Innholdsfortegnelse for 8-Mar-2023 i Country Life

THE ridge, like a great whaleback, rises ahead of me. It’s softly green and swelling, a sharp contrast to the black, jagged cliffs below. Simply being by the sea is intoxicating: I’m revelling in the distant crash of the waves and heady scent of sea air. It’s a gloomy morning after a few days of scintillating weather and my brain memory is still filled with last night’s dramatic sunset, viewed from Aberystwyth University’s Arts Centre. The bright light is all gone this morning, but I’m phlegmatic—you take the weather that comes and the chance to walk along the coast is a rare one in my landlocked life. Especially here, as it’s been years since I was in this part of mid Wales. Since then, the Welsh Government has put in…

THESE pleasingly marked, blue-roan cattle have been recovered from the brink of extinction thanks to the heroic efforts of individual breeders. They are one of the latest additions to the watchlist of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST), having been recognised as a native breed in 2018 and listed as ‘priority’—there are only about 250 females in the country. The colouring, traditionally considered a ‘good thing’ in cattle farming, is believed to originate from crossing a Welsh Black with a white Dairy Shorthorn. The first breed society was formed in 1916, but there was confusion about the genetics of the colour (Albions can also be solid white or black), which restricted expansion. In the early 1920s, the breed was devastated by foot-and-mouth disease, low cattle prices and the rising popularity…

A FOR Arkle, the revered Irish racehorse after whom the second race is named; and Alice Fox-Pitt, the ebullient member of the ITV Racing team who conducts interviews with breathless and often unintelligible jockeys at the finish B FOR Best Mate, three-time winner of the Gold Cup (2002–04), whose victories were marked by the headlong dash into each other’s arms of famously nervous trainer Henrietta Knight and her more bullish husband, Terry Biddlecombe. A racecourse enclosure is named after the horse and his bronze likeness stands outside the Tattersalls Owners and Trainers Pavilion C FOR Constitution Hill, the handsome horse on which England's Champion Hurdle hopes rest; for Cross-Country race, where the twisting course is a test of jockeys’ orienteering skills—it takes place on Wednesday and is most fun when…

Find the best properties at countrylife.co.uk THE debate over which house is the oldest in England is one that has exercised the minds of successive generations of COUNTRY LIFE readers. In 1931, Knight Frank’s Arthur J. Burrows described Luddesdown Court near Gravesend, Kent—a 12th-century house reputedly lived in by William the Conqueror’s half-brother, Odo, who was Earl of Kent—as ‘the oldest court lodge in Kent’ and ‘presumably one of the most ancient continuously inhabited domestic buildings in the kingdom’. It was a claim repeated when Luddesdown Court was last sold by Knight Frank a couple of years ago. Nowadays, buyers searching for their ‘forever house’ probably don’t need a 1,000-year-old building, although Kent is still a good place to look for a historic family house of character and charm.…

GRAPEFRUIT used to be rare and exotic. My parents served them at dinner parties—I rather think they had a maraschino cherry in the middle. My father saved the seed and sowed it, too, although they never germinated—grapefruit need a higher temperature than we ever had in the vinery or greenhouse. But my family finds the temptation to grow fruit trees from seed is hard to resist. When my diplomat daughter was working in Japan, we discovered the aromatic delights of yuzu. These are among the smaller citrus fruits, but their skin—the only part worth eating —is deliciously fragrant to nibble at the end of a meal. Yuzus were little known in Europe at the time, so we brought back some pips; they germinated very freely and, within a year…

FRANZ I, Holy Roman Emperor (1745–65), François III Étienne, Duke of Lorraine and Bar (1729–37), and Francesco Stefano, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1737–65), were all the same person. At that period, as so often in its long history, Lorraine was a shuttlecock between its neighbours, France and Germany, and it became a vital element in the diplomatic manoeuvring that ended the War of the Polish Succession. Francis (for simplicity) was married to the Emperor’s heiress, Maria Theresa, whereas the defeated candidate in Poland was father-in-law to Louis XV. Francis gave up his duchies to Polish Stanislaus, who, in time, would leave them to the French Queen. There was also a succession problem in Tuscany, where the last Medici had no male heir, so Francis was compensated there. In due…

Letter of the week It’s time for Parliament I WAS delighted to read Athena on February 22. Shortly after I was appointed Clerk of the House and chief executive of the House of Commons in 2011, my Lords opposite number and I commissioned the first comprehensive condition survey of the Palace of Westminster. I felt passionately that we could not be yet another generation of stewards of this magnificent building who avoided our responsibilities. The survey’s principal conclusion was that doing nothing was not an option; yet here we are, more than a decade later, and the main activity seems to have been establishing the project’s governance, changing it, then changing it again. Even doing nothing costs millions a month and the risk of a fire or a…

1900s Published A team of Italian craftsmen was brought in specially to work on Sennowe Park, Norfolk, when it was being remodelled for Thomas Cook, the namesake and grandson of the travel agent, in 1905–07. Appropriately enough, he reputedly went on an extended world cruise when the work was being done. 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…

GRAHAM GREENE divided his fiction into two categories, namely serious literary novels and what he described as ‘entertainments’. The latter were so named, he maintained, because they did not carry a message. In fact, the line between the two sometimes blurred. It’s easy enough to see why The Man Within, Stamboul Train and Our Man In Havana were classed as entertainments, in comparison with the weightier The Power and the Glory and A Burnt-Out Case. However, the entertainment Brighton Rock, which Greene explained in the second volume of his autobiography Ways of Escape (1980), ‘began as a detective story and continued, I am sometimes tempted to think, as an error of judgement’, was the first of his works to introduce the Catholic themes. Critics began to classify him as a…

SOMETIMES, early in the morning, with a jumper or an old coat pulled over my pyjamas, I slip out of a side gate and along the drive to stare at the point where there is a bend in the valley. Bracken-covered hills rise ochre, grey and green towards the sky and, in the distance, beyond broad fields of cattle, a lane bisects the landscape, winding out of sight. More than once, at the end of the summer, bare feet in gumboots, drinking deep draughts of sharp, pure air, I have thought of Bilbo Baggins leaving Beorn’s hall in The Hobbit. Of that heavy-hearted departure on the part of our affable, but not excessively bold hero, Tolkien tells us ‘there was an autumn-like mist upon the ground and the air was…

Kent, £675,000 Fans of Derek Jarman can now live like the famous artist by purchasing this extended former railway carriage on Dungeness beach. Originally built as a holiday home, the property has been extended to allow for two bedrooms, three reception rooms and a garage, making it suitable for full-time living. Set on the Dungeness estate, the property benefits from being within the SSSI and is surrounded by the various pubs, restaurants and shops that the neighbourhood has to offer. Phillips & Stubbs (01797 227338) Roxburghshire, £500,000 Cuts to railway services in the 1950s and 1960s remain a topic for much debate, but we can at least be thankful for the closure of Saughtree Station near Newcastleton in the Scottish Borders. The former railway station was converted into a…

For all the latest news, visit countrylife.co.uk A CENTURY ago, the chief debates within the British ornithological establishment centred around classification, nomenclature and the identification of subspecies. Studies were mainly based on the skins of shot birds rather than on field observation, so knowledge of their ecology was limited. Now, there are descriptive accounts and statistics on the populations and behaviour of all of Britain’s resident and most passage species, with targeted surveys carried out on those believed vulnerable. The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) has played a leading role in these developments and celebrates the 90th anniversary of its foundation this year. The not-for-profit trust was formed to advance knowledge of British birds and their habitats, as well as identify issues influencing their wellbeing. Harry Witherby, an early vice-chairman,…

Alistair Smith is editor of The Stage, the author of two major industry reports, the London Theatre Report and the Theatre Workforce Review, and a founder of the My Theatre Matters! campaign My favourite room in my favourite art gallery is the one that houses Goya’s Black Paintings in the Prado. These pieces were never intended for public view and the subjects and style are completely unlike the rest of Goya’s work, many of which are court portraits. It’s the cumulative impact of these dark, mysterious and really quite troubling paintings that I love, but, if I were to choose one, it would be The Great He-Goat because it also makes me think of two of my other favourite works of art: Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and, with the animal…

CHANDLER’S HOUSE stands in Pewsey Vale with a clear view of the Alton Barnes White Horse, a huge chalk figure cut into the slope of Milk Hill in 1812. It’s a house without a public front, in the sense that it presents to the narrow access lane behind little more than a long, deep catslide roof. That makes the experience of passing into the property all the more surprising. To the west, overlooking the garden, is the façade of the house you might ordinarily expect to see overlooking the street: a neat elevation of about 1700, five window bays wide with a central door and hipped roof (Fig 1). One small asymmetry—a narrow window to the left of the door—lends interest and charm to the whole. The house is built…

TROTTING through the woods, Fenix could be any other dog out enjoying the late-autumn sunshine. But, as we turn into a large scrubby patch of land, Kat Janczur takes out a khaki harness and Fenix’s demeanour changes: the apparel signifies that work is about to begin. Miss Janczur gives the Dutch shepherd his instructions; after only a few minutes, he sits expectantly at a small bushy plant. We follow, eager to see the discovery. Miss Janczur delves into her pocket for a biscuit, which Fenix (above) happily gulps before he is dispatched to the next area of the site. His quarry is Japanese knotweed, an invasive non-native species that can become problematic if not appropriately managed and, under the 1990 Environmental Protection Act, must be removed by and disposed of…

WE are fortunate to live in a golden age of British architecture, interior design, gardening and restoration. Much of this is thanks to a greater depth and breadth of expertise than ever before, which springs from the growing number of ever-more knowledgeable and inventive practitioners offering exciting opportunities to build new houses or bring old properties to life. Increasingly, these projects involve seamlessly blending old and new, creating buildings that combine styles that are not only sympathetic to their setting, but which also meet the growing demands of modern life and of sustainability. It’s a process that is reinventing the way we live, as well as engaging a vast range of ever-evolving skills, from design and craftsmanship to the creation of thermal efficiency in period buildings. COUNTRY LIFE is delighted…

IN 1898, the famous gardener and contributor to COUNTRY LIFE William Robinson built an elliptical walled kitchen garden for his home at Gravetye Manor in West Sussex. The perfect ellipse has rounded corners to trap the sun and, protected by massive walls of local Weald stone quarried from the estate, the acre and a half of ground would have supplied everything that its vegetarian bachelor owner could have desired. But, after two World Wars and with labour costs rising, the place echoed many such productive gardens and fell into disrepair. Robinson died in 1935 and, in the late 1950s, Gravetye was turned into a country-house hotel, but the renaissance of the walled enclosure as a rare survival of a fully working estate kitchen garden only came in 2010. This was…