Innholdsfortegnelse for 20-Oct-2021 i Country Life

Too well I know, by wisdom taught, The existence of my race O’er all wide England’s green domain Is bound up with the Chase. THESE prescient words, written a century and a half ago, spookily foretell of the pressures to come on the rural landscape, through war and industrialisation, priorities of trade and political whim. However, even the grizzled vulpine seer of D. W. Nash’s 1870 poem The Fox’s Prophecy did not envisage his descendants insouciantly thronging the streets of cities, upending dustbins for pizza crusts in broad daylight instead of silently hunting field and hedgerow for food. This month in Horsham, West Sussex, the foxes are in charge; human residents have been covering their cars with tarpaulin to prevent hooligan Vulpes vulpes chewing through cables and causing thousands of…

HEAVEN meets Earth at Salisbury Cathedral’s light-and-sound spectacular next month. The show explores the wonders of the universe (primarily in the Cloisters), of the earth (in the Nave) and of human diversity (in the Trinity Chapel). ‘In a year when the world is beginning to emerge from a pandemic and hope is returning, it seemed fitting to celebrate our earth and our universe,’ explains Peter Walker, creative director of Luxmuralis, the company that created the installation. The display’s theme also reflects the cathedral’s ecological sensibility. ‘Our care of the earth is one of Salisbury Cathedral’s core concerns,’ says the Very Revd Nick Papadopulos, Dean of Salisbury, who points out that the Wiltshire city was the first to receive the Eco-Church Gold Award, in June. ‘Luxmuralis’s beautiful light-and-sound installation, which will…

RECOVERY can take unexpected forms: a group of military veterans found it in building a Bronze Age roundhouse. The project is a collaboration between Butser Ancient Farm, in Chalton, Hampshire, and Operation Nightingale, an MoD initiative that employs archaeology to help rehabilitate military personnel and veterans suffering from physical or mental trauma. Last year, explains spokeswoman Rachel Bingham, some veterans took part in the excavation of a Bronze Age roundhouse at Dunch Hill on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. ‘When Butser Ancient Farm decided to undertake a reconstruction based on the original archaeological footprint, they were keen to involve veterans from Operation Nightingale as an extension of the work they had done at Dunch Hill. ‘We believe it is the first time that Operation Nightingale veterans have worked on an…

SOME boys, walking one day through the pine woods in which lay their home, saw a young and almost fledged long-eared owl and carried it home in triumph. The young owl was placed in an old rabbit hutch in the garden, the question of food for it not—apparently—troubling its captors. Next morning, however, ranged along in a row just outside the wire netting of the cage were the bodies of five or six small birds —mostly greenfinches—which were, maybe, in excess of the young owl’s requirements, for it had fed well during the night. Each night a fresh supply of birds was laid in the same place by the old owl. Not only did she hang about, but she would answer the tenant of the cottage. ‘Jummy,’ he would shout,…

THERE’S more than a touch of the Duke of Edinburgh in The Duke of Cambridge. His recent comment on space tourism has all his grandfather’s calculated directness: ‘We need some of the world’s greatest brains and minds fixed on repairing this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live.’ What a simple, but deserved brush off to the overblown billionaires vying with each other on their well-publicised space missions. It cannot be a sensible priority to add prancing about in space to the world’s present transport woes. ‘We rightly allow no interference in things party political. That gives them great strength’ Prince William speaks for those who would not otherwise be heard. He spoke, too, for his own children when he said it would be a…

‘I’ve always been interested in how artists have depicted equine movement and I feel Munnings captured it perfectly. This start of a race scene has a number of horses in different poses, and each represents brilliantly what is going to happen on this day. You can sense that the horse in the foreground is keen to get started, but that the jockey is thinking otherwise; the jockey in yellow isn’t happy with his position so is moving; the horse whose head is bowed low and the most forward of all is most likely to lead the field. Munnings lost an eye in 1898, but it certainly didn’t impede his eye for detail’ John McEwen comments on Study of ‘The Start’ I THINK Munnings was greater than Stubbs,’ said Augustus John,…

‘Sweet and juicy pears shine against the clotted cream in this week’s main recipe’ Clotted-cream pear and streusel squares Serves 6 Ingredients For the clotted-cream streusel 70g clotted cream140g self-raising flour70g caster sugar For the pears 4 pears, ripe (I used Williams)Half a lemon For the cake 125g unsalted butter, softened110g clotted cream275g caster sugar3 eggs1tspn vanilla paste1 pinch salt225g self-raising flour Method Preheat your oven to 170˚C/350˚F/gas mark 4 and line an 8in by 8in baking tin with baking parchment. To make the streusel, use your fingertips to rub everything together. The difference between streusel and crumble is that, if you continue rubbing beyond the crumble stage, it will form small clumps that hold their shape when cooking. Once you’ve reached the streusel stage, place the bowl in the…

EUROPE’S most beguiling city—by my standards anyway—turns 1,600 this year. No small feat for a small (less than 500sq km) patch of land originally inhabited by down-on-their-luck refugees from neighbouring Roman cities. They were pushed from the mainland and onto the shallow Venetian lagoon’s 118 islands by successive invasions, where they established a republic that would stand for more than a millennium, shaping trade, commerce and Western art and architecture. Now, a new hotel, in the city’s Arsenale district (a 15-minute walk from St Mark’s Square) has emerged, just in time to celebrate. Although parts of the cream-coloured, austere-looking building, which overlooks the lagoon towards San Giorgio Maggiore and once belonged to the military, date back to the 13th century, it feels very much like the 21st century on the…

ACCORDING to Charlie Evans of independent property advisers CKD (07721 410238), the top end of the market is seeing increasing numbers of sales fall through after a price has been agreed. Therefore, if you’re a vendor, ‘it’s vital to ensure that all the legal aspects of a property sale are in order before you open the door to the first viewer’. He cites the occasion, earlier this year, when his firm was selling a significant property off market and negotiated ‘a fantastic offer at well over the asking price’. The offer was accepted and contracts exchanged within 24 hours. Soon after exchange, the buyer called to say that he had made a mistake and regretted buying it—but the contract was watertight and the deal stood. The same property was later…

ALWAYS beware that word subtle,’ wrote Christopher Lloyd. ‘It’s so often a substitute for original thought.’ If identikit borders are bringing on an attack of the yawns, then head straight to East Ruston Old Vicarage. It is a shot in the arm against dullness. The approach is not encouraging, with the vicarage and St Mary’s Church huddling together, marooned on acres of featureless arable land on the north Norfolk coast. A shelterbelt of holm oak and Monterey pine encircles the garden, as dark and dense as citadel walls. Yet, through the gates, an extraordinary world explodes. It’s like departing drizzly Gatwick and landing slap-bang in the middle of the Rio carnival. Lush abundance and hot exuberance reign supreme. Subtle can take a hike. The vicarage was built in 1913 in…

‘Reforestation is key in the fight against climate change’ TREES have a key role to play in the fight against climate change, but only if we plant the right ones in the right place. The message comes from the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew and Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), which last week called for a moratorium on deforestation and urged policy makers, landowners and investors to change the way in which woodland is restored. Reforestation is key in the fight against climate change. However, say the Kew scientists, efforts often centre on large-scale, monoculture planting of exotic species that can damage native ecosystems and even soak up less carbon than natural forest. ‘Native plant species are locally adapted and can thrive without continual management, although the rise of some…

THE moorland-management debate erupted again last week after The Wildlife Trusts called for a burning ban as part of their Let Nature Help report on climate change. ‘Wildfires can release thousands of tons of carbon’ The charity recommends a multi-pronged approach, which includes banning bottom trawling, promoting sustainable farming, regenerating woodland and making more space for Nature through planning and conservation measures. However, it also includes a controversial proposal to ban cool burning on moorland, on the grounds that ‘it removes layers of sphagnum moss that are vital for keeping peat wet,’ according to Rob Stoneman of The Wildlife Trusts. ‘Without its protective coat, bare peat begins to dry out and erode, releasing carbon into the atmosphere and pollutants into rivers and streams.’ Arguing that peat, when in good condition,…

Until October 31 Autumn Colour at Ramster Garden, Chiddingfold, Surrey. See 25 acres of woodland, lakes and hillside in a blaze of oranges and reds (01428 654167; www.ramsterevents.com) Until October 31 Eye Cymru, Cardiff Castle, Cardiff. Laser art, music and Nature combine on an epic scale (029–2087 8100; www.cardiffcastle.com) Until November 13 Brief Encounter, The Watermill Theatre, Bagnor, Berkshire. Reimagining of Noël Coward's epic love story (01635 46044; www.watermill.org.uk) Until December 6 ‘Allotments in Autumn’ exhibition (pictured), Kentmere House Gallery, York, North Yorkshire. New paintings by Sheffield-based artist Stephen Todd, in a gallery surrounded by allotments (01904 656507; www.kentmerehouse.co.uk) November 10 Stardust: choral music celebrating regeneration, Cadogan Hall, Sloane Terrace, London SW1. Recital by vocal ensemble Voces8 with music from the Renaissance to the present day (020–7730 4500; www.cadoganhall.com)…

IHAVEN’T checked with Cumbrian friends, but I suspect the explosion may have been audible across the Solway. The Mistress of the Household was packing for our family holiday in Mallorca, the first since the plague, when our cleaning contractors broke the news. One of them had been ‘pinged’ by the Covid app. Sorry, but we would have to make other arrangements. Visions of missing our flight to muck out holiday cottages tormented us. We hastily rang round and assembled an ad hoc cleaning team and the holiday was saved. At times such as these, the word ‘community’ has special meaning. ‘The river rose 2ft and turned mocha-coloured. The fish went on strike’ A reader, Edward Barham, kindly wrote following my September column on felling spruce trees. He alerted me to…

‘Maurice Wilks recognised that there was a gap in the market for a utilitarian farmer’s vehicle’ THE Land Rover is such a sturdy and enduring British symbol that it’s perhaps little surprise it makes a brief appearance in one of our better war films, Ice Cold in Alex (1958), starring John Mills and Sylvia Syms. The only problem, as many have gleefully pointed out, is that the film’s action is set in 1942, fully six years before the first vehicles rolled out onto the market. There is, however, a wartime link in the story behind its creation. In 1947, Maurice Wilks, technical director of the Rover car company, took possession of an ex-US Army Willys Jeep, one of America’s first mass-produced military vehicles. Wilks found the four-wheel drive very useful…

IT’S been a long time coming, but attitudes towards chocolate labradors are changing,’ declares Dorothy Walls-Duffin of Grangemead Labradors. ‘You always used to hear that chocolates were no good in the shooting field—now, an awful lot of gamekeepers have them. That speaks for itself.’ As a book shouldn’t be judged by its cover, nor should a labrador be judged by its colour, but the general opinion among the country set has long been that blacks rule the roost, yellow and fox reds are modern favourites and chocolates belong in the show ring. Even the name ‘chocolate’ alludes to a pampered pet—the shade was called ‘liver’ for the first half of the 20th century, but was changed to sound more appealing. The earliest record of chocolates is two ‘liver’ pups born…

ON February 18, 1946, the 3rd Earl of Plymouth wrote to the National Museum of Wales to confirm his generous offer of St Fagans Castle and its gardens for the creation of a ‘Field Museum’. He was aware of the great interest that both his father and his grandfather had shown in the fledgling institution and believed that they would have approved of the bequest, to allow for ‘a much desired extension of its services to the public’. The Field Museum to which the Earl referred —an open-air folk museum—had, in fact, been an aspiration within the National Museum for many years, almost since its foundation in 1907. Even at that early date, the folk-museum concept was well established, notably in Scandinavia, as William Evans Hoyle, the first director (1908-24),…

The perfect bacon sandwich is an object of abject veneration, as simple as it is sublime. This is not the time for your fancy sourdoughs, arriviste baguettes or anything resembling toasted bread. The horror! A soft white bap is also acceptable-a brioche bun is not. No, this is all about crisp, smoked streaky bacon (okay, smoked back bacon if you must), five slices, laid side by side on a slice of heavily buttered, cheap white bread. Yes, you heard me, Hovis, Mother's Pride or something similar, soft and squidgy. Slather lavishly with tomato ketchup (I suppose brown sauce will also do. Although ketchup is better. Obviously), then press down a second slice on top. The contrast between soft bread and crisp bacon, sweet butter and sharp sauce, is one of…

The home hero Callow Hall, near Ashbourne, Derbyshire CALLOW HALL—a Victorian country house on the southern edge of the Peak District—is the first Wildhive Collection hotel (with plenty more planned for the near future). Its philosophy is ‘locality, community and a responsibility towards our planet’. You can stay in the main house or one of four ‘hives’—cosy, woodland retreats balanced on stilts, beds level with the tree canopy (seven more hives and two treehouses will open next year). If you don’t fancy the walk, staff can ferry you from the house to your hive by buggy. The interiors have been designed by Isabella Worsley. General manager Jeremy Whitworth’s favourite room is the Garden Room, home to the hotel’s restaurant and bar with views of surrounding countryside. It feels relaxed…

Buckinghamshire, £2.75 million Stylishly redesigned with pale colours and painted shutters, the modern interior of five-bedroom Chestnut Cottage (with two en-suite bedrooms) blends harmoniously with its exposed oak beams, vaulted ceilings and roomy hearths. One of the properties on Bluey's Farm, within the Chiltern Hills AONB and about three miles from Marlow, the house is at the centre of three acres that include banked lawns, a sizeable terrace, one-bedroom guesthouse and paddock. Hamptons (01628 260324) Northamptonshire, £550,000 An adorable and well-kept little Grade II-listed cottage set on about one-third of an acre in the village of Grafton Regis, six miles from Towcester, The Cabin has plenty of character, with exposed beams and purlins standing out from crisp, white paint and two bedrooms with A-frame roofs. The inglenook fireplace…

THE people we pass on country rambles these days are likely to be dressed in beanie hats, anoraks and walking boots, possibly wielding hiking poles. When we think of the English countryside, however, we imagine it peopled by a very different species: farmers clad in flat caps, thick woollen coats and muddy wellies, possibly carrying a shepherd’s crook. ‘Not knowing whether he was going to survive, he felt free to paint what he wanted’ That, with minor modifications, is the traditional garb of the ‘figure in the landscape’ in British art, kitted out for battling the elements rather than sitting in the heated cab of a modern tractor, and his reappearance in the contemporary landscapes of Gary Bunt is one reason why they’re so immensely popular—there are waiting lists for…

A cuppa HMS Queen ran out of tea out at sea, a Canadian frigate stepped in to save the day, sending three boxes of Earl Grey to their allies in need A taste for game The healthy meat is reaching many more plates: it was served at the Chelsea Flower Show and the Combined Services Culinary Arts Team, which brings together the Forces' best chefs, will include it on their menus for competitions Jeremy Clarkson The television presenter was named NFU Farming Champion of the Year for the way he has highlighted British agriculture through his popular show Clarkson’s Farm Evidence-based science GWCT chairman Sir Jim Paice has called for donations to the charity's Unleash the Science Fund, which sets out to fight misinformation and provide science to underpin policy…

HELP is at hand for the beleaguered Eurasian wigeon. In the past decade, the population of the bird with the world’s best Latin name—Mareca penelope conjures up images of Odysseus’s virtuous wife, although it might actually be a reference to penelops, a duck mentioned by Pliny—has been plummeting across Western Europe. A new conservation project by BASC and the Waterfowlers Network will monitor the movements of more than 6,000 wigeon in a bid to shed light on the reasons for their decline. A grant from the Wildlife Habitat Charitable Trust will buy up to 6,000 rings to put on birds caught in the UK and 40 satellite trackers to follow them as they migrate through Finland and Denmark. About 100 wigeon will be fitted with GPS-GSM trackers to show live…

Juicy fruits of the season's blackberries, plums and pears, shaggy flowers of Eupatorium or the rosy, cauliflower-like heads of garden sedums are good places to look out for the comma butterfly feeding in the autumn sunshine before it settles into hibernation. Basking with opened wings it is quite easily noticed, sporting a blaze of fiery orange on which are symmetrically arranged black and brown spots and blotches. The closed wings, however, present to potential predators nothing more appetising than a ‘decayed leaf' of mottled browns and greys, shredded at the edges as if it had been in a fight with a blunt pair of pinking shears. Such masterful camouflage makes this butterfly difficult to see when resting or hibernating, but the folded wings also reveal its eponymous marking-a tiny white…

1916 Published August 15, ‘Amiable bull' Heather Plume being led by his owner, Mr Robert Nicholson of Gilt Farm, Crosby Ravensworth, Cumbria, ‘a typical North Country man'. The photograph was sent in by a correspondent, who questioned whether many bulls were so amenable. In return, a reader noted seeing a bull in Somerset being led by a man on a bicycle. 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…

Maurice Wilks and his Rover team had briefly worked with Frank Whittle on the development of his jet engine in 1941. Although the pair fell out, leading the Ministry of Aircraft Production to re-allocate the project to Rolls-Royce, Wilks had seen the potential of gas turbines for powering civilian cars Work began at Rover in Solihull, Birmingham, in 1946 and, by 1950, the prototype JET1 was ready. The body of a Rover 75 saloon was adapted to take the new form of power and, in 1952, it achieved a world speed record for a gas-turbine car of 152mph. The prototype model is now in the Science Museum, London SW7. At first hailed as the power source for the future, subsequent test runs showed fuel consumption was poor and, although Rover…

IN the very far north of Scotland, a tiny salmon stream pours out of a remote loch in the hills and flows through a bewitchingly wild landscape to her confluence with the grander and better known Naver. The Mallart is dotted with well-defined runs and pools throughout her nine miles, but, if I were granted only five consecutive casts anywhere in the world, they would be across a shallow stretch of nondescript, broken water hurrying downstream beneath a hill called Coriefeuran. I would take my single-handed Orvis travel rod and fish a small Munro Killer below a yard of exposed black peat that glistens like an open wound even in the driest summers. When I arrived at Coriefeuran after several fishless hours on assignment to achieve a Macnab many years…

MUCH of history can be explained by Mankind’s pursuit of the new and it strikes me that some of the nuances of angling’s appeal derive from a constant mixture of novelty and the familiar. Its experience is a stipple of energy and stimulus, like a Pointillist painting; as with love, fishing is ‘a many-splendoured thing’. I was thinking of this towards summer’s end, when I had an invitation to the fabled Naver—a river where I had never yet managed to swim my hooks. Although I have been blessed with fishing in some 40 countries, from the Arctic Circle to the South Seas, the fin-feverish anticipation of visiting ‘pastures new’ (in this case, treescapes and gravelly meanders) was still as delicious as plunging one’s spoon into a freshly opened jar of…

EARLIER this month, COUNTRY LIFE hosted an event to celebrate London Craft Week. Held at Chelsea Barracks, London SW1, the event included discussions on craft with Ben Johnson of Albion Nord and Ben Pentreath, both of whom have been involved in transforming the nearly 13-acre site into London’s newest and most exciting residential district. Guests included members of the Pimlico road’s growing design community, including Russell Pinch and Oona Bannon, as well as both Emma Burns and Philip Hooper of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler. Also present was Jo Thompson, who designed two of the seven new garden squares at the site, as well as some of the craftspeople responsible for the Chelsea Barracks Collection, such as Sally Marien, Rory Stride and the team from Collier Webb.…

FINE ARTS PARIS, established as an Old Master paintings fair five years ago, is gently expanding into other disciplines to fill the gap left by the long-running Biennale des Antiquaires, which has essentially given up the ghost. The new fair (November 6–11) will bring together 50-plus exhibitors in the Carrousel du Louvre, including a number from outside Paris and abroad. Antiquities, Oriental and non-Western works of art will be represented, as well as Old Masters, 19th-century and some 20th-century paintings and drawings. There will also be three carefully selected jewellers—care being needed, as jewellers were not always collegiate participants at the Biennales, one even trying to keep their clients from visiting other stands. The underground Carrousel du Louvre incorporates walls of the 14th-century fortress that preceded the palace and this…

SINCE theatre bounced back, we have been bombarded with blockbuster musicals. I’m not complaining, but it is a relief to go to a West End theatre, the Gielgud, to see a play about a pivotal moment in British history: The Mirror and the Light, adapted by the book’s author, Hilary Mantel, and the actor Ben Miles. I have sharp memories of the stage version of the first two novels in the trilogy, Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies, as I crawled up to Stratford-on-Avon to see them from a hospital bed seven years ago. They unforgettably charted Cromwell’s rise from blacksmith’s son to king’s seemingly indispensable counsellor. The new play starts in 1540 with an imprisoned Cromwell facing a trumped-up charge of treason and then tracks back four years…