Innholdsfortegnelse for 28-Oct-2020 i Country Life

THE more I know about people, the better I like dogs,’ proclaimed Gen de Gaulle, possibly quoting Mark Twain, who may have been quoting Madame de Sévigné. Or Alphonse Toussenel? Whoever said it first, it’s a sentiment that will resonate with anyone who has derived comfort from a canine companion this year. Our dogs’ behaviour has, on the whole, been impeccable compared with ours. They have been models of propriety who, as fellow prisoners in lockdown, offered all sorts of life-enhancing benefits. Although oblivious to our anxieties, they are also brilliant at calming them. They’re always up for a walk (with no requirement for small talk), they’re non-judgemental and they never have opinions on highly contentious issues, such as the choice of box set with which to while away yet…

Harrogate WFH The North Yorkshire town of Harrogate has been named the best place to work from home in a survey by Uswitch.com. It was named the winner due to its high-speed broadband, good schools and abundance of green space. Bath and the Mendip area of Somerset came second and third David Attenborough The polar exploration ship RRS Sir David Attenborough has taken to the water for the first time and is conducting sea trials of its equipment. The ship, which, after a public vote, should have been called Boaty McBoatface, took four years to complete and cost £200 million…

THIS has been the most frustrating of years for those of us wanting to visit country houses. A magnificent spring coincided with lockdown, compelling would-be tourists to stay in their own homes rather than visit other people’s. We have been forced for part of the year into a state of ‘retirement’, as the 17th and 18th centuries would have had it. Retirement came in many forms during that period. Grottoes and hermitages were places to mope, perhaps with a specially employed hermit to mope for you (at Selborne in Hampshire, visitors found that the hermit was Gilbert White’s brother in fancy dress). During the Regency, cottage ornés made retirement even more of a game, offering an air of simplicity that was patently sophisticated and perfectly genteel. Retirement, however, had been…

• Pliny refers to crossbreeding wolves with domestic animals in order to create fearless dogs of battle • Supernatural hounds were considered to be protectors of battling warriors by the Celts. The prefix ‘Cu', commonly seen in the names of their heroes, means hound • According to The Oxford English Dictionary, the name ‘Shuck’ (as in Old Shuck) derives from the old English word scucca, meaning devil or fiend • Common locations for sightings of hell hounds are isolated byways, rural crossroads and graveyards, causing speculation that their appearance may be connected to the routes along which the dead were carried before burial • Tales of otherworldly canines on Dartmoor abound. In the 19th century, a traveller en route from Princetown to Plymouth became aware of a dog walking alongside…

Among the many memorials to Nelson and Wellington, you'll also find these long-forgotten faces • The Marquis of Granby, fêted for his solicitude towards his men during the Seven Years’ War, was believed to have set up a number of his disabled veteran officers as publicans, who then named their establishments in his honour • Admiral Rodney, who became a national hero and signboard favourite after his victory over the French in the West Indies in 1782 • Dr Butler, Court physician to James I, who invented a medicinal ale sold only at taverns with his head on their signs…

Quiz of the week 1) Which mythical beast has the head of a man, the body of a lion and the tail of a scorpion? 2) Nocturnal hyperhidrosis is another term for what form of sleep disturbance? 3) How many native lizard species do we have in the UK? 4) Which French city, known for its water, became the seat of government during the Second World War? 5) Which fencing term is also used to acknowledge a sound or witty point in conversation? 1) Manticore 2) Night sweats 3) Three (common lizard, sand lizard and slow worm) 4) Vichy 5) Touché Riddle me this: News Time to buy Book of the week Hornet & Wild Rose: The Art of Tirzah Garwood, Anne Ullmann (The Fleece Press, £242…

Sherbet-like zip Domaine de Marcé, Coulée Galante, Touraine-Oisly, Loire, France 2018. £12.95, Jeroboams, alc 14.5% A rich and refreshing style of Sauvignon Blanc, with marked lemon and fragrant lime notes offering sherbet-like zip. More tropical hints of passion fruit lend weight to the mouthfeel. An impressive and varietally classic wine worth stocking up on. Acidity and alcohol Montemercurio, Petaso, Rosso di Montepulciano, Tuscany, Italy 2017. £17.95, Dolce Vita Wines, alc 15% Frost and drought produced very ripe grapes and low yields across much of Tuscany in 2017, hence the high alcohol. A two-pronged attack of acidity and alcohol settles to reveal flavours of macerated cherries, prosciutto, cedar, tobacco and dark chocolate. Ripe-peach aromas Gusbourne Estate, Cherry Garden Vineyard Rosé, Kent, England 2019. £29.50, Fortnum & Mason, alc 12.5%…

Some names and illustrations have disappeared completely over the centuries • The sign of The Salutation, depicting the Annunciation, died out after the Civil War, when Puritan pressure led to landlords adopting instead either the Soldier & Citizen or the rather more unexceptionable image of two gentlemen bowing or shaking hands • The head of Prince Eugene of Savoy, Marlborough's ally at the battle of Blenheim, once graced many a signboard, particularly after his visit to England in 1712. So, too, did Handel's Head, a popular choice for 18th-century London taverns, reflecting the widespread admiration for the composer Arguably as interesting are the seemingly anachronistic examples not yet extinct • The Silent (or Quiet) Woman, illustrated by a decapitated lady carrying her head under her arm, was an explicitly sexist…

Reverso from £3,850, with special personal engraving from £320 (020–3402 1960; https:// engraving. jaegerlecoultre.com) Pasha de Cartier, with complimentary engraving, from £5,200, Cartier (020–3147 4850; www. cartier.com) Build your own version of the MBII with more than 1,000 combinations, from £3,995, Bremont (0800 817 4281; www. bremont.com) Berkeley Renaissance Duke Tourbillon timepieces, with a bespoke tourbillon movement, price on application, Backes & Strauss (020–7629 5714; www.backesandstrauss.com) Les cabinotiers, The Singing Birds, Blue Jay, price on application, Vacheron Constantin (020–7578 9500; www. vacheronconstantin.com)…

ANYONE who has attempted to drag a period house kicking and screaming into the 21st century will have occasionally looked enviously at those who build a home from scratch. Every period house, however beautiful, requires an element of compromise, whether it’s position, layout, outlook or efficiency. It’s easy to forget that every great house was a reflection of the era in which it was built and there’s no reason why this shouldn’t be the case in the 21st century. In the right hands, a new property offers the opportunity to employ seamless design, craftsmanship and the latest technology to create a house that won’t only meet our needs, but also those of generations to come. A designer with an unparalleled track record in transforming existing houses and creating new ones…

The planting of a fruit tree is a symbolic event, an investment. Choose the site with care. Dig a round hole larger than the rootball and break up the side and base a little. Make sure the nursery mark is at soil level. Drive in the stake if required, placing it so that you will see the tree, not the stake, from your usual viewpoint. Backfill, firming as you go. Secure the tie just below the top of the stake. Neaten up, mulch and drink a toast to future harvest.…

James Gorman (1834–82) was an able seaman when he served with the Naval Brigade in the Crimean War, where he was one of the first winners of the VC. He was with an artillery battery at the siege of Inkermann when the gunners had been killed or wounded and it was likely to be overrun by Russian attackers. He and four other sailors, two of whom were killed, forced the enemy to retire by keeping up a fierce musket fire, their weapons being reloaded by wounded soldiers. A week later, he saved the life of Capt Lushington, commander of the Brigade, who had been surrounded. He was wounded and lost a leg, despite which he went on to fight in the Second Opium War, which is why he was not…

Capt Tom Capt Sir Tom Moore has been outdone, after a 104-year-old woman embarked on walking a marathon to raise funds for the air ambulance. Ruth Saunders had already completed 20 miles and raised £16,000 at the time of writing Climate scientists Climate experts and scientists fly more than any other type of expert, a new study has concluded. Climate researchers take on average five flights a year, compared with four for other researchers, and climate professors catch nine, compared with eight for other professors French underwear Workers in France have been advised to avoid using face masks manufactured by the underwear company Dim, after claims that they might be toxic. Concerns surfaced after President Macron suffered a coughing fit after wearing one on a visit to Clermont Ferrand…

It’s never too late Q I’m an only child, my parents are deceased and I never married, preferring to live my life as I chose. However, after recent events, I have realised that my life is empty when stripped of travel and expensive restaurants. I feel incredibly lonely, but fear I have left it too late. A. S., Cambridgeshire A Only children often fail to perceive themselves as others do—solvent and unencumbered, you are something of a catch. After ‘recent events’, the Scrabble tiles have fallen in unexpected ways, ruts have been jogged out of and truths displaced by distraction have been exposed. Seize this. There will be others who have realised the same. You remember Sandy Wilson’s musical The Boy Friend? It’s Never Too Late to Fall in…

Memories are like buses YOUR The Way We Were picture (October 7) took me back to my first job as secretary at Punch magazine’s offices, just off London’s Fleet Street, in 1970. Then forward 50 years, to my last job in Savoy Street. The one consistency? The No 11 bus! Julia Malone, West Sussex Take a seat SEEING the picture of people sitting around a stone memorial in 1960 (The Way We Were, October 14) and reading the piece on rattan furniture in the same issue made me wonder—where have all the seats gone? In times gone by, one could always sit down in a store and every high street had benches for resting weary feet. We may not have the Mediterranean sunshine that allows old men on…

IT’S no surprise that institutions—and the people who run them—are never short of things to worry about. What really varies is the importance of those worries. At the present moment, it would be no exaggeration to characterise those faced by the cultural sector as existential. That’s a matter of deep concern, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that, in some ways, it’s also helpful. Because, when an institution struggles with problems that strike at the heart of its operation—be they intellectual, financial or operational—it’s forced to ask one simple, but important question insistently: what is it actually for? In answering this question with reference to museums and galleries, Athena would draw a distinction between the fundamental responsibility of such institutions and their central function. The former is, unquestionably,…

HAVE you ever, on an isolated country walk, had the sense that you are in the presence of spirits past? If you have a dog at your side, they might stop and stare at something only they can see, hackles raised, a low growl or confused whine escaping them. Easily explained away on a balmy summer’s eve, such encounters take on a new significance in the gloaming of these ever-shortening days—could it be that canine instinct is picking up on the former presence of mysterious hounds, which have followed travellers of the past through these uninhabited places, perhaps aiding safe passage, perhaps foretelling impending doom? ‘The hell hound killed two of the congregation, leaving scorch marks on the church door’ From which dark corners do such fancies originate? Fiction and…

BOLD and bright, swaying gently in the wind high above our heads, illustrated inn signs are as ubiquitous as they are often unnoticed. Part navigational aid, part advertising billboard and part street art, they’ve been guiding drinkers to the pub door in our towns and villages for centuries, a vital ingredient of the traditional British local. Strange to think, then, that these pictorial placards weren’t always unique to the inn trade: as 18th-century street scenes show, they once hung from every kind of shop, coffee house and tavern, jostling with one another for space and sometimes stretching right across the road. By then, they were considered a public nuisance. Growing ever bigger as proprietors tried to outdo their neighbours, hanging signboards not only made narrow streets dark and stuffy, they…

The Essex-born designer launched her accessories business in 1987 aged 19, with a small shop on Walton Street, London SW3–she now has 15 worldwide and a bespoke flagship on nearby Pont Street. Famous for her eco-conscious bag branded with ‘I’m not a plastic bag’ and, more recently, ‘I am a plastic bag’, made from plastic bottles, she was awarded a CBE in 2017 for her contribution to the fashion industry. She lives in London with her husband and five children.…

Acer tataricum subsp. ginnala The Amur maple has orange and red autumn colour Acer rubrum Scanlon Scarlet maple has lovely red autumn foliage Acer rubrum October Glory The dark leaves of this red maple turn to brilliant shades of yellow, orange and scarlet Berberis beijingensis (below left) Grown from seeds collected by Jamie Compton on the Great Wall of China Carpinus betulus Globus The dark-green foliage of this tear-drop-shaped tree turns a satisfyingly deep yellow in autumn. Slow growing Carpinus betulus Frans Fontaine Columnar form of the common hornbeam, turning golden orange in autumn Cornus alba Sibirica and Cornus sanguinea Midwinter Fire Together, they form an outer ring to the Ring of Fire Euonymus europaeus Red Cascade (below right), E. alatus, E. phellomanus, E. hamiltonianus subsp. sieboldianus All…

IN 1698, the East India Company bought three villages in Bengal as a base for its trading operation. They grew to form the city of Calcutta—an anglicised version of ‘Kalikata’— named after the Hindu deity Kali, with a temple nearby. As the goddess of destruction, Kali seems an odd choice of patron deity for the seat of British power in India, but Company officers paid little attention to a religion they regarded as primitive. One exception was Maj-Gen Charles Stuart (1757–1828), an Irish officer who earned the nickname ‘Hindoo Stuart’ by collecting images of Hindu deities, which he was said to worship. More than 100 of his sculptures ended up in the British Museum and one example in this exhibition gives a clear indication of Kali’s ferocious character: with weapons…

FOR more than 20,000 years the Ju/’hoansi bushmen of Namibia spent only 15 hours a week working—if a bit of hunting and gathering can actually be considered work—and, apparently, wanted for nothing. Then, they were introduced to farming and with it came longer hours, an inadequate diet and dissatisfaction. According to James Suzman’s latest book, Work: A History of How We Spend Our Time, the triumph of pastoralists over hunter-gatherers is the reason why humans perceive idleness as a sin and industriousness as a virtue. The nature of his argument need not concern us here because… oh, all right, I’ll admit it, I can’t actually follow his argument and am mostly reading him so that I can show off in a letter I am writing to my 95-year-old American friend,…