Innholdsfortegnelse for 1-Feb-2023 i Country Life

Where is home in London? I’ve lived in London for 15 years and been in Bow for seven of those; Hackney Wick before, which was very different to how it is today. There’s an artistic community in the east that resonates with me, plus an affordability aspect. I have a nice big studio that I wouldn’t have in other parts of London. Do you have any neighbourhood hangouts? I like the Bow Bells pub (116, Bow Road, E3). It’s not the fanciest place, but they say you’re a true Cockney if you’re born within earshot of Bow Bells, so I like that connection to the story of east London. Do you still enjoy visiting galleries? It’s tricky, because as an artist it’s important to explore the smaller galleries and mine…

THE wonderfully named Marsh Daisy chicken has survived near extinction and is still categorised as ‘priority’ by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. It originates from the 1880s, when Lancashire breeder John Wright created a closed flock, mixing Old English Game bantam, Cinnamon Malay, Black Hamburgh and white Leghorn. In 1913, Charles Moore of Southport bought two of Wright’s last hens, adding Pit Game and, later, Sicilian Buttercup to the gene pool, and, by 1921, a breed club had been formed with about 200 flocks. In the 1933 Feathered World Yearbook, a seven-year-old hen was recorded as having laid 1,000 eggs. The writer, a J. Blackmore, described breeders as a ‘retiring body’; ‘I am persuaded that if the Marsh Daisy had only hailed from Holland it would, ere now, be enjoying…

MY dream flowers look like a hedgerow to which someone has done magical things—natural, but a bit better.’ Victoria Martin has a beguiling way of looking at the old-fashioned English garden flowers she and her husband, Barney, grow in the walled garden at Stokesay Court, Ludlow. Their unashamedly romantic selections—not least their covetable collection of impossibly lovely roses—have long enchanted the leading florists they supply. For Shane Connolly, who designed the flowers for the wedding of The Prince and Princess of Wales in 2011: ‘Victoria has a real artist’s eye.’ Her priority is to seek out unusual and exquisite varieties: stripy flowers, silken petals that look as if they have been washed with watercolour and, most importantly, flowers that are absolutely right for a particular moment. Certain varieties are valued…

FOR a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it three weeks in spring, Florentines gather on a small patch of sloping land next to the Piazza Michelangelo. They come to relax—to sit next to a pond underneath the shade of an ageing olive tree, some with a pile of books, others with a guitar—and to marvel at the iris flowers that bloom here in excessive numbers, in every shade of every colour. Iris flowers bloom in excessive numbers, in every colour This is the Giardino dell’Iris, home of the internationally renowned International Iris Competition, particularly popular with Americans. Since the garden first opened in 1957, more than 10,000 varieties of the plant have been rooted in this dry, scrubby soil, all under the watchful eye of the Società Italiana dell’Iris (the Italian Iris Society). Rhizomes, horizontal…

Paris Sport Road cycling, athletics, tennis, gymnastics, marathon Stay Le Bristol, where guests are kept in check by hotel cat Socrate. Despite its size— 190 bedrooms—there’s a sense of whimsy, from the rooftop swimming pool, designed to look like the deck of a wooden sailing boat (created by the architect behind Aristotle Onassis’s yacht), to the light installation that resembles spun sugar, tumbling down the centre of a spiral stone staircase (www.oetkercollection.com). Versailles Sport Equestrian, modern pentathlon and para-equestrian events Stay Airelles Château de Versailles, Le Grand Contrôle is the only hotel inside the palace grounds and was once home to the French Court’s Minister for Finance. Its restoration was so faithful to the time period of Marie Antoinette that the building was retrospectively awarded heritage protection by the French…

AS I bury my toes deeper into sugary-soft sand, a deafening screech followed by a flash of red disappearing around the jungle headland forces my gaze skywards. It’s a Príncipe grey parrot—a bird that’s failed to thrive nearly anywhere else but here, on an island of which few have heard. Roughly the size of the Isle of Wight and home to only 7,000 people, Príncipe is the wilder half of Portuguese-speaking São Tomé and Príncipe (STP): Africa’s second-smallest country. The equator-skimming, twin-island state is cast 200 miles from the continent’s west coast in the Gulf of Guinea. Separated from its sibling by 100 miles of roiling Atlantic Ocean, Príncipe is typically reached by twin-propeller plane. The final five minutes of the 40-minute journey are the most spectacular, a Jurassic Park-style…

Letter of the week Tottering by thirty AT the COUNTRY LIFE Fair held at Fulham Palace in September 2014, I acquired a particularly good Totteringby-Gently book, direct from Annie Tempest herself. She personally signed the copy and, after some brief chit-chat, went on to say ‘Well! I hope I go on amusing you!’ Unlike Queen Victoria, we have, indeed, been kept very much amused and hereby pass on our congratulations to all at Tottering Hall, on this, their 30th anniversary in print. Andrew Tucker, Berkshire Sting the bee I WAS fascinated by the item about a vaccine for honeybees to help curb foulbrood (Barometer, January 18), but would be intrigued to know how exactly the vaccine is administered to these wonderful creatures. Jane Moth, Staffordshire Saving grace REGARDING…

1908 Published July 25 A view of Conwy Castle, north Wales, begun by Edward I in 1282. The photograph was taken to illustrate an article on Plas Mawr, a fine Tudor house in the town. The barge in the foreground is carefully positioned to obscure the railway bridge immediately beside the castle. 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…

THE most resonant name in British railway history, Flying Scotsman was officially the first locomotive in this country to clock 100mph, in 1934. Her 40 years in service encompassed the nationalisation of the railways in 1948 and she is synonymous with the days when steam was still king and the importance of a properly funded rail industry was recognised at the highest levels. Yet, when the engine first rolled out of Doncaster Works in 1923, it was simply No 1472, only the third of 79 A1 class Pacific steam express locos built for the newly established London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) by its chief mechanical engineer, Nigel Gresley. It is often forgotten that the terms the ‘Special Scotch Express’ or the ‘Flying Scotchman’ had been in popular usage for…

THE elegant, spotted and spindly-legged fallow is arguably the most attractive of all the deer species that reside in the UK. Smaller than the red and larger than the roe, they have graced many of our great country-house deer parks for centuries. Historically, Dama dama were present in Britain some 400,000 years ago, before this population petered out and the deer were restricted by glaciation to the Mediterranean basin. From there, they gradually reintroduced themselves throughout Europe. Although some say the Romans were the first to bring fallow deer to Britain, evidence is sketchy. Even so, that introduction would have become extinct and it wasn’t until the Normans landed on these shores that they became properly established. Having managed them in deer parks myself, it is easy to see how…

THE origins of the bow and arrow are prehistoric, with bone arrow points from 61,000 years ago being found at Sibudu Cave in South Africa. Word has it that no one is totally immune to the effects of Cupid’s arrow: the darts the winged god fires from his bow cause the person struck to fall head over heels in love. The jury’s still out on whether it works, but the arrow has inspired some beautiful jewellery, which makes a change to the overload of hearts at this time of year.…

FOLLOWING a pre-Christmas launch, Oliver Custance Baker of Strutt & Parker’s country department (020–7591 2207) leads the way in the West Country with the sale, at a guide price of £5.75 million, of ‘one of the finest houses on Dartmoor in arguably the best location just outside Chagford’. The ancient and thriving Devon market town is within the Dartmoor National Park, 20 miles west of the cathedral city of Exeter. From the 1930s to the 1950s, the town’s former Easton Court Hotel was a popular writers’ retreat, where Evelyn Waugh reputedly completed A Handful of Dust in 1933 and Brideshead Revisited in 1944. According to its Historic England listing, Grade II-listed Outer Down was built ‘in a restrained Tudor style’ in 1911 for a Miss Jameson of the Irish-whiskey family,…

AS spring pokes the tip of its nose out from under winter’s blanket, my wife and I—and, if the promise of cake has proved compelling, our daughter—take to coastal woods in search of damp, half shade and the magic that lies within. We may not be the only ones: there are often others with basket, sharp knife and a hopeful gaze after ‘their’ patch of wild garlic (Allium ursinum, also known as ramsons). This annual pilgrimage carries much significance now: as well as being one of the few forages we have long done as a family, it soaks us all in optimism that perhaps winter really is soon to be behind us. If you are new to—and perhaps a little nervous of—foraging, wild garlic is a good place to…

THE year 1971 was very important for both Wassef Boutros-Ghali (born 1924) and Peter Sedgley (born 1930). Mr Boutros-Ghali, an Egyptian-born architect whose grandfather had been prime minister of Egypt and whose brother became the Secretary-General of the United Nations, moved to New York and plunged into the contemporary art world. Mr Sedgley, who had also been an architect, gave up in disgust at the post-war rebuilding of Britain, which he saw as re-creation rather than innovation, and, despite gaining near-instant success as an Op Artist, left London for Germany. Further links are that they are both superb colourists and, in different ways, they are essentially abstract painters. Architectural rigour, sunlight and Mediterranean blues infuse Mr Boutros-Ghali’s canvases (Fig 1), in which he ‘seeks to harness vibrant colour to…

BY early evening, the whisky is calling. I’ve spent the afternoon in a sun-struck daze, walking the south-west coast of Islay. Think white-sand beaches, snoozing seals and the kind of lonely, craggy, wave-bashed bays where you can imagine it’s still the 1920s. The September weather has been kind, setting the Atlantic a-glitter, and, with the notable exception of an otter and several dozen oystercatchers, I’ve barely seen a soul. It’s been a day that deserves a fitting full stop—which is where the whisky comes in. An Islay single malt is hefty as a tossed caber: a potent palate-bomb of peat, smoke and spices You’ll be aware that Islay—the southernmost island in the Scottish Inner Hebrides —knows a thing or two about the amber stuff. There are nine distilleries on this…

AS dawn broke on September 5, 1866, two clippers raced up the Channel, sea foam dancing against their graceful hulls as the wind filled their sails and pushed them towards London at a jaw-dropping 15 knots. Fierce betting on what The Daily Telegraph called ‘the Derby of all our seaports’—a 16,000-mile contest for the crown of fastest ship to bring home the new season’s tea from China—favoured the mighty Ariel and there she was, the first to reach Deal, in Kent. But tide neither waits nor hurries for anyone: held back by the Thames itself outside the East India Docks, Ariel saw the lighter Taeping sail towards the London Docks and victory. The real winner, however, was London itself: once again, it had asserted its dominance as the world’s greatest…

IF you want to know what life was really like in Roman Londinium, head for the Mithraeum. It’s London’s best surviving Roman temple, buried 23ft underground, near Bank station. More than 14,000 Roman artefacts have been unearthed here since it was first discovered in 1954 during building work. The ground yielded even more treasures when the new Bloomberg headquarters was built on the site in 2017 and the temple was restored. The finds were particularly well preserved because they had been wrapped in mud on the banks of the River Walbrook, a tributary of the Thames that still feeds into the great river. As did the volcanic debris at Pompeii, the river mud kept the artefacts free from decay, so the everyday stuff of Roman life has emerged from the…

Defra speaks at last DETAILS on the Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMS) have finally been revealed by Defra, ending years of speculation as to what England’s post-Brexit subsidy system will look like. In a statement, Defra secretary Thérèse Coffey said: ‘Farmers are at the heart of our economy—producing the food on our tables, as well as being the custodians of the land it comes from. These two roles go hand in hand and we are speeding up the roll-out of our farming schemes so everyone can be financially supported as they protect the planet while producing food more sustainably.’ The new ELMS will comprise three payment schemes. They are the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), which will focus on soil health and reducing the use of insecticides and fertilisers; the…

Aurore Ankarcrona Hennessey is the director of art at The Arts Club, London W1 I’ve chosen this work because it was acquired for The Arts Club’s permanent collection at a moment of total regeneration for the club, which was founded in 1863 by Charles Dickens and reimagined by new owners in 2011. This painting presides over the brasserie, one of the best-loved areas. The ebb and flow of the room is mirrored in the painting’s beautiful sweeping arcs of colour. To me, it symbolises the inherently human desire for meaningful connection and interaction, something I know happens daily in the space it overlooks Charlotte Mullins comments on Untitled IN 1954, Albert Oehlen was born in Krefeld, Germany. At this time, across the Atlantic, the Abstract Expressionists were in full…

THE name ‘Spitalfields’ conjures up a vision of early 18th-century London, crowded and cosmopolitan. If a single building could sum it up, it is surely the house of mystery and paradox at No 18, Folgate Street, better known as Dennis Severs’ House. From 1979, Severs transformed his home into an ‘experience’ that defies definition, offering celebrated candlelit tours. Here, he gave parties, entertained historic-building experts and welcomed the writers, artists, dealers and campaigners of Spitalfields. It was a haven for gay culture —his leather jacket still hangs in the hall—and, shortly before his death in 1999, became a key part of the Spitalfields Trust’s work when he sold the freehold back to the organisation from which he had bought it originally, with covenants, 20 years before. The trustees—including artist-designer Marianna…

ONE of the many notable features of Nina Campbell’s Chelsea sitting room is a fire surround that is not only a hymn to reductivist rigour, but also boasts a gilded finish that contributes a significant chutzpah to the space. Moreover, it encapsulates two tenets of contemporary interior-design philosophy: one that, if you get the fireplace right, the rest of the room will fall into place, the other that, if you’re going to opt for simplicity, it helps if it’s married with a generous dose of luxury. In this respect, Miss Campbell’s gas-fuelled fireplace isn’t only furnished with mirrored slips, but also with a pile of crystal logs that lend it a touch of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the pizzazz of…

IT didn’t take long after the doors sealed shut for the first headlines to appear. ‘Is this the end of city living?’,‘Working from home leads capital flight’ or, the classic, ‘so begins the race for space’. At the time, it made sense. After all, not much was really happening and newspaper columns don’t fill themselves. And, living in London when all the theatres, restaurants, bars and clubs are shut, you could be forgiven for thinking ‘what’s the point?’. We looked on enviously as our countryside friends gallivanted on footpaths daily or enjoyed working in the sunshine of their enormous gardens. It all seemed so obvious—why am I cooped up inside this tiny flat, with my one regimented walk per day, when I can work remotely, in a bigger home…

The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England Jonathan Healey (Bloomsbury, £30) JONATHAN HEALEY begins his compulsive narrative history on St James’s Day in 1604 at Cartmel Priory in Cumbria, with a riotous, cross-dressing mock wedding, a satirical skit or ‘skimmington’, aimed at Protestantism. His book teems with such details, culled assiduously from archives, which provide a chorus for the social upheavals of a turbulent, revolutionary age. His cast of characters, together with their stories, enlivens what might have been a dry academic study. Take the lively religious discussion that took place in John Harris’s Bridgwater alehouse on a winter’s night in 1620—‘I hope we shall see these papists driven out of England, or hanged up’—when ‘the smell of woodsmoke scented the crisp air of the Somerset…

Alternative travel IT’S never been more popular to traverse the world by rail (the number of Interrail tickets sold in 2022 hit an all-time high, and in December, France banned domestic flights between two cities linked by a train journey of less than 2½ hours), and train operators are responding by curating an exciting new roster of journeys for 2023 and beyond. Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, A Belmond Train, Europe (right) has announced several new winter journeys running from Paris to the French Alps. The routes will begin in December 2023, opening up the resorts of Mont Blanc, the Three Valleys and Tignes-Val d’Isère, in the most glamorous way possible (www.belmond.com). In Switzerland, the new Golden Pass Express connects three of the country’s renowned tourist destinations, Montreux, Gstaad and Interlaken—a 3¼-hour, panoramic…

Matild Palace, Budapest, Hungary When Matild Palace opened under the aegis of Her Imperial and Royal Highness Maria Klotild of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1902, it was the height of glamour in the Belle Époque era before the shadow of war fell. Now, it sparkles again, foliate wrought iron and intricate plasterwork blending with ceramic chandeliers and gleaming lifts that lead to bedrooms with helpful loos (the lids lift at your approach) and giant baths. In the lobby, above teal sofas and emerald lamps, is a filigree gold screen bearing black-and-white scenes of Budapest and a portrait of its royal founder, who would, no doubt, approve of the staff’s old-fashioned courtesy. There is character, too: the cocktails in the secret liquor bar on the roof are created by a ‘totally…