Innholdsfortegnelse for 31-May-2023 i Country Life

Letter of the week Vaccination invitation I THOROUGHLY enjoyed ‘A Ticket to History’ (May 3). The variety of designs was fascinating, reflecting the different eras. The illustrations on the invitation sent by the late Queen to the now King Charles III were charming and appropriate for a four-year-old Prince. Not quite so grand was the colourful, pretty invitation sent to my brother in 1946 inviting him—at one year old—to be taken for his diphtheria vaccination (above). A very important occasion, too! Christine Nuttall, by email The writer of the letter of the week will win a bottle of Pol Roger Brut Réserve Champagne Until the birds return I WONDER how other readers are faring—our swallows and house martins (right) have returned, albeit late, in their best numbers…

1929Unpublished In 1829, the Bodleian Library, Oxford, purchased 780 Hebrew manuscripts and 5,421 printed books collected by Rabbi David ben Abraham Oppenheim, who died in Prague in 1736. They cost 9,000 Thalers. Here they are exactingly stacked from floor to ceiling with painted boards identifying the collection and size of the volumes. 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…

ORE stabit fortis arare placeto restat’ exhorts an inscription in English—the word divisions wittily bestowing on it the appearance of Latin—in the garden at Broadwoodside. It’s good advice. The gardens created here over the past 25 years by Anna and Robert Dalrymple are, indeed, a rare place to rest and have become justly celebrated in their own right, attracting a steady stream of visitors and articles. What remains less well known is the house at their heart, which is no less remarkable or delightful. Broadwoodside is in origin a modest farm steading, formerly part of the Yester estate of the Tweeddale family, set in rolling agricultural land just outside the village of Gifford in East Lothian. The site was anciently occupied and the place name can certainly be traced in…

SOME years ago, I decided to re-create an old-fashioned cornfield, the sort of poppy-resplendent arable scene you seldom find these days outside the frame of a Constable painting. I had two principle guides for this experiment in retro-farming. One was my own boyhood memory from the early 1970s of a rustling wheat field embroidered with wildflowers (weeds, if you will). My greater guide, however, was a chance reading of Walks in the Wheat-fields by Victorian countryside writer Richard Jefferies. One particular picture-in-words arrested my heart: ‘Let your hand touch the ears lightly as you walk… There are hares within, and many a brood of partridge chicks that cannot yet use their wings… Finches more numerous than the berries on the hedges… There are, then, the poppies, whose wild brilliance in…

THE Derby may not always live up to its billing as the premier Flatracing classic, but the 1953 iteration certainly did. A memorable day on the Epsom Downs almost provided a winner for the newly crowned Elizabeth II with Aureole, only four days after the coronation. The young Queen’s chief racing enthusiasm was for the Flat (unlike the Queen Mother, who largely owned steeplechasers) and her special interest lay in Thoroughbred bloodlines; she wanted to breed a Derby winner. Aureole, however, was bred by her father, George VI, by the 1933 Derby winner Hyperion, and she’d inherited the colt on his death in 1952. Aureole raced only twice as a two year old and began his three-year-old campaign with an encouraging fifth in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket. When he…

BEDROOMS are spaces that Paolo Moschino enjoys decorating the most. He believes that they should be airy, comfortable and personal. This room was completed as part of the transformation of a townhouse and he was keen that it was both simple and timeless. ‘Some rooms you put together and they work so well—this is one of them,’ explains the decorator. The client offered Mr Moschino and his team carte blanche to come up with a design that would suit the shape and light of the room, so a palette of blue and white was chosen as the theme. ‘I love this colour combination, but it’s important to choose the right shades, otherwise the result could be too cold,’ explains Mr Moschino. ‘We used a silk wallpaper in a deep cobalt…

ANTHONY and Maggie McGrath learned their gardening skills in a small garden—no more than one-third of an acre—at Nutley in the Ashdown Forest, East Sussex. After 11 years, they started to look for a house with more space to develop their interest in garden design. It brought them to Town Place not far away, a handsome timber-frame farmhouse, probably Elizabethan in origin, that had been extended and gentrified in the 20th century. They bought it in 1990, together with the flat, two-acre garden that had little to commend itself. There were some handsome old oaks along one of the boundaries, a duck pond and, overlooking it, a stumpy pollarded oak, quite hollow in the centre and reputed to be about 800 years old. But not much else. The garden was,…

Peas, asparagus and spinach with pan-fried gnocchi and mozzarella Method ➤ Preheat your oven to 180˚C/350˚F/gas mark 4. ➤ Rub oil over the potatoes and bake for an hour or until cooked through. Scoop out the flesh into a bowl. Mix in the egg yolks and then sprinkle over the flour—you may find you need slightly more or less—and mix to form a dough. Roll it out to long sausages and cut into bite-size pieces. You can use immediately or chill, covered, until you need them. ➤ When ready to cook, bring a large pan of salted water to a boil and add the gnocchi. As soon as they reach the surface, remove with a slotted spoon and add to a large frying pan heated with a splash of…

Curlew on the move SOME 120 curlew eggs were transported to the South of England last week, the largest translocation of the threatened species ever undertaken. The translocation scheme, which was launched last year with 40 eggs collected from grouse moors and adjacent grassland, was so successful that the number this year has tripled. The eggs are sourced from the Yorkshire Dales and transported south in a bid to expand the breeding range of this endangered species. Five estates in Yorkshire are taking part—West Arkengarthdale, Bolton, Gunnerside, Grinton and Reeth—all of which have existing healthy populations of breeding curlew. The Yorkshire Dales Moorland Group (YDMG) is coordinating the translocation efforts, while funding comes from the Duke of Norfolk, who owns the West Arkengarthdale estate. ‘Ground-nesting birds face so many…

Beatrice Grant is His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of the County of Worcestershire. When she was appointed in March, she became the county’s first woman to hold the position I love the Renaissance period for all its creativity, adventure and human emotion in art. One of the many paintings that stand out for me is The Annunciation. Della Francesca had an incredible understanding of space, measurement and proportion–all reflected in this painting. There is so much detail that always lures me in further. The pure-white columns that make me want to run around them, the garden that I want to explore, the folds of the clothes, the texture of the feathers on the wings, the dove bathed in gold and the calmness of the figures. A piece of beauty and tranquillity…

THE docile Hereford cow, with its kind white face and striking mahogany coat, is probably the native breed that has spread most expansively across the globe—the first exports to the US were in 1817 and importers have included the King of Norway and the Sultan of Oman. It even features in The Archers, with David and Ruth Archer selling Ambridge Hereford beef. In 1940, a torpedo struck a ship carrying Herefords to America; remarkably, two swam ashore to Ireland. Hereford cattle are now found in more than 120 countries, at least 25 of which maintain their own herd books—quite a record for a county breed. A life-size bronze statue of a bull stands in Hereford city centre, created at the time of Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. The breed was first…

A CENTURIES-OLD grudge over ornithological provenance still ruffles feathers at an unlikely venue. The Furze Wren, a pub in Bexleyheath, on the outskirts of south-east London, takes its moniker from the old country nickname for the Dartford warbler. First recorded 250 years ago by Kentish-born naturalist John Latham, this plucky little bird—Sylvia undata—was actually discovered in nearby Bexley. Two were shot on the heath there in April 1773 and presented to Dr Latham, who named them after the place where he was practising medicine at that time: Dartford. The misnomer has been a source of vexation to the birdwatchers (and the beer drinkers) of the warbler’s true ‘manor’ of Bexley ever since. In the past few decades, however, this mix-up was the least of the little bird’s problems. Ralph Todd,…

Rich pickings Sub-par picnics are not acceptable at the smartest summer events, so, thank goodness, you can keep your hands clean and draft in D’Ambrosi, the Cotswold deli that has recently opened a new shop in Chelsea, London SW10. It is run by American husband-and-wife duo Andrew and Jesse D’Ambrosi, whose exotic travels inspired the bringing together of varied cuisines. Expect exciting flavours, with everything made fresh that day and delivered to you, ready to throw in the boot and get going (or enjoy at home, too, of course). Try the Char Siu lacquered pork belly, the rotisserie chicken with jalapeno coriander sauce and the New England-style shrimp rolls. From £5.75 per portion (020–7912 0575; www.dambrosi.co.uk). Going all out If decadence is the dish of the day, book a…

Find the best properties at countrylife.co.uk BOUNDED by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire and Powys to the west, dreamy, landlocked Herefordshire, best known for its fruit, cider and cattle, is one of the smallest, least-populated and most rural counties in England. Having tested the water at the height of the pandemic, Will Matthews of Knight Frank (020–7861 1440) and Crispin Holborow of Savills (020–7016 3780) are overseeing the relaunch onto the market of the pristine, 266-acre Poston Court estate at Vowchurch, nine miles from Hay-on-Wye and 11 miles from Hereford, at a guide price of £9.55 million. The focal point of the estate is Grade II*-listed Poston House, which stands on the site of a medieval…

The Nurture Landscapes garden, Gold This was the stand-out garden at Chelsea and showed designer Sarah Price in complete command of her materials. A subtle richness glowed through her gentle, dusky colour palette that was inspired by the paintings of Cedric Morris (1889–1982) (‘Homing instincts’, May 17) and included many of the plants that grew at Morris’s Suffolk home at Benton End. Textured straw-bale walls were rendered in lime mortar, providing a perfect backdrop for roses and wisteria. Samaritans’ Listening garden, Silver gilt Recycled concrete may not be on every gardener’s wishlist, but Darren Hawkes, himself a volunteer for the Samaritans, managed to reuse a derelict concrete farmyard (which he had removed to make a garden for clients) into a moving and beautiful garden. The reshaped concrete was suspended from…

South-West Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden, St Ives, Cornwall Many of the sculptures are where Hepworth placed them herself, in the breezy, light-filled gardens of Trewyn Studio, where she came to live with her family at the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1968, she was awarded the Freedom of St Ives in acknowledgement for her role in enhancing the profile of the town, now renowned as a westerly art Mecca. The museum is managed by nearby Tate St Ives. www.tate.org.uk Hauser & Wirth, Bruton, Somerset The philanthropic Swiss family-founded contemporary-art dealership chose the hitherto unsung town of Bruton for its other British gallery (after London) and the area has boomed. The company renovated dilapidated buildings at Durslade Farm, surrounded by magnificent landscaped areas by Dutch garden designer…

WHAT is the countryside for? The question might seem odd. Must everything in life be reduced to a calculable purpose? The British countryside is what it has always been: a place shaped by millions of individual actions by humans and animals over thousands of years, made special precisely by the fact that there never has been a grand plan. It is a beautiful accident. Still, we do need to answer the question. Rural issues are marginal in national debate and, with that, old constancies are falling away. The way things are will not continue, even if the way things are was once good enough: family farms are selling up, food producers are intensifying, the power of capital to do violence to landscapes through things such as house building, solar…

SKIPPING church to go hunting must have seemed an innocent enough escapade to Thomas Harwell of Islip, in Oxfordshire. Little did he know that he would be caught red handed and his name would go down in shame for eternity. He was duly reprimanded in 1584—and a churchwarden’s report preserved the memory of his misdeed for more than four centuries. Kept meticulously up and down the country, parish registers, churchwardens’ accounts, vestry minutes, wills and presentments (reports of misdemeanours to higher church authorities) ‘build up a detailed picture of what happened in and around old churches in their heyday,’ notes Justin Lovill, who collated material from more than 900 communities across the country for his latest book, Old parish life: A guide for the curious. His findings shine the light…

IT happened really quite quickly I think,’ says Nick Hewer. ‘I’m going to be 80 in February, so something clicked. The clock went “tick” and we realised that we can’t keep on managing this.’ To most people, the idea of owning a property such as Nick’s Park Farm, with its seven bedrooms, swimming pool, tennis court and 12 acres of land in Northamptonshire, would be a fairytale. It’s easy, when flicking through the pages of property advertisements and editorial in this very magazine, to get jealous about the space and lifestyle on offer. But at the same time, for many, including the former Apprentice adviser and Countdown host, there comes a time when it all gets a bit too much. ‘At the moment, we’ve got two gardeners coming twice…

EVERY month or two, another new scientific paper shares the next increment in our understanding of how plants communicate. I love that. Every day, quiet interactions occur, most beyond our gaze; some harmonious, others less so. The tip of this iceberg of interaction is companion planting, where we take advantage of one plant’s qualities to benefit others. This can take many forms. Plants might offer their neighbours support: an established fruit tree makes an excellent scaffold for a climber, such as a kiwi or passion fruit. This works equally well with vegetables: in the classic Native American triplet of sweetcorn, climbing bean and squash, the sweetcorn provides the support for the climbing bean. This is only one part of the symbiosis: the bean feeds the sweetcorn and the squash…

HAD I been the lucky browser (a self-described ‘passionate ceramic collector’) who found a near pair of 4½in-high porcelain jars prettily decorated with chrysanthemum blooms and lotus leaves (Fig 1) ticketed at £20 in a charity shop, and had to have them, I hope that it would have been the quality that first caught my eye, as it did his. There were impressive under-glaze blue six-character marks on the bases, and the finder has said that they gave him a strong buzz. However, my antennae would first have twitched because of the little hand-written labels, one saying ‘Ching Chen Lung 1736-95’, the other illegible, on adhesive strips of serrated stamp paper. This was how my great-grandfather used to identify, sometimes optimistically, items in his late-19th-century collections. Beside me as…

Courses for Horses: A Journey Round Racing in Britain and Ireland Nicholas Clee(Weidenfeld & Nicholson, £22) A BOOK which dutifully trotted around the 59 racecourses in Britain and 26 in Ireland, unless intended as a straightforward guide to layout, amenities and access, would be an exercise in tedium. Instead, the author has journeyed around a select 30 (26 British, four Irish), characterised by their individuality and, in some cases, eccentricity, to offer a picture of the modern horse-racing industry, beloved by participants and followers, arcane to outsiders. The book has been undertaken with some intention of attracting the latter, with care taken to explain what a more informed reader would take for granted. We are told that Godolphin is Sheikh Mohammed’s training operation, what a selling race is…