Innholdsfortegnelse for 03-Feb-2021 i Country Life

RANGER'S HOUSE, CHESTERFIELD WALK, SE10 Is this London’s most famous filming location? If the façade of Ranger's House looks somewhat familiar, it might be because you recognise it as the wisteria-strewn home of the Bridgerton family, from the eponymous Netflix period drama. The Georgian townhouse, situated on the edge of Greenwich Park, was built in the early 18th century for Vice-Admiral Francis Hosier, who wanted to be close to the Thames and the sea. It changed hands multiple times-including to diamond magnate Sir Julius Wernher, who left behind a dazzling art collection-before landing under the protection of English Heritage (www.english-heritage. org.uk). Although the house is not open to the public until April, it's possible to peer through the gates. If you're in the Greenwich area, wander past the Old Royal…

M. Moen & Sons One of London's best butchers, says Winkworth's agent Brad Slade (24, The Pavement) Clapham Books An independent shop that did ‘brilliant things' during lockdown, according to Alyson Wilson of the Clapham Society (26, The Pavement) Trinity Adam Byatt's Michelin-starred venue has repeatedly been named as one of London's best restaurants (4, The Polygon) The Windmill The inspiration for the Pontefract Arms in The End of the Affair, this pub is a favourite of estate agent Charlie Syson of Chestertons (Clapham Common South Side)…

It’s nigh on impossible to ignore Valentine’s Day, even if you’re stuck at home. Here’s how to do it in non-nauseating style Best for couples The Quo Vadis At Home dinner kit will banish any misgivings you may have about takeaway. The box even includes a Quo Vadis tablecloth and delivery is available in and near London. From £95 (www.quovadissoho.co.uk) Best for friends Walk east along Regent’s Canal, from Regent’s Park to Coal Drops Yard. At the finish line, you’ll find Word on the Water—an eclectic and dog-friendly bookshop on a barge. Treat yourself or treat one another; click and collect is available during lockdown (www.wordonthewater.co.uk) Best for grand gestures Forget flowers: new London bakery Crème specialises in ‘really big cookies’ that are bound to please a partner or…

A schoolmarm attitude Facebook has apologised after reprimanding users over the ‘offensive' term Plymouth Hoe. Hoe is, indeed, an Anglo-Saxon word, but not the bad kind. It describes the city's heel-shaped ridge overlooking the Sound Broody squirrels A plan to lure grey squirrels into feeding boxes where they'll feast on hazelnut spread laced with oral contraceptives has been given the green light First-time buyers The average deposit needed to get on the UK property ladder went up by 23%, or £10,829, to £57,278 last year, according to Halifax; in London, it rose by 18% to £130,357 Blink and it’s gone Soon, you could walk into a shop and buy something simply by glancing at an LCD screen. These dangerously easy facial-recognition transactions are already happening millions of times a day…

Quiz of the week 1) A cairn, a traditional marker for walkers, consists of what? 2) Who was known by the nickname ‘Ol' Blue Eyes'? 3) What does the modern, fitness-related acronym MAMIL stand for? 4) The collie breed originated as a sheepdog in which country? 5) Smog, brunch and podcast are all examples of what sort of word? Book of the week A Crooked Tree, Una Mannion (Faber, £14.99) This gripping debut novel, set in 1980s America, takes us back to a time when children were free-range, exploring Nature, themselves and each other without chaperones. It also deftly exposes the consequences when families fracture and children are left to tackle adult problems alone. Most hauntingly, it reveals what might happen when a parent is pushed…

Retrain as a swan LAST summer, my husband and I were cycling by Chichester Harbour when we saw this sign. I know mute swans don’t really honk, but it still catches the funny bone. Susanna Williams, Hampshire Measure for measure HOW long is a piece of string (Letters, January 6)? Two-thirds! If one drops a piece of string from a fixed height and measures the distance between the ends in its crumpled state on the floor, it will measure, on average, two-thirds of its true length. Paul May, by email A different point of view ATHENA (and I) will miss the views of Stonehenge when the A303 is tunnelled (January 20), but the cost of that view is a noisy, polluting road running through an ancient burial landscape, a…

AS museums, galleries, theatres and heritage sites struggle to survive the seemingly endless challenges of the pandemic, the most prominent emerging shibboleths and catchphrases of our cultural panjandrums are ‘sustainability’ and ‘post-Covid world’. ‘Sustainability’ seems to assume that the old economic mix of state funding and earned income will no longer be valid and ‘post-Covid world’ seems to assume that the pandemic has changed everything. Well, as Homer wittily said, or should have said if he didn’t, ‘assume can only make an “ass” out of “u” and “me”, baby’. Up here on Mount Olympus, we take the long view and observe, sometimes with regret, that catastrophes rarely cause fundamental change. Instead, they reshape and redirect, often merely accelerating existing trends. That certainly seems to be the case with some consequences…

THE Lake District contributed William Wordsworth to the pantheon of English Romantic poets and Northamptonshire can claim to have given it John Clare, but London yielded ‘the Cockney Homer’, John Keats. The latter, of course, was not a poet of his region in the way Wordsworth and Clare came to be seen of theirs. The ‘cockney’ epithet was a disparaging term hurled by reactionary critics who hated his association with the radical publisher and essayist Leigh Hunt. Yet although Keats—whose Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Urn and To Autumn are now included among the finest examples of 19th-century verse—met his premature end 200 years ago this month (in February, 1821), aged 25, in Rome, it was London that shaped his life and work. Keats’s output was restricted…

THIS year, the venerable Six Nations will be like no other, with rugby fans confined to their sofas to watch players and fans alike rekindle rivalries that stretch back generations. Several coaches have acknowledged the 138-year-old tournament’s importance when it comes to putting smiles on faces, in what is—due to the ongoing pandemic—a particularly challenging time for the sport and so many of us. England, the reigning champions, are favourites to lift the cup again. However, they are likely to be stretched by a rejuvenated French squad, as well as Ireland, who will be determined to unseat their old adversaries. England The rugby that coach Eddie Jones has his charges playing is not loved by all, but it is mightily successful. Brutish rather than bold, he prefers to bully sides…

AT a time when one is used to reading the obsequies of venerable businesses, it seems appropriate to celebrate the longevity of art-trade survivors. Happily, several anniversaries can be marked here in the coming weeks. First to be applauded is the furniture dealer John Bly of Tring, Hertfordshire, which is celebrating 130 years since the firm’s establishment, although its roots go back further. In the second half of the 19th century, Tring was a particularly good place to be a dealer of almost any kind. The town was conveniently close to London, but, more importantly, it was on the edge of the Vale of Aylesbury, otherwise known as Rothschild-shire. The great banking dynasty was acquiring estates and building a string of magnificent country houses in the area, including Tring…

DO you want brown soup or yellow soup?’ Zam is poking around in the fridge. I think it’s lunchtime, but who knows, as the day is relentlessly dark and wet. I choose yellow and am stirring it around my bowl when I realise something important. I ring my sister. ‘You need curried parsnip on the hall walls,’ I tell her. We’ve been discussing paint colours for some days because, apart from a brief moment when we went all the way to Dorset last summer, I haven’t left my own postcode for almost a year, life is pretty narrow and paint colours are now top-level interesting. I can tell she doesn’t find this helpful because her response is: ‘How’s your marmalade?’ ‘Soup,’ I tell her. I have soup on the brain.…

The catwalks of Africa THE V&A Museum has revealed plans to stage a major exhibition on African fashions, in June 2022, and is appealing to members of the public who might have items of interest that they’re willing to lend, as well as personal testimonies (to submit an idea, email africafashion@vam.ac.uk). The list includes rare and early designs by Shade Thomas-Fahm, Chris Seydou, Kofi Ansah and Alphadi, as well as kente, bògòlanfini, khanga and commemorative cloths from the 20th-century liberation and independence years, plus copies of Drum Magazine, published between 1950 and 1970. Last week, the museum also unveiled new digital content on the refurbished Raphael Cartoons, to enjoy from home until the latest lockdown lifts. The interactive features and in-depth stories, charting the cartoons’ 500-year-old history, are available on…

Trouville Road, £1.475 million Situated in Abbeville Village, this Victorian semi-detached house has 2,192sq ft of living space, plus a huge 1,020sq ft loft with scope for conversion. The ground floor houses the eat-in kitchen, the dining room, a study and a bedroom, with a reception room, family room and two more bedrooms on the first floor, but the space could be arranged to house all the bedrooms upstairs if required. Outside is a 35ft-long south-facing garden. Knight Frank (020–8682 7777; www.knightfrank.com) Old Town, £2.795 million Listed Grade II*, this Queen Anne townhouse is in the heart of Old Town, close to Adam Byatt's Trinity restaurant. Full of charming features, such as wood panelling and feature fireplaces, the 2,939sq ft interiors stretch across four floors, with the main reception rooms…

THE changes we have all been required to make to our lives in the past 10 months have been disorientating for many, even if new ways of shopping, working and communicating were on the horizon anyway and the pandemic has simply hastened their arrival. It has been a particular shock to education, but although few beleaguered parents would suggest we continue the agony of juggling home-schooling with doing a full-time job from the kitchen table, the experience of remote learning has revealed exciting possibilities never previously explored by the teaching profession. Pupils have been quick to embrace the opportunities presented by the digital world, from recreation to trading their clothes, but not all teachers have been quite as ready to jump on the technological bandwagon —until now, that is. There’s…

FOR me, February is the nadir of the year—it is my least favourite month by far. If I allow myself, it feels like a month merely to be got through at the end of a long winter. Then it will be March, spring will arrive, the ground will dry out and, in a month’s time, we will have almost exactly two more hours of daylight than today. Still, thank goodness for the Six Nations rugby tournament, which makes weekends in February passable—especially with a roaring fire and a pint of something to hand to calm the excitement. I am also grateful for the snowdrops that light up a bank, beneath a giant beech hedge still golden with leaf, at my Hampshire cottage. I shall plant more snowdrops after this batch…

Ready for my close-up Q I’ve always been shy about public speaking, but have been asked to host a series of online presentations. Not having other people in the room seemed a good way to get over my fear, yet I’ve practised with family and I go to pieces—I can barely speak. Do you have any tips? H. Y., Norfolk A We can’t all be Fiona Bruce. Audiences are forgiving and even early broadcasts by The Queen were awkward. Don’t judge yours too harshly. Find a comfortable chair. Ensure your lower half isn’t visible and wear your slippers. Commandeer a pet: stroking a cat, as Blofeld knew, has a calming effect and will draw focus from stiltedness. Ensure you are lit well from below or one side, rather than…

I AM in complete agreement about the joy of letters (In the garden, January 20). In 1993, I wrote to Winston Graham about the long time between the books four and five of his ‘Poldark’ saga and received not one, but two handwritten letters in reply: ‘It has been a broken commitment (20 years between books four and five), but I have never had much difficulty in getting inside the characters again. And I try not to read the previous books before I begin again. I have one page in a notebook with the birthdates of everyone, but apart from that, which has become essential as I move along, nothing much. I appear to have got to know everyone pretty well.’ After his signature, he added: ‘Sorry for delay in…

1795 Born in Moorgate, London, on October 31 1816 Publication of first poem, O Solitude. Despite qualifying as a licensed apothecary, abandons his studies to become a surgeon and turns to poetry 1817 First volume, Poems, is published to scornful reviews and poor sales 1818 Epic poem Endymion is savaged by critics. Falls ill after a 642-mile walking tour around England and Scotland. Moves to Wentworth Place, Hampstead 1819 Writes his finest odes and other outstanding pieces, such as La Belle Dame sans Merci. Becomes engaged to Fanny Brawne (right) and writes her the love sonnet Bright Star 1820 Dogged by worsening financial woes, his health declines and he sails for Italy in the autumn 1821 Dies in Rome at 11pm on February 23…

NO doubt you, as I did, experienced a range of emotions on the morning of January 19. You woke up, checked the result in the final Test match in Brisbane and then convulsed with laughter as you realised that Australia had lost, at home, to 11 Indian cricketers of whom you’d never heard. You’ll have chortled as a bowling attack that boasted roughly four caps and just over 10 Test wickets between them outclassed a fearsome Australian bowling unit. You’d have guffawed as a batting lineup lacking Virat Kohli outscored Steve Smith, David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne. You would have wiped a tear of joy as you remembered that all this occurred at the ‘Gabbatoir’, Australia’s fortress, where they haven’t lost since 1988—then felt white-hot fear as you remember that…

Rare find This Georgian Statuary and Brocatelle marble chimneypiece is a rare find, inlaid with a Greek-key design on the frieze and featuring a finely carved tablet depicting a goddess holding a cornucopia brimming with fruit, including a pineapple, which was something of a luxury in 18th-century Britain (‘The very pineapple of perfection, January 27). It costs £69,600, from Westland London (020–7739 8094; www.westlandlondon.com) Polished look Something of an Indiana Jones in the world of decorative stone, Steve Charles is renowned for seeking out natural materials and using them creatively. Now, he has joined forces with Chesneys to create The Selborne fire surround, £4,500, which features innovatively sliced, veneered and polished panels of English flintstone, framed in Portland stone (020–7627 1410; www.chesneys.co.uk) Time honoured This fire grate in matt black,…

Narcissus ‘Thalia’ (1916; M. van Waveren and Sons) This Dutch-bred Triandrus daffodil bears up to four white flowers per stem. The petals are separated as they flow backwards above a flared and crimped cup. Planted en masse, they look like butterflies on the breeze. Mid to late season. 12¾in–26½in N. ‘Beersheba’ (pre-1923; Revd G. H. Engleheart) This ivory-white trumpet daffodil, with a hint of lemon sherbet, was the first white trumpet daffodil to be named. Although ‘Beersheba' has been used to breed subsequent whites, this one has grace and charm. Mid season. 12¾in–26½in N. ‘Sir Winston Churchill’ (1966; H. A. Holmes) This late-flowering double, which produces four creamy rosettes with touches of orange, was discovered in a field-grown crop of a single daffodil named…

When this is over, we're going to feel very differently about Oxford Street. For so long, the capital's most famous shopping street has been the butt of jokes, a place that ‘real' Londoners know to avoid at all costs. But you don't know what you've got until it's gone-and who among us wouldn't kill to travel back in time and spend 20 minutes in the John Lewis returns queue? One of the most common complaints used to be that there was nowhere decent to eat nearby that wasn't in Soho. That wasn't strictly true: The Jackalope on Weymouth Mews served Liu Xiaomian's addictively spicy, numbing Chongqing noodles and Homeslice's pizzas were more than serviceable. And on Great Marlborough Street there was -and, thankfully, still is-Manteca. This modern Italian started life…

Ever wanted to run a marathon in fancy dress? For inspiration, here are some of the fastest Guinness World Record times set in London for different costumes • In a wedding dress: Lee Goodwin, 2 hrs, 49 mins, 17 seconds • As a nun: Paul Neils, 3 hrs, 12 mins, 19 seconds • Two runners handcuffed (mixed pair): Rebecca and Nuno César de Sá, 3 hrs, 43 mins, 17 seconds • In a tent: Oscar White, 3 hrs, 57 mins, 5 seconds • As a dragon: James Cook, 4 hrs, 46 mins, 50 seconds • As a postbox: Matthew Collins, 3 hrs, 14 mins, 32 seconds…

David in the bedroom With popular apps such as Calm enlisting celebrities to read bedtime stories, a new survey reveals the British public find Sir David Attenborough's voice the most soothing, closely followed by rapper Snoop Dogg Seeing the bright side We may be stuck indoors, but criminals are housebound, too; burglaries in England and Wales went down by 24% last year, the equivalent of 755 fewer burglaries per day, according to police data Live music American band The Flaming Lips has now held two gigs to an audience gathered in 100 inflatable bubbles equipped with speakers; they're calling it ‘the new normal' Novel ideas At least a million Britons used last year's lockdowns to write a booklet's hope for some bestsellers…

LAST month, an 82 year old from the Isle of Wight went viral with a sea shanty about Covid-19, which featured the outstanding lyric ‘We’ve gone so mad that we feel no shock when shanties trend on TikTok’ (it’s true; the former postman who kickstarted ‘ShantyTok’ secured a record deal). It should come as no surprise that this year’s The Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to 2021 tunes in with a sea shanty for every month of the year—February’s ditty is about the Black Ball Line of packet ships that ran from Liverpool to New York. The book, by Lia Leendertz, also features a full tide timetable (ideal for beachcombers), the best time of year for sowing everything from aubergines (February) to broad beans (October) and lessons in navigating by the…

ABOUT two weeks ago, we were promised snow in central London and the excitement in the house the night before was palpable. I think it has to do with the desperate desire that we all share for something to distinguish the days as they pass. In anticipation, one of the children even set their alarm clock for 7am in order to glimpse the street before its whiteness was too blemished. That’s unheard of now that school starts a full hour of sleeping time later (and at home). When the snow actually fell as rain, therefore, we all felt cheated and slightly downcast. This week, however, there was a happy reversal of fortune: we were predicted rain that fell as snow. That it came as a surprise merely added to the…

Fruit cake and furniture polish Fletcher’s, LBV Port, Douro Valley, Portugal 2016. £9.49, Aldi, alc 20% As late-bottled vintages spend longer in wood than vintage Ports, they're accessible earlier and don't need to be decanted. You get comparable flavours without the price. This smells and tastes of peppery spices, fruit cake and furniture polish, with a long, chocolatey finish. Sour apple Jummare, Vermentino, Sicily, Italy 2019. From £12.50, Aitken’s, Latitude, Liberty Wines, alc 12.5% From vineyards in Menfi at an altitude of 820ft, this organic Vermentino has some decent concentration of fresh, tangy, green-apple fruit, even sour apple, and floral lift with a peachy mid palate and some herbiness on the finish. Camomile and sweetness Chateau Changyu Moser XV, Moser Legend Blanc de Noir, Ningxia, China 2018. £17.99,…

Aided by its setting, only seconds away from the Heath the poet so loved, Keats House Museum is among the most affecting of the nation's literary shrines. Keats lived there from 1818–20, when it was known as Wentworth Place, and the Regency villa (more modestly sized than its name suggests) now displays artefacts from the Keats Collection. Although the garden-or grass plot, as Keats called it-no longer contains the plum tree beneath which he wrote Ode to a Nightingale, the reclining mulberry on the front lawn would have already been a mature specimen in his day. Keats House, 10, Keats Grove, London NW3 (020–7332 3868; www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/keats)…

• Gorse is extremely nutritious, containing half the protein of oats. An acre of it will provide enough winter feed for six horses • According to Pliny the Elder, gorse was used in the collection of gold and placed in streams to capture particles • The flowers can be used to make gold and yellow dyes, which were employed in tartans. The buds can be pickled and used like capers • In August 2005, in North Yorkshire, an RAF helicopter was summoned to rescue a man who had been stuck in an 11½ft-deep gorse bush for two days • Gorse was often planted near houses, where it could double up as a washing maiden with no fear of clothes blowing away • The ashes of burned gorse are rich in…

MY favourite nursery ideas are murals, as I love to think of a little one having something magical to stare at as they fall asleep,’ reveals Lucinda Croft, creative director of Dragons of Walton Street. How you decorate your child’s room can stay with them for life and many remember their first curtain fabric or wallpaper. ‘Finding vintage pictures is a fun way to add a unique quality,’ she continues. The key is to create a calm and soothing space, as much for the parents as the baby. There should be no wifi, phones or other distractions and it is essential to choose a good cot mattress: ‘Geovital make incredible 100% non-toxic examples.’…

Chit potatoes The First Early potato is a triumph of the kitchen garden. Choose your bag of seed tubers and set them up rose end uppermost (where the buds are concentrated) in a shallow box lined with newspaper. Place the box in a well-lit shed window with more newspaper to hand should frost threaten, simply laid loosely over the top. Look in with paternal solicitude from time to time. In three weeks, the sprouts will have risen, all purply-green, an inch or so, indicating that the time has come to open your trench.…

• Avoid rows and regular spacing. Stand in the middle of where you want them to be, throw the bulbs in the air and plant them where they fall • To ensure several years' worth of flowers, plant bulbs to a depth of 6in in September and October, in moist soil. The 4in layer of soil above the bulb will prevent them from drying out • Don’t deadhead species types, because they often set seed. Commercial varieties aren’t dead-headed, so you don’t need to do this either • Feed them immediately after flowering with a low-nitrogen product. Water on tomato food or sprinkle on a granular potash-rich product, such as Vitax Q4. Repeat two weeks later and again two weeks after that…

IT was early in his association with Joseph Smith that Canaletto received a commission that fully established his reputation with the British. In 1731, the young Lord John Russell, shortly to become the 4th Duke of Bedford, ordered the 24 paintings of views along the Grand Canal that have been described by John Eglin, an American art historian, as ‘outstanding examples of the prettified picture postcards for which [Canaletto] is so often derided’. They were originally hung in Bedford House in London, but, since its demolition in 1800, they have been the glory of the dining room at the ducal seat, Woburn Abbey. As Woburn is presently undergoing a refurbishment, 23 of these views make up an unprecedented exhibition scheduled to run at Bath’s Holburne Museum; the 24th, Regatta on…

1697 Born on October 28 in Venice 1719 Returns from studies in Rome 1723 First known signed and dated work, Architectural Capriccio (in a private collection) 1725 The painter Marchesini, buyer for the collector Conti, is advised to look at Canaletto's work: ‘It is like Carlevarijs, but you can see the sun shining in it.' Paints The Stonemason’s Yard (in the National Gallery) 1731 The future 4th Duke of Bedford commissions 24 works 1746 Moves to London, living in Beak Street, Soho, for part of the time 1747 Paints Westminster Bridge, with the Lord Mayor’s Procession on the Thames (Paul Mellon Collection) 1749 Art critic George Vertue writes of Canaletto's work ‘something is obscure or strange', leading to suspicions that an imposter is at work, a rumour he later retracted…

IRISH international Hugh McGann has been busy recently—he is a doctor of infectious diseases. However, he found time to play the online Alt Columbus Invitational, and played this grand slam from that event quite beautifully. West led the ten of Diamonds and, bearing in mind West’s bid, declarer, Dr McGann, felt confident to run the lead to his Knave. At trick two, he led a low Spade to dummy’s Queen, and was shocked to see West discard. He continued with the nine of Spades, running it when East naturally played low. Declarer cashed the Ace-King of Hearts, discarding a Club, and ruffed a Heart, reducing his Spade to the same length as East’s, a necessary precursor to a Trump Coup. He then cashed the Ace-King of Clubs and was delighted…