Innholdsfortegnelse for 30-May-18 i Country Life

It has balmy Gulf Stream climes and bleak, granite tors; Ted Hughes fished it and Alfred Munnings painted it OH the green hills o’ Somerset! Go rolling to the sea,’ reads a poignant 1916 poem by Frederic Weatherly, who was born in the county, in Portishead. Much of the West Country is defined by the lyricist’s infinite skylines, gently rising and falling in hues of ochre and purple, as well as shades of green, to touch the shining sea, but England’s foot boasts many themes. It has Arthurian legend and The Hound of the Baskervilles, Westward Ho! and Tarka the Otter, balmy Gulf Stream climes and bleak, granite tors, cider-apple orchards and wortleberries, heathery beacons and watery levels, curly-fleeced sheep and daffodil fields. Ted Hughes fished it and Alfred Munnings…

THE marmalade-loving bear’s final adventure, Paddington at St Paul’s, in which he is mistaken for a choirboy on an outing with Mr Gruber, is published tomorrow (Harper- Collins, £12.99). His creator, Michael Bond, died last year. ‘He was working on it very shortly before he died,’ explains his daughter, Karen Jankel. ‘He kept that magic touch right until the end. He always had to be writing, it was always his way, right through his life. ‘I feel so fortunate that his spirit lives on through Paddington,’ she continues, ‘who is a very important member of our family and, I hope, will continue to be so for a long time to come.’ Illustrated by R. W. Alley, as ‘Paddington’ stories have been since 1997, the new and final tale marks the…

THE Alzheimer’s Society has just launched the first ever dementia-friendly guide for rural communities, as an ever-increasing proportion of the countryside population suffers from the condition. Some 850,000 people in the UK have dementia, two- thirds of whom live in rural areas. Their illness is exacerbated by cuts to local services and a lack of infrastructure, meaning that many of those with dementia are feeling more and more isolated and unable to live the lives they want. The Dementia: Rural Communities Guide hopes to encourage individuals, community groups and organisations to take action and better support people affected in their area. As one person in the guide explains: ‘If I lived here alone and lost my driving licence, I think I’d have no alternative but to move to a town.…

Quiz of the week 1) Which artist's paintings include Blue Nude, Woman with a Hat and The Open Window? 2) Stonehenge is in which UK county? 3) What is 2018 written in Roman numerals? 4) The tree Platanus x hispanica is more commonly known as what? 5) How much is a guinea worth in today's currency? Time to buy Junmai Ginjo, £45, Heavensake (http://uk.heavensake.com) Leather Picnic Trunk, £795, Life of Riley (01799 551813; http://lifeofrileyonline.co.uk) Interior with Horse Chestnut Chair, Barry Flanagan Horse on an Anvil & Japanese Ceramic Plates , limited-edition print, £420, Lottie Cole (07971 853412; www.lottiecole.com) ‘Sometimes I can feel my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living’ Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer Unmissable events Exhibition Until October…

‘ We are very lucky to have such a rich built environment and it’s not there by chance IN the aftermath of the Royal Wedding, Athena has repeatedly heard people talking about the grandeur and happiness of the occasion. With all that sunshine and pageantry, tempered with romance, there certainly is a warm afterglow to enjoy. Moreover, in the light of the wedding celebrations, it’s hard to disagree with the platitude that the British do pomp and circumstance well. It seems to Athena, however, that far too many of the people who make this observation—sometimes with irritating complacency—assume this is a reflection principally on the actors who perform and the props they use; the guard of honour, the carriages, the outriders, the postillions, not to mention the choristers, the clergy,…

The Rt Hon Lord Hesketh KBE hosts the Greyhound Derby on June 2 at his Towcester Racecourse, which, since 2014, has included a world-class greyhound track ‘I spent every summer of my childhood looking at this portrait hanging in the dining room of my grandfather’s summer home, where my great uncle last saw his family before catching the night sleeper south to his eventual death on the Somme. His appearance, the urgency, youth and strength of character, have an eternity that is as true today as it was more than a century ago. Some years later, I spent one winter alone in the same house with his nephew–my uncle, Jamie, who was badly wounded in Normandy–and the picture was often the centre of our discussion. All of its truth and…

A SINISTER tale about a woman who marries a widower… Psychological and rather macabre,’ wrote Daphne du Maurier to her publisher of the novel on which she was about to embark in 1937. On taking delivery of Rebecca the following year, Victor Gollancz at once realised that his young author had written the book that would launch her into the literary stratosphere. The novel’s ‘brilliantly created atmosphere of suspense’, of which Gollancz enthused in his letter to booksellers, is struck in that first, haunting line—‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again’— and maintained tautly, expertly, throughout, until the book’s sudden ending. Rebecca sold 45,000 copies in the first month alone and has never gone out of print. It has inspired a sequel (by Susan Hill), a prequel (Sally…

Quicke’s Mature Cheddar Home Farm, Newton St Cyres, Devon (01392 851222; www.quickes.co.uk) Montgomery’s Cheddar North Cadbury, Yeovil, Somerset (www.montgomerycheese.co.uk;01963 440201) Westcombe Cheddar Westcombe Dairy, Evercreech, Somerset (01749 838033; www.westcombedairy.com) Keen’s Cheddar Moorhayes Farm, Wincanton, Somerset (01963 32286; www.keenscheddar.co.uk) Hafod Welsh Organic Cheddar Holden Farm Dairy, Lampeter, Ceredigion (01570 493283; www.hafodcheese.co.uk) Cheddar Gorge Cheese Company The Cliffs, Cheddar, Somerset (01934 742810; www.cheddaronline.co.uk)…

‘Jewellery is almost like wearing armour, you put it on and you face the day–a diamond always cheers you up’Susannah Lovis talks to Hetty Chidwick MORE often than not, you'll find Susannah Lovis in her small but perfectly formed boutique in Burlington Arcade, in London's Piccadilly. She has been there for nearly 20 years, since taking over a jeweller's where she used to work. Susannah dove head-first into the industry, selling both vintage jewellery-for which she has an impeccable eye (seen a Cartier piece you love? She'll have something for you, at a much better price)-and modern jewellery, which she designs herself and is gloriously wearable. ‘The vintage pieces look as if they were made yesterday because the craftsmanship is so immaculate-things aren't made in the same way now,'…

Size 108 acres of formal gardens, arboretum and picturesque grounds set in the Tamar valley Soil Soggy clay, except for the 100-yard-long raised border, which is free-draining Climate The weather is quite mild, but there are frosts in the valleys. Further away from the house, we wrap up the tree ferns for winter. The ones by the front door would probably be fine, but it's easy to replace them with bay trees for winter because they're in Versailles tubs, which prevents them from getting tatty Altitude A constantly sloping garden -about 360ft above sea level at the top of the garden Special challenges The scale and age of the garden. Keeping the 200-year-old water system running is a constant challenge. ‘You really need strength in this garden-we wear out everyone's…

WHAT a terrible thing was the Rockefeller Picasso. The 61in by 26in Fillette à la corbeille fleurie (Fig 3) aroused strongly differing emotions in its viewers. David Rockefeller evidently loved it; his wife, Peggy, loathed it: she insisted that it be kept away from her sight. Most people I asked about it shared her distaste, but I found one who thought it beautiful. Initially, at least, its earliest owners, Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo, reacted like the Rockefellers, he for and she against. Ugly was the word that came to my mind and not just from ‘Metooishness’, although that may have played a part because of the sad back story. The very young model was, indeed, a flower-seller, known as Linda la Bouquetière, but she also sold her…

SOHO HOUSE is a hotel and club, with branches in this country and in Hollywood, New York, Barcelona and other cities, catering to highly mobile creative professionals, as it says. The one in Istanbul is partly housed in the old American consulate, the Villa Corpi, a neo-Baroque mansion built in the 1870s for a Genoese businessman who had everything shipped in from home, down to the marble and the fresco painters: it boasts a colonnade, a loggia and a splendid staircase on which le tout Constantinople probably hoped to make an entrance. Next door is the famous Pera Palace, built in the 1890s to give passengers on the Orient Express somewhere suitable to stay when they got to the end of the line. These hotels are a bit like those…

THE extraordinary imagination of J. R. R. Tolkien is celebrated in a new exhibition at Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries. The curators are calling ‘Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth’ a ‘once-in-a-generation experience’ of the writer’s ‘vast creative genius’. Original manuscripts, artworks—including watercolours and dust-jacket designs for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings—maps and artefacts have been gathered from the UK, the USA and France to be reunited in Oxford for the first time since Tolkien’s death more than 40 years ago. They join the vast Tolkien Archive, the largest collection of original Tolkien manuscripts and drawings in the world, which has been kept at the Bodleian since 1979, in the city where Tolkien spent much of his adult life—as a student of classics in 1911 and, later, as professor of…

THE Museum of London Docklands’s ‘Roman Dead’ exhibition (until October 28; www.museumoflondon.org.uk/museum-london-docklands)features the first public display of a sarcophagus whose discovery in an ancient grave in Southwark last summer caused a frisson of excitement in archaeological circles. Although the body remained within, the lid had been pushed to one side, suggesting earlier attention from grave robbers. Recent archaeological research has shown that the find lay within an area of Roman Southwark that formed a vast ritual landscape of religious and funerary monuments and a large cemetery. The exhibition will be the first of its kind to examine the way Roman Londoners dealt with death. Other finds on view from Roman burial sites across the city include four male skulls showing signs of a violent death, found in a waterlogged pit…

LAST week, a butterfly that has been extinct in England for more than 40 years was reintroduced to William the Conqueror’s hunting haunt Rockingham Forest, Northamptonshire, as part of the Butterfly Conservation and Natural England project Back from the Brink (www.naturebftb.co.uk). Changes in woodland management, including a decline in coppicing and an increase in conifer plantations, saw the chequered skipper become extinct in this country in the 1970s. Over the next three years, more will be released in various parts of the forest and, as the area is a former stronghold, it is hoped that those reintroduced (from Belgium) will mate and lay the foundations for a new English population. The ambitious Back from the Brink project hopes to save 20 species from extinction and benefit more than 200 through…

OVER the course of the early May Bank Holiday weekend, I braved the heat to do battle with the weeds that were quickly overtaking our vegetable plot. Although the asparagus that my husband, Simon, had transplanted from one of the flowerbeds (where, bizarrely, it had been thrusting skyward) was doing well, together with the onions, potatoes and runner beans he’d planted earlier in the year, the other vegetables were being smothered by voracious interlopers. As the sun beat down and the mercury rose, I huffed and puffed as I tugged at buttercups (I’d never realised how difficult they are to pull up), wrangled with dandelions and yanked out what seemed to be endless yards of bindweed and stinging-nettle roots from the dark, crumbly earth. Eventually, after hours on my hands…

EARLY London street names had often a practical character. Trades and callings clustered together in some favourable quarter. Such names as Fish Street, Ironmonger Lane and the Vintry tell their own story; so also does Old Jewry. There are still old clothes dealers in Houndsditch, but we look no longer for bakers in Bread Street nor for lime-burners in Lime Street. Lombard Street is still today, as it has been for over seven centuries, the chosen home of bankers.…

The natural-wine movement, which emerged from obscurity in about 2010, divides the normally rather placid wine world like no other issue and arouses very strong feelings. For some, it's essentially a wild-eyed religious cult, a hair-shirted abhorrence of all the modern conveniences and techniques that make wine pleasant to drink. For others, it's the cutting edge of the move towards pure expression of terroir , with nothing left out or put in. Why you should be drinking it Natural wine goes beyond organic and biodynamic wine in its attempt to eschew not just chemical sprays, but also all additives, especially sulphur, which has been used since Roman times to limit oxidation and bacteriological spoilage. I don't regard sulphur-despite its devilish connotations-as the root of all evil, but many natural…

(photographs welcome) Email: countrylife_letters@timeinc.com Post: Letters to the Editor, COUNTRY LIFE Editorial, Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough Business Park, Hampshire GU14 7BF (with a daytime telephone number, please) Time Inc. (UK) Ltd reserves the right to edit and to reuse in any format or medium submissions to the letters page of COUNTRY LIFE N.B. If you wish to contact us about your subscription, including regarding changes of address, please ring Magazines Direct on 0330 333 4555…

The Hon Robert Dormer, a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, invites visitors to Quainton Church, Buckinghamshire, to look at his son's corpse. He appears stoic, in contrast to the corresponding figure of his weeping wife (who commissioned the monument), but the epitaph records that the loss broke him. The sculpture is one of a pair of monuments in Quainton Church recently restored by Sally Strachey Historic Conservation. Both were dismantled, steam-cleaned, coated in a permeable white wax and reassembled using stainless-steel clips. The church tower was also re-pointed and the floor has just been re-laid, the last stage of a project lasting several years. One third of the necessary £99,000 came from the local community and the village school helped with the cleaning work. Its pupils also inserted…

JIM MCEWEN’S musical father, patron of composer Charles Villiers Stanford, owned two country estates. Jim was to have Bardrochat in Carrick. Jim’s upbringing was strongly religious and musical. He loved country sports and won Eton’s drawing prize at 15. When, out of the blue, the First World War came, first-born Jock cut short his Cambridge education to enlist. He got leave for the Glorious Twelfth and, in his memoir of Jim, he wrote: ‘It was then the two boys and their father were able to take to the hill… for the last time together.’ Jim had gone up to Cambridge days before the Declaration. He was just 18, so there was minimal pressure on him to volunteer; even Jock urged him not to. Most days that August, he took gun…

• The West Somerset Railway (Bishop's Lydeard to Minehead) is the longest preserved steam railway in the country • Shepton Mallet had the oldest prison in the country before it closed in 2013. It was built in 1610 • The last ever pitched battle (in other words, fought at a pre-arranged time and place) was the Battle of Sedgemoor at Westonzoyland near Bridgwater in 1685 • Thomas Coryate was born at Odcombe in 1577. The travel writer went on to introduce the parasol and the table fork to England • The Royal Bath and West of England Society was founded in 1777 • Ten-pin bowling grew from Somerset skittles, played outside on a lawn • Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein after hearing about Andrew Crosse's electricity experiments at Fyne Court •…

One of the great joys of Daphne du Maurier’s novels is that the locations are ‘almost touchable’, enthuses Ann Willmore, who runs Bookends of Fowey (a haven for fans, 01726 833361; www.bookendsoffowey.com) and the www.dumaurier.orgwebsite. These are her recommendations for a literary pilgrimage Rebecca Menabilly, also the setting of The King’s General and My Cousin Rachel, is private, but two cottages on the estate are available as holiday lets (01726 808150; www.menabilly.com). Polridmouth Cove (below), from where Rebecca sets out on her fateful sail, can be reached on foot, down a wooded farm track Frenchman’s Creek Dona St Columb’s house, Navron, was based on Trelowarren (below), the home of du Maurier’s great friend Lady Clara Vyvyan. The house is private, but there are several luxury holiday cottages to rent on…

Where to begin? Be it an old barn, factory, warehouse, church or any other structure that is to be converted into a home, I always start by thinking about the materials that are appropriate to the building and which will work with it, rather than against it. This is partly because my focus is on working with reclaimed materials that can be used to create intimacy and calm in a large space. For example, an ancient barn with exposed beams lends itself to oak, elm, lime plaster, jute, hessian and linen in keeping with its rural identity, but an industrial setting would tend to suit metal window frames, black or steel-grey accents, painted concrete and exposed brick. The materials can be used in modern ways-soft-coloured, cut brick can look beautiful…

‘This week’s main recipe is a very easy and healthy supper to rustle up for all the family. I roast the broccoli separately, so it’s slightly charred’ More ways with broccoli Roasted broccoli with tahini dressing Toss pieces of broccoli in olive oil and arrange on a baking sheet to roast in a moderately hot oven for about 10 minutes, until they’re beginning to blacken. Shake together 3tbspn of blood-orange juice with 1tbspn of tahini to make a dressing, drizzle over the broccoli, sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve. Broccoli, salmon, anchovy and chilli tray bake Arrange 4 salmon fillets in a roasting tray together with a head of broccoli (broken into florets) and 4 chopped spring onions. In a small saucepan, gently heat 100ml of olive oil, 6…

Dartmoor, £595,000 A pretty thatched-barn conversion on the fringes of Dartmoor in Devon, Berties Cottage has four bedrooms and 1½ acres of ‘enchanting country gardens' on the hillside, say agents, with an orchard, vegetable patch and paddocks. The roof is well maintained and, inside, there are charming exposed beams, floorboards, fireplaces, a woodburning stove and an Aga. A goat house and two stables and the end of the garden could easily be converted into holiday lets, and Yeoford is just under two miles away. Strutt & Parker (01392 215631) Bodmin Moor, £2.95 million Situated at the heart of about 90 beautiful acres of pasture and farmland, complete with a family shoot and equestrian facilities, Lower Polgrain Farm is ‘an idyllic mini-estate protected by its own land', say agents. The…

IN July last year, we downsized to a garden that is twice as long and twice as wide as a tennis court, with an allotment and a half where we grow things to eat and flowers to cut. We also have an enclosed courtyard outside the kitchen, with room for a table to eat on sunny days. Starting again is exciting: starting small really concentrates the mind. My priority has always been atmosphere. At first, a rectangle bounded by other gardens seemed hardly the place from which to conjure all absorbing surroundings, but, as soon as massive laurels, a Lawson cypress and a paved barbecue terrace at the top end of the plot had been banished and the tidy lawn had changed into soft meadowy grass, the garden started…

PINE martens could be the key to grey-squirrel control, says the European Squirrel Initiative (ESI), which tallies with the Vincent Wildlife Trust’s research in Wales. After years of scientific research, a symposium in London in 2016 and a recent field visit to Northern Ireland, the conservation charity has come out in support of encouraging the pine-marten population in parts of the UK, particularly upland and semi-upland areas, where grey squirrels are a problem, which will lower the alien species’ numbers and have the knock-on effect of reducing damage to woodland. Although pine martens may have an impact on other fauna, it is believed that the positives outweigh the negatives. ‘Although there is evidence to show that the presence of pine martens reduces grey-squirrel numbers, we were concerned about potential collateral…

Proximity to Percy Pigs M&S has announced it will close more than 100 stores by 2022 and is set to lose its decades-long status as the number one clothing retailer in Britain to Primark Rolling stones There's a ‘real risk' of being hit by falling masonry from the crumbling Palace of Westminster. Last month, a football-sized chunk of stone fell 230ft from a statue of an angel The beautiful game A football match on Guernsey was abandoned after it was overrun by a herd of 200 cows; players used corner flags to round them up, then called it a draw and went to the pub…

WITH beautiful weather to tempt me, I rashly decided to use my folding bike to accomplish one unusually complicated day of travel this week. It began with a train journey to Bristol. Knowing how hilly the city is, I carefully planned a level cycle route from the station. Inevitably, however, I missed a turn and was forced into some pretty stiff exercise. Still, I enjoyed a glorious day there before catching my train back. En route, I broke my journey at a rural station for dinner with friends nearby. My first difficulty was to find somewhere to change. In the end, ludicrously, I had to make discreet use of a wayside hedge. Next, unbelievably, the golden evening light suddenly failed and it began to rain. At the end of the…

COUNTRY LIFE When the magazine first launched on January 8, 1897, it was called Country Life Illustrated and incorporated Racing Illustrated The first Frontispiece featured a man: the Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire. Sir Winston Churchill, Nancy Astor and Daphne du Maurier have also graced the page—as well as the stallion and unbeaten Derby winner Bahram Sir Edwin Lutyens was commissioned to build Hudson House, the magazine’s original headquarters, in Covent Garden. A set of chairs (left) by the renowned architect is still in the present office Then Editor Christopher Hussey was at The Queen’s Coronation and wrote: ‘She is looking radiantly young and beautiful… I can feel the tremor as thousands catch their breath’ The average value of houses advertised in COUNTRY LIFE is in excess of £2 million.…

Annie Maw was a nurse and a guide in Wells Cathedral for nearly 20 years. In 2002, she had a riding accident, resulting in paraplegia. In spite of life in a wheelchair, she served as High Sheriff of Somerset in 2008 and has been Lord-Lieutenant for the past three years. ‘Travelling, I pass through the most sublime landscapes. Leaving the M5 and the A303 behind, I use hidden leafy lanes and windswept ridgeways when I can. I marvel at the views, at huge skies teeming with stars, at trees, at wildflowers, at birds and birdsong, at vivid colour throughout the seasons. This is a very varied county-we have it all. ‘From the cliffs and beaches in the southwest, where Exmoor falls away into the sea at Porlock, to the secret…

ONE night in November 2012, Graeme Hart, an orthopaedic surgeon, received the call every homeowner dreads: his house was on fire. Both he and his wife, Hilary, were away and, by the time they reached west Devon, the blaze had turned the sky orange. No fewer than 98 firemen were fighting it, their efforts watched and, where possible, helped by a crowd of neighbours. Flames ripped through the house, much of which was made of wood. It appeared that this ancient and celebrated property, largely dating from the first half of the 17th century, had been lost—another victim of the commonest cause of country-house disasters. Five years on, it might seem as if a miracle had occurred. From the outside, there is very little to show that Sydenham had been…

THE results of the 2018 awards confirm what we’ve known for years: Britain has an exciting future alongside the world’s classic regions as producers of high-quality wines. British sparkling wines regularly win in blind tastings that include some of the most prestigious examples from other regions and our still wines sing with the distinctive character of the countryside. This year, no fewer than 230 entries to 14 style categories were awarded trophies. Oz Clarke, who, together with fellow broadcaster and writer Susie Barrie MW, is co-chair of the stellar judging panel of wine luminaries, which includes Country Life’s wine writer, Harry Eyres. Mr Clarke describes the competition as an ‘inspiring tasting,’ lauding still wines with ‘intriguing, original flavours’ and sparkling wines that are ‘quite simply world class, and can now…

SUMMER is calling, so why not answer in style by wearing one of Turnbull & Asser’s cool linen shirts. The yarn is sourced in Normandy fields and woven in Bergamo, Italy, before making its way to the company’s Gloucester factory to be turned into a rainbow of Cambridge-collared button-down shirts. Not just for gents, as I think there’s nothing more chic than a woman in a man’s shirt. £195 (020–7808 3000; www.turnbullandasser.co.uk) PETERSHAM NURSERIES Covent Garden opened its much-anticipated new restaurants, La Goccia and The Petersham, this month. The former is more casual than its fine dining—but unstuffy—cousin, yet both are perfect places for a celebratory lunch or dinner. They also feature pre- and post-theatre options, a must in the heart of London’s West End. The Petersham sits in…

Watering is a tedious job and often misunderstood, so is either done badly or the water is simply wasted. One sound investment is the regular watering of a newly planted shrub in its first growing season. A canful a week is a reasonable rate, unless the heavens open sufficiently to render it unnecessary. The object is to help the shrub establish itself until the autumn arrives, when things will take care of themselves. A thick mulch of decayed organic matter will be a big help and, in a shady spot, this may replace the need for watering altogether SCD…

JOHN CARRUTHERS from Canada is the editor of the International Bridge Press Association monthly bulletin—and a fine editor, too. He’s represented Canada at the World Championships no fewer than 14 times. Even more importantly, he’s a terrific man, who plays the game with a great sporting spirit. Fiercely competitive he is, of course, but the perennial smile on his face tells the story: he knows that, win or lose, bridge is only a game. Here is the first of two deals featuring Mr Carruthers at the helm. It comes from the Canadian Trials for the 2000 World Team Olympiad. Declarer ruffed West’s top Heart lead. After considering running the ten of Spades (playing East for a void), at trick two, he led to the King (thinking East would have bid…