Innholdsfortegnelse for 22-jun-16 i Country Life

THEY’RE rarer than giant pandas, but the UK has two of them. Nikki Hancock has taken over from her father, Paul, as huntsman of the Four Burrow hunt in mid Cornwall, making her one of only two female huntsmen of registered foxhound packs here (the other is Claire Bellamy, who will carry the horn at the Lauderdale next season). Miss Hancock, 32, has been kennel-huntsman since 2008 and hunted hounds for a spell when her father was injured. ‘Hunting hounds is thought of as a man’s job, but that’s just because, until now, only men have done it,’ she reasons. ‘As long as I do a good job, I can’t see any reason why a woman shouldn’t be a huntsman. It’s a shame more girls don’t come into hunting. I…

Open garden June 25–26 Donhead St Andrew Open Gardens Weekend, Don-head St Andrew, Wiltshire. In support of the St Andrew's Church Development Project, 12 beautiful village gardens with a variety of stalls will open their gates to visitors. Enjoy a cream tea and admire the church, which dates from the 10th century (www.sacda.uk) Until June 26 ‘Not Exactly Nature Writing’ Peter Pears Gallery, 152, High Street, Aldeburgh, Suffolk. In association with the Aldeburgh Festival, Justin Partyka displays an exhibition of colour photographs inspired by the local landscape of nature writer Roger Deakin (01728 687100; www.aldeburgh.co.uk) Until June 26 ‘The British Landscape Tradition: From Gainsborough to Nash’ Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, West Sussex. The chance to enjoy rarely seen historic landscape drawings and watercolours (01243 774557; www.pallant.org.uk) Art fair June 24–30…

An A for effort THE letter from Michael Brydon (June 8) mentioned his experiences with whistles and hunting horns in the scouting environment. Compared to my memories of being an active scout in the 1950s, this is pale stuff indeed. In eager pursuit of my adventurer’s badge and as an initiative test, I was set the task of lighting a fire in the branches of a tree in order to boil a billycan full of water. I selected some branches 10ft off the ground and commenced my climb with kindling wood, water, a billycan and a metal tray of some sort. After considerable difficulty, I achieved my target, with the water at the point of boiling. The intrepid scoutmaster decided he needed to check for himself, so he climbed…

‘I’ve rarely driven a car that gets more attention’ THE sign is on the door and you’ve ‘gone fishin’’. The two things you’ll want from your car are speed—to get to that ‘shady, wady pool’ in a hurry —and traction, because when you get there you might have to park on the grass. And so I searched for a suitable vehicle to review while on a trout-fishing trip to the River Usk. With so many machines, you have one thing, but not the other. However, now Jaguar has added all-wheel drive (AWD) to its unambiguously fast F-Type, has it (inadvertently) created the perfect fly-fishing transport? Jaguar’s E-type was a hard act to follow. Not until 2013 did the company dare continue the letter-based nomenclature that began with C (for Competition)…

‘It’s good for everything from athlete’s foot to migraine’ ON a midsummer day at Charlie Byrd’s Cotswold Lavender farm, contented visitors wander between the beds in a sensual daze, lulled by fragrance and the hum of 1,000 bees. Thirty-five varieties of lavender cover the gentle, south-facing slope in plump, undulating rows—spires of purple and mauve, pink and cream nodding above slender, silvery-green foliage. The aromatic plant has enjoyed a recent resurgence in Britain among arable farmers looking for alternatives to wheat and barley. At Broadway in Worcestershire, Charlie farms on quite a scale—some 500,000 plants, totalling more than 100 miles of rows on 90 acres—and sells the distilled oil in bulk, as well as growing plants for gardeners and producing his own range of toiletries and preserves. Last year, more…

‘Sheep and ocean are one. Ovine pulses beat, to the ebb and flow and slack’ I AM the only passenger on the Islander eight-seater plane as it dips over North Ronaldsay, a grisaille of wet stone, sea and sky below. In the wind and rain, we touch down softly on this most northern of the Orkney Islands, a ‘sea girt stepping stone’ where Atlantic Ocean meets North Sea. My host, Kevin Woodbridge, is waiting at the airfield hut. Forty years ago, he came to the island as its doctor, opting to practise somewhere he could indulge his other passion of birds. Now retired from medicine, he devotes most of his waking hours to logging the avian migrants that use North Ronaldsay as a perch on their journeying between other latitudes.…

‘“The Ogre” was beginning to show courtesy and charm’ Historical fiction Napoleon’s Last Island Thomas Keneally (Sceptre, £18.99) THOMAS KENEALLY is widely known beyond his native Australia as a prizewinning novelist as well as a nonfiction writer. His latest book combines these skills to create a fascinating story based on the genuine relationship between Napoleon and Betsy Balcombe, the teenage daughter of the British East India Company’s representative on St Helena. She befriended him during his last five years in exile on the island and it is through her eyes that the story is told. Following Napoleon’s escape from Elba, and the alarmingly rapid rallying of the French around their former emperor, the victorious allies after Waterloo had banished him to ‘the deepest pocket they could find to put the…

‘It allows us to champion those people who want to make a difference’ IT’S hard to be a bird conservationist in this country. Everything is against you. The cost and bureaucracy are prohibitive. The media delights in writing bad news stories. You feel like you’re swimming against a national tide of relentless decline. Frankly, why bother?’ Edward Darling, chief executive of Redlist Revival, is only half joking. All his working life, he has swum against that tide, creating a birder’s paradise of flower meadows and hedgerows on his family farm in Hertfordshire. Here, journalists would struggle to be pessimistic. However, he became so downcast at the dwindling fortunes of the UK’s wild-bird populations that in 2013, he launched a charity that aims to reverse the decline of 11 much-loved farmland…

MORE than 60 private galleries and auction houses in the heart of London are throwing open their doors to offer out-of-hours exhibition previews, free talks, themed walks and curated tours as part of Brown’s London Art Weekend (July 1–3) led by the famous Brown’s Hotel in Albemarle Street W1. Now in its third year, the event celebrates the riches of Mayfair and St James’s, for more than 150 years home to an unrivalled density of galleries and connoisseurship and still, despite the incursion of the global fashion market, the world’s most renowned destination for collectors. The weekend begins with a Gallery Hop on Friday evening, followed by a soirée in Burlington Arcade. Brown’s Hotel, itself a showcase of 20th-century and contemporary art and a favourite with collectors and dealers, is…

Rhododendron leafhopper, (Graphocephala fennahi, three-eighths of an inch long) A real dandy of a bug in his bright red, green and yellow apparel, finished off with a striking black eye stripe, this bouncing insect is found in the south of the country. Originally introduced from America, this leafhopper thrives on rhododendron sap and is a vector (transmitter) for spreading fungal disease in the blowsy-bloomed plant. Simon Lester…

‘A favourite adversary is a former Bunny Girl who once hit George Best with a collection box’ THE Derbyshire village of Edale is famous for being the beginning or end of the Pennine Way, depending on which way you’re doing it. I’d never really been there and so, when Jon and I were asked to a concert in Edale church by some musicians we knew, I was keen. The invitation mentioned a day of celebration and I went online to see what was going on. A folk festival, it seemed, and off we set on the afternoon in question anticipating morris dancers, fiddles, hog roasts and gladsome ditties. Edale, when we arrived, was quiet. Too quiet. The only people about were walkers with huge sticks and a teenager behind…

‘Fairy tales and flowers come to the fore in June’ THE medieval Château du Rivau, close to the ancient Loire Valley town of Chinon, provides the fairy-tale backdrop to its 14 encircling themed gardens, all inspired by legend, history and horticulture. This intrinsically romantic 15th-century château is a French historical monument, with stables reputed to be the oldest in France. Its award-winning gardens, nominated Jardins Remarquable by the French ministry of culture, embrace both historical and contemporary design and take the visitor on a fabled journey, decorated with unusual—and often amusing—artworks. The gardens are the work of owner Patricia Laigneau, whose design philosophy was to create a ‘magical’ garden in which visitors could immerse themselves, leaving their troubles behind. ‘It’s not like watching a movie—here, you plunge right into the…

IN the fifth volume of his compendious history of Poitou published in 1754, J. F. Dreux du Radier described Château de Terre-Neuve as the most handsome house in Fontenay-le-Comte. Indeed, the château stands a short walk from the spire of the great parish church of Notre-Dame that dominates this once-prosperous town. The illusion, despite this proximity, however, is of a property in rural isolation. The château is approached down a tightly planted avenue of horse chestnuts and a tantalising glimpse of the building is visible to the approaching visitor between the arches of the branches. The main forecourt, enclosed on two sides by ranges (Fig 1), is modest in scale, but enlivened with gable windows, towers and turrets. The château was the late-16th-century creation of Nicolas Rapin, poet, soldier, courtier…

‘Then come the magical smells we get in June after rain. The peace is heavenly’ ON a pond, panic has a pattern. The mallard drake takes off, into the hint of breeze, for lift. At the far end, the moorhen slinks leggily away though the reeds. She shows her white under-tail feathers as she goes. In the perpetual gloom under the willow, her warning signals are as bright as lamp-flash. Small wonder the waterfowl are alarmed. I’ve arrived at the farm pond driving a Kubota mini-digger, on caterpillar tracks, with the front loader clanking. The demonic din of the Industrial Revolution. I turn the mini-digger’s engine off. Rain pitters on the roof, drips off and in through the open sides of the cab. On the surface of the pond,…

‘Les Moul ins has everything one could hope for’ There are many beautiful places on the Côte d’Azur, but there are certain patches of the earth that are, for some inexpicable reason, blessed with a deepl y restoring energy and unusual powers of attraction. Les Moulins, a quite exceptional property that sits at the base of a great cliff on a quiet hillside, is one of those special places. What was it that first enticed the druids to make this a place of healing and pilgrimage? Perhaps it was the pure alpine waters that flow from two springs set halfway up the mountain. Later, the romans would also be drawn to this magical place, laying out olive groves in concentric terraces, forming amphitheatres of life that grew ripe in the…

ADOORSTOPPER of a book has been produced to mark The Queen’s 90th birthday. It’s the latest commemorative royal publication from St James’s House and offers a comprehensive and lavishly illustrated record of the many areas touched by The Queen, from schools to industry, horses to architecture. The Queen at 90, with an embossed cover of Arnold Machin’s portrait, costs £25 and can be ordered online from www.hmq90books.com or through book retailers, including the Royal Mail.…

‘ It’s hard being a teacher and almost impossible when parents fail to support the staff’ IN the past, I’ve had some tough words about teachers, particularly the attitudes of the teachers’ unions. Indeed, it’s still damaging that the NUT and NASWAT stick to hardline opposition to reform and improvement. Nevertheless, I recognise it’s hard being a teacher in any circumstances and almost impossible when parents fail to support the staff and the school and instead indulge their children. Standing up to such pressure is a tough call and that’s why Agromenes congratulates Ansford Academy in Castle Cary, Somerset, because it’s done just that. Already judged ‘good’ by the Ofsted inspectors, the 640-pupil school is striving to become ‘outstanding’ It puts great emphasis on behaviour and making the school a…

Prof Nicholas Cronk is Director of the Voltaire Foundation, University of Oxford ‘ This painting hangs in my office and I’m lucky enough to see it every day. Voltaire was always said to be a great talker and performer and here he is in sociable mode, presiding over dinner with his fellow writers. I like the fact that the painter, Huber, has cheekily seated himself on the great man’s left. The Voltaire Foundation is currently engaged in publishing the entirety of the French philosopher’s writings, so it’s a great encouragement to have him waving at us, but I do wonder about the servant standing just behind Voltaire: who is he laughing at?’ John McEwen comments on La Sainte Cène du Patriache JEAN HUBER was born in Geneva, his father…

‘ Peacocks will display in front of a cat or a dog–anything that moves’ EVER since the Greek goddess Hera hitched peacocks to her chariot, the stylish and influential have known that these flamboyant birds are the most eye-catching way to make a statement. Brought to Europe from their native South-East Asia by Alexander the Great, those exquisite trains and their strutting owners made peacocks a byword for beauty and pride as far back as Ovid’s Metamorphoses. They have long graced Classical landscapes and heraldic badges and flappers and fashion houses have borrowed the striking blue-green feathers and iridescent eye in its feathered fringe. At Belvoir Castle, where the birds have roamed freely since the 16th century, the peacock is the crest of the Manners family and the Dukes of…

‘Together, we’ll decant April frogs into buckets and swish nets around in rock pools’ WE have become a grandfather! After a spirited tussle, on April 19, Finlay Profumo, son to James and Stephanie, eventually came to the net and tipped the scales at just shy of 9lb avoirdupois. His parents decided to keep him. It’s wonderfully apt that I have a grandson called Finn. My own suggestions—Izaak (after Walton) and Zeno (the patron saint of fish hooks)—were politely ignored. In the Gaelic, Fionnlagh means ‘the fair hero’ and Finn is the name of several legendary Celtic warriors, not least the mythical Finn MacCool, who, it may be remembered, inadvertently acquired otherworldly wisdom by sucking a finger scorched by the spit-roasted ‘salmon of knowledge’ that had been feeding on sacred…

‘It is the only moated rectory in England’ ALL English country houses are unique in their own way; some, however, are more special than others. One that springs to mind is the spectacular, 16th-century former rectory, Chailey Moat (Fig 1) at Chailey Green, near Lewes, East Sussex, which comes to the open market for the first time in almost 20 years—and only the second time in its history—at a guide price of ‘excess £5 million’ through Savills’ country department (020–7409 8877). Heavily protected by some 44 acres of exquisite gardens, grounds, paddocks and woodland on the edge of the village, according to parish records, the house dates from at least 1540, although much of the original timber-framed medieval building is hidden by later alterations. Historically known as The Parsonage…

THE rediscovery of Winifred Knights, nearly 70 years after the artist’s early death, is one of the big events in British art in 2016. The Tate acquired The Deluge (1920), her major painting, in 1989 after a showing at the Barbican’s ‘The Last Romantics’, so she has not been quite as unknown as some have claimed, but the Dulwich Picture Gallery’s new exhibition, combined with a highly readable and beautifully produced monograph by its curator, Sacha Llewellyn, redresses a long period of relative neglect. Born into a fairly conventional family in 1899, Knights trained at the Slade School under Henry Tonks, who demanded hard work in observation and drawing. Women had been competing on equal terms with men at the Slade for some years and she became one of a…

CONTEMPLATING a new season of the BBC Proms inspires a mix of anticipation, awe and a certain helplessness. Seventy-five concerts encompassing the whole sweep of the classical music tradition, including many of its greatest masterpieces in genres from symphony to opera to oratorio, not to mention forays into chamber music and the byways of pop—how to take the measure of such a feast? Where to begin? Well, the easiest way is simply to follow the route indicated by the concerts themselves, astutely arranged by the Proms’ new director, David Pickard. The gala opening Prom, on July 15, sets out several key strands of the summer’s plenty, beginning with an anniversary salute to Shakespeare in Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy Overture ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Elgar’s Cello Concerto launches a series-long celebration of the…