Innholdsfortegnelse for 15-Feb-2023 i Country Life

1915 Unpublished With a pipe clenched firmly between his teeth, a magnificently whiskered almsman watches the photographer at work over the wall of the 1620s almshouse at Wimborne St Giles, Dorset. The man also appears reading a newspaper in a published image of the almshouse and neighbouring church taken at the same time. 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…

RICHARD JEFFERIES contrasted the pigeons outside the British Museum (‘To them the building is merely a rock, pierced with convenient caverns’) with the humans vainly seeking enlightenment inside, in an article first published in the Pall Mall Gazette and subsequently reprinted in his The Life of the Fields (1884). Jefferies admitted he felt ‘nearer knowledge’ standing beneath its portico and enjoying the ‘southern blue’ of the sky than when turning a book’s pages in its former Reading Room. Many of us may have felt a similar feeling of a great weight slipping from our shoulders on departure from this august, but exhausting, place. The British Museum was the world’s first public museum and the first stone of the present building was laid 200 years ago this year. The museum’s origins…

THE Aberdeen Angus is one of Britain’s most successful cattle—‘more than a breed, it’s a brand’, as a slogan goes—widely exported and commercially valuable. Thanks to the eponymous restaurant chain, everyone has heard of the black cow that produces superb steaks, but the original Native Aberdeen Angus, smaller, hardier and a producer of delicious grass-reared meat (‘caramelised outside and buttery, melt-in-the-mouth inside,’ according to Slow Food in the UK), is a far rarer beast than the ubiquity of its name suggests. Hugh Watson, a 19th-century Angus farmer, pioneered the breed by crossing the black, horned cattle of Forfarshire (now Angus); his bull Old Jock (born 1842), was number one in the herd book. In 2017, Watson was immortalised in a memorial at Glamis Castle in the eponymous county. Subsequently, overseas…

Glad to be trad From Alitex’s National Trust collection, the Mottisfont greenhouse, £25,689, is made from aluminium, which requires minimal maintenance, and finished in Dove Grey (01730 826900; www.alitex.co.uk) Beauty of bronze This stylish leisure annexe with large arched openings has been fitted with bronze double-glazed leaded doors and windows, prices from about £13,000 for a similar door and fanlight, by Architectural Bronze Casements (01476 249494; www.bronzecasements.com) Go for bespoke Made from sapele, a timber chosen for its durability and suitability as a building material, this bespoke orangery is finished in a specially mixed colour, chosen to match the front door of the house, by David Salisbury. Prices start from about £40,000, exclusive of building works (01278 764444; www.davidsalisbury.com) A top note Designed as a music room, this oak-frame structure…

THE idea of One Hundred Years of Solitude might have caught the imagination of Gabriel García Márquez, but, for most folk, in these days of Twitter (never used it), TikTok (never looked at it) and Instagram (finally gave in and began posting gardening snippets in 2021; @alantitchmarshmbe should you be curious) the prospect of solitude is remote. Whether through more traditional print and broadcast media or Facebook, Snapchat, WhatsApp and… oh, you name it, society in general now feels the need to be constantly connected to the activities—and opinion—of others. Except, that is, for gardeners and writers who are accustomed to—and revel in—working alone. As I tap out these words in the loft of the barn just across the way from our house, I hear nothing more than the…

Avocado Anxiety Louise Gray (Bloomsbury, £17.99) FOR her first, highly readable book, The Ethical Carnivore, Louise Gray spent a year eating only meat that she had killed or seen killed. She still eats meat, although rather less of it, and now, as the descendant of an Edinburgh grocer, has turned her journalistic focus to the ethics of fruit and veg consumption and the guilt we should—or shouldn’t —feel about their production. She has assembled a blizzard of information, some of which is comforting justification, whereas some will cause indigestion; essentially, we should eat more homegrown broad beans (they contain 20% protein, don’t need nitrogen fertiliser and don’t necessarily cause flatulence) and pay more for bananas (grown in monocultures, continually sprayed, at risk of a TR4 pandemic and affected…

For all the latest news, visit countrylife.co.uk Fast train to loss of trust A ROW between The Wildlife Trusts (WT) and HS2 broke out last week, after the charity claimed that the infrastructure project ‘undervalued Nature and overvalued its compensation measures’. WT claims that there are ‘fundamental flaws’ in the way HS2 Ltd has assessed the value of Nature along the path of the railway project. In response to the claim, HS2 Ltd wrote on Twitter that the claims by WT are ‘incorrect and based on unreliable data from limited desk research’. The firm said that HS2’s data is ‘independently verified, accurate and reliable’ and accused the charity of ‘seeking PR opportunities’ by refusing to work with the firm. The row is the latest in a long-running fight between…

FOR the second time this season, and only the third time in 20 years, the hunt is meeting here on foot owing to a heavy frost. Perhaps it’s just as well, as I didn’t check the tide table when I agreed to the meet and there would not be space for horses and hounds on the beach. We gather in the yard instead, prudently keeping the chickens shut up until hounds have moved off. As I weave through the pack holding sausages aloft, I reflect that, if there are any class warriors from Edinburgh hoping for photographs of posh people in hunting kit (there aren’t as far as I can tell, but you can never be sure), they will be disappointed to find what looks like a shepherds’ convention, with…

DURING the past 34 years, a distinctive silhouette has increasingly begun to appear in the skies above the UK, hovering high above the ground, its forked tail glinting in the sun. The red kite. Once extinct in England, this large bird of prey is now in the ascendant. As one Welsh landowner says: ‘Welcome to red-kite country. They are everywhere!’ Theirs is a genuine modern conservation success story. During the Middle Ages, kites were often seen—they were mentioned by Geoffrey Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales and later by William Shakespeare, who, in The Winter’s Tale, advises: ‘When the kite builds, look to your lesser linen,’ as it has a habit of stealing from washing lines. But, as the 20th century dawned, there was only a handful of birds left in…

Find the best properties at countrylife.co.uk IN 1910, an ambitious young architect, Annesley Brownrigg, won a series of architectural competitions and set up shop in Guildford, Surrey, where, after the First World War, he built a flourishing practice with his friend, Leslie Hiscock. The firm was primarily known for residential developments within the Guildford area, a tradition maintained by his son, John, who went on to design Guildford’s iconic Yvonne Arnaud Theatre and was also instrumental in the research and development of timber-frame prefabricated houses. Another Surrey success story was that of the Gates family, who started out in business with the opening, in 1877, of a small grocery shop in Guildford. Having founded the West Surrey Central Dairy in 1888, they invested in drying equipment from America to…

MUCH as books clothe a room, plants bring warmth and life to conservatories and orangeries. Not only is there something much friendlier—not to mention natural—about being surrounded by greenery, scent and colour, but they also address the problem of echoey acoustics. Plants need to be positioned where they will thrive; some like it hot and sunny, others need shade and if you’re inexperienced, stick with easy-going varieties that won’t sulk. Visit a nursery that specialises in indoor plants where they will be able to tell you all you need to know about how to keep the plants healthy and happy. The plants will be better grown, too, and get off to a much better start. There are plants to suit every kind of mood from elegant and minimal; go for…

WHAT gives a play staying power? The question came to mind when watching the 40th-anniversary production of Michael Frayn’s Noises Off at London’s Phoenix Theatre. I was seeing the play for the fifth or sixth time and yet I found myself laughing uproariously, as was the rest of the audience, at this gradual falling apart of a fictional British farce titled Nothing On. The kind of door-banging, trouser-dropping farce that Mr Frayn skilfully punctures may have gone out of fashion years ago, but we still delight in its disintegration. Why, exactly? Most people know by now that in Noises Off we see a nightmare dress rehearsal of Nothing On, followed by a backstage perspective on a live performance and, finally, the show on the last leg of its provincial…

A YEAR is a long time in politics, but an even longer time in Test cricket. Let’s take a little journey down memory lane, shall we? It’s February 15, 2022, and England have just received an absolute mauling at the hands of Australia in the Ashes. Chris Silverwood has been relieved of his duties as coach. Joe Root, despite having scored the most runs ever in a calendar year by an Englishman, looks jaded and despondent as England captain. The team are preparing to fly to the West Indies, to play a series they don’t want to play, and one that they will eventually lose. Sir Andrew Strauss has been brought in to figure out how, exactly, England are so bad and what on earth can be done about it.…

ON October 30, 1356, a man of modest parentage from the village of Wickham (or Wykeham), Hampshire, was appointed Surveyor of the King’s Building Works in the castle and park of Windsor. How this man, William, by now in his early thirties, had recommended himself for this role remains a mystery, but it placed him in charge of what was about to become one of the most ambitious building projects in 14th-century Europe: the reconstruction of the Upper Ward of the castle by Edward III, paid for out of the ransom of Jean II, King of France, captured at the battle of Poitiers less than six weeks earlier. William of Wykeham displayed a voracious appetite for lucrative appointments, both secular and ecclesiastical William of Wykeham’s appointment marked the beginning of…

HOW many can you eat? As children, for many of us the highlight of Shrove Tuesday was boasting about how many pancakes we could gobble, in a magnificently contrasting display of simplicity and excess. Alan Davidson’s The Oxford Companion to Food states that ‘an English culinary manuscript of about 1430 refers to pancakes in a way which implies that the term was already familiar, but it does not occur often in early printed cookery books. It seems to have been only in the 17th century that pancakes came to the fore in Britain’. He describes a flour-and-egg batter mixed with milk, cream or water. Wine or brandy was sometimes added, yet, by the 18th century, the tradition of making them with milk or cream predominated. Florence White’s Good Things in…

Kent, £2.75 million A true flower in the garden of England, The Deanery, in Chartham near Canterbury, is an ‘exceptional and intriguing home’, say agents, and is listed Grade II*. With sections dating from all the way back to the 14th century, the property was once home to the Deans of Canterbury Cathedral, but, fear not, it has been more recently renovated, with the house in its current form rebuilt in about 1738. The property boasts a fine example of a bifurcating staircase in the reception hall, ideal for grand entrances to masquerade balls that you may or may not be hosting, as well as four bedrooms, including an enormous principal bedroom suite with a private dressing room. The three acres of gardens and grounds also play host to…

WHEN Fritillaria imperialis first arrived in Vienna, in 1576, it caused a sensation. As part of the first wave into Europe of unfamiliar plants from Constantinople, it soon spread throughout the gardens of the Continent. At 3ft tall, with brightly coloured flowers that have an unruly topknot of leaves, it is easy to imagine how thrilling its appearance must have been. It featured in many paintings of the period and a still life of 1626 by Johannes Bosschaert famously shows an enormous Fritillaria imperialis dominating the canvas, overshadowing all the fancy tulips, anemones and other exotic plants that were exciting collectors of the time. Clearly, he considered the crown imperial, as it became known, to be supreme. It remains, today, a dramatic presence, still capable of producing gasps of wonder.…

Cavolo-nero gnudi Method ► Tip the ricotta into a fine-mesh sieve to drain any excess liquid and set aside. ► Roughly chop the cavolo nero. Add a splash of olive oil to a frying pan and then fry the cavolo nero (also called Italian kale) over a medium heat to soften. Add the grated garlic and cook until everything is soft and has wilted down. Pour the cavolo nero and garlic onto a chopping board and finely chop it, as you would herbs. Return everything to the pan, tip in the ricotta and give it a really good stir to combine. Season well, add the grated Parmesan and mix again until fully combined. ► To make the gnudi, pour half the semolina onto a large plate or baking tray.…