Innholdsfortegnelse for 1-Nov-2017 i Country Life

OUR seas are in crisis. The scale of the pollution from discarded plastic, which is in imminent danger of entering the human food chain, has been highlighted, not least by The Prince of Wales and Sir David Attenborough, and requires international action of the kind that has been so difficult to achieve on climate change. There are also more local issues and, according to the Wildlife Trusts’ report, The Way Back to Living Seas, Brexit provides the opportunity to tackle them, even though this may seem paradoxical, given that 70% of environmental protection comes from the EU and that fish don’t carry passports or recognise national boundaries. The first call is for existing EU legislation to be incorporated into British law, but the EU’s record is hardly unblemished (think of…

OPENING meets are taking place across the country and the hunting community is breathing again after a motion to ban legal trail-hunting on National Trust land was defeated by just 299 votes. Despite all the propaganda, including protests outside the AGM in Swindon, members appeared overwhelmingly disinterested: some 62,000 votes were cast, representing less than 2% of the membership of nearly five million (see Agromenes, page 37). Even fewer bothered to vote on the motion to halt the A303 tunnel past Stonehenge and this was also defeated, on the trustees’ recommendation, by 30,013 to 21,903 votes. The Labour peeress Baroness Mallalieu, president of the Countryside Alliance, said the Trust had ‘been dragged into a fight it would rather have avoided’. She suggested that, by adopting consistent policies in line with…

HALF-TERM has brought the family to Liverpool and the city has responded gloriously with warmth and sunshine. I tried to pursue an established pattern of holiday sightseeing—the promise of treats on our itinerary and some pocket money at the end—but there was an early mutiny. I was compelled to improvise a bonus system: 10p for the correct identification of certain spontaneously highlighted objects. The children’s failure to name Britannia on the top of the town hall (they were sure she was Athena) made me over-confident and there followed the shock of four correctly identified scenes on the high altar in the Anglican cathedral. When they got Perseus and Andromeda at the Walker Art Gallery, I became suspicious that someone was reading labels. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, they…

What’s in a name? Q My eldest daughter is soon to be married and is quite set on double-barrelling her surname. I appreciate the sentiment and attachment she clearly has for the family name, but do feel that it’s a bit… nouveau. Do you think I might be able to talk her out of it? L. D., Worcestershire A Ahem. Tricky one for double-barrelled lil’ ol’ me. My grandmother, whose only brother was killed in action, did it to perpetuate his name, but what she should have done—what we all should do—is to insert the matronymic as a first or second Christian name to children of the marriage. It’s a bore cramming it into the boxes on forms and Border Control cannot grasp the concept, sending you off to the…

From little acorns IN his treatise on the jay (October 11), David Profumo noted its contribution to the propagation of our oak forests through its activities as a specialist hoarder of acorns. For hundreds of years before it was persecuted as an enemy of the game shoot and the population thinned out, the jay was plentiful and its role in the growth of our oak forests was long established. Thus the bird played a central role in the steady supply of stout timbers for shipbuilding, crucial to the survival of the nation and its growth as a world power. I have long felt that the jay should be recognised as our national bird, yet it didn’t even make the shortlist in last year’s public referendum. Instead, voters chose the…

‘ Britain is not one of the 22 countries in which the Jewish community was destroyed ’ REGULAR readers of Athena will know that she’s no friend of new memorials. It will, therefore, come as no surprise that the competition for London’s Holocaust Memorial (with a learning centre attached) has not filled her with enthusiasm. Now, a winner has been announced and we can see visualisations of what the monument will look like when it’s built at one end of Victoria Park Gardens in the shadow of the Houses of Parliament. The winning design, to quote the press release, comprises ‘23 tall bronze fins… the spaces in between representing the 22 countries in which Jewish communities were destroyed during the Holocaust… the fins require the visitor to enter in an…

‘ All of us labour in webs spun long before we were born ’ ‘Without the Nobel Prize, Faulkner would still be out of print’ GARRISON KEILLOR has announced that he’s off lingonberries, Volvos and flatpack white furniture from Ikea. Even the meatballs are off the menu. America’s bighearted writer is on a Swedish no-go because he’s had it with the humourless Swedes who have given yet another Nobel Prize to a writer whose contribution to literature is incomprehensible, pretentious and bleak. His only consolation: ‘At least they didn’t give it to Joni Mitchell.’ I think that’s pretty hard on Kazuo Ishiguro. When I heard on Today that he’d won, I felt a wave of happiness. Not because I’ve read all his books, but because he’s a British writer…

THE publication of a miniature book written in 1922 for Queen Mary’s Doll’s House by Vita Sack-ville-West casts new light on the inspiration behind Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, which has a remarkably similar premise. Published in 1928, Woolf’s fantastical romp features a man who travels through centuries witnessing exciting events, meeting historical figures and morphing into a woman somewhere along the way and has long been known to be based on the family history of Sackville-West, who was famously Woolf’s lover. Nigel Nicolson, Sackville-West’s son, has described Orlando as ‘the longest and most charming love letter in literature’, but it was not previously known that a book, albeit written for dolls, on a similar theme was created at least four years before Woolf started writing Orlando. A Note of Explanation…

Pole dancers The pastime, or profession, is set to become an Olympic sport, perhaps within a decade, as the International Pole Sports Federation has been given ‘observer status' Little terns Our smallest, rarest seabird, which has declined by 18% since 2000, has had a remarkably good breeding season, with 617 birds fledged across the UK this year Mussel farmers The North Sea will soon experience a surge in mussel farming, say scientists, due to the increase in offshore wind farms, which have inadvertently created the perfect habitats…

THE EU committee on plants has agreed to increase protection against the disease Xylella fastidiosa, which has had a devastating impact on plants such as olive trees in Europe. The news follows a threat from Defra Minister Michael Gove that, if Europe doesn’t tighten up security, imports of any plants potentially carrying the disease—which include rosemary, lavender, olives, oleander and almonds—could be banned. Experts say the disease could put Britain’s historic oak trees at risk, as well as its wych elms and planes. The EU’s enhanced protection will come into effect at the end of November. According to Defra, ‘that will include strengthened movement requirements on high-risk plants and require quicker responses to potential findings of the disease’. ‘These increased protections will add to our own efforts to protect our…

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a lunch at a well-known London wine merchant where all the wines-and nearly all the guests-were from the 1957 vintage. You will doubtless recall that 1957 was not a particularly good vintage in Bordeaux (‘hard, thin and charmless,' I seem to remember my father calling it) and not that much better in Burgundy. It was, of course, an exceptional vintage for human beings, although not quite as good as the following one. Why the event was held The purpose, as I understood it, was not just to taste some fascinating older wines, but also to experience the way in which wines and human beings mature and age in parallel. Drinking wines from the year of your birth has a special frisson, as…

I WAS enthralled by the pieces about edible insects (Spectator, August 2, and ‘Fat-bottomed ants, you make the rocking world go round’, August 23). Here in the wilds of Queensland, there are more insects than I ever want to know about, but, having said that, is there a recipe for millipedes? I recently had one presented to me, with what appeared to be great pride, by one of my friendly kookaburras. It was hanging down either side of his beak, so that he looked as if he had a huge black moustache, still wriggling. Usually, when he brings me pebbles, I hold my hand out and he drops them carefully into my palm. He has also brought me bush cockroaches, but I tend to turn those down. Nancy Sayers, Queensland,…

At the National Gallery, Sainsbury Wing, Trafalgar Square, London WC2 ( www. nationalgallery.org.uk ; 020–7747 2885) Monochrome: Painting in Black and White, until February 18, 2018 Many painters have worked en grisaille at different times of their career and for a variety of reasons. This use of black-and-white pigments can have the effect of making a painting resemble sculpture and can focus attention on a particular subject or technique. Certain sacred images were painted ‘without colour' in early religious art; more recently, monochrome has been used in response to prints and photographs. This is the first major exhibition to explore the subject from its beginnings in the Middle Ages, through the Renaissance and on to the present day. Paintings on a range of materials-including glass, vellum…

Lord Crathorne KCVO was Lord-Lieutenant of North Yorkshire for 15 years. He sits in the House of Lords and is co-chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Arts & Heritage Group ‘I love and am inspired by this powerful portrait of my remarkable grandfather. He was a famous Victorian entrepreneur, collector and father of several spirited children. This portrait has been an important part of my life since it was given to me by my aunt, K. Elliot, in the early 1950s (she was Sir Charles’s 15th child). Charles commissioned the portrait as a gift for his second wife, Marguerite. It was a very happy marriage in spite of her being 45 years his junior. She bore him four daughters; the youngest was my mother Nancy, born when he was…

Hawksmoor, London (breakfast is only served at Guildhall, EC2) Although better known for its steak, Hawksmoor's mammoth full English designed for two is decadent and gloriously gluttonous. Indulge in a smoked-bacon chop, sausages made with pork, beef and mutton, black pudding, short-rib bubble and squeak, grilled bone marrow, trotter baked beans, fried eggs, grilled mushrooms, roast tomatoes, HP gravy and toast 020–7397 8120; www.thehawksmoor.com Quo Vadis, Soho, London W1 The English Breakfast Society's favourite establishment serves bacon, sausage, black pudding, egg, tomato and fried bread in a breakfast that they promise will ‘have your tastebuds buzzing for days' 020–7437 9585; www.quovadissoho.co.uk Daily Bread, near Tunbridge Wells, Kent A little breakfast treasure: the owners smoke their own bacon, design their own sausages and even make their own baked beans for their…

Milky Way, Italy The six resorts of the Via Lattea, which hosted the 2006 Winter Olympics, are Claviere, Montgenèvre (in France), Sansicario, Sauze d'Oulx, Sestriere and Cesana. They offer endless permutations over 248 miles of slopes, including World Cup and Olympic runs Tauern Runde, Austria A groomed circuit around Obertauern, which offers a full day's skiing for all abilities Davos-Klosters, Switzerland Andermat-Sedrun, Switzerland Val d’Isere-Tignes, France Paradiski area (La Plagne, Les Arcs, Peisey-Vallandry), France Jungfrau region (Wengen, Grindelwald, Mürren, Lauterbrunnen), Switzerland…

I intend to report in a future column on sales from the second autumn TEFAF New York fair, which closes today at the Park Avenue Armory, and I would be surprised if the highlight of the Old Master paintings offered by Tomasso Brothers of London and Leeds were not among them. The 26¼in by 20¾in portrait (right) by Nicolas Mignard (1606–68) is of Scipion du Roure (1628–96), a soldier who fought in Italy and became a considerable Provençal landowner. Both artist and sitter came from interesting families. Mignard was the elder brother of Pierre, who had a successful career at Louis XIV's Court, rivalling the great Le Brun in artistic influence. At one time, it was rather implausibly suggested that their father was actually an Englishman named More. Nicolas travelled…

‘Most of the rugs are designed in pairs and I don’t know why’ ASSUMING you have a house, it’s not possible to own too many rugs. I know this because, recently, I went to an auction and bought a job lot of 17. I just fancied them and they’ve vanished into the house like ghosts. These are Chinese and we already have a good collection of Middle Eastern rugs, which used to be called Persian. Some were actually Persian, others Baluchi and, particular favourites of mine, Afghan. All had abstract patterns apart from a few stylised flowers and nearly all were in soft reds and beiges, a result of being coloured with vegetable dyes. I was also told that all these Middle Eastern rugs have at least one deliberate…

Gnarly trees, a rolling landscape glimpsed through a train window, stubborn ponies, swirling fish and more creatures great and small feature as subjects in the Society of Wood Engravers’ 80th Annual Exhibition, which runs at the Kevis House Gallery, Petworth, West Sussex, from November 11 to December 23. The society was founded in 1920 by a group of artists that included Eric Gill and Lucien Pissaro. There are more than 100 works in the selling exhibition and limited-edition prints start at as little as £50 For all the latest news, visit countrylife.co.uk…

IF you think a mere £50 is a bargain for a farm worth £1.3 million, read on. North Yorkshire farmer John Bennett is raffling off his 18½-acre farm after he struggled to sell it and has already seen interest from as far afield as Mexico, New Zealand and Hong Kong. Barns Farm, near the Victorian seaside town of Saltburn, in the North Riding, has ‘an enormous three-bedroom stone farmhouse’, which enjoys views as far as Northumberland on a clear day, eight stables, a tack room, a feed room, a six-car garage, a barn and a workshop. If Mr Bennett can sell 28,000 £50 tickets before March 2018, he’ll be able to pick three winners. First prize is the Barns Farm freehold; second and third are ultra-HD LED Samsung curved televisions.…

EXPERTS from Nottingham Trent University have hatched a plan to save the UK’s oldest Bramley apple tree, which has been slowly dying for years due to an incurable infection. The ‘mother’ of all Bramleys—so revered it has its own annual festival and a stained-glass window in South-well Minster—was planted from a pip in 1809, by a child named Mary Ann Brailsford, in the garden of a cottage in Southwell, Nottinghamshire. The first cuttings were taken in 1856 by local nurseryman Henry Merry-weather—the seedling bears the name of the cottage’s then owner, Matthew Bramley. The tree has long been lovingly cared for and even survived being blown down in a storm in 1900 (it was replanted). Now, the local university hopes to buy the entire property. ‘We want to play our…

SOME 50 years ago, The Peregrine, written by J. A. Baker, was published. It’s a book of dazzling lyricism and genius, one man’s obsession with the wintering peregrines on the Essex coast. Who could fail to be moved by this starburst of Nature writing: ‘Rain began, and the peregrine returned to the brook. He flew from an elm near the bridge, and I lost him at once in the hiss and shine of rain and the wet shuddering of the wind. He looked thin and keen, and very wild. When the rain stopped, the wind roared into frenzy. It was hard to stand still in the open, and I kept to the lee of the trees. At half past two the peregrine swung up into the eastern sky. He climbed…

A sunflower village IT was a happy inspiration that led Mr Faure of the Manor House, Claygate to offer prizes for the best-grown sunflowers to the residents of this Surrey village. The competition was made known last March, and was at once taken up with enthusiasm. Amateur competitors looked askance on their puny plants while the giants of the professionals grew at amazing pace. Large golden heads came peeping over the tops of many a garden wall and lent an additional charm to the village.…

‘The House of Fabergé set about making hand grenades ’ GEORGE V said: ‘Abroad is awful. I know. I’ve been.’ He much preferred holidaying up the road from us, at Sandringham. Although Lady Macclesfield wrote that ‘it would be difficult to find a more ugly or desolate-looking place: the wind blows keen from the Wash and the spring is said to be unendurable in that part of Norfolk,’ George’s mother, the dowager Queen Alexandra, adored it. The estuary mud reminded her of her native Denmark. COUNTRY LIFE would report in 1902 that ‘the exquisite kindness which permeates all she does finds constant expression in her love of animals’. I’ve managed to get through life without a chalcedony model of a corncrake. In 1907, however, Alexandra was to commission the…

‘Galettes are a fail-safe pudding and this one might rival your favourite apple crumble. As the seasons pass, the almonds and cinnamon can be easily adapted for other flavours’ More ways with apples Parsnip-and-apple soup with puy lentils Put 6 peeled and roughly chopped parsnips, 3 peeled, cored and chopped apples, 1 chopped onion and 3 cloves of garlic into a large saucepan with enough hot chicken stock to just cover them. Simmer until tender, then process in a blender. To serve, add a drizzle of olive oil, cooked puy lentils (I used a microwaved sachet) and seasoning. Apple fritters with cinnamon whipped cream Whisk together 100g of self-raising flour with a quarter of a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda and gradually add soda water until you have…

Clean glasshouses Glasshouses are intended to admit as much natural light as possible during the dark days of winter. Now is the time to ensure that happens by cleaning the glass. Transfer the plants to a safe place. Remove all traces of shading from without and within. Search out and remove all fallen leaves and other bits of debris from the floor, especially under the benches. Then get a stepladder, roll up your sleeves and work through the glasshouse, starting with the underside of the roof, washing and rinsing the glass surface. It's a miserable job, but it does a lot of good. SCD…

FOR the 20th time, Asian Art in London is with us, from tomorrow to November 11. There will be 40 dealers’ shows, predominantly in St James’s, Mayfair and Kensington Church Street. This year, only four are from abroad: Raquelle Arzan of New York, with Vietnamese contemporary art; Genrokuart of Rome and Tokyo, with ‘Christians in Japan’; Röell from Maastricht, with ‘From Distant Shores’; and James Stanford of Las Vegas, with contemporary Buddhist art. The open evenings will be on Saturday for Kensington Church Street, Sunday for St James’s and Monday for Mayfair. There will also be book launches, lectures and museum and other events, which can be found in the brochure at www.asianartinlondon.com As well as sales by London auctioneers, London viewings have been organised by Lempertz and Nagel from…

IN style, display and location, the Wallace Collection in London and the Bowes Museum in Co Durham might appear to have little in common. Yet the two museums share much that makes them ideal partners—both for collaborating on small, focused exhibitions such as this one and for furthering research and scholarship. Each owes its existence to a scion of the British aristocracy, who lived in Paris in the mid 19th century and built up a collection that included riches that had recently come out of Spain and were being sold in Paris and London. The 4th Marquess of Hertford, whose collection would be bequeathed to the nation by the widow of his illegitimate son, Sir Richard Wallace, in 1897, reflected in his early collecting a taste for the Golden Age…