Innholdsfortegnelse for 25-Jul-18 i Country Life

Emma, younger daughter of Mr John Gabriel and Mrs Deborah Gabriel, is engaged to be married to Giles Turton. They will be married at the Church of St Andrew and St Mary, Grantchester, and afterwards at Queens’ College, Cambridge, her grandfather’s alma mater, this month. Educated at the University of Oxford, where she read mathematics, Emma now works in the City, where she’s a director in investment banking.…

CORNWALL’S first plough-to-bottle gin and vodka distillery has been launched at family-run Colwith Farm, at Lanlivery near Fowey, using King Edward potatoes. Only a handful of producers in the UK actually distill their own spirit and the first tipple to emerge from the farm—its new state-of-the-art distillery was made possible by a grant from a South and East Cornwall Local Action Group last year—is Fowey River Gin, created by blending a Colwith vodka base with triple-distilled cider from nearby Haye Farm. When fully operational, the distillery will also produce its homegrown Stafford’s Gin and Aval Dor Vodka (left) from scratch. The latter (aval dor is Cornish for ‘potato’) won a Taste of the West award in 2016. ‘When we first started producing our gin and vodka we were sending…

THE countryside is bleached, gardens are scorched and a hosepipe ban is set to come in across the North West next month, where the fire on Saddleworth Moor has only just been put out. There are actual bananas growing in the streets of Barnes in west London. Gardeners may be glum, but there are some very excited people as a result of this astonishing summer. Last week, across from the savannah that was once Wimbledon Common, Hotel du Vin hosted the WineGB Awards lunch. English and Welsh wine is on an upward trajectory and improving year by year, but the possibilities of this summer’s grape harvest put a smile on everyone’s lips. The yield is predicted to be 50% higher than any previous year and the quality, provided August can…

IT is only during the last few years that the American grey squirrel has established himself in London. Probably he originated in the Zoological Gardens, where he gambols round to the great delight of the children, whose joy in the huge ‘efelants’ is mixed with dread. But there is no dread of the furry little squirrels. From the Zoo the squirrel spread to Regent’s Park; to Kensington Gardens; and to Kew Gardens, where he became a destructive pest and had to be reduced with powder and shot, and finally, in some cases, to squirrel pie, which, on the authority of one of the lady gardeners there, is a dainty dish.…

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Exhibiting Art In Georgian Ireland, City Assembly House, 58, South William Street, Dublin 2, until July 29 (00 353 1 679 8675; www.igs.ie)If in Dublin this week, don’t miss the final days of the Irish Georgian Society’s exhibition marking its recently completed restoration of the City Assembly House. Important 18th-century paintings by members of the Society of Artists have been reunited in the newly reinstated octagonal Exhibition Room, the first purpose-built public gallery in Britain and Ireland, where they were first displayed in a series of exhibitions held here between 1766 and 1780. An accompanying scholarly catalogue, edited by William Laffan, further explores the artistic vibrancy of Georgian Dublin and its contribution to national culture. Cromarty Treescapes, The Stables Causeway, Cromarty, July 27–August 5 (01381 600354; www.cromartyartstrust.org.uk) and Browns Gallery,…

FEW subjects spark more passion or generate such lively debate as one’s choice of gundog. Animated anecdotes, enthusiastic opinion and teasing flow on a shoot day and, if you really want to have some fun, be sure to ask the million-dollar question: ‘Which breed is best?’ With so many to choose from today and with each breed boasting its own particular merits, it’s a question that’s nearly impossible to answer—the sensible response is that it depends on the work you want your dog to do. Rationality aside, the general consensus tends to be that you should get whichever breed the person you’re talking to has. ‘For someone like me, who doesn’t concentrate on his dog on a shooting day, one need look no further than a labrador,’ declares the Duke…

The Purdey Trigger Plate was conceived and designed to meet the demands of the modern shooting world and for all-round use on both game and sporting clays. The first design conversations started nearly six years ago and the first prototype was completed in 2016. Made entirely in the company’s London factory, hand-engraved and incorporating demi-lump barrels, the gun is classically elegant in terms of aesthetics, but is designed and built to withstand the heavier and faster cartridges so commonly seen in the shooting field. The gun represents a perfect blend of the best elements of modern production methods married to the highest standards of craftsmanship for which Purdey is so well known around the world. As with all the company’s shotguns and rifles, the design team obsessed over the balance,…

Why have a boot room? Because country living inevitably means mud, I always try to plan for an area where boots and shoes can be stored, especially in a family home with children and pets. No one wants mud trampled through the house, so a well-ordered boot room, preferably next to the back door, provides the space and storage to help family life run as smoothly as possible. How do you begin the design? I believe that interior design should change lives for the better, and this is especially true of the boot room because it’s one of the hardest-working rooms in the house. Think about what it needs to achieve, its size and how you plan to use the space, considering how storage can be maximised. For example, I…

Lapis-lazuli, freshwater pearl and diamond tulip earrings, £1,345, Annoushka (0800 138 1659; www.annoushka.com) Limited-edition Manero Power reserve in Green, £7,500, Carl F. Bucherer (020–7952 2040; www.carl-fbucherer.com) Alice Naylor-Leyland has designed a collection for Misela, from £170, Mrs Alice x Misela (www.misela.com) For fans of the grand Piccadilly restaurant, this is the perfect house present: The Wolseley indulgence tote, £69, The Wolseley (020–7499 6996; www.thewolseley.com) Yellow palm silk tie, £95, Rose Electra Harris for Sir Plus (020–7127 4213; www.sirplus.co.uk)…

I’m not ashamed to say I’m a petrolhead and I have a collection of classic cars, but my 1963 Mini Cooper S stands out. I love driving it around the racetrack—it’s just amazing fun. I bought it at auction and have learnt everything there is to know about its history. That’s half the pleasure in owning a car like this—the other half is tracking down original parts I just love the experience of outdoor living and my Chesneys barbecue heater is brilliant. It’s the most versatile cooking appliance I have—it doubles as an outdoor wood-burning stove, creating an atmosphere and extending the time we can spend outside. Sitting around a fire late into the evening with friends is one of life’s pleasures. From £2,484 (020–7627 1410; www.chesneys.co.uk) It will…

If you grow apples trained in one of those pleasant formats such as the cordon or the espalier, now is the time to engage in the arcane mystery of summer pruning. In fact, there’s little to it, although others need not be informed of this. New shoots proceeding in unpromising directions should be removed altogether, together with any that look like potential leaders. The remaining shoots should be shortened to three leaves from the base. The object of the exercise, as with all such pruning, is to encourage the formation of fruiting buds for the future rather than mere foliage.…

‘It was so innovative, it sent contemporary critics into a dither of incomprehension’ JULY 2018 marks the bicentenary of the birth of Emily Brontë, one of the most famous authors who ever lived, despite only having written one novel and the fact that we know very little about her. Wuthering Heights is often cited as a favourite book by people who read it so long ago, they have no real recollection of the story or have only ever seen one of the many film and TV adaptations—or have merely heard Kate Bush wailing. ‘Cathy! Heathcliff!’ we can cry, with a tinge of self-mockery, when wandering across anything resembling a wind-blasted moor—perhaps only a concrete car park—confident that our literary allusion will be instantly understood. Few novels have carved out such…

‘There will be winners and losers from the summer of 2018’ IT’S been a funny old year: one day the Beast from the East, the next, the longest dry spell since 1976. As a result, there will be both winners and losers among our wildlife for the summer of 2018. As some species gasp, others are blissful. Wild-game shoots are anticipating a great season, especially as, on a well-managed estate, fine weather during the breeding season is the biggest deciding factor as to how pheasant and partridge broods fare.. Provided grouse came out of the winter in good condition, moors should be teeming with chicks. However, all wild birds are dependent on insects, which need some moisture to thrive. The waders that migrate to the uplands to breed rely on…

TO mark his 70th birthday, The Prince of Wales has selected some 100 works for an exhibition at Buckingham Palace, London SW1. They include favourites from his own collection and the Royal Collection, as well as works by young artists supported by three of his charities—The Royal Drawing School, The Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts and Turquoise Mountain, set up by The Prince to train builders and artisans in Afghanistan. Napoleon’s cloak (below), taken from his carriage after Waterloo and presented to the future George IV, is on display, as are two oil sketches of The Prince and The Duchess of Cornwall by Eileen Hogan, never seen in public before. Battle of Britain veterans depicted by Royal Drawing School alumni join the eclectic gathering, and the centrepiece of the…

A SHORT trip to Kendal this week gave me my first experience of rain for weeks. The exhilaration of seeing it fall on the parched ground, however, was almost immediately replaced by a sense of its inconvenience. Within an hour, the grey sky and the streaks of water running down buildings seemed depressingly familiar. I restored my spirits with the discovery of a monument to the painter George Romney in the parish church and a visit to the Abbot Hall Art Gallery. Meanwhile, the school term was brought to an effective conclusion by the long-awaited performance of Mary Poppins. Apparently oblivious to the oven-like temperature of the improvised theatre, the cast of about 120 children between eight and 12 acted with determination, danced with discipline and roared through the songs.…

I’ve never written about Swiss wines in this column, not out of some anti-Helvetian prejudice, but because the perennial strength of the Swiss Franc and the relative scarcity of these vintages have always made them, if available at all, rather expensive. However, I was pleasantly surprised and rather charmed by a small tasting put on at the London Wine Fair by an enterprising company called Alpine Wines, which champions the ‘terroir-driven heroic wines from the mountain valleys and along the major rivers from the Alps’. Why you should be drinking them Swiss wines are certainly distinctive and unusual, made from a bunch of grape varieties you don’t find much elsewhere (some especially developed in Swiss viticultural stations for the mountain conditions), such as Chasselas, Petite Arvine, Gamaret, Garanoir…

Daisy, daisy THE daisy (Bellis perennis) is probably the most downtrodden and underestimated flower in the UK (‘Oops a daisy!’, May 2). Growing up in the 1950s on the edge of an east Dorset village, I recall the local girls making daisy chains by carefully threading the wiry stalks through each other and plucking the petals with an eye on would-be suitors. I remember when my late father would umpire the local cricket club during June and July. We were accompanied by Ruffus, our huge labrador, and as we prepared for a long stay, the dog would spread his huge body like a beached whale across my picnic rug. However, when he saw my father, Ruffy would whack his tail on the dense clusters of daisies—thus the bees would…

PETER PHILLIPS can’t remember a summer without the horse trials in the valley bowl beneath his mother The Princess Royal’s Bath-stone home, Gatcombe Park. His parents —one a European eventing champion (mother), the other a four-time Badminton winner (father), both of them Olympians—started the competition, now known as the Festival of British Eventing, in 1984 ‘to give something back’ to the sport they love. ‘You have to weigh up trying new things without alienating people. Or losing money!’ He and his childhood friends, many of whom are still involved, gradually progressed from roping and errand-running to creosoting, cutting grass and driving buggies as part of Sir Jackie Stewart’s ‘Menial Task Force’ (MTF). The former champion racing driver, a long-time friend of the family’s, wanted to help and, not being a…

• The Queen Labradors and cocker spaniels • The Earl of Leicester Springer spaniels • The Duke of Roxburghe Labradors • The Duchess of Devonshire Labradors • Sir Edward Dashwood Cocker spaniels • The Duke of Northumberland Cocker spaniels • The Princess Royal Clumber spaniels • Viscount Gage Clumber spaniels • The Marquess of Salisbury Clumber spaniels • Lord Stafford Norfolk terriers • The Duke of Leinster Korthals griffons • The Duke of Rutland Labradors • The Duke of Buccleuch Labradors, cocker spaniels and springer spaniels • Lt-Gen Sir Barney White-Spunner Labradors…

We have shoes we’re still repairing that are 60 years old –our shoes are relevant, but don’t follow trendsMartin Mason talks to Hetty Lintell A GOOD pair of shoes should ‘feel like old friends’, according to Martin Mason, the enigmatic frontman of Tricker’s. The company has been crafting shoes in Northampton since 1829, when Joseph Tricker was at the helm (although his father, in fact, made shoes as far back as 1747). ‘Tricker’s is still the boot- and shoemaker of choice for the country-house set,’ explains Mr Mason. It’s also as popular as ever with farmers and landowners, for both practical and casualwear, and pioneered the split-reverse welt (sewing the sole onto the upper), designed to be filled with wax to keep water out of the shoe, in the late…

‘The kitchen garden doesn’t provide an abundance of peaches, but enough to make this simple, flavoursome galette’ More ways with peaches Peach, rose and pistachio tarts Cut a sheet of puff pastry into 6 long pieces. Melt 50g of butter with a few drops of rosewater and brush it over the top of the pastry pieces. Cut two halved peaches into thin slices. Layer the slices side by side on each length of pastry, then fold the bottoms over so only the tops of the peach slices show. Sprinkle liberally with caster sugar. Roll the pastry lengths up to create six individual rose shapes, then put them into buttered muffin tins. Bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes. Scatter the tops with chopped pistachios and serve for afternoon…

HOW lucky—and privileged—I was to have attended a Friday press pre-preview at Sotheby’s as the highlights of its summer sales were being set out. I arrived towards the end of the morning, when most colleagues and cameras had left, and had it almost to myself. It was like being allowed to wander around a theatre as the stagehands prepare for a final dress rehearsal—but with great art rather than props and flats. The privilege is obvious enough, but it was lucky in that I had not waited until the private-view party on the Monday to see what should have been the greatest offering of the week: Giambologna’s glorious bronze Mars (Fig 1). Not just to see it, but to get closer to it than may ever be possible for…

July 25 World premiere of Tansy Davis’s What Did We See?, plus Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Piano Concerto and Brahms’s 2nd Symphony August 1 Ethel Smyth’s Prelude to Act II of ‘The Wreckers—On the Cliffs of Cornwall’, plus Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B Minor (cellist Daniel Müller-Schott) and Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben August 7 Thea Musgrave’s Phoenix Rising, plus Brahms’s A German Requiem August 12 Lili Boulanger’s Pour les funerailles d’un soldat, plus Elgar’s Cello Concerto and Vaughan Williams’s Dona Nobis Pacem August 15 French programme, including Lili Boulanger’s Psalm 130, Du fond de l’abîme, Debussy's Prelude à l'apres-midi d'un faune and Nocturnes and Ravel's Bolero September 8 Roxanna Panufnik’s Songs of Darkness, Dreams of Light plus music by Elgar, Stanford, Parry, Arne, Milhaud, Wood and Rodgers Tickets: 020–7070 4441;…

LACE up your boots, oil your chain or saddle your horse: the annual Ride + Stride will take place on September 8, with more than 8,000 churches across the country opening their doors to participants. Organised in aid of the National Churches Trust (NCT), it is a chance to discover the treasures of local churches under your own steam, perhaps riding the same route as the Tour of Britain or doing a choral steeplechase, performing at each stop. You could search for carved pigs in Little Malvern Priory, Worcestershire, or send a letter from the church post office at Sheepy Magna, Leicestershire. The Bishop of Oxford is taking part this year, as is a tandem club in Shropshire and all 10 churches of the Chenderit Benefice near Banbury, six Anglican,…

I WAS amused to read in Philip Avery’s excellent article (‘Always take the weather with you’, July 4) that his career as a naval aviator was terminated by a Sooty glove puppet, which whispered the decision to the chief flying instructor before whom Philip was standing. I was that chief flying instructor and Sooty stands on my bookshelf today. Having been very close to being ‘chopped’ when I was a student pilot, I know how traumatic it is, so I tried to lighten the moment. Sooty became well known in the Fleet Air Arm and was once kidnapped—I had to pay a bottle of Scotch to get him back. One day, I was hoist by my very own petard. I was chopping a belligerent, humourless would-be pilot and had decided…

WITH a zeal that would do credit to a 17th-century Witchfinder-General, the eager-to-be-offended brigade works overtime detecting new behavioural and intellectual sins to anathematise and punish. Its latest frenzy is fuelled by something called ‘cultural appropriation’. As always, the most extreme examples come to Britain’s shores from our American kinsmen. Consider the case of 18-year-old Keziah Daum of Salt Lake City, Utah, who decided to wear a Chinese dress or cheongsam to her senior prom and proudly posted a photograph of it on her website. A tempest of vitriol was rained on the poor young woman’s head. As someone with no Chinese ancestry how dare she wear such ethnic clothing? An outraged twitterer fumed: ‘My culture is NOT your goddamn prom dress.’ Keziah responded magnificently: ‘I, in no way, was…

The Magic Millions Festival of British Eventing at Gatcombe Park, Gloucestershire, is on August 3–5 (020–3771 3184; www.festivalofbritisheventing.com) Where is your favourite place in Britain? When the sun’s out, there’s no better place than the west coast of Scotland What is your favourite building? St George’s Chapel, Windsor, where I got married Book? The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)—I loved it so much that I can’t bring myself to watch the film; I had to switch it off on a flight Music? I’m a rock/pop person, from U2 to The Killers Food? I’m a massive fan of Asian food—living in Hong Kong cemented that Dinner guest? I’d like to sit between Bill Clinton, whom I haven’t met, and Sir John Major, one of the most captivating, likeable…

Specialist knowledge is a key ingredient of working conservation and GWCT advisors provide practical advice based on scientific research on how to manage land with a view to improving biodiversity. The organisation has won the trust of landowners over generations and, with ever greater pressure on the countryside, the survival of wildlife will depend on that trust. The GWCT depends on donations and membership to continue its work. To become a member, telephone 01425 651024 or visit www.gwct.org.uk/joinTo order a copy of ‘Working Conservationists’, visit www.gwct.org.uk…

• When the time comes for a new sole, bring your shoes back to Tricker’s. They will be put back on the original last—this will keep the shape perfectly • Shoe trees are important and you should also keep your footwear in a box • Wear them every other day, so they have time to settle • Always choose good-quality socks (Pantherella make the best). Silk is good in town and cotton is better for the country • We don’t sell shoes in new width fittings, but the old-fashioned 5 and 6 are useful in the country—because Tricker’s lasts were used to make wartime boots, the widths are slightly more generous to allow for socks…

‘ They have a deep, rich flavour–imagine a glass of good red wine’ WHEN I was a kid, my mum would take us to a nearby pick-your-own fruit farm, where eight-year-old me ate as many raspberries and strawberries as were added to the basket. Much as I loved them, I remember the wonder of my first loganberry best. Its juicy balance of sweet and sharp was my introduction to many of the unbuyable berries I have in my garden now. New hybrid berries become available every year and I give every one of them a trial; some of them are pretty good, but there are four clear winners that I’d recommend to anyone. The loganberry is one of the finest raspberry crosses, carrying the best characteristics of its raspberry…

WE lost with honour and France trumphed. It reminded me of a happy summer on South Uist. The weather was perfect and the sea was every shade of aquamarine and azure blue. Light airs played across the machair, scintillating the flowers, and the beaches glittered with finely polished sand. Our party spent its waking hours by the sea, making camp in a hollow between the dunes, praying for the wind to blow lest the midges begin to rise. We could see them hopping through the marram grass. One day, we saw a tent pitched on the lip of the dunes, above the beach. The Hebrides don’t get too many visitors, but those that come are often more international than you’d expect: Indian philology professors and their families, say, or Spanish…