Innholdsfortegnelse for 06-jul-16 i Country Life

BEEKEEPERS can now get the buzz about when local farmers are spraying crops with insecticide by signing up to an alert scheme that will be launched in September to coincide with autumn spraying. The BeeConnected app, developed by the Crop Protection Association, the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) and the NFU, allows apiarists to be in close contact with farmers and spraying contractors within a 5km (three-mile) area of their hives and protect their bees from inadvertent poisoning. Farmers can register their land on the system and inform local beekeepers when they intend to spray. ‘This is a major step forward in protecting honey bees,’ says the BBKA’s Tim Lovett, ‘and we hope it will improve relations between farmers and beekeepers.’ Bees pollinate many plants that feed farm animals. Visit www.beeconnected.org.uk…

Heather beetle (Lochmaea suturalis), about a quarter of an inch long En masse, this small brown beetle can devastate large areas of heather moorland, its chosen food, but, in truth, it's the ravenous larvae that do the real damage. After over-wintering in the moss layer below heather plants, the beetle emerges in spring to lay its eggs. They're poor flyers and their movement is often assisted by a prevailing wind.…

IN 2008, Paul Bennett and his partner Gill Chubbock moved from a streamlined modern town house in the city of Norwich to the many rooms of North Cove Hall, a Grade II* mid-18th-century house in the country near Beccles, close to the county boundary separating Norfolk and Suffolk and on the edge of the watery expanses of the Broads. Whereas their town-house garden was, in Mr Bennett’s words, ‘a balcony the size of a table-tennis table’, on which were two small box plants in pots, North Cove Hall came with a park of something over 20 acres, plus five or six acres of garden developed over several centuries. What’s more, although both Mr Bennett and Miss Chubbock come from rural East Anglian backgrounds, neither had previously gardened. It was, as…

We take you on a journey over the next 30 pages to remind you why Britain is great and why it’s great to be in Britain. Quirky, beautiful, special and unique are all words that can be applied, whether referring to our landscape, unusual pastimes, books or cars. We make no apologies for the tone of unadulterated celebration and invite you to wallow in what the United Kingdom does best Contributors: Michael Billington, Katy Birchall, Kathryn Bradley-Hole, Hetty Chidwick, John Goodall, Kate Green, Paula Lester, Mary Miers, Charles Rangeley-Wilson, Rupert Uloth and Arabella Youens Cover credits: Bremont; Fortnum & Mason; Hunter wellies; Lock & Co; Roberts Radio; Twinings; Swaine Adeney Brigg; Bentley & Skinner; Aston Martin/Dom Fraser; Dreamstime.com; Berkshire show; Alamy Stock Photo; FLPA; Bridgeman Images; ardea.com; Getty Images; 4Corners;…

‘Approximately 2.9 million tons of topsoil are eroded annually in the UK, but hedgerows help to reduce this’ IT can be very easy to take trees for granted. An iconic part of our landscape, they give us many benefits that are often forgotten or overlooked, but our woods and trees are at risk. The UK is already one of the least wooded countries in Europe and, now, pests and diseases are threatening millions of trees across the country. In East Anglia alone, thousands of ash trees have succumbed to ash dieback and the fungal disease is spreading rapidly across the UK. This threat, combined with other pests and diseases, plus pressure from climate change, pollution and intensive land use, results in a sorry outlook for woods and trees. Our economy,…

Royal Ascot (above) In keeping with tradition, this year, The Queen attended all five days of Royal Ascot. There were 18 Group races and, watching from the Royal Enclosure surrounded by top-hatted men and glamorous women, Her Majesty was thrilled to have a winner, Dartmouth, in the Hardwicke Stakes. Lord's Widely referred to as the ‘home of cricket’, it has one of the oldest sporting museums in the world Goodwood Revival Vintage and classic cars race against each other on the revived circuit near Chichester in West Sussex and those attending are encouraged to dress the part in period clothing The Derby Britain’s richest horse race and the most covetable of the five Classics Wimbledon The oldest tennis tournament in the world and the most prestigious, it’s been held at…

MANY gardens have walls around them, including numerous older town gardens, but a ‘walled garden’ is understood to have long been a crucial part of a British country house’s food-supply chain, in which the majority of vegetables, salads and fruits can be cultivated. Its high walls protect crops from invaders—both animal and human—as well as giving some protection from the vagaries of weather. Fruit trees with susceptible blossoms can be pinned to the south- and west-facing walls that absorb and retain the sun’s heat for the longest duration. The walls that have warmed through the sunny day can release their warmth slowly through the dark hours, lending neighbouring plants extra nurture. Walled gardens are also undeniably decorative and those that perform roles in both ornament and productivity are among the…

WHEN Parliament decided to make a U-turn earlier this year and continue recording the country’s laws on vellum (a fine parchment traditionally derived from calfskin), we all cheered loudly in defence of rural crafts. Great Britain is a bastion of traditional craftsmanship—from hedgelaying to cleft fencing and coppicing to stone walling, our skilled craftsmen and women are the envy of the world. However, it is perhaps the thatcher’s prowess that is the easiest for us to appreciate, thanks to the 55,000 to 60,000 thatched roofs they lovingly preserve in England alone—more thatched buildings than any other country in Europe. Thanks to those who originally made these chocolate-box worthy, but highly practical and insulating, pieces of art atop homes from Devon and west Dorset (where thatchers favoured combed straw) to East…

THE west front of Byland Abbey, North Yorkshire, rears dramatically out of the landscape. Its distinctive outline, which culminates in a single pinnacle, is created by the sweeping line of a broken rose window. The remains of this cathedral-scale building and its associated monastery are a fascinating puzzle: it’s a challenge to reconstruct their former grandeur in what is now countryside. The remains of Byland are, however, testimony to British romantic sensibility. After all, historic ruins are not to be encountered everywhere in Europe and, in a landscape as intensively used and occupied as our own, nothing survives by chance.…

Hatchards bookshop, London W1 Established at 187, Piccadilly, W1, in 1797 by John Hatchard, it holds three Royal Warrants and has a vast array of signed first editions. The shop can help you source that elusive out-of-print title and is a place you could while away a lovely afternoon with your nose in a book. There is now a second branch in St Pancras International, so you can browse before you travel. (020-7439 9921; www.hatchards.co.uk) Floris perfumer, London W1 A Jermyn Street dweller since 1730, the finest-smelling shop in London has served royalty and film stars alike with its beautifully crafted scents—The Queen is said to particularly like Royal Arms Diamond Edition—the company updated the original scent for her Diamond Jubilee. (020-7747 3612; www.florislondon.com) Stonegate Teddy Bears, Stonegate, York Pick…

WITHOUT wishing to sound like Voltaire’s Dr Pangloss, British theatre offers the best of all possible worlds. In addition to the National Theatre and the RSC, we have a nationwide network of subsidised theatres stretching from Cardiff to Colchester and Derby to Dundee. London itself boasts 40 commercial theatres, which cater for most tastes, including the young with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Matilda the Musical. British actors also excite universal envy. What nation could match Ralph Fiennes and Vanessa Redgrave in Richard III (above), Helen McCrory in The Deep Blue Sea and Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart in No Man’s Land? Add in the fact that, following the success of NT live, many production are now beamed to cinemas around the world, and you have…

THE British have long accepted that the pleasures of the countryside properly constitute the crowning luxuries of life. It is no surprise, therefore, that our country houses, with their collections and their associated landscapes and gardens—such as Broughton Hall, North Yorkshire—remain supreme expressions of our cultural achievement. Every country house, whatever its date and architectural pretension, has many inextricably associated histories to tell. Among these are the changing sources of wealth that have made the creation, maintenance or expansion of these properties possible over time. Industry, trade or advantageous marriages have all played their part in erecting and furnishing such buildings. Other tales relate to the personalities who have created, occupied or served them. No less fascinating are the vagaries of taste and the changing patterns of use that these…

‘The gin and tonic has saved more Englishmen’s lives, and minds, than all the doctors in the Empire’ GIN has been through many ups and downs in its history, from excessive popularity in the early 18th century (when annual per capita consumption was 30 bottles and the artist William Hogarth created his famous print Gin Lane, satirising the social ills caused by over-consumption) to falling out of fashion in the 1970s and 1980s. It’s now fashionable once more, with the younger crowd as much as the more mature; not only that, but small-batch producers are springing up all over the UK, from Herefordshire and Northern Ireland to the Shetland Isles, making this perhaps the most exciting era in the whole history of this spirit. However, speaking of gin without tonic…

‘Bowled, oh, well bowled, Flashy!’ THE umpires were stationed behind the wickets; the scorers were prepared to notch the runs; a breathless silence ensued’ as the All-Muggletonians prepare to take on the Dingly Dellers in one of the most famous fictional cricket matches. The latter are roundly beaten: ‘All-Muggleton had notched some 54, while the score of the Dingley Dellers was as blank as their faces,’ writes Charles Dickens in The Pickwick Papers (1836). The penultimate chapter in Thomas Hughes’s Tom Brown’s School Days (1857), illustrates the role cricket played in Victorian public-school life in preparing young men for military service and high office. As a housemaster remarks: ‘The discipline and reliance on one another which it teaches is so valuable… It merges the individual in the 11; he doesn’t…

How to get the look Accessories The first stop in any search for stylish garden furniture and accessories should, without a doubt, be Barbed, 3, Liffords Place, London SW13 (020–8878 1994; www.barbedltd.co.uk) Furniture Neptune sells garden tables with stone tops that are not only practical, but also ideal for contemporary terraces. The Hudson has a sleek feel and costs from £1,390. For details of your local retailer, visit www.neptune.com or telephone 01793 427300 Architectural features Chesney's Architectural Showroom in Battersea is a brilliant resource for anyone planning a terrace. It's at 521, Battersea Park Road, London SW11 (020–7978 7224; www.chesneys.co.uk) Lighting Using indoor furnishings, particularly lampshades, offers a great way to create a seamless join between inside and out. For a great range of statement lighting, visit twentytwentyone 18c, River…

In the garden: Green gazebo, location’s own Blue patterned cushions (as before) Oak planters (as before) Fire bowl, £739.90 for 110cm (43in) bowl, Kadai (01694 771800; www.kadai.co.uk) Silver filigree lanterns, £55 each, Raj Tent Club (020-7820 0010; www.rajtentclub.com) Charcoal barbeque, from £550, Big Green Egg (0843 216 2805; www.biggreenegg.co.uk) Ash-handle container (as before) Metallic lantern, £75, Raj Tent Club (as before) On the table: Stone table and wrought-iron chairs, £4,790 for the table and set of six, OKA (0844 815 7380; www.oka.com) Lambswool weave blankets, £145 each, Brora (03456 599944; www.brora.co.uk) Perforated white lantern (as before) Champagne bucket, £85, LSA (01932 789721; www.lsa-international.com) Small dinner plates, £49 for a set of six, India Jane (020-7351 9940; www.indiajane.co.uk) Large dinner plates, £62 for a set of six, India Jane (as before)…

THE British Hen Welfare Trust (BWHT) has exciting plans for expansion. The charity, the founder of which, Jane Howorth, received an MBE in the New Year’s Honours list, has applied for planning permission to build a new rehoming and education centre in Rose Ash, near South Molton, north Devon. Currently, the BWHT, which rehomed its 500,000th chicken in January, works out of a garage at ‘Hen Central’. The idea is to educate school children and businesses about hen welfare. In the UK, about 16 million hens are kept in colony cages and the BWHT aims to educate people about processed foods that include eggs from caged hens. To donate to the project, visit www.bhwt.org.uk…

STRIDING with a stiff and ungainly gait—but surprising rapidity—the old tortoise crosses the lawn. With scale-armoured forearms, legs like baggy leather trousers and a way of hissing at unfamiliar visitors as she retreats into her crazy-paving-patterned shell, she peeps out again for treats of hibiscus, or a leaf of dandelion. But is she old? At a mere 50-ish years, she’s halfway to her centenary—the latter a possibility if her good health and routine continue undisturbed. Few tortoises achieve great age, as many misfortunes can occur, not least during hibernation. Yet tortoises really are ancient. Quite how these appealing reptiles got their enclosing shell (made up of modified and fused ribs and vertebrae) has long been debated, although recent work with CT scans and digital imaging proposes 250-million-year-old fossils of…

‘Our elected representatives are running about like so many headless chickens’ IT is difficult to think of a time since the Great Reform Act when the British political system has looked so woebegone. All three national political parties are on their uppers. The Liberal Democrats have disappeared as an electoral force; the leader of the Labour Party now enjoys the confidence of less than a quarter of his parliamentary colleagues; and the Conservative Government is embarking on what promises to be one of the most divisive and discreditable leadership elections since they’ve held such things. The bile and anger that the referendum released has left Parliament in a toxic state, with hatred running rife on every side. Profound uncertainty makes UK business decisions extremely hazardous and the wider international scene…

Sir Peter Blake is an artist, best known for the sleeve design for The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album ‘I first saw Orthodox Boys at the Tate Gallery in the 1950s, when I was working on paintings like Boys With Badges while at the Royal College of Art. It was exciting to find a fellow artist working on similar themes to what I was doing. My interest extended to other Magic Realists, such as Ben Shahn, and it was wonderful to be aware of these paintings being made across the Atlantic. I was lucky enough to meet both Bernard Perlin and Shahn’ John McEwen comments on Orthodox Boys THE painting Orthodox Boys— two Orthodox Jewish teenagers in front of a newspaper kiosk outside the Canal Street…

AS well as private gardens open under the National Gardens Scheme, village fêtes and amateur sporting fixtures, there are numerous rural events that often have their roots in pagan tradition and possess a quirky individuality. One such is the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling near Gloucester. A 9lb round of Double Gloucester is rolled from the top, the competitiors start racing down the hill after it and the first one over the finish at the bottom wins the cheese.…

IN Sea Fever, John Masefield wrote: ‘I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky.’ In the poem, he wistfully conjures ‘the call of the running tide… a clear call that may not be denied’ It must be a terrible hardship to live in a land-locked nation, bereft of pottering oystercatchers, seaweed smells, driftwood, rock pools, sand on which to walk barefoot, pink thrift, shells, dunes, fresh crab, pastel-painted beach huts and steep paths to secret coves. Britain does beach life better, and in more infinite variety, than any other country. From haunting Lindisfarne to white Jurassic cliffs, from the salt marshes of the Gower Peninsular to feral goats in the Valley of the Rocks, from the silvery Hebridean sea lochs to the white…

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë ‘Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, that I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! I have as much soul as you and full as much heart!' Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.' Tess of the D’Urbevilles by Thomas Hardy ‘And as each and all of them were warmed without by the sun, so each had a private little sun for her soul to bask in; some dream, some affection, some hobby, at least some remote and distant hope which, though perhaps starving to nothing, still lived on, as hopes will.' Great Expectations by Charles Dickens ‘I…

Butterfly There are 50 or so butterflies on the wing in June in Britain and they are a sure indicator of the health of the environment, with their short and varied lifecycles and specific habitat requirements Hedgehog These much-loved creatures are now the focus of conservation concern-even in Parliament-due to increased concrete and badgers Bumblebee There are 24 species in the UK and, as great pollinators, they are crucial to the production of the food we eat, such as tomatoes, peas, apples and strawberries Red deer Britain's largest wild mammal is not known as the Monarch of the Glen for nothing. Territorial and brave, their lifecycle is a constant source of pride and pleasure to locals and visitors alike Beautiful racehorse Highly tuned speed machines, Thoroughbred racehorses were developed in…

Whistlejacket, 1762, by George Stubbs (1724–1806) The National Gallery, London WC2 The classiest painting of a racehorse by the master of the genre, this iconic portrait of one of the foremost racehorses of its day gives its subject the presence of a heroic equine statue. It was commissioned by the 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, who owned the stallion, and was bought by the National Gallery in 1997 for £11 million. John Ruskin, 1854, by Sir John Everett Millais (1829–96) Ashmolean Museum, Oxford This portrait by one of the co-founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood celebrates the meticulous and painstaking technique for which the movement is renowned. Begun in 1853, it shows the art critic standing beside a cascade of the Glenfinlas river, a highly charged scene, given that Millais fell in…

ON New Year’s Eve in The Jolly Sailor pub, a stone’s throw from the pretty quay of this attractive, working fishing village on Suffolk’s heritage coast, the fishermen and locals of Orford gather to sing rousing sea-shanties. This small village, buffered from many day trippers by a long, winding road through the rather eerie Rendelsham Forest, lies on the banks of the River Ore, separated from the North Sea by a 10-mile long spit of shingle. As well as being home to both the writer Anthony Horowitz and the Today presenter Nick Robinson, it’s gaining a reputation as one of Suffolk’s best foodie destinations, with institutions such as Pinney’s of Orford, with its restaurant, the Butley Orford Oysterage, smokehouse and deli, Brinkley’s fish shed, which sells locally caught fish and…

BRITISH education is synonymous with choice. Not just in the diversity of subject choices, exams, teaching methods and activities, but also in the types of school on offer. Securing a place for their child at an independent school, such as Stowe (above), continues to be an ambition of many parents worldwide, however, building on the excellence of grammar schools, coupled with working partnerships between the State and private sectors, State-funded schools are nipping at the heels of the independent sector. The expansion of the academies programme alongside the emergence of free schools and State-funded schools that are set up and run by a local committee of passionate parents and educators to cater for a specific regional need has opened doors for State schools to learn from the successes of the…

COULD any Edwardian architect possibly resist the chance of designing, or at least enlarging a castle, least of all Robert Lorimer, who began his distinguished career restoring castles in his native Scotland? In 1906, he was lured south from Edinburgh (not for the first time) to make a ruined castle in Kent into a comfortable house. ‘I rather like a job south of London,’ he wrote to his Australian architect friend Robin Dods, ‘which takes you up every week or so in a sleeper at someone else’s expense, and one is able to keep in touch a bit with what is going on.’ As we saw last week, Lympne was a modest castle that had, for centuries, belonged to the Archdeaconry of Canterbury and, from the 18th century, served as…

THE property is near Santa Agnes, a small village in the north-west of Ibiza that consists of a small church, a school, a bar and a handful of houses. It’s reached by a dirt road and sits in hilly countryside with distant views of the sea in one direction and forests in the other. Before the current owner bought the property, it had been decorated in an Indonesian style. The brief given to Thomas Griem by the London-based owners was to reconfigure it to form a relaxed entertaining space and to make it ‘less hippy’. His solution was to simplify the structure and create a seamless join between inside and out. Key to this are the double doors that make the most of the surroundings and create easy access to…

THE sale of the Gladstone family’s historic, 6,228-acre Fasque estate at Fettercairn (Fig 1), on the fringe of the Scottish Highlands between Aberdeen and Dundee, highlights the remarkable turnaround in the estate’s fortunes achieved by its forward-thinking owner, Charles Gladstone, during his 25-year stewardship. In that time, Mr Gladstone has reversed the decline of the family’s flagship Scottish landholding, creating a mosaic of standalone farming, forestry, sporting and property assets, which are being offered by the Edinburgh office of Strutt & Parker (0131–226 2500)—either as a whole, at offers over £9.32 million, or in a total of 28 lots, at prices varying from less than £100,000 to more than £2m. Two prominent landowning families have been involved in the development of the Fasque estate—the Ramsays of Balmain, who owned…

THE Hepworth Wakefield is trumpeting its new Stanley Spencer exhibition as the biggest since Tate Britain’s 2001 retrospective, although, in fact, there was an equally substantial show at Compton Verney as recently as 2011 ( Country Life , August 17, 2011). No matter—with more than 70 works on display, it is the biggest planned exhibition in conjunction with this year’s celebration of the 125th anniversary of the artist’s birth. Celebration is an appropriate word to use about Spencer, whose intent was to reveal the transcendent joy, if not bliss, of everyday life, from the goings-on in his native village of Cookham, Berkshire, to the contentment of skilled workers in the Clyde shipyards. His beliefs were underpinned by Christianity, but only as much as, say, William Blake’s were. Spencer used Christian…

‘Adolescencewho’d willingly return?’ Fiction The Tidal Zone Sarah Moss (Granta, £12.99) Paradise Lodge Nina Stibbe (Viking, £12.99) Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain Barney Norris (Doubleday, £12.99) ADOLESCENCE. We’ve all survived it, but who’d willingly return? Even Shakespeare didn’t dwell on it. His quintessential distillation of man’s seven ages in As You Like It slides straight from whining schoolboy to balladeering lover, omitting the trials in between. The clue is in the name. Derived from adolescere—oh, the joys of being made to learn Latin as a recalcitrant teenager!—adolescence means coming to maturity. Nearly adult. Not quite. Three new novels place this high-definition limbo centre stage. Read now, not long after the annual summer ordeal of decisive public examinations, they resonate with relevance. The Tidal Zone— title with implications that…

Take a Kodak with you, the original poster created by John Harris and published by Publicity Arts London in 1920, is estimated at £400–£500 in Onslows' online sale of vintage posters on July 14 (01258 488838; www.onslows.co.uk). Some 500 lots include a single-owner collection of LNER Railway Carriage prints, Second World War propaganda and the original First World War Recruiting Committee poster (1915) by Lucy Kemp-Welch, featuring Lt-Gen Sir Robert Baden Powell's charger Black Prince (£800–£1,200).…

Country show July 8–10 Kent County Show, The Kent Showground, Detling, Maidstone, Kent. More than 400 exhibitors, a cattle marquee, shire-horse stables, cookery demonstrations and main-ring displays (right, 01622 630975; www.kentshowground.co.uk) July 9–10 Knebworth Country Show, Knebworth House, Hertfordshire. As well as clay-pigeon shooting and family activities, arena events will include sheep racing, the Devil's Horsemen display team and the Rockwood Dog Display team (01438 812661; www.knebworthhouse.com) Food July 9–10 Pommery Dorset Seafood Festival, Wymouth Harbour, Dorset. Champagne, entertainment and superb seafood (www.dorsetseafood.co.uk) Open farm July 10 Tablehurst Farm, London Road, Forest Row, East Sussex. Enjoy a fun day out at Tablehurst Farm, where there will be tractor rides, children's activities, walks and talks, music and food stalls. Admission free (01342 823173; www.tablehurst.farm) Festival July 7–10 Fringe in the Fen…

If you go down to the woods today MAY I, through your pages, pay tribute to the excellent and meaningful work carried out by The Woodland Trust? Its work planting native woodlands is a legacy for future generations. We, too, are striving to do the same, with the Trust’s help, but on a much smaller scale. In its advertising promotion, it is too polite to mention the considerable obstacles put in place by Defra: epic bureaucracy and artificial hindrances to the planting of native woodland. Defra prefers our sterile uplands lacking biodiversity, which adds to the problem of flooding in the lowlands. It is now time for Defra to simplify the whole process of woodland creation, so that future generations can enjoy a rich and diversified landscape that our…

DID James Bond make the Aston Martin DB5 the most famous car in the word or did the DB5 make Bond the most famous spy? Who knows or cares what 007 actually drove before that raucously urbane straight-six engine first ripped its soundtrack across the Furka Pass in Goldfinger. Somehow, the Aston Martin is, and always will be, his car, a pairing that epitomes British chic like no other. Although his suit was Anthony Sinclair, the Aston’s was by Carrozeria Touring, suggesting a certain Italian debt to this icon of British cool. However, the car that stunned the motoring world with its muscular beauty owes just as much to the DNA of earlier postwar Astons and to the racing foundry that shaped them: Aston’s assault on the Le Mans 24-hour…

Blue Lion, East Witton, North Yorkshire Delightful Georgian inn on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Civilised and yet informally friendly, there's a bar with flastones and a log fire, an impressive wine list, local ales and lots of whiskies, delicious food and lovely bedrooms-and the staff are kind to dogs (01969 624273; www.thebluelion.co.uk) Rose & Crown, Snettisham, Norfolk There's something for everyone in this consistently well-run inn and the meandering bars have simple, distinct charm, with old quarry tiles, beams in low ceilings, antique furnishings and open fires; excellent food and service (www.roseandcrownsnettisham.co.uk; 01485 541382) Horse and Groom, Bourton-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire A honey-coloured stone inn run by two brothers-one front of house, one looking after the kitchen-with plenty of original features, a proper bar and first-class food in…

This tiara became famous when it was worn by Downton Abbey’s Lady Mary on her first wedding day. It consists of 45 carats worth of diamonds and weighs 75.5g. To make it more wearable, it can be converted into two brooches, although, at £145,000, it’s unlikely you’d be thinking about cost per wear. Bentley & Skinner, established in 1881, was invited to supply jewellery to Queen Victoria and the company remains jeweller by Royal Appointment to both The Queen and The Prince of Wales. (020-7629 0651; www.bentley-skinner.co.uk)…

THERE is no better representative of our great purpose-built museum/art galleries and tradition of generous benefaction than the Fitzwilliam Museum (01223 332900; www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk). Here is Cambridge’s most magnificent public building—by George Basevi and C. R. Cockerell, opened in 1848—with an outstanding collection bequeathed for ‘the Increase of Learning’ by Richard, 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion, 200 years ago. This founding bequest—including masterpieces by Titian and Veronese, signed sheets of music by Handel and Purcell, astonishing books of medieval manuscripts and a series of etchings by Rembrandt—has evolved and diversified and is still being enriched, with gifts, acquisitions and superb temporary exhibitions. It makes the Fitzwilliam one of our finest regional museums—indeed, one of the finest small museums in Europe.…

SET on the banks of the River Tweed, Melrose has long been recognised as one of the prettiest towns in the Borders: Sir Walter Scott’s home, the recently refurbished Abbotsford House, lies just outside the town and, in the ruins of the 12th-century Cistercian Abbey lie the remains—allegedly—of Robert the Bruce’s heart. In its market square and down the high street is a clutch of interesting small shops, as well as an excellent wine shop with a nice cafe, a fishmonger, deli, Alex Dalgetty & Sons bakers, known for its Selkirk bannocks and a great butcher. As well as offering salmon fishing on the Tweed and wide opportunities for other field sports on the doorstep, the town sits in the shadow of the three-peaked Eildon Hills, which has excellent walking…

THESE two very different craft reflect our great maritime traditions. HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line, launched in 1765 and best known as Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Dinghy sailing is an increasingly popular sport, enjoyed in a wide variety of vessels with class names such as Optimist, Scow, Topper and Laser in harbours, rivers, lakes (such as Ullswater, right) and off coastal villages. The British still love ‘messing about in boats’…

The Nare, Roseland Peninsula, Cornwall Overlooking the sea between Falmouth and St Austell, this family-owned hotel has undergone a transformation since its acquisition by Bettye Gray. It's now owned and run by her grandson, Toby Ashworth, who continues the tradition of unstuffy elegance with superb service-patrons keep going back (01872 501111; www.narehotel.co.uk) The Ritz, London W1 Overlooking Green Park in the heart of London, The Ritz, founded 110 years ago, maintains its position as the last word in stylish luxury (page 112, www.theritzlondon.com; 020–7493 8181) The Goring, London SW1 The Duchess of Cambridge spent the night before her wedding in London's last remaining family-owned luxury hotel (www.thegoring.com; 020–7396 9000) Gravetye Manor, East Grinstead, West Sussex The house dates back to the late 16th century and has one of the most…

‘At The Ritz, anything is possible’ THIS hotel is truly magical and the magic is from the people themselves. You see, that’s the thing about The Ritz,’ its Deputy Chairman, Andrew Love, notes with a smile. ‘Here, anything is possible.’ Ever since it opened on May 24, 1906, The Ritz London has been synonymous with glamour, tradition and opulence. Edward VII dined in the restaurant with his mistress Mrs Keppel; in 1942, Sir Winston Churchill discussed war operations with Dwight Eisenhower and Charles de Gaulle in the Marie Antoinette suite; Charlie Chaplin was once escorted to the reception, through cheering crowds, by 40 policeman; and Evelyn Waugh sipped cocktails with Graham Greene in the Rivoli bar. César Ritz—hailed by Edward VII as ‘hotelier to kings and king of hoteliers’—was determined…

Vintage tennis rackets and balls throughout, from a selection at Henry Gregory Antiques (020–7792 9221; www.henrygregoryantiques.com)…

On the ground: Marine picnic basket, £190, Les Jardins de la Comtesse at Amara (0800 587 7645; www.amara.com) Oak planter, from £285, Neptune (01793 427300; www.neptune.com) Picnic blanket, £90, The White Company (020-3758 9222; www.whitecompany.com) Set of blue-border bistro plates, £54, Sophie Conran for Portmeirion (020-7603 1522; www.sophieconran.com) White tray, £50, The White Company (as before) Perforated white lantern, £30, Raj Tent Club (020-7820 0010; www.rajtentclub.com) Porcelain sugar pot, £16.50, Sophie Conran for Portmeirion (as before) Aqua coloured glass plates, £55 for a set of six, Sophie Conran for Portmeirion (as before) Cantilever parasol, £2,995, Indian Ocean (020-8675 4808; www.indian-ocean.co.uk) The table: Chairs and pedestal, see page 142 Blue patterned cushions, from £72 to £170, William Yeoward (020-7349 7828; www.williamyeoward.com) Ash-handle container, £60, LSA (01932 789721; www.lsainternational.com) Teacups and saucers,…

‘For now, the message is very much to keep calm and carry on. We’re well placed to do that and that’ what our clients want us to do. As someone correctly said in a meeting this morning, although some are pretty devastated by the results of the referendum, many other clients will have voted to leave the EU and will feel pretty good about the result and positive about the future. We’ve already had offers coming through—on the day after the result, we had an offer for a house at £2.5 million, which is what we’d consider to be in the eye of the storm of the market. On top of that, this morning, a new buyer has registered who is in the market for a country house with…

I HAVE a confession to make. I wrote a book last year called The 101 Greatest Plays. I omitted King Lear and Waiting For Godot (no regrets there), but I also left out Brian Friel’s Faith Healer. Having now seen Lyndsey Turner’s immaculate revival at London’s Donmar Warehouse, I realise I made a mistake. If this play, first seen in 1979, isn’t a masterpiece, then I don’t know what is. The play takes the form of four monologues spoken by three characters. The first and last are delivered by Frank Hardy, a fallible miracle-worker and showman who, having toured the byways of Wales and Scotland, crucially returns to his native Ireland. But the story of Frank’s vagabond life is taken up by two other characters. First, we hear from…