Innholdsfortegnelse for 27-May-2020 i Country Life

Lettice (1906–73) was the eldest daughter of William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp, and Lady Lettice Mary Elizabeth Grosvenor. She was a member of the Bright Young Things—a tabloid nickname bestowed upon a group of bohemian young aristocrats and socialites, whose antics fuelled writers such as Nancy Mitford and Anthony Powell. Evelyn Waugh’s seminal novel, Brideshead Revisited, was famously inspired by the Lygon family and their home, Madresfield Court in Worcestershire, which the writer frequented on a regular basis.…

FURTHER to our announcement earlier in the year regarding our increased efforts to improving our carbon footprint and striving for improved sustainability, in July 2019, COUNTRY LIFE began to deliver all its UK subscriber editions in sustainably sourced and carbon-balanced paper wrap instead of polythene, removing more than one million polythene bags from circulation annually. This then allowed us to print, bind, wrap and mail all editions of COUNTRY LIFE from a single location in Bicester, Oxfordshire, saving transport emissions. COUNTRY LIFE is now pleased to announce, from this issue, that we will take the next step to further reduce our carbon footprint by reducing our use of paper by 71 tons annually (1.4 tons per issue). This considerable saving of paper usage is at the expense of a mere…

Bank of England The country of Venezuela has filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the Bank of England over its refusal to release gold stashed in its vaults. The British Government doesn't recognise Nicolás Maduro as the country's legitimate leader and this is the second time access to the gold has been refused by the bank Titanic (again) A company has won the right to cut into the wreck of Titanic to retrieve a valuable piece of equipment. The firm wants to salvage the rare and priceless original Marconi radiotelegraph, but has met resistance from several groups, who argue that the device is surrounded ‘by the remains of more than 1,500 people' and should be left alone…

ALTHOUGH it is closed to visitors, the staff at the National Gallery are still working hard behind the scenes and, last week, acquired three new works for its collection. The paintings are The Lavergne Family Breakfast by Jean-Etienne Liotard (1754), Portrait of Margaret Gainsborough holding a Theorbo (about 1777) by Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Thomas Lawrence’s Portrait of the Hon Peniston Lamb (about 1790). They were all received from the estate of George Pinto under the Acceptance in Lieu scheme. The Lavergne Family Breakfast is widely considered to be Liotard’s masterpiece and is his largest and most ambitious pastel. He was considered to be one of the most important pastellists of the 18th century; a pastel head by Liotard would command a higher fee than a full-length oil portrait by…

THANK you so much for your articles on Llandaff Cathedral (April 8 and 15). My grandparents lived in Llandaff and I remember well the story about the night the bomb hit the cathedral. Whenever air-raid sirens went off, everyone filled their baths with water, in case there was damage to water mains. On the night of this bomb, my grandparents duly filled the bath before taking my mother and her sister to a shelter. Unfortunately, the explosion blew in the bathroom window and the weather was so cold that the broken glass froze into the water. Nothing could be done until the window was repaired, the house warmed up and the water thawed. The crater that was left by the bomb is now a garden of remembrance, where the ashes…

THOMAS HARDY’S Wessex may have been a land of his imagination, but the topography was far from fictional. So closely was it based on the real countryside that the author annotated a map of Dorset, now in the Dorset County Museum in Dorchester, showing the places from which he drew inspiration. In 1901, the literary critic William Archer recalled a walking tour of this landscape, checking off the sites with Hardy, in an interview for The Pall Mall Magazine. ‘I climbed up to Shaston, in the tracks of Jude and Sue, went on to Sherton Abbas, and met Grace Melbury and Winterborne in Sheep Street: down through the country of the Woodlanders to Casterbridge: on to Budmouth, looking for (but not finding) Overcombe of The Trumpet-Major on the way.’ At…

• Stone pot 30in wide • 1 x Salvia Amistad (sage) Deservedly popular, this perennial produces a profusion of upright, particularly tall, almost black stems with large tubular flowers in intense purple shades. Flowers from late spring to mid autumn. Borderline hardy. Height 47in • 3 x Argyranthemum Grandaisy Pink Halo (marguerite) A bold variety of a classic marguerite, this pretty, half-hardy perennial produces copious, extra-large, bright-pink daisies with a deep-pink and pale-yellow halo around a dark central boss. Deadhead regularly to encourage flowers. H 23in • 5 x Verbena Showboat Midnight (vervain) One of the best purple verbenas, this half-hardy annual bears large velvety flowers flushed black that adds a rich layer of colour to your pots. It has a mounding, arching habit and dense grey-green leaves have the…

CHRISTIE’S NEW YORK organised an online sale of British and European furniture and works of art from April 28 to May 7. It was suitably wide-ranging, with silver and porcelain to the fore, and it seems to have been well received. Among the things I was interested to see offered in it were a pair of verre églomisé pictures, a harp and a micromosaic table, the first two of which sold well beyond their estimates. The technique of painting on the reverse side of small pieces of glass is said to pre-date the Romans and was particularly popular in medieval Italy, to provide sparkly mirror-finish panels for reliquaries and the like. As the quality and size of plate glass improved, the idea was taken up by Jean Baptiste Glomy…

OUR friend, the Lovelorn Laird from the West Coast, called with news of another casualty of Covid-19. His squeeze, a vegan Brazilian half his age, has given him the heave-ho. To keep her hooked, he’d been spinning her a line about becoming a vegetarian, but, pace St Augustine, not quite yet. He reckons she fluffed his ruse by hacking his Netflix account and finding he has binge-watched MeatEater, a hunt, kill and eat series. That and enforced separation during the dread plague has put paid to another of his love’s young dreams. A subsidiary and purely coincidental reason for the call was to flog us part of a bullock he had grassed. It’s unlikely to be a fatted calf as it’s half Highlander, a breed that looks good on postcards,…

BACK in early February, The Prince of Wales visited Britain’s last remaining rattan factory at Thurmaston near Leicester. It is owned by Soane Britain, whose co-founder, Lulu Lytle, pieced it together from the remnants of Angraves, a 100-year-old business that, like so many, had been undermined by foreign imports. Within weeks, the business was bustling again, redundant staff were re-hired and apprentices recruited to make furniture that sells all over the globe. The catastrophic events since February have demonstrated that Prince Charles’s championing of British manufacture was prescient. It is clear that decades of off-shoring have significantly hampered our ability to face the challenges of Covid-19. The onslaught of globalisation has ensured that any hopes we might have had of greater self-sufficiency have remained an impossible dream. Yet the lack…

MY mother claims that the only useful things that she learnt from her school days in Yorkshire were the names of the local wildflowers. She hasn’t forgotten any of them and we have been sending each other pictures of what we find on our walks. It quickly became mildly competitive and she has enjoyed correcting me when I confused herb Robert with ragged Robin. It has been a long-held ambition of mine to learn all the names of the plants growing in the parish and I had promised myself that it would be one of my first projects when I eventually retire. However, everything has changed thanks to an app called PictureThis. The premium features are not cheap, costing up to £19.99 a year, but sometimes you really do get…

THERE has been an excellent change in the name of what used to be the Royal Naval, Military and Air Force Tournament. Instead of this clumsy collocation of terms it is now called the Royal Tournament. Although it has doffed a few superfluous words it has lost nothing of its interest. Though many aspects of the work of the Services on land and sea and in the air cannot be brought within the scope of the display, there is yet a wealth of romance and excitement. The public has been well supplied with pictures of the scientific side of warfare. The Royal Tournament can show us the picturesque side, the glamour, the strength and agility of the Services and their skill and discipline. 1) Apple 2) ‘Les Misérables’ 3) Bavarian…

Regional expression Adega Artesanal, Boango Branco, Douro Valley, Portugal 2017. £12, The Wine Line, alc 13% A field blend including Viosinho, Malvasia and Rabigato. Honeyed aromas lead to a characterful palate of preserved lemon, baked apple and pineapple. Loads of regional expression and great value for money. Floral and silky Salentein, Barrel Selection Malbec, Tunuyán, Uco Valley, Mendoza, Argentina 2018. £15.90, Corking Wines, GP Brands, alc 14% This vintage marks Bodegas Salentein's 20th year in the Uco Valley. Deep, savoury aromas with black fruit and violets, then a floral, silky palate balanced by fresh acid, smooth tannins and spice. Lingering and elegant. Juicy acidity Finca Viñoa, Ribeiro, Spain 2018. £16.75, H2Vin, alc 13.5% Brothers José and Javier González have resurrected vines in Ribeiro's Avia Valley. Aromas of citrus,…

IT is hard to quarrel with the claim that Holcombe Court is the finest Tudor house in Devon. The first sight of the building from the village street of Holcombe Rogus, set well back and framed in its gateway arch, is magnificent. It’s not on the scale of Hardwick or Longleat, but it is undoubtedly imposing. Built of purplish-grey Westleigh stone from a local quarry, combined with dressings of creamy Beer and Salcombe stone from the south coast, it’s also rooted in its locality and landscape. The present building was largely created by the Bluett family, who had longstanding connections with Somerset—their funerary monuments and capacious Jacobean pew dominate the parish church immediately adjacent. The Bluetts came into possession of the property by marriage in 1427 and occupied it for…

Your aesthetic hero? Sir Roger Moore (far right), hands down! His Bond was flamboyant, charming, a real schmoozer, but his manners were as impeccable as his style. He's too often only associated with oversized collars and safari jackets, but his suiting was top class. The bespoke grey summer-weight suit he wore in The Man With The Golden Gun in 1974 is about as good as tailoring gets. A book you’ve found inspiring? I have several books on Geoffrey Bawa (1919–2003), the Sri Lankan architect. His designs are sympathetic to their environment and always sustainable. They blur the boundaries between inside and out. If you're ever in Sri Lanka, you must visit his garden at Lunuganga, which he fashioned from an abandoned rubber estate over a period of 50 years.…

Anaphalis margaritacea Long-lasting white ‘everlasting' flowers on 16in stems above tight clumps of silver foliage Armeria maritima Thrift is one of the toughest of coastal plants. It grows in tight cushions of fine foliage with heads of pink flowers on 7in stems Euphorbia characias ‘The absolute stalwart,' says Mrs Michelmore of this early-spring-flowering sub-shrub. Lime-green flowers on 27in stems clothed with dark grey-green foliage. Often self-seeds Carex Silver Sceptre Clump-forming sedge with silver-edged leaves reaching 16in high and wide. Copes exceptionally well with the dry shade below the blackthorn shelterbelt Elaeagnus commutata Silvery evergreen foliage on a large shrub or small tree, growing to 13ft by 13ft Hippophae rhamnoides Small tree (to 16ft) with silver foliage and, on female plants, orange berries; thorny and suckering, but tolerant of…

In 1958, inspired by the initiative of a group of provincial book dealers that had held a fair at Sotheby's during the previous summer closed season, the first Antiquarian Booksellers' Association event ran for three weeks at the National Book League. Stands cost 15gns and there was a cooperative stall with books under £5. After many changes of name and venue, and the reduction of the run to a practical three days, this year's Firsts: London's Rare Book Fair will be online, from June 5, rather than in the Battersea Evolution marquee as planned (www.firstslondon.com). I am delighted that the catalogue has an essay on the event's history by Keith Fletcher and Adrian Harrington, who pay tribute to Vanessa Clewes Salmon and the late Heather McConnell, two of the PRs…

IT started with the goats in Llandudno (Town & Country, April 8). We heard reports of dolphins in Venice and porpoises in Somerset rivers. The buzzards have returned to Hampstead Heath, for the first time since John Keats was alive. It didn’t take long after society slowed down for the nation’s wildlife to start reclaiming what was once theirs. It’s been some eight weeks since the National Trust closed its properties and rangers and gardeners across the country have reported rare animal sightings and uncharacteristic behaviours. The Trust reveals that peregrine falcons are nesting in the ruins of Corfe Castle in Dorset; grey partridges have been waddling through an empty car park near Cambridge; and the cuckoo is calling again in Osterley Park, west London, for the first time…

Shooting Shooting can take place under the current Government regulations, as long as social-distancing guidelines are adhered to, the police have confirmed. ‘Shooting is back open for business,' said Dr Conor O'Gorman of BASC Hungover students The University of Cambridge has announced that there will be no face-to-face lectures until the summer of 2021, to the joy of late-rising students, although it may be possible to ‘host smaller teaching groups in person' Bristol Plans are being drawn up to pedestrianise Bristol's historic city centre. Marvin Rees, the city's mayor, said the scheme intends to find new ways for people to travel safely during the pandemic and to discourage residents from returning to unsustainable habits afterwards…

GAZING upward at the aeronautical displays of swifts—the Red Arrows of the avian world—is one of the great mellow pleasures of a summer’s evening. As with many other species that seem to be benefiting from the human lockdown, it may be that a slowdown in construction will improve the fortunes of these declining migratory birds. They like to build their nests in the nooks and crevices of old buildings, so modernisation tends to be unhelpful to the birds, which prefer to disappear into holes. Swifts have tiny feet, which makes it difficult for them to perch. The RSPB has released a new Swift Mapper app (www.rspb.org.uk/swift mapper ) on which to record public sightings of the birds and their nests, the idea being to inform councils or conservation groups of…

THIS week, a work trip took me out of London for the first time since the lockdown began. It was the most peculiar and wonderful experience. The journey through the heart of town has never felt quicker and easier and the summer landscape beyond was bathed in sunshine. I enjoyed seeing a wonderful new garden building and ate lunch outside at social distance. Simply being in company and having a conversation—rather than a slightly stilted internet exhange—briefly gave the illusion that life had returned to normal. In these strange times, that felt like an astonishing luxury. Returning to London and taking an evening walk along the Thames, I revelled once again in the quiet of the city without crowds or the continuous hum of traffic. The most insistent sound was…

The house of cards Q After a difficult patch, our eldest daughter has moved in with us to recuperate. We know all the murky details and are doing our best to help, but are unsure of what to tell family friends. Should we concoct a cover story to keep her privacy and reputation intact? Y. N., Kent A Stop right there! Another breath and the house of cards collapses. Involved as you are, you cannot see what I—and every reader—clearly can. No concocted cover story—its fake details will come back to bite you and compound her embarrassment. Honesty is for her, not you, to impart, whenever and in whatever degree she feels able. Family friends—genuine friends, not gossips—will understand if you shut down enquiries with one line: ‘She’s been…

I can get my satisfaction A WHITEBOARD in our kitchen now has 42 jobs on the lockdown to-do list. The most satisfying one we have completed to date is ‘Sort, label and hang up every key we own’. The most ambitious is ‘Identify and label (in English and Latin) several hundred trees we have planted since 2006’ (ongoing) and the most crazy is ‘Build a 360˚ swing (that goes all the way over)’ (about to start). I wonder what other readers are getting up to? Mark Ashley Miller, Dorset A Proustian moment TOM PARKER BOWLES’S recipe for asparagus risotto (May 13) conjured a Proustian moment for me: in May 2014, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Landmark Trust’s restoration of Palladio’s Villa Saraceno with a weekend reunion there of…

THE 50-page Government dossier Our Plan to Rebuild, launched after the Prime Minister’s address to the nation on May 11, contained no reference at all to museums and galleries. That alone speaks volumes about how high they stand in the present agenda. It required separate advice from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, therefore, to clarify that these could reopen as part of the third stage of the easing of the lockdown from July 4 onwards. Although the date—hedged with conditions—may seem to offer a glimmer of hope that life is resuming, Athena is acutely aware that it also brings into focus some formidable challenges. There is a strong desire in every interested quarter for our cultural institutions to open their doors as soon as possible. The fundamental…

1) Use the chosen container’s colour, shape and scale to inspire your planting design 2) Create a pleasing sense of balance with structure, texture, form and colours 3) Put crocks in the bottom of your pot to ensure good drainage and always use fresh compost (John Innes No 1 works well). Replant the whole pot with new compost every spring once bulbs are over 4) During summer, feed pots every week with diluted seaweed fertiliser and deadhead any spent blooms to keep plants tidy and to encourage more flowers 5) The height of the central plant should eventually be roughly twice the height of the pot…

Crops from the kitchen garden are always welcome. With a bit of planning, the supply of fresh salads and vegetables can be extended. Given that there is a wide variety of lettuce types, it makes sense to sow them successionally. Outdoors, simply sow a short run in a shallow drill and mark the end with a cane. After a fortnight, sow a further run with a different cultivar and so on until autumn. The same principle can be applied to a cold frame filled with compost.…