensian dinner tables. This special, pale celery variety flourishes in the deep, dark, peat of the Fens, where the rich soil gives it its distinctive, nutty flavour. The topography in this corner of the country is flat and well draining, which makes ‘earthing’ the celery—covering the plant with soil to protect it from frost—considerably easier. Successful cultivation…

THIS is a detail of the inner face of the chancel arch of the ancient church at Escomb, which was probably built in the late 7th century. The wall painting and plaster are all that remains of the medieval decoration of the interior. Its date is uncertain, but the swirling pattern of red lines may be inspired by the tendrils of vines, a common motif in Anglo-Saxon sculpture. The church stands in a circular graveyard, almost certainly evidence that it occupies the site of a prehistoric monument. It’s a small structure that is very tall in relation to its plan. The walls are built out of Roman masonry taken from the nearby fort of Binchester (Vinovia). As originally laid out, the building comprised three rooms or cells. That to…

AMATEUR gardening ladies have made a very particular contribution to the rich tradition of English gardens. I’ve been reminded of this in recent weeks by the deaths of three of their number, all well into their nineties: my mother, Margaret, Lady FitzWalter (of Goodnestone Park, Kent), Rosemary McCorquodale (Little Ponton Hall, Lincolnshire) and, most recently, Lavinia, Marchioness of Cholmondeley (Cholmondeley Castle, Cheshire). All three made a lifelong project of restoring and developing the gardens of their family homes and, in the process, created three of the most admired gardens in the country. They gardened in widely varying locations—Rosemary at the family home where she’d been born (and where she lived her whole life), the other two transforming the gardens of the homes they married into. Margaret, Rosemary and Lavinia…

The snowy-white pages of a new diary can quickly turn from being thrilling to being disconcerting in their emptiness. Here, we bring you nearly 150 diary dates and ways to make this year one to remember: the plays to see, music to hear, paintings to view and gardens to visit as well as Britain’s most interesting shops, enchanting country shows, ‘holidays’ with horses and some new places to eat, drink and stay in 2016…

Imagine London Fashion Week, the Cannes Film Festival and Strictly Come Dancing all rolled into one, but with cows, sheep and pigs instead of humans as the subjects of awe and acclamation. The grand Parade of Livestock at the Royal Bath & West Show is as near as the ovine, bovine and porcine worlds get to their own version of the Oscars and, even to the untutored eye, it features wondrous specimens, shown off in all their natural finery. The handlers spend hours shampooing, primping and grooming their charges as if they were about to meet The Queen (and, sometimes, they are). They have enough breeding to make a College of arms genealogist purr and are as fit and well-honed as any rugby prop forward—you should see the muscles on…

NOT only is Britain globally renowned for musical plenty, but also for the rich array of settings where that bounty can be enjoyed. In London alone, from the domed splendour of the Royal Albert Hall to the bijou opulence of Wig-more Hall, superb spaces enhance every genre and occasion. Birmingham’s Symphony Hall sets a standard for acoustic excellence and other regional centres such as the Sage Gateshead animate performances of all sorts. Exciting new venues expand the scope of the musical scene, whether in the state-of-the-art facilities of Saffron Hall or the candlelit intimacy of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe, which hosts enchanting performances of Baroque rarities with the Royal Opera, as a distinctive addition to the company’s world-famous productions in Covent Garden. Indeed, music theatre in Britain…

I have a fondness for corner cupboards, especially hanging ones, which can be as practical as they are attractive. Their ancestry goes back to the 17th century, although, at first, they were built-in rather than free-standing or hanging. In about 1702, Celia Fiennes recorded a visit to Mrs Stevens's ‘very pretty neate house' at Epsom, where ‘every corner is improved for cupboards and necessarys, and the doors to them made suitable to the wanscoate'. Moveable cupboards came in during the early 18th century, the hanging ones generally in oak or later mahogany, sometimes inlaid with ebony and sometimes with small drawers beneath panelled doors. Free-standing cupboards with elegant tiers of graduated shelves above were fashionable from the later 18th century and into the 19th. They were known as ‘coins' or…

Y summer fishing is all about delicate flies to tempt dozy trout, but winter, especially on cold, frost-clad days, is given over to pike. Esox lucius requires less subtle methods than the Salmonidae: wire traces—its teeth can snap ordinary nylon as if it were gossamer—spinning lures or dead bait. Once, while fishing for roach on the Somerset Levels, I washed my hand in the water after baiting my hook with maggots and a pike lunged and bit me. Now, it’s personal. No fish in Britain has such an aura of raw ferocity. Ted Hughes’s famous poem on it includes the lines: ‘Pike too immense to stir, so immense and old/That past nightfall I dared not cast.’ There are tales of small, swimming dogs being taken by this freshwater shark. It…

Port engenders a protective instinct in me: I feel impelled to beat the drum for one of the world's most majestic wines, which might be following the fate of the white rhino and slipping inexorably towards extinction. Port's immense sturdiness and sweetness may be anachronistic, but this is the kind of anachronism we would all be poorer without. Why you should be drinking it Port comes into its own at this time of year-the Port window is rather narrow, at least for me, stretching from late November to early February -and the fortified produce of the Douro is astonishingly good value. The most versatile style of Port is tawny, the ageing of which is conducted entirely in big 640-litre barrels, in warehouses just across the River Douro from…

Now is the time when scented indoor flowering bulbs make their triumphant appearance in every household. Hyacinths, of course, are marvellous, but some find their scent a bit much to take and the flowers do wander about all over the place. Try instead (or rather as well) the paperwhite, that tall, slender, white-flowered daffodil, not hardy, but easy enough in a frost-free glasshouse, grown in a big pot and framed neatly in canes and raffia. It's a vision of purity, the flower is a reminder of eventual spring and the drifting scent will bring a smile to every face.…

BEFORE staging a play in order to confirm his uncle’s guilt, Hamlet announces: ‘I eat the air, promise-cramm’d.’ I always feel that way about the British theatre as another year beckons: there is so much diversity, so much promise. If London is the most vibrant theatrical capital in the world, it is because no other city offers such a healthy mix of private and public ventures. In the West End, you can gorge on long-running musicals. Stroll over to the South Bank, and you’re confronted by infinite theatrical variety: within a short walk of the National Theatre, you come across the Old and Young Vic, Shakespeare’s Globe (about to stage an indoor season of the Bard’s late plays), the Menier Chocolate Factory, Southwark Playhouse and the tiny Union Theatre. However,…

I’M a major food snob, but, when you’ve been brought up in a family in which the cooking was, I now appreciate, outstanding, eating in restaurants can be a letdown. All the ‘foam’ in the world can’t make up for tired ingredients and a bored chef, but, when it’s done well, British cooking is exceptional. Our island geography, seasonal ingredients, ability to grow an enormous variety of produce and growing interest in cookery all create a nation of aspirational, talented chefs. We are specialists with local ingredients and, combined with our interest in gardens and our farming heritage, we pride ourselves on using whatever we can grow. All this adds up to uncomplicated, seasonal menus, enthusiastic chefs and beautiful places in which to enjoy the experience of eating out. Cornwall…

HAVE nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful’: so said William Morris. I think he was on to something. His advice particularly applies to British craftsmanship—we’re up there with the best in the world when it comes to making a beautiful—and useful—object. Perhaps it’s because we have proper, defined seasons? Other nations don’t have quite the same experience of the year as we do. They don’t know the high of the long-awaited arrival of the swallows, the immense satisfaction of the first fire or the long-anticipated first snow of winter. These milestones bring with them a need for a particular, often treasured, possession. Cupboards and stores are opened, handles are oiled, blades sharpened, dust brushed off—the hibernation is over and…

Meteors The Quadrantids January 1–10 (maximum January 3–4) These brilliant, bluish and yellowish-white meteors may, at maximum, even reach a rate of 120 meteors per hour. The shower is named after the former constellation Quadrans Muralis April Lyrids April 22–23 Eta Aquarids May 6– Alpha Capricornids July 27–28 Perseids August 12–13 Delta Aqurids July 28–29 Alpha Aurigids August 28 and September 15 Southern Taurids October 23–24 Northern Taurids November 11–12 Orionids October 21–22 Leonids November 17–18 Geminids December 13–14 Ursids December 21–22 January New Moon January 10, 1.31am Full Moon January 24, 1.46am The Earth reaches perihelion (the closest point to the Sun in its annual orbit) on January 2 at 10.49pm Universal Time. Its distance is then 147,100,175km (91,403,811 miles). Ursa Major stands more or less vertically above the…

THIS exhibition is something of a revelation. Edward Robert Hughes (1851–1914) was the creator of portraits, refined and beautiful drawings, subjects from literature and twilight scenes, but he has been little studied and this is the first exhibition devoted to his work. His uncle, the artist Arthur Hughes, moved in cultured circles and, as a child, Edward knew Rossetti, Hunt, Ruskin and Lewis Carroll. His own artistic abilities were soon evident and, in 1868, he entered the Royal Academy schools. Among the early works exhibited is Evensong, a scene of quiet domestic happiness perhaps recalling his own upbringing—an old man looks into a room in which a woman plays the piano to her children and a vase of tall, white lilies lends a note of elegance to her home. Hughes…

I’M writing this while still in the throes of preparation. By the time it’s published, all that preparation will be on the bonfire. Or perhaps not. Perhaps some of it will be under the sofa, where I can see, from this chair, a shoebox that might be empty, but that might contain tree decorations or weird sheep made out of Fimo. They sit with Joseph and Mary in a homemade crib and have definitely been there since last Christmas. I really ought to move it, or at least look inside it. I pretty much abandoned ‘homemade’ this year, although I did make a wreath for the front door—I went on a wreath-making course and that’s what you come home with. This will not go on the bonfire, as our teacher…

NO portrait bust exists of Capability Brown, the genius landscape gardener responsible for the gracious parklands and water features of such estates as Stowe, Burghley and Harewood. Next year is the tercentenary of his birth and Haddonstone, maker of garden ornaments and architectural stonework, is rectifying the omission with Hannah Northam’s splendid stonework sculpture, modelled on Brown’s 1773 portrait by Nathaniel Dance, which hangs in the National Gallery. It will be launched in the spring (01604 770711; www.haddonstone.co.uk). The Landscape Institute is organising the Capability Brown Festival 2016, which has received a grant of nearly £1 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Key events include an exhibition at Blenheim Palace (February 13–May 2), the opening of Brown’s rediscovered landscape at Belvoir Castle, a loan exhibition of drawings by his surveyor,…

IT was a sight as amazing as it was unexpected. Crossing the empty expanse of Trafalgar Square during the relative calm of a Sunday morning, I caught sight of a huge bird sweeping low past the fountains. I watched, rooted to the spot, as this predatory shape flew straight towards a distant figure well wrapped against the weather and drew back its wings to land. The calmness with which it was received on the wrist immediately brought home that this wasn’t a freak sighting of a bird of prey in the capital. Rather, I was witness to pigeon control by hawking. With adult reserve, I might have enjoyed the activities of this magnificent bird from a distance, but I had a child on my arm and, to prevent the dislocation…

Exhibition Until January 31 ‘Tintin: Hergé’s Masterpiece’ Terrace Rooms, Somerset House, London WC2. A celebration of Hergé's timeless character, from the early newspaper strips to the genre-defining graphic work of the later books (above, 020–7845 4600; www.somersethouse.org.uk) Until January 6 ‘A Christmas Carol Reimagined’ Charles Dickens Museum, 48, Doughty Street, London WC1. A new collection of drawings, paintings and artwork by students of Central Saint Martins, inspired by themes in A Christmas Carol (020–7405 2127; www.dickensmuseum.com) Until February 28 ‘The Presence of Sculpture’ Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham Lakeside Arts, University Park, Nottingham. More than 70 artworks by Dame Elisabeth Frink will be on display, including archive materials-such as recently conserved drawings, tools and studio records -revealing her practice (0115–846 7777; www.lakesidearts.org.uk) Gardening course January 9 What to do in the garden…

I want to ride my bicycle YOUR article of December 9 featuring the Nature writer Lilias Rider Haggard triggered happy memories for me. As a child in the 1960s, growing up in Bungay, Suffolk, I had a paper round, which involved cycling across the county border into Norfolk, to Ditchingham, where Miss Rider Haggard lived. The house, if my recollection is correct, was called Ditchingham House and was the furthest point on my journey. It was occupied by at least two elderly ladies who, I was given to understand, were sisters. I had instructions to leave the newspapers—the Eastern Daily Press and the Financial Times—on a bench in the front porch and tug on the bell-pull to signify delivery. The occupants appeared to me to be quite reclusive,…

Bob and Roberta Smith RA is an artist. He has two current exhibitions: ‘Art is Your Human Right’ at the William Morris Gallery (until January 31) and ‘Art for All’ at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (until January 3) ‘My father, Fred Brill, was a landscape painter and, in 1967, he was asked to write a book for Paul Hamlyn about his favourite painting. I have inherited his love for Peace —Burial at Sea . It’s a bleak image of death and loss, but also of sublime beauty. Turner’s great paintings of light, wherever he may have historically located them—Venice, Elba, Jamaica—were influenced by the atmospheric conditions at Margate. He painted sunsets over the Thames estuary again and again, always giving the appearance of the sun setting over water, even…

PRACTITIONERS of the Chinese philosophical system of feng shui refer to five phases (seasons) in the year. Four are already well known to all of us; the fifth phase or season is slipped into that late-summer-holiday/back-to-school period when we’re not really thinking of true summer any more, but not quite ready for true autumn, either. To each of the five phases, an element or material is designated, so that spring, a time of unstoppable growth and vitality, is represented by wood (which is rapidly growing, with the rising sap). Summer, a time of consuming heat, energy and vivid flowering, is represented by fire. The in-between time of late summer, referred to above, is the time of earth and fruition—and a season that more gardens are tuning into these days, with…

More ways with walnuts Fig tart with walnut frangipane and maple-syrup mascarpone Line a tart tin with a sheet of pre-rolled shortcrust pastry and refrigerate for half an hour, before blind baking with beans for 15 minutes at 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Fill the tart case with walnut frangipane—made by combining 175g ground walnuts, 175g butter, 175g sugar and 4 eggs—arrange fig halves over the top and bake for a further 15 minutes, before serving with mascarpone with a little maple syrup stirred through it. Apple, bacon and honeyed-walnut salad To make this delicious salad for two, fry 2 finely smoked rashers of bacon and combine them in a bowl with an apple, cut into matchsticks, and 2 sliced celery stalks. While the pan is still hot, add a couple…

OTHER than Samuel Palmer, the Ancients are perhaps not as well remembered as the pre-Raphaelites who followed them 20 years later, but the group of young men who congregated around William Blake at Shoreham during the last two years of his life formed the first such school or colony of artists in Britain. They followed Les Barbus and the Nazarenes, similar groups in France and Germany. The most successful of them in later life, and the best known other than Palmer, were George Richmond, who became one of the leading mid-19th-century portrait painters, and Edward Calvert, who was one of the finest engravers of the period. Richmond (1809–96) was also a meticulous record-keeper—he left an index catalogue of 2,500 portraits—and a good correspondent. Sometimes, he made notes about sitters, either…