Innholdsfortegnelse for 27-Jan-2021 i Country Life

STORM CHRISTOPH has blown its way across the country, bringing misery in its wake. Once again, the news has been full of flooded homes, sudden sinkholes, impassable roads and battered seafronts—all compounded by snow, cold and the not inconsiderable problems for rescue services operating during a pandemic. Even at the best of times, we in Britain are preoccupied by the weather, but that’s because it’s so varied. We have every kind of rain, from drizzle to cats and dogs, but there aren’t many days when there isn’t at least a ray from the sun, often immediately before sunset, when it dips below the cloud line—four seasons in a day. We notice the drama of named storms because they are out of the usual run of our temperate and, frankly, quite…

Staying alive Joe the pigeon (Barometer, January 20) has been spared death, after authorities in Australia learned that the tag that said he was a racing pigeon from the US was fraudulent. This means that the bird is most likely an Australian native and does not pose a bio-risk. It remains unclear as to who created the counterfeit tag and placed it on the bird or why Musical chairs Research from property firm Zoopla finds that half of UK homeowners would like to move house as a result of the pandemic. Some 51% of respondents admitted they're considering moving to improve their wellbeing and 65% believe more space, inside and out, will help…

OBJECTS from the collection of the late Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma, are to be offered for sale by Sotheby’s on March 24 after a public exhibition, from March 20–23. The sale and exhibition will include more than 350 lots from Newhouse Manor in Kent, the family home of Lady Mountbatten and her husband, John Knatchbull, 7th Baron Brabourne, and will offer viewers and visitors the opportunity to enter the world of one the last great dynastic families of the 20th century. Highlights include a rare Anglo-Indian inlaid bureau mounted on a mahogany stand commissioned by Sir Edward Knatchbull in 1767. The stand, which was made by Thomas Chippendale for the sum of £4 to house a family heirloom, the Indian bureau, is seen as a celebration of…

DAILY exercise in London has proved unexpectedly sociable of late. We don’t only seem to meet neighbours at the front door, but familiar faces almost everywhere we go. Last Sunday, for example, we stopped in the shadow of the Wellington Arch. There, in the course of 20 minutes, we met no fewer than three parties of friends. It didn’t matter that the conversations were brief and held at a distance. It was just incredibly uplifting to see other people face to face in present circumstances, especially in a city where you never expect to recognise anyone. Perhaps it’s the thin crowds that make familiar faces stand out or simply that exercise is the only thing any of us can presently do. One of the children’s birthdays, meanwhile, has brought a…

NEVER before has so much attention been given to the working side of the house, this being one of the results of postwar conditions. There has been a veritable discovery of the home —at least in respect of the carrying out of its everyday tasks. Thousands of households have had to dispense with the services of a maid living in, because of the cost, and the housewife has thus come into personal contact with the defects produced by inconvenient planning and equipment. Kitchens, sculleries and pantries have features that seem to have been designed with the idea of making labour rather than saving it. In this category would come ranges that burn an astonishing amount of coal in the endeavour to meet the cooking needs and the hot-water supply at…

Where is your favourite place? Granada, Spain. I have been principal guest conductor of the City of Granada Orchestra since 2008. Being able to sit outside with a gin and tonic almost year-round is a treat Book? Always my current one —now, it’s Philip Pullman’s The Secret Commonwealth Food? I love Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipes. He has a slow-cooked lamb shoulder with mint and cumin that is utterly delicious Composer? Handel. His oratorios reveal so much about human character. I’ve conducted Messiah more than 200 times and I never get bored of it…

AS part of Oxford University, many would associate Magdalen College with education and English tradition. But for those who know it well it may also conjure the memory of the water meadow in its grounds filled with the nodding heads of the rare snake’s-head fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris), writes Plantlife botanist Dr Trevor Dines. Every spring in the water meadow this bell-like flower can be seen by the thousand, blooming on slender stems in uniquely chequered purple, pink and white colours. The meadow is an island in the River Cherwell which often floods after heavy rainfall. The result is an abundance of snake’s-head fritillaries creating a rich magenta-purple scene. These flowers once were plentiful but changing farm practices have made them a rare sight. To be able to see the flowers…

IN the summer of 1767, it was a source of some surprise to the writer of the Manchester Mercury that Edward Higgins, committed to Carmarthen Castle for burglary, hadn’t included among booty stolen from the home of Mrs Biven of Laugherne any pineapples. Having made himself comfortable in Mrs Biven’s kitchen —to the extent of spreading a cloth on the table and lighting two candles in silver candlesticks before eating a chicken—Higgins ‘got over a Wall into the Garden, and went into the Hot-house, where were many Pine-Apples fit to take’. Higgins, however, ‘took only four Cucumbers’. To the 18th-century reader, his was a curious choice. The pineapple was one of Georgian Britain’s ultimate objets de desir. With good reason, Sheridan’s verbally maladroit Mrs Malaprop, in The Rivals, confuses ‘pineapple’…

Delicacies made by master chocolatier Stefaan Moyaert in his atelier in Northamptonshire. £9.99 for 9, Belflair Chocolates (01295 266886; www.belflair chocolates.co.uk) Small, but perfectly formed, three Pink Marc de Champagne truffles are a perfect token. £7, Charbonnel et Walker (www.charbonnel.co.uk) Exquisite packaging and chocolates to impress. Hamper, £38.50, Rococo (www.rococo chocolates.com) Beautiful boxes, inspired by the one used by Queen Victoria that she had regularly refilled from the royal kitchens. Jewel box, from £8.50, Prestat (www.prestat.com) A Richmond-based Italian chocolatier with chic packaging. 12 truffles, £30, Danieli (www. gelateria danieli.com)…

THE latest lockdown has seen fresh confrontation between landowners and the public. The latter have been accused of disrespecting people’s privacy and damaging crops and livestock, with photographs being posted online that show the damage caused by walkers straying off footpaths and onto fields. One farmer in Suffolk, Katherine Cross, posted a photo of a trampled wheat field on Twitter and wrote she is ‘saddened that walkers can’t stick to the bridleway... people can still exercise... by sticking to the path and not trample on crops’. Some footpaths that have been rarely used for years are suddenly seeing increased footfall, causing stress to property owners who are worried about privacy and social distancing. Several have complained about the difficulty of getting footpaths re-routed or removed and fear their concerns aren’t…

Hippies Britain's largest music festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset is to be postponed for another year, say organisers. Glastonbury, which was due to feature Paul McCartney (right), Kendrick Lamar and Taylor Swift, will return in June 2022 Flying high in the City A large cannabis farm was found next to the Bank of England in the City of London. The farm, which contained 826 plants, was discovered by police in a commercial building in Throgmorton Street and is the first such farm ever found within the City. Police were alerted following reports of a strong smell of the Class-B drug and the farm has since been destroyed Watching your weight A pig weighing some 400lb had to be rescued after getting stuck in the mud at a farm in…

Quiz of the week 1) Wüsthof, Sabatier and Victorinox are all makers of what product? 2) Cryogenics is the study of materials in extreme what? 3) In 2015, artist Oscar Santillan removed the top inch of which Cumbrian landmark, including it in an exhibition? 4) What is the general definition of a contralto singing voice? 5) Brassica oleracea var. gemmifera is more commonly known as what? Word of the week Twindle (noun) One of twins 1) Knives 2) Cold 3) Scafell Pike 4) The lowest female singing voice 5) Brussels sprout Another log on the fire By Oliver Preston…

‘The problem with telling people that they can do anything they want to do is that it is objectively, factually inaccurate. Otherwise the whole world would just be ballet dancers and pop stars’Us, David Nicholls Gold-plated, sterling-silver Vintage Telephone, price on request, Asprey (020–7493 6767; www.asprey.com) The Peat Monster Blended Malt Scotch Whisky, £46.75, Compass Box (020–8995 0899; www. compassboxwhisky.com) London Skyline foiled notecards with envelopes, from £25, Gee Brothers (020–7228 4081; www.geebrothers.co.uk)…

Vanilla-coffee notes Marks & Spencer, Classics No 23, Chianti Riserva, Tuscany, Italy 2017. £8, Marks & Spencer, alc 13.5% Cecchi, a family winery founded in 1893, makes this approachable wine for M&S, part of its new Classics range. Based on Sangiovese, the supple, savoury palate has forward cherry-berry fruit, dried herbs and vanilla-coffee notes from 12 months' oak ageing. Light and fresh Hanewald-Schwerdt, Spätburgunder Trocken, Pfalz, Germany 2017. £13.50–£15.99, widely available via UK agent Vindependents, alc 13% A vineyard blend from cousins Thomas Hanewald and Stephen Schwerdt, who grow Pinot Noir and Riesling. A light, fresh, mineral style with crisp acidity, red-berry fruit and a creamy cherry-compote finish. Drink with canapés The Emissary, Asolo Prosecco Superiore, Veneto, Italy NV. £17.99, The Emissary, alc 11% Glera and Bianchetta Trevigiana…

Robin Muir is a photographic historian and consultant to the Vogue Archive. His exhibition ‘Cecil Beaton’s Bright Young Things’ opens at the Millennium Gallery, Sheffield, on April I ‘Wealthy Lois Sturt had a brief career as an actress, making three films, all forgettable. Thereafter, she became a cheerleader for the Bright Young People, who cut a swathe across London. Her next public appearance was at Marylebone Court. She had devised an all-night drive-by treasure hunt and been summonsed for narrowly avoiding a policeman. “But I had to get there before someone found the next clue!” she wailed. In 1926, she ran over and killed a pedestrian. Neither incident changed her lifestyle in the slightest and, in 1937, she died suddenly in Budapest. All this lay before her when she…

Nothing quite matches the sight, on an early spring morning, of a dew-jewelled meadow thickly carpeted with the hanging lanterns of snake's-head fritillary. One of our classic meadow flowers, it epitomises our English water meadows and was once so abundant in meadows beside the River Thames that armfuls were collected for sale in the markets of Covent Garden. The blooms appear early in spring-usually April and May-and are decorated with unique chequerboard markings in purple and pink; white forms are not uncommon and are exceptionally beautiful. It's likely that snake's-head fritillaries are not native to Britain; this outstanding and conspicuous plant was not noticed growing in the wild until 1736, but was being imported by European bulb sellers in the 1560s. Genetically, British plants match those in northern Europe so…

The majority of pineapples eaten in the UK are Costa Rican imports. A few dedicated souls here, however, still grow their own. At Tatton Park in Cheshire, gardeners are again raising the fruit in a pineapple house of 1774, restored in 2007; pineapple pits at the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall also produce homegrown fruit. Once in a while, on a sunny windowsill, a member of the public gets lucky, such as the grandmother from Truro, Cornwall, whose success in 2015 was celebrated in newspapers nationwide.…

Cooking up a storm BRING your kitchen to life with a fortnightly cook-along on various themes from A Cook’s Tour, presented by leading caterers Rocket. For each event, the company will deliver you a box of top-quality produce, some of which is half prepared, plus wine to match. On the night, there is live-streamed guidance from the expert chefs, which you can watch back at a different time, too. I unleashed my (limited) skills on the Indigenous Outback cook-along and found it one of the most fun experiences of lockdown—I learnt a lot, gained some skills and ate restaurant-quality food at the end of it. Three courses for two people is £60, but the satisfaction factor is priceless. For February 11, you’ll be transported to Venice for a Valentine’s…

My Sex Symbol necklace was given to me by Theo Fennell as a wedding present and I never take it off. It is made of 18-carat pink gold and pink rubies and if I lost it I feel I would have very bad luck. I wore it to meet Imelda Marcos who was wowed -as are many who notice it. I think it makes me look ritzy, but also kind of cool, and Theo Fennell thought it was perfect for me because I am such a tough female (020–7591 5000; www.theofennell.com). I worked at Patagonia, the eco-conscious clothing company in California, as research for the business section of my book. Everything is 95% recyclable and the company gives away 1% of sales to the preservation and restoration of the…

As the day for sowing vegetable seeds approaches, it is time to address the straightforward, but essential task of crop rotation. Although it has its limitations, this ancient practice remains the best method yet for limiting the spread of such horrors as clubroot and white rot. Last year's brassica bed will do well for this year's carrots and parsnips. This year's brassicas and the onion tribe can follow last year's peas and beans. Potatoes get the most thorough treatment on the remaining ground. Your simple annual plan of what grew where in past years will make it all unfold nicely.…

1909 Born in Dublin 1924 Sent to school at Dean Close, Cheltenham 1926 Banished from home 1927 Inspired by a Picasso exhibition in Paris 1929 Becomes an interior designer in London 1933 Paints breakthrough work, Crucifixion 1936 Rejected by International Surrealist Exhibition for not being surreal enough 1939–43 Serves in Red Cross and Air Raid Precautions 1944 Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion causes a public sensation 1953 First one-man show, in New York 1954 Represents Britain at Venice Biennale 1957 First Paris show 1958 Signs contract with Marlborough Fine Arts 1961 After nomadic spells in Monaco, Tangier and St Ives, among other places, settles at 7, Reece Mews, South Kensington, London SW7, for the rest of his life and produces first large-scale triptych, Three Studies…

HOW serendipitous it was for Julian Hartnoll when, in 1968, shortly after he had opened his first St James’s gallery (in partnership with Giles Eyre), a man walked in with a copy of Percy Bates’s 1899 book English Pre-Raphaelite Painters, Their Associates and Successors. The man was Joe Setton, who wished to collect every artist illustrated in the book. Victorian art was crawling back into fashion after decades of derision and already, thanks largely to dealer Jeremy Maas, the original Pre-Raphaelites were being collected, but second- and third-generation followers—their ‘associates and successors’ —were appreciated more on the Continent than in Britain. Good things could be found very cheaply, but this was irrelevant. As Mr Hartnoll puts it, Setton, who was born in Alexandria in 1916, was rich enough from…

The reason that the Pre-Raphaelite followers were esteemed on the Continent when forgotten in Britain was that they had close links with the Symbolists and others who were at the forefront of turn- of-the-century Modernism. Burne-Jones was particularly revered. It is easy to see the Pre-Raphaelite inspiration of the 36in by 28in Queen of Hearts (above), 1896, by John Byam Shaw (1872–1919), which made £790,500, but study the background faces: they could be in the crowd of Ensor's Christ's Entry into Brussels, painted 10 years earlier. Byam Shaw's Queen of Spades sold for £225,000. He never painted the other two suits.…

THE air bites shrewdly,’ as the Bard would say, ‘it is very cold.’ So cold, in fact, that the roads are lethal with black ice, the puddles in the drive are frozen solid all day and the dogs pick their way across the frosty fields as if every step were torture. On the other hand, the sky is crystal clear and, providing one layers up to the point at which one can no longer move one’s arms, it is a joy to be outdoors. Indeed, this week we made the four-hour round trip on foot to a ruined farm we normally only walk to in the summer. The final approach is along a narrow path between rocks and opens out into a natural, south-facing amphitheatre of about 10 acres suspended…

THE collective noun for a group of hares is a drove, a band, a down or even a flick. We look forward to seeing such a flick when the animals re-emerge into the open fields from the woods to commence their grand courtships. Still, there were two hares together on the old airfield this morning, which filled us with delight. There is a whiff of change in the wind, a glint of light past 5pm and the songbirds are singing more and more. This year, I’ve already admired broods of Egyptian geese in both Barnes and Hampshire, yet they always seem to hatch before anything else has got round to courting. I’ve planted some sweet peas that have sprouted and ordered a heated propagator to speed up all the other…

Q Some time ago, I had an affair. I soon came to my senses, but the guilt haunts me and is damaging my marriage. I know people say that confessing simply hurts the other party in order to ease your own conscience, but I can’t go on. Do I tell him? Walk away? Please help me. I. F., Powys A‘Forsaking all others, cleave only unto him, as long as ye both shall live’: The Book of Common Prayer sets a high bar and one many would today regard as unrealistic. It was written half a millennium ago, when life expectancy meant marriage lasted a mere third of what it does today, when women were regarded as property and when temptation was not so hydra-headed. You clearly take your marriage seriously.…

This is the definitive work on the ‘father of English geology', showcasing his hand-coloured map of 1815, A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with Part of Scotland, described in the foreword by Robert Macfarlane as ‘unmistakably a work of art as well as a document of record'. Drawing on the Oxford University Museum of Natural History's vast archive, the map is accompanied by geological cross-sections, county maps, fossil illustrations and essays by leading academics.…

A little of what you fancy I WOULD like to thank you for the recent articles on British food and drink. The latest, on Simpkins sweets (January 6), was responsible for another parcel at the door. Through your pages, I have been supplied with the best of British meat, fish, vegetables, cakes, juices, whisky, wine, chocolate, cheese, soap and even face masks. It has been months since I crossed the threshold of a supermarket and I intend to use them sparingly in future. My waistline may not be as trim as it was, but my contentment —despite all the trials—has improved immensely. R. L. Webb, Kent What a swine WHAT a delightful article on the much-maligned pig (January 13). Years ago, I worked for a livestock export company and…

IN our present state of suspended animation, it’s become increasingly difficult to judge how the cultural sector is really being reshaped by the massive changes going on within it. Cancellations, closures and job cuts are all indicators of alterations, but we will have to wait for life to get going again to understand properly what their effect will be and how institutions, and artists, will operate in the future. There are also external changes that could have a serious impact on the Arts, among them the effects of the recently completed Brexit deal. This is a subject that garnered particular attention last week with an open letter signed by more than 100 celebrated musicians that was published in The Times. It responds to the fact that, contrary to the expectations…

NINE singers are spread out like chess pieces across the black-and-white chequered floor. In the background hangs a rainbow painting, not with a message of thanks to key workers, but the inscription Non sine sole iris (‘no rainbow without the sun’). It alludes to the portrait’s sitter, Elizabeth I, who is shown bringing a colourful arc to her people. The Marble Hall of Hatfield House is one of a handful of handsome settings for A Choral Odyssey by The Sixteen, a mix of performance and documentary presented by actor—and former chorister —Sir Simon Russell Beale. ‘I called in a lot of favours,’ smiles Harry Christophers, conductor and founder of the choral group with the glorious sound that thrills and moves its devoted followers in equal measure. ‘The Marquess of Salisbury…

IN the process of creating or restoring a truly beautiful building, there is rarely room for off-the-peg solutions. As no two clients are the same, it is vital that architects and interior designers share an uncompromising, completely bespoke approach to every last detail, from the external elevations to the interiors. It only tak es a brief tour of any of Britain’s great historic houses to discover that, in the right hands, you can have a home that’s not only highly distinctive, but also perfectly suited to its owners’ needs. The secret to achieving this is the same now as it was at the time when those exceptional properties were built: a combination of skill, experience and knowledge spanning joinery, masonry, plasterwork and finishes. All of these time-honoured crafts are as…

In this remote garden, laid out by French head gardener James Garnier and the only walled garden to be built on peat-land, Mitchell Henry commisisoned 21 inter-connected hothouses. Designed by Cranston's of Birmingham and heated by 5,000ft of hot-water pipes, the Kyle-more glasshouses included a vinery, a fernery, nectarine houses and a banana house. Plants for the house and new introductions swapped with other keen gardeners were cossetted here. Time and Connemara weather have rotted the wood-frame structures, but some of the piping and most of the old lay-out can still be seen on the upper terrace. Two hothouses have been restored and planning is in hand for further rebuilding.…

One of the most quintessentially animal-like of Francis Bacon’s early works is Head I (1948). The subject is ostensibly human, although—despite the title—it represents only part of a head, most strikingly an open mouth displaying bared and jagged teeth. To further the ambiguity, this alarming being is contained within a structure that might be a bedstead, but also resembles a cage—a favourite motif of the artist’s. This recalls his fondness for using the word ‘trap’ to express the painter’s capture of a subject. Whatever this image is of, it does look like something that has been trapped.…