Innholdsfortegnelse for 29-Sep-2021 i Country Life

FOOD shortages? What food shortages? Autumn is here and the wild bounty of Nature is everywhere. There are ceps in the woods, samphire by the shore and there can barely be a lane in the country not brightened berry red. One might even find hazelnuts unaccountably overlooked by the squirrels. We are not being trite, or making light of the difficulties Government and industry face in filling shop shelves, but is it not a sort of madness to overlook the food Nature provides for free? As so often in these isles, history provides inspiration. During the Second World War, when U-boat activity menaced the watery supply lines, the Ministry of Food produced a pamphlet entitled ‘Hedgerow Harvest’ and sent a nation off to gather wild food. The men and women…

A NEW research project seeks to identify the best strategies for habitat restoration across the UK. Launched by Cranfield University in partnership with the National Trust, Stirling University, the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and Forest Research, the £2-million study will span four years, during which time it will examine meadow and woodland sites being restored, as well as as mines, quarries and intensively farmed land. The researchers will focus on specific processes, such as carbon capture or pollination, and how they combine. ‘We are looking at how investing in complexity—both biodiversity and structural—affects the recovery of sites,’ says lead principal investigator, Cranfield University’s Jim Harris. ‘This may be reintroduction of species [or] planting trees in particular spatial configurations.’ Although the study won’t look specifically at how agriculture can…

A discreet resident of woods, parks and gardens with mature trees, the nuthatch is more frequently heard than seen. But the patient observer will spot her patrolling in an upward, downward or spiral route around the tree trunk, oaks being a favourite. Similar in size to a great tit, she forages all the time, using strong little legs and clawed feet to grasp the bark as she applies her slender black bill like a pair of tweezers, teasing out interesting grubs or hidden seeds. Sitta europaea can also be tempted to birdtables or down to the ground for fallen mast and berries. Such prizes may be wedged into a tree-bark larder for leaner times. Both sexes are a beautiful, soft blue-grey above and peachy-pink below, with white cheeks and a…

I MUCH enjoyed your article on William Morris (September 8). There is another who deserves even greater recognition: William Richard Morris (1877–1963), who probably did more than any other to bring motorised transport within reach. He founded the Morris car marque and became one of the wealthiest men in Britain. From the late 1920s, he devoted as much energy to giving away his money as he had in amassing it. For his industrial and philanthropic endeavours, he received a Viscountcy and was known as Lord Nuffield. If we correct for inflation, he was this country’s greatest ever benefactor, with gifts totalling more than £1 billion. Through the Nuffield Foundation and other charities he endowed, he still gives millions each year. Clive F. Button, Cheshire The writer of the letter of…

1924 Published August 30, The Earl of Mount Edgcumbe is greeted by a dog at the gateway of Cotehele House, Cornwall. This Frontispiece accompanied the first of a pair of architectural articles published on the house. The first one opens with an almost identical image, but without the Earl and formally composed to crop out the drain cover in the foreground. Every week for the past 125 years, COUNTRY LIFE has documented and photographed many walks of life in Britain. More than 80,000 of the images are available for syndication or purchase in digital format. To view the archives, visit www.countrylifeimages.co.uk and email enquiries to licensing@futurenet.com…

FOR tech start-up entrepreneur Kristian Forsberg, co-founder of the Gundog app (@gundogapp on Instagram), training his own gundog was a lifelong dream. So, after he and his wife, Rose, moved from London to the Cotswolds in 2017, he got a black cocker puppy called George. ‘For us, nothing beats a cocker,' says Mr Forsberg. However, although he'd done lots of research via books and forums, training George was far harder than anticipated. ‘I couldn't get him to do what I wanted-we didn't understand each other.' He tried a local trainer, ‘but it didn't feel as if he could get me what I wanted'. Then, like me, Mr Forsberg came across Ben Randall on social media. ‘I remember a video of five or six gundogs lined up with food bowls in…

WHEN John Dennys’s designs for the 5th Duke of Westminster’s new Eaton Hall were published in 1970, the Duke of Bedford wrote to the editor of the Architectural Association’s AA Notes to say that ‘one of the virtues of the Grosvenor family is that they frequently demolish their stately home. I trust future generations will continue this tradition’. Dennys’s startling Modernist creation sent shockwaves through the conservative world of country-house connoisseurship. The previous Eaton Hall, a magnificent Gothic monster designed for the 1st Duke by Alfred Waterhouse in the 1870s, was described by an awestruck Nikolaus Pevsner as a ‘Wagnerian palace [and] the most ambitious instance of Gothic Revival domestic architecture anywhere in the country’. But it had been demolished in 1961. Now, a new Eaton Hall rose like an…

Dog days WITH research showing that one-third of couples plan to include their dog in their wedding day, Hedsor House in Buckinghamshire has launched a new Canine Concierge package to its roster of wedding offerings. Pooches can now be added to the guest list and will be looked after like royalty (just don’t let them too near the cake). For every dog-friendly wedding, Hedsor will make a donation to Hearing Dogs for Deaf People (01628 819050; www.hedsor.com). Bear in mind HAVING been asked countless times where to find the perfect jewellery box, Bear Brooksbank, one of my favourite jewellers, decided to design her own perfectly proportioned duo to house much-loved pieces. The larger (£385) is for your dressing table; the smaller (£165) is a perfect travel companion. She has…

Somerset, £1.65 million Magnificent overhead timbers, cruck beams, a plankand-muntin screen in the hall and two original bread ovens next to the log burner in the dining-room fireplace are only a few of the attractive period features at 17th-century Whites Farm in Dommett, all of which merge seamlessly with the restoration and extension works done in 2003. Characterful and Grade II-listed, the property has four bedrooms, a four-oven Aga in a smart modern kitchen and timber arches over the staircase. There is also a two-bedroom cottage within the 12-acre grounds on the edge of the Blackdown Hills AONB, a couple of barns, a calf house, an open linhay and a kitchen garden. Jackson-Stops (01823 325144) Wiltshire £1.65 million Historic properties that are unlisted are few and far between,…

THE larks stopped their morning singing back in July, so it is a case of up with the Maran cockerel. Unlike the wild birds, Robespierre, ‘The Terror of the Farmyard’, never fails to announce the dawn. He works 365. Mist across the fields and valley; but, behind the soft lace veil, the electric anticipation of September, the month that is the advance guard of winter, yet when grass has a second springtime. It is only the feebleness of the pinky-grey cells of the human brain that reduces Nature to a set of four separate seasons; yesterday, swallows hawked insects in leaf-stripper wind; thus, summer and autumn in one swirling moment. The geese need to get fat and to get fat they need to get out on this ‘flush’ of grass,…

CONTROVERSY has arisen over the All England Lawn Tennis Club’s (AELTC) plans to develop 73 acres of Capability Brown-designed, Grade II*-listed landscape, currently a golf course, within Wimbledon Park, building 38 grass tennis courts and an 8,000-seat show court. The tennis club currently occupies 42 acres, leaving 45 acres open to the public. The aim of the expansion is to relocate the qualifying rounds from Roehampton, so that more fans can enjoy an internationally important event that, according to the AELTC, generates ‘a TV and digital audience of 1.2 billion people every year and [supported] an estimated £327 million of economic activity across the UK in 2019’. These plans are ‘critical for our future and competition with other Grand Slam events,’ says AELTC head of estate development Justin Smith. The…

RADIOHEAD fans will be very excited to see six works by Stanley Donwood, who has collaborated with the band since 1996, in an exhibition at Christie’s, King Street, SW1, next month, alongside drawings, lyrics and digital art by both Mr Donwood and frontman Thom Yorke. These dystopian landscapes are closely related to cover and sleeve art for 2000 album Kid A and will go under the hammer as part of the First Open: Post-war and Contemporary Art sale on October 5–19 (£10,000–£15,000 each). ‘Very late one night, Thom and I were alone in the vast wastes of Oxfordshire, surrounded by darkness and trying to finish the artwork,’ remembers Mr Donwood. ‘It was impossible… We had lots of versions… so we took them all downstairs and used tape to stick them…

OF all parts of the UK, it is Northern Ireland that most depends on agriculture. As much as 30% of economic activity is in the countryside —on farms much like the one now featuring in the BBC’s Countryfile. These farms may be situated in Northern Ireland, but they are part of an island-of-Ireland industry: food produced on one side of the border being processed on the other, then back to be packed, and perhaps back again for export to the rest of the world. Agriculture reaches across the political barriers and, although the divisions remain, the economic connections have grown stronger since the peace process created the conditions for co-operation. ‘The promise that Northern Ireland could remain in two free-trade areas was never credible’ This is vital for both the…

WE don’t know the full story. Did he have a hot toddy to hand? Was there a heap of damp labradors steaming in front of a gun-room fire? And were his friends ribbing him over a very obvious and witnessed miss? All that’s certain is Sir Hugh Eyre Campbell Beaver, managing director of the Guinness Brewery, was one of a party shooting the North Slob, by the River Slaney, Co Wexford, Ireland, on November 10, 1951, when the argument began: which was faster, the grouse or golden plover? It was a good question—both are renowned for their pace, but how fast are they? Which is, indeed, quicker? No one knew. Nor could the answer be found in the house library. At that moment, Sir Hugh realised the world needed a…

WHEN drifting around the other day, just north of the A66, completely lost, I was suddenly struck by a notice informing me that I was close to the Philip Wayre Upland Trust. I was looking for a house near the High Force Waterfall in Teesdale, but my sat-nav goes through periods of utter gormlessness from time to time and my wife, Lulu, and I were way off target. Needless to say, the device’s days are numbered. Nonetheless, the ‘Philip Wayre Upland Trust’ intrigued me—the late Mr Wayre was a fantastic naturalist and conservationist and, dare I say it, one of my heroes. I was invited to speak at his memorial in 2014 in Suffolk, which remains one of the most important privileges of my life, as he was a great…

IN this bedroom of an 18th-century manor house in Dorset, ‘there was no cornice, no dado, no chimney—nothing at all,’ explains Mr Hurst, an antique and interiors consultant who specialises in 18th-century furniture and art. ‘I found a neo-Classical chimneypiece and built it up from there.’ The backdrop to the scheme is a botanical wallpaper that has been hand-painted onto individual segments. Named Botanical Studies, the wallpaper is part of a new collection designed by the American decorator Michael S. Smith for hand-painted wallpaper specialists de Gournay (020–7352 9988; www.degournay.com). The large-scale renditions of passion flowers, gardenias and heliotropes reference the 17th-century home of the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus. ‘I immediately thought of my client when I saw it,’ explained Mr Hurst. ‘When I unrolled a section of it, it…

Ruby and diamond necklace and Winston Berry ruby and diamond earrings, price on application, Harry Winston (020–7907 8800; www.harrywinston.com); Colours of Love platinum 2.01ct oval-cut ruby ring with diamonds, £39,120, Fabergé (07818 507911; www.faberge.com); Jewelled Vault ruby and diamond ring, £32,000, Garrard (020–7529 7605; www.garrard.com); Imperial Impératrice white gold and ruby tassel pendant, £45,480, Fabergé (as before); Bee brooch with rubies in 18 carat white gold, £9,500, Theo Fennell (www.theofennell.com)…

HISTORIC gardens such as Iford are works of art that need careful handling. It would be all too easy for the distinct vernacular of these celebrated gardens to be diluted or lost and for them to become either museum pieces or superficial tourist attractions pandering to the whims of the day tripper. Rather than attempting to freeze a garden in time, preservation should focus on capturing a garden’s story in a way that is authentic to its history, yet is meaningful for generations to come. When I arrived at Iford in autumn 2019, my first priority was to establish an ideal, a recipe to follow, if you like. This Conservation Management Plan (CMP) is based on a thorough understanding of Iford and its creator, Harold Peto, together with the layers…

Blackberry Lamingtons Makes 6 125g unsalted butter, softened175g golden caster sugar3 eggs1 tspn vanillaA pinch of salt125g self-raising flour For the filling 150g blackberries2 tbspn golden caster sugar1 tbspn cornflour100ml double cream, stiffly whipped For the icing 75g unsalted butter, melted200ml milk350g icing sugar50g cocoa powder300g desiccated coconutBlackberries to serve Method Preheat your oven to 170°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Grease an 8in by 8in baking tin and line the base. Using electric beaters, beat the butter and sugar until pale and frothy. Add the eggs one at a time and continue mixing. Pour in the vanilla, add the pinch of salt, mix again. Fold in the flour until just combined. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 30 minutes or until the top is lightly golden and the cake cooked…

RICHARD WAGNER was both loved and loathed in his lifetime and his music has been received in similarly polarised fashion ever since. People tend not to react mildly to his outpourings: last year, the Brighton Argus ran a headline screaming ‘Wagner made our lives hell’ when a family complained bitterly about their neighbour playing Tristan und Isolde. Admittedly, any music, from Beethoven to Bananarama, played loudly and at antisocial hours, could prove unpopular, but Wagner does have a way of inspiring either passionate devotion or violent antipathy. ‘As a personality he was overwhelming; he demanded the impossible of himself and of others’ As a personality he was overwhelming; he demanded the impossible of himself and of others, he had a vast and voracious intellect, a tumultuous sex life, lavish spending…

A COLOURFUL pageant of more than 500 horses and 1,000 performers, including dancers, actors, musicians and military men and women from the Commonwealth and Europe, will bring The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee to life, it was announced last week. In the grounds of Windsor Castle, next May’s four-day extravaganza will be ‘a gallop through history from Elizabeth I to the present day’, with humour, theatricality, a troupe of Elizabethan-inspired Queen’s Players leading the fray and music composed for the National Symphony Orchestra by Debbie Wiseman. An audience of 5,000 will witness live performances each night, with broadcasts on ITV. ‘We have secured some of the best equestrian, military and musical displays from here and around the world to feature in this huge production,’ enthuses Simon Brooks-Ward, director and producer. ‘We are…

MANY charities and organisations have suffered over the past 18 months, but the British Hen Welfare Trust (BHWT)—which has rehomed more than 850,000 commercial chickens since 2005—was able to use the change in circumstances to its advantage. The demand for chickens during lockdowns and furloughs skyrocketed, fuelled by fears over egg supply—in fact, domestic fowl is now the fourth most popular pet (1.2 million) after dogs, cats and indoor birds. ‘Last year, our waiting list went off the scale, with about 27,000 hens reserved, but unable to go to new homes due to lock-downs, not helped by a bout of avian flu in December,’ explains BHWT founder Jane Howorth. Refusing to pause for breath during the hiatus, the charity focused on new initiatives, including the funding of six research grants…

WOULD you like a dog that sits and stays, comes back when it’s called, greets people nicely without jumping up and doesn’t bark or chew its bedding?’ asks award-winning gundog trainer Ben Randall. ‘Well, I can help you get that.’ This might seem like a bold statement, but it’s an incredibly attractive proposition, because for those of us who own a dog, especially a gundog, there’s no greater source of pride than a companion that excels rather than embarrasses in the field. It’s an aspiration that I’ve tried to reach with previous dogs and a goal that, when I got my labrador puppy Nimrod three years ago, I was determined to achieve. However, despite my best intentions, life—not least a very busy job on this magazine and a lack of…

AN indoor sport’ was how the US decorator Dorothy Draper referred to the business of eating. ‘You play it three times a day and it’s well worthwhile making the game as pleasant as possible.’ Unfortunately, what might have been true in the 20th century—particularly for the fully staffed up—may not be in tune with the 21st, given the time-consuming demands of scrolling through Instagram. However, she did make one comment that still resonates: ‘There seems to be within us all an innate yearning to be lifted momentarily out of our own lives’—something she saw as the central purpose of interior design. She would doubtless agree that, of all the rooms in a house, it’s the dining room that is the best place to deliver some chutzpah. Yet it’s what you…

IT’S been a very good year for sales of country houses and estates in the West Country and, according to Oliver Custance Baker of Strutt & Parker in Exeter (01392 215631), it’s not finished yet, as he kicks off his autumn campaign with the launch onto the market of two exceptional, but quite different country properties. For sale at a guide price of £3 million, Plymtree Manor is an elegant, Grade II*- listed, William and Mary house set in just over 8½ acres of formal and informal gardens, orchard and paddocks on the edge of the rural village of Plymtree, 3½ miles south of Cullompton and 12 miles north-east of Exeter. According to its listing, the house, then known as Hayne House, was built in the early 18th century for…

AS a niece of the 10th Duke of Rutland, Libby Russell is no stranger to beautiful landscapes. Born Elizabeth Manners, she grew up on the Belvoir estate in Leicestershire and at Haddon Hall in Derbyshire and it was this sense of the beauty of her surroundings —an amalgamation of the light, the views and the colour of the stone particular to a place—that she and her husband, Alexander Russell, were searching for when they began looking to relocate in about 2001. ‘We’d been living near the coast in Kent,’ says Mrs Russell, one half of Mazzullo + Russell Landscape Design, ‘but the land there was very flat and trees struggled to grow. I wanted to find beautiful natural countryside, not too far from London, which we could afford and that…

Autumn tartines Take a medium-sized bowl and add two cooked beetroot, cut into wedges, 100g blackberries, a handful of spinach leaves and lightly toasted walnuts. Drizzle over extra virgin olive oil and balsamic and then toss together well. Lightly toast sourdough, brush with olive oil, spoon the salad onto the toast and serve immediately. Serves two. Blackberry and apple crumble with Earl Grey Chantilly cream Generously butter a medium-sized ovenproof dish and arrange inside a mixture of blackberries and peeled and cored slices of apple. Sprinkle over a couple of spoonfuls of Demerara sugar. For the topping, rub together equal amounts of butter and sugar and twice as much plain flour (so 75g, 75g and 150g). Add a handful of rolled oats and a teaspoon of cinnamon. Crumble this over…

In 1938, Siegfried Sassoon wrote a poem titled A View of Old Exeter, inspired by a watercolour by James Baker Pyne that he had bought ‘cheap' 15 years earlier. It pleased the poet to think that the painter could make him ‘Sigh for that afternoon he thus depicted/ That simpler world from which we've been evicted', but ‘For me it shines far far-too faraway; For time has changed this “view” into a “vision”'. Guy Peppiatt does not have that view in his admirable Bristol School exhibition (6, Mason's Yard, SW1; until October 6), but he does have a similar 8in by 11in Pyne vision of Sketching near the Avon Gorge on a beautiful sunset evening. There are also two little Pyne oil sketches, which show another side to that ‘simpler…