Innholdsfortegnelse for 04-Sep-2019 i Country Life

Quiz of the week 1) Melanophobia is the fear of which colour? 2) What does Defra stand for? 3) Common, pygmy and water are all species of which small mammal? 4) How many separate terms did William Gladstone serve as Prime Minister? 5) Bianca is younger sister to Katherina in which Shakespeare comedy? Time to buy Multi-stripe dog collar, from £14, Olive & Berry (www. oliveandberry.co.uk) SLOJO Relaxing Candle, £65, JOGB (07425 873873; www.jogbliving.com) Wild Flower linen napkins (set of six), £85, Craft Editions (www.crafteditions.co.uk)…

BUDDING Hollywood stars dream of the kind of career Dante has had. ‘He’s done 26 different shows, from Wonder Woman to Lloyd’s Bank campaigns,’ reveals Camilla Naprous of The Devil’s Horsemen, stunt riders and suppliers of horses to the film world. The 20-year-old Lusitano stallion is one of the oldest of the 100-odd horses at the Buckinghamshire stud founded by Camilla’s father, Gerard. At 16.3hh, he’s the favourite horse of her 6ft 5in brother, Daniel, and recently appeared in Game of Thrones with 6ft 6in warrior The Hound. Foaled in Portugal, he was broken in aged three and the Naprouses began work with him at five. ‘We like a horse to be a horse, so we don’t start too early. We wait until they perform correctly in their body and…

WE produce about one million tonnes of sugar in the UK every year. It’s a staple part of the income of many farmers in the East of England, as well as providing jobs in the food industry nationwide. That doesn’t mean, however, that we should ignore the fact that we’re eating too much in general and too much sugar in particular. Nonetheless, sugar is and will remain a food ingredient and only the most determined of health fanatics want to ban it—they have an unhealthy obsession with sugar that undermines the more sensible aim of promoting a balanced diet in which it has a proper place. ‘A health tax was being filched to shore up deficiencies in schools spending’ That unhelpful attitude only encourages those on the opposite side of…

SUMMER months bring the annual procession through the Highlands of pilgrims from Land’s End making for John O’Groats, or vice versa, in support of charity. It is a trip that has been done on skateboard, lawnmower, grey Fergie tractor, unicycle, roller skates, scooter, wheelchair, public transport and horse, as well as by hitchhiking and on the more usual conveyance of Shank’s pony or bicycle. Until recently, a friend’s wife held the women’s record for running it in 12½ days. Our family hero, however, is my wife’s brother, Uncle David, who has just completed the 874-mile marathon on that most precarious, uncomfortable and exhausting of conveyances, a penny-farthing. I’ve never yet found quite the right occasion to ride a half-broken stallion, but, from what I’ve heard, that seems to be the…

ANYONE who rides a horse takes it for granted that they will be refreshed and upbeat after a hack or a day following hounds, which is why it often becomes a later-life hobby for captains of industry, politicians and celebrities. They find a refreshing equality and informality in the horse world that contrasts with the pressures of public life. As Winston Churchill wrote (and with apologies to others who uttered this simple truth before he did): ‘There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.’ We’ve used the horse for war, for work and for winning medals. Now, it has an important new role for the 21st century: it’s recognised by medical professionals as a willing, non-judgemental healer of soul as…

FROM the glittering scimitar of a turbaned Sinbad to the elegant lines of an artillery officer’s blade, swords are the stuff of boyhood dreams and Robert Pooley—who is no spring chicken at 84—still exudes boyish enthusiasm for them. He scuttles between the workshops of Pooley Sword, at Shoreham Airport in East Sussex, dropping battle dates and ancient ceremonial designs like breadcrumbs as he goes. He also tells the story of a remarkable business he started from nothing. ‘Yes, I suppose it does sound a bit crazy on the face of it,’ the octogenarian admits over lunch in a delightful Art Deco cafe alongside the runway, ‘but I do like a challenge.’ Quite so. Having left the RAF in the late 1950s, Mr Pooley initially made his name in aviation, founding…

IN the bad old days, a typical equestrian property was a scruffy bungalow with a couple of stables and five acres of land at the end of a muddy lane. Not any more, however. Equine aristocrats—be they show-jumpers, eventers, dressage horses or polo ponies—can now expect to be housed in surroundings every bit as grand as the homes occupied by their owners. Today’s COUNTRY LIFE sees the official launch onto the market of peerless Russell Farm near Wendover, Buckinghamshire, which offers the best of everything for man and beast, at a guide price of £7 million through Savills Equestrian (020–7016 5715). The farm occupies an idyllic position between Wendover and Great Missenden within the Chiltern Hills AONB, surrounded by some 130 acres of immaculate gardens and lush paddocks. During…

MOST people lead very busy lives and rarely think about home or personal security—until an incident provokes them to do so. In the past 10 years, the team at K9Protector has seen not only an increase in customers investing in their family’s safety, but also customers being proactive and investing to prevent incidents, rather than acting ‘after the horse has bolted’. K9Protector has a team of experienced staff who are former Home Office, police and civilian trainers. In the past decade, they have supplied more than 320 highly trained family pets into homes all over the UK, as well as abroad. The dogs supplied by K9Protector integrate seamlessly into family life and live with you as your family pet. However, as CEO Alaster Bly explains, they are very much a…

IN the days when The Cotswolds Art & Antique Dealers’ Association put on annual fortnights of shows, Stow-on-the-Wold was predominantly a town for antiques, although it had several respected picture galleries. Now, the balance has swung the other way and it is an art centre with good antiques shops. As well as galleries, a number of artists live and work in the town and 10 dealers and artists have come together to launch Stow Art Week between September 28 and October 6. One of them is, as it were, a crossover business, as Christopher Clarke Antiques on the corner of Sheep Street and the Fosse Way started as a furniture dealer in 1961. Now run by the founder’s sons Simon and Sean, the principal focus is on campaign furniture, the…

ROBERT ICKE, in his time as associate director at the Almeida, has made a practice of rewriting the classics. His efforts have been greeted with ecstasy by the majority of critics and deep scepticism by me. However, I’m happy to admit that his version of The Doctor, freely adapted from Arthur Schnitzler’s Professor Bernhardi, is a deserved success. It also boasts a performance in the title role by Juliet Stevenson that reminds us why she is in the front rank of British actors. I have long admired Schnitzler’s original play, first staged in 1912, for its scathing portrait of Viennese anti-Semitism. What Schnitzler shows is a Jewish doctor mercilessly vilified for refusing a Catholic priest permission to administer the last rites to a patient. Although Mr Icke retains Schnitzler’s…

No fig leaves, please SOME claim he is an ancient symbol, perhaps a likeness of the Greco-Roman god Hercules, although the earliest recorded mention of the Giant only dates from 1694. Others suggest that he was created to mock Oliver Cromwell. These are the most favoured theories, but all of them have their drawbacks. Local folklore has also long held him to be an aid to fertility.’ If you don’t know which landmark Mike Clark of the Cerne Historical Society is talking about, you can hardly call yourself British. A 180ft-tall chalk man with an impressive, 36ft appendage—which survived a 1920s campaign calling for the modesty of a fig leaf, backed by two bishops, and illicit visits from couples hoping to conceive through the ages—has an even larger club…

A is for Princess Anne, as she was when she became the first member of the Royal Family to hold the title of European Champion, at Burghley in 1971 riding Doublet; and for Avebury, the delightful grey horse that gave the brilliant New Zealand horseman Andrew Nicholson three out of his five victories B is for ‘Burto’—Australia’s Christopher Burton—statistically, the fastest rider on the planet, and Bravery, which competitors will need by the bucketful C is for Chariots of Fire, the film that brought to wider attention the athletic prowess of David Cecil, 6th Marquess of Exeter—a gold medallist in the 1928 Olympic 400-yard hurdles—who was the horse trials’ first host; Capability Brown, the celebrated landscaper who might be surprised to find himself remembered through a famously tricky cross-country fence…

WHEN Tony O’Donnell and his wife bought a house on the Kentish coast 30 years ago, Mr O’Donnell was surprised by how difficult it was to find someone to restore its Victorian baths. His decision to do the work himself was the beginning of an exciting journey that led to him founding Catchpole & Rye, a business that now enjoys a global reputation. Over the years, Mr O’Donnell has gained an encyclopaedic knowledge of traditional sanitaryware, which informs designs that combine classic good looks and peerless quality. Based in a former dairy in Kent, with showrooms in Chelsea and Tunbridge Wells, Catchpole & Rye manufactures baths, washstands, showers, lavatories and cisterns that have redefined the luxury end of the bathroom market. The company’s designs have been used in restoration…

A TRIO of striking, interlocking, Grade II-listed gasholders that have overlooked Regent’s Canal since the 1860s have been carefully redeveloped by architects WilkinsonEyre—also responsible for the Battersea Power Station conversion. The RIBA award-winning development seems a fitting tribute to the dramatic renaissance that has seen King’s Cross transformed over the past 20 years, attracting thousands of residents and restaurants to its new streets, parks and housing, not to mention The University of the Arts London and businesses such as Louis Vuitton, Google and Universal Music. The Gasholders, launched last year, contains 145 apartments and penthouses, most with private terraces and balconies, all arranged around three atria. ‘We wanted every aspect to be unexpected, so even if you’re in the roof garden, looking down inside, you’ll see something interesting,’ explains Jeff…

CAPTURING the ephemeral beauty of plants isn’t an easy thing to do, whether in a drawing, a photograph or a sculpture. Yet artist Rachel Dein manages to do exactly that, rendering in exquisite detail the curve of a stem, the intricate filigree of veins on a leaf and the delicacy of petals via a simple plaster cast. Being three-dimensional, the casts are remarkably sculptural and there’s an overwhelming urge to trace the impressions made into the smooth, flat surface with one’s finger. Reminiscent of age-old fossils, yet also entirely contemporary, her pieces have a stillness about them that invites pause for thought on the transient nature of life itself. ‘The pieces invite pause for thought on the transient nature of life itself’ Rachel’s work follows a long tradition of botanical…

ROYAL couturier Stewart Parvin is fashion’s best-kept secret and a master of chic. His signature style is understated elegance with impeccable tailoring and modern twists. His Belgravia showroom houses the collection in a luxurious four-storey Georgian townhouse, transformed by Mr Parvin into a relaxing, glamorous environment in which to explore his immaculate work. The townhouse is bursting with couture ladieswear and, from custom-made outfits to day-wear separates and glamorous evening wear, there’s something for every occasion. On the night, Mr Parvin will talk through three distinct looks in a salon-style presentation. Over Perrier-Jouët Champagne and Dash Water, guests will have the chance to shop the latest collection, enjoy hair styling from Neville’s Hair & Beauty Salon, meet award-winning milliner Rachel Trevor-Morgan, admire florals from Dickinson & Doris and sample nibbles…

Normandy chicken with apples Serves 4 Ingredients 20g butter1tbspn oil4 part-jointed chicken breasts with skin12 shallots, halved1 sprig rosemary2 cloves garlic, whole2 apples, halved200ml chicken stock200ml apple cider100ml goose fat500g new potatoes, halved Sea salt50ml double cream Green beans, olive oil and crushed garlic to serve Method ‘The deliciously crisp and sweet flavour of a freshly picked apple is hard to beat’ Preheat the oven to 180˚C/350˚F/gas mark 6. Melt the butter and oil in a large casserole dish over a medium to high heat. Season the chicken breasts all over and then place them skin- side down to brown. Sear all over to keep in the succulent flavours. Remove to a plate once browned. Cook the shallots, rosemary and garlic cloves in the buttery juices until the shallots…

Social history The Decline of an English Village Robin Page (Quiller, £18.95) ROBIN PAGE is a national treasure. This whiskery and rebarbative countryman, now in his mid seventies, has campaigned tirelessly for the cause of traditional rural life, even if his stand against the tide of change seems Canute-like. In the wider scheme of things, there may be little that even a tireless writer and activist can do to halt the onslaught of the modern world, but he has shown, admirably, what even a single individual can do off his own bat by founding the Countryside Restoration Trust (CRT). From the initial purchase of a 40-acre Cambridgeshire field in 1993, the CRT has grown to encompass 1,500 acres, which it farms for conservation. Long may his tirades continue. The Decline…

WITH reference to the letter ‘Forever friends’ (August 28) about pet memorials (‘All the virtues of Man without his Vices’, June 19), September 17 will be a poignant date, as it’s the 200th anniversary of the death of Tyger. On that day in 1819, a Liverpool-bound ketch, sailing through dense fog, struck a rock (the notorious Maen Piscar) off the coast of Rhoscolyn in Anglesey. Within minutes, she was sinking and only Tyger, the captain’s retriever, seemed to sense the general direction of the shore. With the ship’s boy clinging to his collar, he swam half a mile to safety, then swam back to aid the captain and his two fellow crewmen. Thanks to Tyger, all four men survived the ordeal, but the dog was so exhausted by his Herculean…

1950s Exact date unknown Displaced medieval tombstones stand upright on Eilean Mor (the large island) at Finlaggan on the Inner Hebridean isle of Islay. Thought to be the gravestone of the 16th-century Donald MacGilleasbuig of Finlaggan, who died after forfeiting his title as Lord of the Isles, the effigy is seen wearing a quilted garment known as an aketon. The COUNTRY LIFE Picture Library contains 120 years’ worth of photography and articles from the world’s leading architectural and gardens experts. Many are available to licence or purchase in print form from £28 plus VAT. Please email enquiries to clpicturelibrary@ti-media.com…

WITH unerring timing, we set off to walk the Dales Way just as deluges of rain forced the residents of Whaley Bridge to evacuate and washed away bridges in Swaledale and Wensleydale. We were lucky, however: after an initial soaking, we walked in the dry, enjoying rivers and waterfalls in unusual spate, but in no danger—and it’s a gorgeous walk. The 79-mile Dales Way begins in Ilkley, North Yorkshire, and follows three rivers: the Wharfe (north), the Dee (east down Dent-dale) and, briefly, the beautiful Lune, before concluding in Bowness-on-Windermere, Cumbria. In Lower Wharfedale, the river is wide, bubbling with life and full of history. A century ago, mills lined its banks; today, they’ve been converted into delightful homes. ‘The Wharfe is full and raging; we’re getting worried messages as…

THE pair of windmills at Clayton, known today simply as Jack and Jill, are prominent local landmarks that enjoy magnificent views across the Sussex Downs. Ever since they ceased operating commercially soon after 1900, the windmills and their associated sheds and cottages have been occupied by people drawn to their unusual architecture and this dramatic location. Another chapter in this century of domestic occupation has just begun with the completion of a project by Featherstone Young Architects (FYA), begun in 2016, to modernise and expand a house at the site. A windmill is first documented at Clayton in a lease of September 1765. This describes a mill ‘lately erected’ by the son of 6th Viscount Montagu, which was given on a 99-year lease to one Edward Oram of Clayton. Through…

IT has no roots, no flowers, no seeds, no vascular system and a bizarre reproductive cycle. It adds a picturesque veneer to crumbly old stone, drapes rotting woodland floors, declares damp and decay and has tweaked and troubled our imagination for centuries. Shakespeare found no cheer in it, writing of ‘an oak, whose boughs were moss’d with age’, ‘furr’d moss’ on a grave, ‘idle moss’ as an infidelity cipher and, most graphically, ‘trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean overcome with moss and baleful mistletoe’. Keats, however, offered his beloved ‘a bed of mosses and flowers to pillow thy head’. At their Cumbrian home, Dove Cottage, William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, re-created a moss-lined hut they’d encountered in Scotland. It became their refuge and rebuilding it is part of…

CALLED upon to design the interior of an extended 18th-century farmhouse in Wiltshire for a couple with young children, Nina Campbell turned her attention to the master bathroom with characteristic aplomb. ‘I approached it as a sitting room that happens to have a bath in it,’ she says. ‘I love the idea that someone can be sitting comfortably in the bath talking to someone in the chair, with a side table for a glass of Champagne.’ A deep, cast-iron bath from Drummonds (020–7376 4499; www.drummonds-uk. com) takes centre stage. ‘Think of it as a replacement for a sofa,’ says Nina. The room also includes (out of frame) a shower, plus a dressing table and double basins. ‘Everyone needs a shower, but there are moments in your life when you want…

Q Choosing the right school for your child requires both patience and consideration. How are these qualities important in successful investment management? A Deciding on the right school and achieving your investment objectives don’t happen overnight. Although longterm investing does require a degree of patience, the advantages are significant. We spend time with each client to get a clear picture of long-term goals, such as paying for their child’s education. We then build a sustainable portfolio that reflects both those goals and the appetite for risk. This level of personal consideration for each individual portfolio is important to Charles Stanley and has helped to make us one of the UK’s leading wealth managers. Q What benefits do managed investments offer future generations? A As well as increasing capital, managed investments…

AN elegant late-Georgian house, set in the gently rolling hills of Cheshire and surrounded by 100 acres of parkland, might sound idyllic, but when, in 2004, the current owners bought Grade II*-listed Cogshall Hall, they immediately realised that, to make it a home suitable for 21st-century living, they would need to undertake major renovations, including a new extension to the house. The most striking feature of the new addition is a stone-and-glass structure, housing a swimming pool, that juts out from the extension like the prow of a ship straining at its moorings, its glass walls allowing views over the garden and into the park. The house stood stern and isolated, dominating the landscape, so, once the building work had been completed, the owners brought in Tom Stuart-Smith to design…

IN 1919, on his return from his time as an Official War Artist with the Canadian cavalry and just before his second marriage, Alfred Munnings bought Castle House, Dedham, in what had until then been indisputably Constable Country. He moved his custombuilt studio to the garden and, except during the Second World War, he lived there for the rest of his life. His widow, Violet, established The Munnings Art Museum in the 1960s, transferring to a trust many of the contents and all his paintings that remained in her possession. Since then, more paintings have been purchased to plug gaps in his career and works are also occasionally borrowed from other museums and collections. Both house and original furniture have been restored to preserve the atmosphere of the artist’s home…

Berkshire Cheam 400+ pupils, including pre-prep and flexi-boarders Fees £4,120–£9,535 per term The alma mater of Pitt the Younger, Lord Randolph Churchill, The Duke of Edinburgh and The Prince of Wales has claims to be the oldest prep school in the country, having been founded in 1645 in Cheam, Surrey. Set attractively in 100 acres in Headley, near Newbury, it’s hugely successful and very popular locally, with an atmosphere that sings of energy and achievement. Strong in pretty much everything, including music—the staff includes the wonderful soprano Jan Coxwell, a former Tallis Scholar, and a brilliant organist, Steve Bowey. Outings last term included Royal Windsor Horse Show, Bletchley Park, the Watercress Line and Andover Foodbank. Arriving Non-selective, although the general attitude of child and parents will be taken into account,…

EVERY boy in Hampshire, Berkshire and Wiltshire who had never shown any interest in me were suddenly all at my house once my French exchange Elodie arrived that first summer,’ remembers Old Marlburian Ally Vey, now a private-equity investor in London. ‘I was 12 and she was the most gorgeous person I’d ever met, with legs up to her eyeballs, white-blonde hair and dark skin.’ Elodie’s arrival from Paris got teenage boys’ hearts racing at the same rate that it raised the blood pressure of Mrs Vey’s mother. ‘The first time she came to stay, she fell in love with my cousin and, on her final day, she beckoned him into the stable and gave him his first proper kiss,’ recalls Mrs Vey. Another summer, a mix-up of phone numbers…