Innholdsfortegnelse for November 4, 2015 i Country Life

WE’VE heard all about the criteria that make a gentleman ( Gentleman’s life, October 28) and our list —part serious, part tongue-in-cheek—seemed to strike such a chord in a society that desperately needs to be kinder to itself that we felt it was only fair to present the female view, too. The central principle is the same—generosity and graciousness are more important than fine feathers and a lady can come from any walk of life—but there’s one key difference: a capable lady knows when to let her gentleman take charge (or let him think so). Here are 39 steps to being a lady of 2015: A lady... 1 Finds laughter is the best medicine 2 Can say ‘thank you’ no matter where she is in the world 3 Cooks perfect,…

COUNTRY outfitters William Powell is joining the GWCT in promoting a competition that aims to raise awareness of the importance of boosting biodiversity through shoot management. First prize is a pair of guns worth more than £14,250 and a day’s driven grouse shooting. The competition is in aid of the GWCT’s Campaign4game, which raises funds for scientific research into the benefits of game management for wildlife habitat and the control of common predators. The deadline is december 14 and the draw is on december 17. Tickets, which cost £50, can be purchased online at www.gwct.org.uk/gundraw…

THE Holburne Museum in Bath is on a mission to raise £61,209 to acquire a delightful study by Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830), the most successful portrait artist of his generation. The institution’s picture gallery is dedicated to the Golden Age of British portrait painting, but the lack of paintings by Lawrence is an omission it would like to rectify. The work in question is a preparatory oil sketch of the 19-year-old Arthur Atherley, a banker’s son who later became MP for Southampton. The resultant portrait was so successful that Lawrence was appointed Painter-in-Ordinary to George III. The rest of the funding has been provided through grants. To donate, visit www.holburne.org/support-us…

I HAVE a habit of spilling something down a tie the first time I wear it. Other ties remain unscathed for years, but new ones, on their maiden voyage, are at mortal risk. Inevitably, the day I was invited to have dinner with the main board of Time Inc, who had flown over from New York, lunch exploded down my front. I would have looked good for a Halloween party, but not dinner at The Ivy. My thanks to Rosie Paterson, my PA, and Emma Willis, Jermyn Street’s wonderful shirt-maker, for coming to my rescue. I’m happier wearing what Mrs Hedges calls my rags—old jumpers, worn shirts and the like. One of the joys of fishing, compared to the polished world of hunting and shooting, is that the older and…

THOSE who are sending parcels to prisoners in Germany should remember that there is nothing more prized by them than light reading. It is easy to see why. They are in a strange country, amid people who speak a strange language, and they are forbidden the use of home papers or political information of any kind. If a tenth part of the stories about the diminishing food supply in Germany be true, it may be taken for granted that the woes of the prisoners are accentuated by severity of living. At any rate, those who write home tell us that nothing is more prized among them than light literature. Words of the week Galligaskins (noun) Breeches or trousers Butyraceous (adjective) Looking or acting like butter Mundungus (noun) Bad-smelling tobacco…

Châteauneuf-du-Pape is one of France's most recognisable wines, with its escutcheoned bottles and medieval-looking lettering on the label. But it is not necessarily one of France's best understood wines -nor one of the easiest to understand. Châteauneuf-from vineyards strewn with huge pebbles situated around the eponymous town, the seat of the Avignon Popes' summer palace-has a reputation as a big, powerful southern red. But that's only half the story. Why you should be drinking it Actually, Châteauneuf is as much about delicacy as power. Sure, alcohol levels are high (the result of ripeness achieved partly from the heat stored in those famous pebbles), but the mix of grape varieties-13 are permitted, but Grenache nearly always dominates-ensures subtle nuances of bouquet. The aromas and flavours are not easy to pin…

GUNPOWDER, treason and plot’ means more than the fifth of November to a gardener, for it is at this time of year that bonfires are lit—not just on the anniversary of the attempted blowing up of the Houses of Parliament by Messrs Catesby, Fawkes and Co, but, seemingly, every sunny weekend in the month. If you think that sounds like a grumble, you would be right. I’m not a fan of bonfires; well, not of the sort that smoulder and smoke for hours on end, tainting washing and torturing lungs. Proper garden bonfires should be like those we used to have on the Bonfire Nights of childhood—fuelled with twigs and branches that we had collected and dried out prior to the Big Event, so that, when they were ignited, the…

Best layers Khaki Campbells, Indian runners, Pekin, Muscovy How to encourage laying Ducks like routine and will generally lay in the morning, although they will produce more eggs when there’s more daylight. Clean, fresh water and a balanced diet, including special duck feed, will aid production Egg hunting Ducks are notorious for hiding their eggs and, as the shells are porous, they should be located soon after laying if you intend to eat them Cooking with ducks’ eggs They have a shorter shelf-life than hens’ eggs, but are the baker’s favourite as they’re richer and contain more protein and fat. As they’re generally larger than a hen’s egg, it’s best to weigh the eggs and measure the remaining ingredients (sugar, butter, flour, etc) to match FH…

This autumn marks a new milestone for the Poppy Factory. ‘We wanted to do something relevant to our era,' says Mr Kay. ‘Service personnel have much higher expectations of life on Civvy Street. After the First World War, people would go anywhere to find work. Nowadays, veterans are, understandably, less inclined to uproot their families by relocating to Richmond.' Four years ago, drawing on its 90-year experience of working with former serviceman, the Poppy Factory liaised directly with other employers. It has now achieved its initial goal of helping 500 veterans to secure sustainable work by the end of 2015. The charity estimates that there are still 35,000 disabled and unemployed former servicemen. This autumn's fundraising push is the 500 Challenge (www.poppyfactory.org/500)-participants are invited to do 500 of anything to…

Kitzbühel, Austria This medieval town has some fabulous restaurants, both on piste and in the resort. Some 11 of them are award winners, including Kupferstube in the Hotel Tennerhof Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy In a resort groaning with fine-dining opportunities, Rifugio Averau in the Cinque Torri ski area is one of the true delights. Order the three types of homemade pasta on one plate Zermatt, Switzerland The mountain restaurants in Zermatt manage to be both charming and efficient. Zum See is one of the stars: a little wooden hut containing a delightfully cosy restaurant Courchevel, France The peak of hedonism, 1850 has prices to match, but the best all-rounder for well-prepared food and good value is the Bel-Air above Courchevel 1650 Baqueira Beret, Spain This modern resort is surrounded by ancient…

IN 1,000 years time, a capsule—plucked from somewhere in the North Sea—will be opened to reveal the thoughts of 1,000 different people, written on 1,000 pieces of parchment in 2013. ‘Well,’ shrugs Paul Wright of William Cowley, Britain’s only remaining parchment-producing company, ‘a disc wasn’t going to do it.’ This is just one of the weird and wonderful projects William Cowley has taken on during the past 155 years, from repairing ancient books—its vellum was used to rebind the Domesday Book in 1986—to supplying props to the film and television industry. The company also provides documents of historical and cultural significance, such as the piece of fine manuscript vellum signed by The Queen, stamped with the Great Seal of the Realm and presented to The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge…

MY niece says she’s not sure she’d like to come to stay again. It’s not personal. She just doesn’t want another run-in with Fletcher’s anal glands. It’s true that last time she stayed, the dachshund was displaying symptoms that, following over-vigorous internet research, convinced someone in the household (not me) spelled trouble. As it was the weekend and as we knew we couldn’t get to a vet in the early part of the following week, someone else (not me) suggested that we needed to tackle the problem ourselves. My niece loves animals, so we thought she might be the person to don the rubber gloves, but she vehemently disagreed and said she’d forgotten an event that meant she had to go home. We then hit on the excellent idea that…

I HAVE just had my first taste of Zimbabwe, as part of a magical family holiday. The calamitous recent history of this country lends poignancy to its astonishing natural beauties. These are strikingly manifest, even in the capital, Harare. As spring turns to summer, the ubiquitous jacaranda trees form vast avenues of shimmering purple, the clouds of colour in the branches answered on the ground by fallen blossom. The first flame trees were also coming into flower, creating brilliant splashes of scarlet on the roadside. After such wonders, I returned to London with a heavy heart. A sunrise accompanied by mizzle at Heathrow seemingly answered my worst expectations of autumnal British gloom. But the feeling was short-lived. Later in the morning—in a breathtaking change of gear—I made my way to…

‘If I could own one great painting, this would be it. I am fortunate enough to have a fine contemporary copy of Sargent’s portrait of the Victorian poet Coventry Patmore Cooper, which was painted at about the same time and shares the same angular, elongated format and black-and-white palette, like a super-size Japanese print. But Lord Ribblesdale is of a different order. Capturing the quintessence of understated aristocratic style, it’s the portrait of an age as well as the man. It’s a historian’s dream. Thank heavens it’s an impossible one as I would also need a house with 20ft-high ceilings to accommodate it comfortably! ’ John McEwen comments on Lord Ribblesdale RICHARd ORMONd’S three volumes devoted to the 700 portraits by his great-uncle show what an avalanche of commissions Sargent…

Rouen* Big, statuesque bird originating from Normandy and now prized as a show duck. Needs plenty of space to move about or it will get fat Aylesbury* The big, old-fashioned, local cottager's white duck, with its bill ‘pink as a lady's fingernail', was the model for Jemima Puddle-Duck. The breed was standardised in 1865, but pure stock is hard to find outside the show-ring Indian runner Probably the fastest duck on two webbed feet. They're great fun, good foragers and layers and they come in lots of different shades. Their light build means they make less mess, they can't fly and they're not great swimmers Call These dinky little squat ducks-they weigh about 1lb, as opposed to 12lb for an Aylesbury drake-look as if they should be floating in the…

It's only the females that quack. Drake calls can be whistles, brays, growls and squeaks. Contrary to myth, a duck's quack does produce an echo Call ducks, originally known as decoy ducks, were developed to call down wild mallards to traps and decoys in the Fens It's a myth that there are no nerves or blood vessels in ducks' webbed feet: they have a counter-current heat-exchange system, reducing the shock of icy water Inside the bill is a comb-like structure called the lamellae. The lamellae expels non-food items such as mud, keeping hold of seeds and insects The uropygial-or ‘preen'- gland near the tail produces an oil that the duck picks up with its beak and smears over its feathers to create a waterproof barrier Ducks can sleep with one…

James Cropper has been making luxury paper in Cumbria since the 1850s. In 1978, the company was approached by the Royal British Legion, with a brief to provide a biodegradable product and to replicate the subtle green of the laurel leaf to be introduced to the lapel poppy. ‘The Royal British Legion was also having problems with dye running onto clothing from fabric poppies,' explains company chairman Mark Cropper. Nowadays, the Poppy Appeal's order is produced at cost-James Cropper produces 200,000m (656,000ft) of poppy paper a year, although, in 2014, First World War and D-Day anniversaries saw production peak at 250,000m (820,200ft). Mr Cropper is the sixth generation to work in this family business and often reads the diaries sent home by his great-grandfather. Returning from the war to take…

1. Set your objective Are you trying to summarise a life? To describe your loss? The best epitaphs tend not to be overly sentimental, yet manage to express deep feeling. This was written almost 2,500 years ago: ‘Neither the sea nor wild winds destroyed you./It was your insatiable need to race around on business,/Give me a modest living on dry land./Let others wring big profits from the sea, battling whirlwinds' 2. Decide the effect you want There are earnest, serious epitaphs and light, celebratory epitaphs. There are epitaphs that comment on some great truth and others that have obviously been written to amuse. Robert Frost obviously had tragedy in mind (‘I had a lover's quarrel with the world'), but Nikos Kazabtzakis (author of Zorba the Greek) was possibly feeling more…

Rosie Paterson’s pick of the best free-standing units and accessories for pantries and larders…

Pear-and-chocolate fondants Brush metal pudding moulds with butter, dust with cocoa and set aside. Melt 250g dark chocolate with 200g butter in a saucepan. Whisk four eggs and 300g caster sugar in a bowl, then pour in the chocolate mixture. Mix well before folding in 150g plain flour. Fill the moulds a quarter of the way and then peel, core and cube four pears and add a few pieces per mould, before covering with a little more chocolate mixture to reach two-thirds full. Bake for 12 minutes. Invert onto plates and serve immediately with ice cream. Easy pear-and-blackberry strudel with custard Arrange four sheets of pre-rolled filo pastry so that they overlap in a square, brush with melted butter and scatter over a few tablespoons of sugar. Add another…

JEAN-ETIENNE LIOTARd was one of the greatest self-publicists of the 18th-century art world. When he arrived in London in 1753, to exploit the appetite of the English for portraits of themselves, he created a stir, thanks to his outlandish appearance. He dressed in Middle Eastern robes, a habit picked up during nearly five years living in the Ottoman Empire, and, even more oddly in an age when gentlemen were almost invariably clean-shaven, he had a beard reaching down to his waist. Joshua Reynolds, who was far from delighted at the appearance of such an attention-seeking rival, witheringly remarked that anyone ‘might smell something of the Quack from his appearance—the long beard—Turk’s dress—which as well as his behaviour is of [the] very essence of Imposture’ Liotard’s two years in England were…

WE are oddly fixed in our sense that a sunny day is good and a grey day is dismal. To get caught in the rain is a humiliating failure and to claim a liking for wet is eccentric, yet rain has been celebrated for centuries in British art and literature. Its infinite gradations and smells, its effects on light and land, the changes it makes in the rhythm of our days—all have been finely differentiated. ‘There is no such thing as bad weather,’ wrote John Ruskin, ‘only different kinds of pleasant weather.’ As an undergraduate, he rhapsodised about the beauty of a drizzly hillside painted by Copley Fielding—in watercolour, of course, the medium of moisture. A friend, he remembered, gazed blankly at the same ‘cheerless’ picture and asked, not without…

• Vellum is made from the skin of calves or goats; parchment is produced from sheepskin. As sheep often have multiple births, parchment was more plentiful • The name vellum originates from the ancient French vélin, meaning calf • No two pieces of parchment or vellum are exactly the same • Between 1497 and 1849, Parliamentary Bills were handwritten on goatskin vellum; after 1849, calf vellum came into use and printing replaced handwriting • More than 64,000 Acts of Parliament, written on parchment or vellum, are stored in the Victoria Tower at the Palace of Westminster • At Westminster, a Parchment Archivist ensures climatic conditions are neither too cold nor overly humid in order to prevent damage to documents Tours of the Westminster archives are available (020–7219 3074; archives@parliament.uk)…

GARdEN-TRAVEL specialist Boxwood Tours and Country Life are delighted to announce an exclusive trip on May 15–20, 2016, providing the opportunity to enjoy the gastronomy and classic gardens of Lakes Como and Maggiore. Hosted by author Jennie Condie, an expert in Italian gardens, our tour takes in some of the finest lakeside and island gardens of this enchanting region. Timed to coincide with the glorious spring flowers, much of the travel will be by boat. Accommodation is at Hotel Villa d’Este, on Como, which has its own remarkable garden (right), and the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromées, on Maggiore, looking across to the Borromean Islands, which the tour will visit. Highlights include fine botanical collections at Villas Carlotta and Taranto; Villa Monastero at Varenna; Villa del Balbianello; and Villa Cicogna,…

GREEN LINE buses, a sixpenny Fry’s Crunch chocolate bar and the Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire car are three of the vast range of eclectic subjects collated and celebrated in English Allsorts (Adelphi £20), a delightful loo or Christmas-stocking book published last month. The third in Peter Ashley’s bestselling ‘Unmitigated England’ series, this collection focuses on items that sum up Englishness, illustrated with photographs preserved in the author’s scrapbooks for more than 40 years. ‘[The book] isn’t necessarily a picturesque romp through acres of nostalgia,’ explains Mr Ashley, ‘but much more a chronicle of the unconsidered, the neglected but wonderful every day that continues to give such rich pattern to our lives. Maybe it’s also a clarion call to regard them properly before they are lost.’ And, as Clive Aslet mentions in…

Quiz of the week 1) Brecon Buff is a breed of which type of animal? 2) ‘I met a traveller from an antique land' is a line in which poem by whom? 3) The name of which type of pasta translates to ‘little ear'? 4) Which band was the first to perform on TV music programme Top of the Pops? 5) The Panamera is a car made by which manufacturer? 1) Goose 2) ‘Ozymandias’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley 3) Orecchiette 4) The Rolling Stones 5) Porsche Time to buy Bright-green enamel-ware jug with colour posy, £27.50, Jasmine White (020Ð3371 0043; www.jasminewhitelondon.com) Royale leather shooting gloves, £99, Dents (01985 212291; www.dents.co.uk) Beaded dog collars, £45 each, The Magnificent Hound (01244 784187; www.themagnificenthound.co.uk) Unmissable events Exhibition November 7–28 ‘Beasts: Equine, Bovine…

ON August 8, 1932, a motley group of vehicles improbably delivered a band of iconoclasts from Plymouth to the Cornish village of St Hilary. Their object was to enforce a consistory court ruling to remove some of the furnishings installed in the church by its Anglo-Catholic rector, Bernard Walke. At the time, Walke was enjoying some celebrity, having written plays for his parishioners that were transmitted by the BBC from the church (the first outside broadcasts in its history). Along with his wife, Annie, he worked to fill the church with art. She had trained as an artist and had connections with the Newlyn circle, many of whom she persuaded to contribute work to the church. The image shown here is a detail of the Visitation in the Lady Chapel…

LOOk,’ my father would say, the undisguised enthusiasm in his voice tinged with surprise as if it was the last thing he expected to find in the English countryside, ‘a church!’. And nothing else would do but that we would stop and investigate. Initially, he would wander around dreamily, making little comments about the architecture: ‘Could that be a Saxon window? What a glorious angel roof.’ But, before long, he would focus on what really fascinated him: the effigies, tombs, brasses, monuments, memorial plaques and headstones. ‘This chap buried four wives… Help me clean away the moss so we can see what it says.’ By which means, he instilled in me his passion for epitaphs. My father and I are not alone. The study of epitaphs is almost as long…

Sofa and bed manufacturer: Sofas & Stuff ANYONE who has recently been in the market for a new sofa or bed will have noticed a trend for which we can largely thank (or blame) one man: Andrew Cussins. Generations of children have been dragged around Ikea, mollified with the promise of a play at Småland and a plate of meatballs, but, today, there’s a growing breed of furniture shops that take their appease-the-children ploys several steps further, with popcorn stalls, ice-cream bars and Frozen screened on a loop in the corner. ‘It’s a concept that I helped develop during a period of consulting for another firm,’ explains Andrew. ‘When I founded Sofas & Stuff in our barn in West Sussex, a lot of people commented on how nice it was…

Méribel, France, €870,000 Geneva Airport: 2hrs Knight Frank (020–7861 1727) This duplex apartment lies some 200 yards from the slopes and enjoys south-facing views of central Méribel. It has an open-plan living room with a working fireplace, a master bedroom and bathroom and two further bedrooms. Abetone, Italy, €950,000 Florence Airport: 1hr 30mins Milan Sotheby's Realty (00 39 05 50 75 18 888) Abetone is a small resort and is popular with Florentines. This ski-in/ski-out penthouse comes to the market in excellent condition, has three bedrooms and is being sold fully furnished. Châtel, France, from €277,500 Geneva Airport: 1hr 20mins Athena Advisors (020–7471 4500) This new development of 23 apartments and duplexes lies some 500 yards from the village centre and the ski lifts. All offer excellent views and come…

Not long ago, I saw a ferret on a lead being taken for a walk near the canal in Camden Town. It seemed entirely untroubled by traffic and even killer cyclists, but I did wonder what might happen if it should scent some of those rats that are supposed to be near-is it within 10ft of us?-at all times in the city. No doubt, such a sophisticated animal would have returned home to suitably well-appointed living quarters, if perhaps not as stylish as the Victorian painted-pine ferret cage in the Abingdon sale. It was constructed as a Gothic Revival chapel, complete with stained-glass windows. Just the sort of thing an MP might be tempted to put on expenses, it sold for £521.…