Innholdsfortegnelse for 5-Jan-2022 i Country Life

HORNCHURCH is the best first-time buyer location in the capital, according to the online mortgage lender Proportunity. The east London suburb—12 miles from Charing Cross, London’s official geographical centre, and third stop from the eastern end of the District Line—came out in top place when judged on its affordability, growth potential, crime rates and local schools. Property prices in Hornchurch are well below the London average with two-bedroom flats available from £250,000 and a three-bedroom house from £375,000. Up until now, Hornchurch’s claim to fame has been its connection to Jilly Cooper: the writer was born there in 1937, although it only became an official part of London in 1965, 28 years later. South London dominated the rest of the list, with East Sheen, Herne Hill and Elmers End all…

THIS week marks the 125th anniversary of the first publication of COUNTRY LIFE on January 8, 1897. It’s an extraordinary landmark and one that the magazine celebrates in the strangest of circumstances, but the rudest of health. Last year was perhaps the most successful in living memory, with a healthy increase in its circulation. As a result, you open this week’s issue with about 440,000 other readers. We take it as a huge compliment that so many of you pass your copies of the magazine around groups of friends, neighbours and dentists. On average, each copy has 11 readers, making this the most re-read of all publications; testimony to the breadth of coverage. This loyal readership, combined with those viewing digital editions on tablets, smart-phones and desk-top computers, gives COUNTRY…

EAGLE-EYED readers may notice that the Frontispiece looks a little different this week. To celebrate COUNTRY LIFE’s 125th anniversary, we have been inspired by 12 Frontispieces from our archive to shoot the original sitters’ descendants. The images will appear, like this one, in the first issue of the month—apart from in May, when it will appear in the special anniversary issue, out on May 11. This month’s sitter is Lady Eliza Manners. Multiple members of her family have appeared on the Frontispiece, including her grandaunt, Lady Ursula d’Abo (above, née Manners; 1916–2017), a maid of honour at the Coronation of George VI and Queen Elizabeth and a nurse during the Second World War, and the 8th Duke’s daughter, Victoria Paget, Marchioness of Anglesey (née Manners; 1883–1946), an art writer and…

WE live by admiration, according to Wordsworth, and the spirit of Country Life might be defined as teaching what to admire. We use the word in the last of the meanings given by Murray, that is, ‘to gaze on with pleasure’. It comes to be, then, a question of the formation of taste. It is obviously not the body but the soul that lives by admiration. We might vary the Wordsworthian text by substituting for it an expression used by Dr Alington. His belief is that one of the greatest things in education is the power to appreciate. That power he described as realising ‘that one picture was better than another, one scene more beautiful than another’. The most effective illustration of this spirit in Country Life is the illustrating…

What lies beneath THE discovery of a rare Roman mosaic and villa in a Rutland field disturbed by ploughing reminds us of how much of our heritage is on agricultural land and how crucial agrienvironment funding is in securing its future. This new site, as with many Scheduled Monuments, is under private ownership and, as such, will be reliant on the current Countryside Stewardship scheme for its conservation and maintenance. Historic England is working with the landowner of the Rutland mosaic to support reversion of the fields to sustainable grassland and pasture use, thereby preserving this major historic site for future generations. Since 2006, agri-environment schemes have contributed some £13 million per year towards the protection of our rural heritage. The resulting stewardship agreements have helped to remove 1,200 Scheduled…

In 1671, the mysterious Irish charmer Col Blood attempted to steal the Crown Jewels. Disguised as a clergyman, he inveigled himself into the confidence of the Jewel House keeper Talbot Edwards, and returned with two accomplices on the pretence that they wanted to admire the jewels. Once inside, they overcame Edwards, who was maimed, gagged and bound. The raid proved unsuccessful after Edwards's son returned to raise the alarm, but not before Blood had crushed the Imperial State Crown to secrete it within a bag. One of his accomplices was apprehended on Tower Wharf and the other was poleaxed after making off on horseback. Blood demanded an audience with Charles II, who succumbed to his charisma and cheek, pardoned him and awarded him estates in Ireland, plus an annual pension…

THIS is the bathroom of a Buckinghamshire house, where the new owners decided to strip back and reconfigure some of the rooms, as well as reintroduce architectural detail that had been lost. To do so, they enlisted the help of Carmen Evans of Pan’s Lodge, who drew up new layouts, and furniture-maker Clive Christian, who was commissioned to design joinery for a number of rooms. ‘By the time we started on this bathroom, we’d already completed much of the ground floor, so I had a clear sense of what the clients wanted,’ Mrs Evans explains. The room is entered through double pocket doors and is now furnished with a magnificent pair of vanity units either side of the bath that are highly detailed, an approach that is typical of Clive…

RARE, if not unique, in houses and gardens open to the public, Rousham proudly presents itself as ‘completely unspoilt and uncommercialised—no tea room and no shop—just glorious gardens to explore at your leisure’. How many other venues encourage you to ‘bring a picnic and comfortable shoes and it is yours for the day’? Rousham, perhaps the most beautiful, the most intellectual and certainly the most atmospheric garden in this country, remains resolutely individual. An honesty ticket machine under the stables, rather than an entrance kiosk, reinforces its relaxed approach. It is as if the visitor is here to enjoy a private tour of a private estate, with the prospect of seeing the owners, Charles and Angela Cottrell-Dormer, working away in the flower borders. Scurrying about in welcome on the front…

Chocolate pomegranate tart Ingredients For the pastry 150g plain flourA pinch of salt175g unsalted butter, soft, but still cold175g caster sugar2 large egg yolks1tbspn cold water For the filling 300ml double cream100g caster sugar250g dark chocolate75g butter5 eggs1 pomegranate Method ‘Tart and jewel like, pomegranate seeds are just what we need to brighten January’ Place the flour, sugar and salt in a wide bowl and then add the butter. Use your fingertips to rub in the butter fully. Add the egg yolks and water and bring it together to form a dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for 30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 200˚C/400˚F/gas 6 and have a 9in/ 23cm loose-bottomed tart tin ready with a baking-paper disc lining the base. After half an hour, remove…

WHEN would you suppose that the following words were written? ‘Daily papers in those days were, of course, not the miserable news-sheets they are today… We no longer take our newspapers seriously. We do not read the speeches of our politicians because we do not trust them.’ They come in Percy Colson’s A Story of Christie’s, published in 1950, and he sighed for the late 19th century when London salerooms were frequented by Gladstone, Disraeli and all Society, and people who would never consider buying followed the press reports of auctions like sporting events. Indeed, ‘a big sale at Christie’s was given greater importance than a football league match receives nowadays’. Specialist saleroom correspondents became notable art-world figures in their own right. Sir Claude Phillips (1846–1924) wrote for The Daily…

THIS autumn, the wait for Paris’s Hotel Costes to open in London will be over. This launch in Chelsea, billed as putting Sloane Square on a par with Chiltern Street (famed for its firehouse), will complete a hotel quarter that includes 11 Cadogan Gardens (a sister hotel to Cliveden), the recently opened Beaverbrook Town House and, further up Sloane Street, the Cadogan, a Belmond hotel. The Cadogan is celebrating its own opening: LaLee, an all-day restaurant inspired by British-American actress and socialite Lillie Langtry (www.thelalee.co.uk). She entertained the then Prince of Wales at 21, Pont Street, now part of the hotel. Indeed, the site of Langtry’s old dining room forms part of the new restaurant. Hotel manager Nick Bromhead, who previously worked at The Ritz, says: ‘We imagined the menu…

IT’S time to ease yourself into another new year, which, thankfully, doesn’t necessarily mean leaving your house. Chef and chief champion of British seafood Mitch Tonks has launched a home-delivery service using fresh fish from Brixham Market (www.therockfish.co.uk/pages/seafood-at-home). Select what you want from the Seafood at Home website–updated in real time as the fish comes off the boats between 6am and 12 noon–and it’ll be prepared and delivered to your door in 24 hours. If you don’t fancy doing any more cooking, head to Walter’s in West Dulwich– a new restaurant from the team behind Covent Garden’s The Oystermen, which had to double in size the second it opened. Go on a Sunday for the monthly changing sharing dishes (www.waltersdulwich.co.uk). Snag a last-minute ticket to David Suchet: Poirot and more,…

Hamilton Terrace, £9.95 million Set close to the tube station and the American School of London, this 5,070sq ft house is an ideal family home. The elegant interior, arranged across four floors, includes six bedrooms and four reception rooms, some with striking feature fireplaces. But the real winner is the 139ft rear garden, with its established plants, terrace for alfresco dining and a sculpture by artist Mariele Neudecker. Sotheby’s International Realty (07710 469156) Park Road, £3.25 million Situated on the fourth floor of an apartment block close to Regent's Park, this elegant, 1,948sq ft property is well suited for entertaining: it has a large reception room with an imposing fireplace and a separate formal dining room, plus a kitchen that's big enough to dine in. There also are three bedrooms,…

THE great procession rolled on. Monarchs, maharajas, ambassadors, the British Army and the Royal Navy; Imperial troops came from the immensity of Australia and mere dots on the map, such as Malta; from the rock of Hong Kong and the open spaces of New Zealand; from old colonies in the West Indies and new ones in Africa. Canada, Natal, India, Ceylon, Fiji, Rhodesia, Cyprus, the Straits Settlements, Borneo, Jamaica, Trinidad, Bermuda, Barbados, Sierra Leone, Gambia, the Gold Coast, Lagos, Northern and Southern Nigeria. Eventually came the carriage containing the focus of the parade, the Queen Empress herself, a dumpy lady in black who had been on the throne for 60 years. It was June 1897 and the great pageant of the Diamond Jubilee was under way. ‘The New Sculpture of…

Keenly sighted, with ‘angry' yellow eyes, the sparrowhawk is a master of ambush technique. Its subtle, broken colours, short wings and steering tail enable hunting by stealth among trees and hedgerows-and even in town gardens. Surprise and speed are its twin assets, with prey being mostly birds, of an unexpectedly broad range, as well as mice. Blackbirds, thrushes, woodpeckers and starlings are all targets, particularly when all are busy trying to feed their broods. The female hawk (right), somewhat larger than her partner, will tackle pigeons, doves and even magpies, but it's often the lithe male (above) that makes easy pickings of robins, sparrows, the various tits and finches. Thus, it's a sad fact that garden bird feeders, so helpful in their way, also attract sparrowhawks for the ‘live menu'…

WHEN fishing recently in western Scotland, I experienced an extraordinary spectacle. I had just got out of a Land Rover, on a rocky road overlooking the river, when I heard a commotion behind me. On turning, a golden eagle (‘The golden eagle has landed’, August 25, 2021) swooped towards me, clutching a mallard between its claws. The duck was squealing with fear. The eagle was startled when it saw me and came over the top of the vehicle, shot upwards, then dropped the duck from about 30ft—it plummeted into the river and swam off, apparently unharmed. The golden eagle’s mate appeared and the pair soared away together into the rocky hills. A truly memorable moment I shall never forget. Richard Barry, by email The writer of the letter of the…

1921 February 26, published This photograph of Canons Ashby, Northamptonshire, is prosaically captioned ‘Doorway and window, which probably came from the monastery'. To anyone but an architectural historian, however, it is perhaps more immediately: ‘A contented cat basking in summer sunshine (serenely indifferent to the COUNTRY LIFE photographer at work nearby).' 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…

FROM the moment I walked into the office at COUNTRY LIFE in May 1989 for my first day as its new Architectural Writer, I was made aware that I was joining an august tradition. Over the desk of the then Architectural Editor Giles Worsley were pinned the intimidating words ‘COUNTRY LIFE is the keeper of the architectural conscience of the nation’, written by the Liberal politician Lord Runciman in 1913, when the magazine was already 16 years old. Although COUNTRY LIFE had, in the 1970s, left its purpose-built office in Covent Garden for a tower block on the South Bank, the Architectural Editor still used one of the armchairs that the architect of its old home, Edwin Lutyens, had designed for it in 1905. On my desk, sandwiched between shelves…

Pattern play Leading premium bathroom retailer C. P. Hart recently invited a small group of designers to create room sets at its London flagship showroom in Waterloo. The striking results are worth a trip in itself and include this design by Eva Sonaike (020–3371 9910; www.evasonaike.com), who teamed her signature Odi scheme with a selection of C. P. Hart's fittings for a bathroom inspired by beach houses on West Africa's Atlantic seashore (0345 600 1950; www.cphart.co.uk) Mosaic marvel New Ravenna, the US specialist in custom stone and glass mosaics, has created Harriet, a geometric design in delicate hues, from honed Cloud Nine and Desert Pink stone. It costs £2,028 per sq m from West One Bathrooms (020–3055 0802; www.westonebathrooms.com) Two’s company Twin basins are often cited as the secret to…

A COUPLE of years ago, I moved from 17 acres to a regular-sized garden; unfortunately, I took my ambition for growing as much fruit as possible with me. Happily, I have the miracle of trained fruit to fall back on. I really don’t think ‘miracle’ is too strong a word: we have managed to constrain naturally huge trees into a size and in forms that even the smallest terrace or garden can accommodate. Although trained fruit trees won’t yield anything like as heavily as free-standing trees, they can produce many dozens of fruit—a good harvest that’s not as overwhelming as a tree harvest can be—yet take up almost no precious garden space. They do so as well as bringing structure, winter interest and a touch of formality to a garden.…

ASKED to name three quintessentially English artists of the 18th or 19th century off the top of their heads, most people today would nominate Gainsborough, Constable and Turner, in no particular order. However, it wasn’t always thus. Gainsborough and Turner enjoyed considerable success during their lives, but Constable, dedicated as he was to Nature, faced an uphill struggle; it wasn’t until 1824, when The Hay Wain and View on the Stour were shown at the Paris Salon, that he began to attract popular acclaim. His friend John Fisher wrote at the time: ‘It makes me smile to myself when I think of plain English John Constable, who does not know a word of their language being the talk and the admiration of the French!’ ‘He delighted in the feel of…

POPULAR South Kensington bistro Muriel’s Kitchen is opening an espresso bar, café and standalone restaurant inside The National Gallery, this spring. The three venues will cover all necessary dining needs: the espresso bar will provide an on-the-go service, the café will echo the South Kensington matriarch and the more formal restaurant will be open to gallery and non-gallery visitors alike, from breakfast through to dinner, including weekend-brunch and afternoon-tea sittings. A private dining room will be available for hire (www.murielskitchen.co.uk)…

ABBEY ROAD is quiet in late November, the world’s most famous zebra crossing almost lost in the grey drizzle of the autumn morning, from which only red-brick buildings emerge unscathed. It makes it a little easier to imagine what St John’s Wood was like when it was still a rural backwater, before the elegant houses with their pretty gardens, before cricket and before The Beatles. Unlike other parts of London, whose monikers are often misnomers, St John’s Wood did start life as a wood belonging to the Knights of St John. It was still rural and secluded in the Elizabethan era when, according to Alexander Wood’s Ecclesiastical Antiquities of London and its Suburbs, five Babington Plot conspirators, including Anthony Babington, fled here to avoid arrest (they were eventually captured on…

You didn’t grow up in London, did you? No, I’m from Buckinghamshire, came to London for university and stayed. I studied law at UEL [the University of East London] and became a lawyer, working in private equity in the City, helping businesses secure investment and grow. I always wanted my own venture and the exposure I got to hospitality from the law side set me up to open a restaurant. A complete career change obviously, but a calculated one. Where is home in London and what do you enjoy most about your neighbourhood? I live in South Kensington with my wife and 10-month-old son, Kilian. It’s enormously well connected, so I love that I can cycle into Soho in 20 minutes and yet am surrounded by peace and greenery. We…

THIS year, Agromenes is reintroducing his New Year awards. In their new format, they come in pairs—the best and the worst. First category: the person who did most good for food and farming. Here, there is a clear winner: Henry Dimbleby. His report laid down a strategy for the future, was fearlessly independent and challenging and put a negligent Government on the spot, particularly over food security, obesity and trade policy. We will have to insist that Defra enacts its recommendations. Much more difficult has been the choice of the individual or organisation causing greatest harm. Only the principle of cabinet responsibility saves Liz Truss, who negotiated the Australian and New Zealand trade deals and reneged on the promises made to farmers. However, the continuing determination of militant vegans to…

FOR the first 3½ years of its existence, until June 29, 1901, this magazine was called COUNTRY LIFE ILLUSTRATED. The name underlined its most innovative feature: the inclusion of large-scale and high-quality photographs within the running text of the magazine. In achieving this remarkable combination, it was then at the vanguard of printing technology. Other magazines and newspapers were quick to catch up, but, of all the publications available today in a British newsagent, COUNTRY LIFE can claim to be the first to have undertaken this revolution in photographic illustration. It remains the only ‘glossy’ weekly in the world. As a consequence of its high-quality illustration, the magazine has never ceased to commission its own photography. This has been delivered week after week for the past 125 years in a…

AS darkness fell on October 12, 1459, during the dynastic struggle familiarly known as the Wars of the Roses, the Duke of York and his followers found themselves trapped by a royalist army just to the south of Ludlow. Hopelessly outnumbered, the Duke’s force ‘stole away’ at about midnight—by the contemptuous report of The Rolls of Parliament —‘leaving their standards and banners… and fled out of the town unarmed’. According to Gregory’s Chronicle, the triumphant royalist ‘gallants’ then poured into Ludlow and, having drunk their fill, ‘they full ungoodly smote out the heads of the pipes and hogsheads of wine, that men went wet-shod in wine, and then they robbed the town and bore away bedding, cloth and other stuff and defouled many women’. Accounts of this brutal episode, known…

BROWSING the COUNTRY LIFE archive is a heady trip down the rabbit hole. Eventually, one gives up specific searches, the results are too numerous and the amusingly dated advertisements for nylon tights and lawnmowers too distracting. In fact, it’s harder to find country houses that haven’t been featured one, two or many more times. Over the past 125 years, our property pages have revealed a strange timeline of the ebbs and flows of Britain’s fortunes, not to mention journalistic style. We’ve leapt from ‘Within easy reach of the Belvoir... eighteen best bed and dressing rooms… twenty-six loose boxes’ (Gaddesby Hall, Leicestershire, 1897) to helipads, saunas, electric gates and ‘7 bedrooms (6 en suite)’. Within that time, we’ve seen a flurry of family estates come to the market after the First…

It is a good idea at this quiet time to confirm that all is well in the glasshouse department. Heating is the first priority: check that all is working as it should, confirmed by the maximum-minimum thermometer. Look out for broken panes, check that vents are closed and inspect the seasonal insulation. A visit from the cat will soon root out any rodent intruders, but a toad is welcome. Run a brush along the gutters. Attend also to the cold frames: the lights should be secured against storms by a cord along the front edge and matting laid when frost threatens.…

THE garden has always been a subject of close interest to readers of COUNTRY LIFE. Edward Hudson, the founding father, made it his business to secure the services of the best authorities on the subject he could find and their mutually beneficial relationship resulted in a wellspring of good garden writing that shows no sign of drying up. Some of those authorities are still household names today. Gertrude Jekyll (1843–1932) is surely the best known, teased out of her natural state of year-round hibernation by Hudson, for whom she designed a garden at the country houses he built or acquired and remodelled. Jekyll was famously reluctant to visit any of the gardens she designed, but when Hudson bought Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island in 1901, she travelled north with the…

‘We’ll do premier cru versions, using fish caught by a single boat in a specific oil’ WHAT’S the best part of a trip to Barcelona or Lisbon? Is it watching the world go by from a pavement café or sipping a sundowner in a shaded square? For food writer Felicity Cloake, author of One More Croissant for the Road and the forthcoming guide to British breakfasts Red Sauce Brown Sauce, it’s shopping for tinned fish, stacked collectably in cans as decorative as music boxes. ‘The tins are beautiful, the fish inside is beautiful,’ she enthuses. ‘I even signed up for a sardine subscription-box service once.’ Jeeves famously couldn’t stand sardines, but tinned seafood—especially the luxe kind —has plenty of celebrity foodie fans. Nigella Lawson dedicates an entire chapter in Cook,…