Innholdsfortegnelse for 13-Dec-2023 i Country Life

Future Publishing Ltd, 121–141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London W2 6JR 0330 390 6591; www.countrylife.co.uk REST assured, no emperor has given an order or issued a decree. But nonetheless, at Christmas, many of us will follow one particular Bible verse as if it were a binding injunction: ‘All went to their home towns’ (Luke 2.3). Our motorways will be choked with traffic, airport arrivals lounges thronging with expectant loved ones; we’ll wait-stamping our feet and hugging our hands on cold railway-station platforms. As for Mary and Joseph, so for us: Christmas is a time of travel and of homecoming. In the Gospel story, Mary and Joseph return to Bethlehem, Joseph’s home town, to be registered. We travel to be reunited. We travel home. ‘Where are you planning to spend Christ-mas?’ Apparently…

‘To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget’The Cost of Living, Arundhati Roy Riddle me this In the song The Twelve Days of Christmas, how many presents are given in total?…

I READ with great interest the article on jigsaws, being a direct descendent of John Wallis, a London printmaker who, in 1788, claimed to be the inventor of the ‘dissected’ puzzle, some 20 years after the early death of John Spilsbury (‘I go to pieces’, November 29). The first known such puzzle of Wallis’s was the rather dry Chrono-logical Tables of English History for the Instruction of Youth. In 1785, thankfully, he produced the first light-hearted puzzle, Johnny Gilpin of Cheapside, and the puzzles became popular games rather than educational. To our chagrin, none of the original John Wallis jigsaws remain in the family. Pamela Linnett (née Wallis), Queensland, Australia…

FATE threw me a curveball this morning—a power cut threatened to disrupt my cherished toast ritual (‘Toast of the town’, November 15). How could I kickstart my day without that perfect slice, generously adorned with butter and a mountain of Oxford-cut marmalade, crowned (I confess) with a decadent layer of mature Cheddar? Undeterred, I embarked on a quest for alternatives. In a moment of inspired desperation, I resorted to a caveman-style solution—skewering my bread and toasting it over an open flame on the gas hob. As the flames danced around my makeshift toasting device, I could not help but marvel at the resilience of a morning tradition seemingly thwarted by the forces of darkness. To my delight, the results were surprisingly satisfying and I emerged victorious over the morning chaos.…

1936 Unpublished Following George V’s death, the exacting Alfred Henson photographed Buckingham Palace. The movement of a pet parrot in the Sitting Room created a blur to the right of this view. In an apologetic personal letter to the Queen, he asked permission to overlay a flash photograph of the bird, as shown here. It’s not known if she replied. Every week for the past 125 years, COUNTRY LIFE has documented and photo-graphed 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…

WHY do we celebrate Christ’s birth in late December? All ancient cultures recognised the winter solstice. The Romans spent the seven days of Saturnalia in feasting and carousing, upending normality with masquerades, slaves posing as masters and masters posing as slaves. Norse communities lit bonfires and sat around eating, drinking and telling tales. In Britain, the Celtic priests cut and blessed mistletoe from sacred oaks and burned yule logs to banish darkness and evil spirits, firstly to encourage good fortune during the 12 days they believed the sun stood still and secondly to welcome its return. When early Christians joined the party, syncretism occurred naturally. Many churches were located on already hallowed sites and, in an era of healthy paganism and widespread naturalistic tradition, when else in the year should…

The Christmas-tree grower GROWING Christmas trees came about fortuitously,’ says Andrew Ingram of The Tree Barn in south Oxfordshire. ‘I took over the family farm in 1970, in my early twenties—I’m 75 now—and there was a hedgerow that needed thickening up, so we chose to do it with Christmas trees. We were a traditional farm with Jersey cows, but we couldn’t compete with Friesians, so I had to sell the herd. ‘I cast around for something else to do and noticed the trees were growing rather well, so I made the wise move of joining the British Christmas Tree Growers Association. Every-thing I’ve learned since that moment has been through them. I’ve been very fortunate. I found out I was on exactly the right soil type to grow them—free draining,…

The garden at Rockcliffe, Gloucestershire The home of Simon and Emma Keswick LAST winter, we had -12˚ of frost for three weeks,’ remembers Emma Keswick, walking out onto the south-facing terrace at Rockcliffe in the Cotswolds, where she and her husband, Simon, have been living on and off since 1981. ‘We are 600ft above sea level here and it does get very cold. Although we wrap things in winter, we lost a lot last year.’ ‘It feels as if this is how things must always have been’ Rockcliffe is one of the most beautiful gardens in the Cotswolds, whatever time of year one sees it. From the broad Yorkstone terrace, an immaculate avenue of beech obelisks—positioned slightly closer together at the far end to make the view seem longer—reaches across…

1 What a difference a small change can make. Once he had traded his original mitre, bishop’s robes and grey steed for reindeer, a sleigh, a red suit and a snappier name, Father Christmas became the world’s greatest festive export, just about pipping to the post Mariah Carey’s All I want for Christmas is you. However, across much of northern Europe, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland and Hungary, good old St Nicholas still fills stockings with nuts and tangerines on his name day, December 6, rather than at Christmas. And, at least in parts of Switzerland, if you have been lazy or naughty, ‘he takes you away in a big black bag,’ says Lisi Ashbridge, who lives in Marlborough, Wiltshire, but is originally Swiss. ‘Terrifying, really.’ 2 As…

AS a child, there was something so exciting about the mystery bumps and curves of my stuffed Christmas stocking, tinged with the anticipation of reaching in my hand and pulling out all the tightly packed treats. However, one thing never changed: at the very bottom, pressed into the toe, there was always a familiar plump little bulge: a sweet, juicy satsuma. Nothing looks and smells more like Christ-mas than orange zest and spices, from delicate slices of dried orange woven into door wreaths and tree decorations to Christingles burning brightly in church. It might seem baffling that this non-native species should be such a key component of a British Christmas, but mix a bit of folklore in with some history and the picture becomes clearer. According to one legend, the…

Top marks Grasmere gingerbread, £7.95 for 12 pieces (www.grasmeregingerbread.co.uk) As Senior Designer Ben Harris put it: ‘Now, that is gingerbread.’ The texture recalls a flapjack and the flavour, almost fudge-like in its richness, has a very well-rounded spice. First baked in 1854 by local woman Sarah Nelson, this gingerbread became so famous that she locked her recipe into a bank vault to keep it secret Best for a tea-time treat Fitzbillies Cambridge gingerbread, £16 for three large biscuits (above right) (www.fitzbillies.com) A great crunch and a warming whisper of ginger make these biscuits ‘sublime’, according to News and Property Editor James Fisher and ‘the perfect size to eat in one sitting,’ according to Deputy Picture Editor Emily Anderson Best for sharing Daylesford dark ginger sticky cake, £9.99 (www.daylesford.com) A cracker…

IT is slowly dawning on me that, here in Galloway at least, each winter in this decade is proving to be colder than the last. It is fortunate that I have not heeded those articles that begin ‘As winters start to get warmer’ and recommend planting the whole place up with vines or olive trees or something. The hard frosts have come earlier than usual, much to the frustration of an already beleaguered hunting community, and the land heaves and oozes water into the ditches each time there is a thaw, loosening up the soil and undoing some of the compaction. Across the Solway, Skiddaw—pronounced ‘skidder’ by those who scratch a living from Herdwick sheep and hairy suckler cows in its foothills—gleams with snow and plays tricks with the light.…

IT all began with a dog. In 1971, art dealer David Messum and his new wife, Millie, had a labrador who was very much part of the family and, when arranging their honeymoon, they decided they would spend part of it in Cornwall, at a cottage near Newlyn, so their beloved dog could come too. There, Mr Messum chanced upon Sharing Fish, a fishing scene by Thomas Cooper Gotch (1854–1931), one of the Newlyn School artists, and bought it directly from the house of the then owner, a relative of the painter. ‘It was a unique picture by him,’ he explains, ‘because it was a Realist painting of local fisherfolk and Gotch’s work was quite ethereal—he painted imaginary scenes.’ Gotch—born in Kettering, Northampton-shire, the fourth son of a shoemaker—had settled…

COMBINING old and new can feel daunting, but pieces from very different periods go surprisingly well together. A particularly good, if unexpected match teams 17th-century furniture with contemporary wooden sculpture. British Antiques Dealers’ Association chair Louise Phillips, of Elaine Phillips Antiques in Leyburn, North York-shire (www.elainephillipsantiques.co.uk), is a 17th- and 18th-century specialist, but also a collector of Guy Taplin sculptures. She keeps one of the artist’s stylised birds, made from found driftwood, on a 17th-century Spanish walnut table (above). For those who prefer their artwork abstract, she suggests pairing a 17th-century oak dresser or buffet with a piece by BADA Art Prize winner Mark Purllant (www.markpurllant.com), who paints with oils on curvy sculptures he teases from English oak.…

ANYONE looking for festive fun this season should head to the Orange Tree, Richmond, to see Tom Littler’s joyous production of She Stoops to Conquer. Peter Hall in his autobiography lists Oliver Goldsmith’s play among ‘the small collection of masterpieces which, while looking honestly at the absurdity of human behaviour, end up cele-brating it’. Given that Sir Peter’s list includes Twelfth Night, A Mid-summer Night’s Dream and The Marriage of Figaro, you see how highly he rates the play. I share his enthusiasm and have no problem accepting Goldsmith’s premise that two young travellers mistake a country house for an inn: I have often told the story of how an American actress friend, visiting a riverside house in Chiswick brimming with drink and people, thought she was in a local…

Opera moving on up AFTER a somewhat turbulent year, following the Art Council’s edict last November that the ENO leave London (or lose funding—part of the levelling-up agenda), the company has chosen Manchester as its new home. The move is not scheduled to take place until 2029 and the ENO will retain ownership of its original stomping ground, the London Coliseum. ‘This future direction will see us continue to expand our role as a national institution—supporting our mission to create work with and for even more audiences across the country, alongside our annual season at the London Coliseum,’ explains ENO interim chief executive Jenny Mollica. Manchester will welcome the ENO to its new £240 million Arts centre Aviva Studios and The Lowry theatre in Salford. However, news of the move…

THOSE involved in the running of Scot-land’s grouse moors were left frustrated earlier this month, as the Scottish Wildlife Management and Muirburn Bill passed to Stage 2, with a vote of 82–32. Ostensibly aimed at changing rules to tackle raptor persecution and those around controlled heather burning, it’s clear that grouse shooting and muirburn will be strictly licensed. ‘Minister Gillian Martin did indeed engage with rural stakeholders, but she might as well have sat with her fingers in her ears. She has shown little understanding of how our country-side operates,’ laments Scottish Countryside Alliance director Jake Swindells. ‘The term “stakeholder engagement” is now code for “we have ticked that box, let’s do it anyway”.’ ‘The bill needs an awful lot of work to make it a decent piece of legislation…

THE question of a National Theatre is always a vexed one. But the scheme that we publish on behalf of the British Drama League, for the designs and model of a National Theatre, to be shown at the British Empire Exhibition, can admit of no two opinions. It is a superb opportunity for British architects to try their strength on a great and unusual theme. The requirements are by no means easy to satisfy—two theatres in one building, rehearsal rooms, offices, foyers, so arranged as not to interfere with one another. The great modern theatres of today are practically confined to Germany, where Reinhardt’s tremendous Berlin theatre has cut clean away from the rococo gingerbread encrustation that disgraces our old buildings. This is an opportunity not only for a great…

The lovely warbling song of the blackcap is something to listen for in spring, but these shy little birds have another claim to fame. Increasing numbers are overwintering in Britain and it’s believed they are responsible for stepping up appearances of mistletoe. A blackcap enjoys the plant’s berries, but wipes the seed off its beak onto a handy branch. Birds are essential to mistletoe’s survival and, although many are uninterested, the mistle thrush and its relatives, the fieldfares and redwings, devour the translucent berries—seeds and all—excreting a sticky mess, some of which will lodge on branches and develop into new hemi-parasitic plants. Apple trees are mistletoe’s most important host in Britain. This may explain why its hotspot is the south-west Midlands—Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and south-wards into Somerset. The region was,…

Blowing hot and cold IT’S a common misconception that one doesn’t start eating until everyone has been served (‘A guide to modern table manners’, November 29). In fact, etiquette dictates that, if the food is hot, one should start straight away. It’s bad manners to let the food go cold when the host has spent time preparing it. If it’s cold food, then by all means wait until everyone has been served. The same rule applies to pudding. I’m constantly bemused by the number of times I dine with people and observe that they wait. Often the host will say: ‘Please start.’ Caroline Rosier, North Yorkshire The writer of the letter of the week will win a bottle of Pol Roger Brut Réserve Champagne…

I COULDN’T agree more with Simon Jenkins on his call to zone our countryside to control building and industrial development (‘Clarity, not carte blanche’, November 22). His piece is most welcome in the wake of an editorial in which ‘rural campaigners’ were urged to drop their ‘kneejerk opposition’ to new power infrastructure (Agromenes, October 25). There is a genuine risk that we will lose vast tracts of fertile soil and beautiful landscapes in the rush towards renewables. Solar installations in particular take up acres of land. Let’s push for them to go on brownfield sites, rooftops and car parks, not high-grade farmland, as will the proposed 2,000-acre solar plant that would carve up the Bedford-shire and Cambridgeshire country-side on my doorstep, not to mention the countless other schemes in the…

THE secularists seek to undermine Christmas as a pagan, mid-winter festival—Christianised to celebrate the Nativity. Others, of a more environmental bent, complain that it has become a capitalist feste—an annual season for businesses to unload yet more stuff on an already saturated consumer market. There is, of course, truth in both propositions. In 2023, the miserable weather, which has characterised so much of this past month, makes the break at the end of December particularly welcome for itself, unconnected with the nature of the celebration. It is also true that, online and in shops, we are encouraged to buy all kinds of things we don’t need, over-packaged and of dubious value. This year, the flourishing of Shein and Temu—the Chinese-based, bargain-basement retailers—only adds to the opportunities to buy the utterly…

‘I’ve always been drawn to Caravaggio’s work. For all he was an enfant terrible, I find the sheer power of the humanity in his paintings arresting. Nowhere is that more the case than in his The Incredulity of St Thomas. The physicality of Thomas’s fingers probing Christ’s side; the hand on his wrist; Jesus allowing him to do it all speaks of the most powerful physical encounter. More than that, it’s a profound spiritual encounter, too. It speaks most powerfully to me because I was ordained on St Thomas’s Day and am forever grateful for my own journey from doubt to faith’ Charlotte Mullins comments on The Incredulity of Saint Thomas THIS painting is a masterclass in high drama. Against a black background, Caravaggio clusters together the heads of Christ…

WHEN the black velvet curtain drops, the farmyard, the meadow, the hill, the river remain the same theatrical stage. But the cast changes at night. Where swallows lacily wheeled around the cowfield in the sunshine comes the nightjar, hawking by hard angles in moonlight. Where butterflies fluttered in the afternoon garden, at midnight the pale ghosts of moths flicker on the honey-suckled arbour. In place of bees on the lane’s verge, glow-worms. Instead of the thrush chanting in the orchard, the nightingale serenading. At night, the desolate fen is no longer the hunting ground of the marsh harrier, but of the short-eared owl. Almost 70% of the world’s animals are nocturnal—for good reasons. Animals that feed by night exploit sources of food that are also taken by day animals, but…

GO into any church and chances are you’ll find, hanging from hooks behind the pews, colourfully embroidered kneelers or hassocks. Many will be patterned with familiar Biblical motifs—a dove, a cross, a cup and so on. Some may have heraldic or royal insignia; others might be considerably more eccentric. In her wonderful new book, Kneelers: The Unsung Folk Art of England and Wales, Elizabeth Bingham offers illustrations of kneelers depicting a de Havilland DH 108 jet aeroplane, a stethoscope, beach huts, the Sizewell nuclear-power station and an oil rig. Despite the kneelers’ richness and diversity, we tend to overlook these often anonymous examples of skill, imagination and pride in community. Instead, we raise our eyes to the stained glass or the spire or the vaulting. The direction of our gaze…

THE Christmas Eve parties here were marvellous when Mr and Mrs Tree lived here—all the village came.’ Mrs Cribb, housekeeper elect, dropped this unsubtle hint as she eased her comfortable bulk back against the AGA and poured another cup of tar-like tea from her equally dark-brown teapot. ‘Mr Tree would nip into the kitchen when I wasn’t looking and put goodness knows what into my rum punch. Cor, it was strong stuff! The vicar got in a right state one year and fell off the pulpit.’ Maryanne and Joe, the owners of Christmas Hall since May, have, so far, been tiptoeing around the issue of Mrs Cribb, who has resolutely stayed on in her flat like a kindly yet omnipresent squatter long after the deaths of her previous employers and…

OUT on the wild, windy moor, there was no one around but the dogs and me. The sleet was unremitting and cruel like parody, too thin, too seedy, to be proper snow. Light snow remained on the ground, however, left over from the wuthering flurries of the night. On a clear day standing on Chimney Bank atop of Spaunton Moor, you can see 360˚ to the rim of the encircled world of heather. Not today; today, the moor was strangely, squinty close, conscribed by the ice in the eye, and was strangely intimate for vast moorland. I’d driven up from Thirsk, 20 miles away, where the family and I were staying at the Golden Fleece on Market Square. In James Herriot’s books, Thirsk is fictionalised as ‘Darrowby’ and the Golden…

WE’RE standing on the remains of a medieval motte-and-bailey castle on a beautiful morning, looking across to West Field, Laxton, in Nottinghamshire. There, slant-lit, are the differently farmed strips that represent each of the tenants who are part of the last surviving open-field system in Europe (‘New farmers on the medieval block’, May 3). Down the middle of the huge field is a long green band, the syke, where the ploughs still turn. Further off are Mill Field, South Field and the smaller East Field (now enclosed): fields that were laid out by 1232 and are farmed in the same way today. It’s living history, of a most remarkable kind. The open-field system was widespread in England for centuries and, as a keen historical geography student, I was fascinated by…

THERE’S a painting in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, known as the Portinari Triptych. It’s a Nativity scene, commissioned from a Flemish artist called Hugo van der Goes in 1475. It was made for Tommaso Portinari, a Florentine who worked for the Medici bank in Bruges. A triptych comes in three parts and the two outer sections can be folded over to protect the central part. When the Portinari side panels are closed, their backs display scenes that come together as the Annunciation. These are painted en grisaille to represent sculptures—carved stone and wood were more commonly employed at that time for devotional work than paintings. On the right-hand panel, the Archangel Gabriel salutes and blesses Mary; she receives the Holy Spirit, here represented by a dove, in the…

Michael Billington As someone who reads more classic than contemporary fiction, I was immensely grateful for Peter Kemp’s Retroland, which offers a survey of the English novel since 1970. Mr Kemp combines an overarching idea about the novel’s preoccupation with the past with brilliantly perceptive accounts of everyone from Ackroyd and Amis to Waters and Winterson. Jamie Blackett Rural Wrongs by Charlie Pye-Smith is a must-read. It unpicks, in excruciating detail, the politicking leading up to what Roy Jenkins called ‘the most illiberal act of the past century’ (the Hunting Act). Let’s hope it is in Sir Keir Starmer’s stocking. Footprints in the Woods: The Secret Life of Forest and Riverbank by Sir John Lister-Kaye is a Highland laird’s beautifully observed exposé of the mustelids on his estate—Nature writing at…

A bottle of Champagne will be awarded for the first correct solution opened. Solutions must reach Christmas Crossword, COUNTRY LIFE, 121–141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London, W2 6JR, by Tuesday, January 2. UK entrants only. The answers will appear in the January 3 number’s Town & Country pages and the winner will be announced in the January 10 issue ACROSS 1 Change colour of mesh, say, in eating-place (7) 5 Cultured bishop involved in lofty argument (8) 9 Symbol of good luck in mother’s bed (6) 13 Deserving admiration—unlike pepper, perhaps? (3,2,2,7,2) 14 Notes about red meat served in flaming brandy (6) 16 Run about in school, end of biccy being chewable (8) 17 Woman making comeback in 1 across (4) 18 Judoist’s protected area around city (5,4) 20 More voguish…

SAPLINGS of rare Wollemi pine trees dating back to the time of the dinosaurs have been shipped to 34 locations around the world—28 in the UK and Europe—for the first phase of a ‘metacollection’ initiative to protect the species from extinction. Six were installed at Bedgebury National Pinetum in Kent in October, with another six planted at Bodnant Garden, north Wales, last week; a further 10 UK gardens taking part include Yorkshire Arboretum, RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey, Westonbirt’s National Arboretum in Gloucestershire and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Edinburgh. Known as the ‘dinosaur tree’ because fossil records show it was thriving 200 million years ago, Wollemia nobilis was thought to have been extinct for up to 90 million years, until 1994, when a little collection was discovered growing in…

FOR someone like me with an urgent passion for shopping, the current vogue for hot pepper sauces and their eye-catching labels satisfies the collector’s hunger by offering myriad new ingenious objects. Gastronomically, I am not a true chillihead, but these products—which often share motifs with death-metal rock music—are competitively ranked in spiciness according to their Scoville Heat Units (SHU), which measure capsaicinoids in the peppers: any rating above 30,000 counts as hot. This selection includes: Pain 100%, from the US (some 40,000 SHU); Australian Crocodile Bite (combining habanero chilli with garlic); Who Dares Burns (‘Ideal for repelling invading Mothers-in-Law and unblocking drains’); El Niño (which includes Carolina Reapers, 2.2 million SHU); the niftily named Bastarda (Spain); Blair’s Sudden Death (in a coffin); Susie’s Hot Sauce (from Antigua); and the mellow…

A monastic church converted to a cathedral at the Reformation is a building of European importance, yet it has twice narrowly escaped destruction, as John Goodall explains ON the evening of Sunday, October 30, 1831, amid three days of rioting sparked by the defeat of the Reform Bill in the House of Lords, a large mob gathered outside the Cathedral Close in Bristol. The Bishop, a known opponent of Reform, was absent and his butler unsuccessfully attempted to defend his Palace from attack. It was overrun, sacked and burnt. The cathedral sub-sacrist, William Phillips, managed to bar the door between the cloister and church, saving the building—although not the chapter house—from the fury of the rioters. Bristol Cathedral was in origin an abbey, founded—according to the Newland Roll, compiled between…

It’s possible to chart the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions through church kneelers. At St Andrew’s Congham, in Norfolk, there’s a kneeler depicting a cart with children sitting atop a stack of hay. Across in Suffolk, a hassock at St Clare’s boasts a combine harvester and baling machine. Bombed on April 16, 1941, Chelsea Old Church, London SW3, was rebuilt in the 1950s. Several kneelers commemorate five firewatchers killed in the bombing. At St Mary Magdalene, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, there’s a kneeler showing two church mice among prayer books and candles. Let’s hope they’re not caught by Jasper, the church cat depicted on a hassock at St Peter’s, Langford Budville, Somerset. At St Mary’s, Wargrave, Berkshire, I found kneelers stitched with ‘faith’ and ‘charity’. I searched in vain for ‘hope’.…

So that was 2023 1) What type of creature was Thor, who made New Year’s appearances in North Yorkshire and Northumberland before departing for Iceland? 2) For what reason was Rishi Sunak fined by Lancashire Police? 3) Which locomotive celebrated its centenary with a UK tour? 4) Protestors from which activist group disrupted events, including the World Snooker Champion-ship, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and the Ashes? 5) At the crowning of Charles III and Queen Camilla, the royal couple sat on thrones recycled from whose coronation? 6) Which chocolate bar formed part of a trial of recyclable-paper wrappers in selected Tesco stores? 7) Where did Sir Elton John perform his final UK concert as part of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour? 8) According to the Met Office, which…

Surrey, £3.65 million As Westend Barn has more than 5,500sq ft of accommodation, it should come as no surprise that its 46ft central dining area is as grand as any galleried medieval hall. Only three miles from popular Haslemere, this 17th-century property has been impressively converted into a sizeable family house, with five bedrooms, three reception rooms, six bathrooms, a wood-panelled study, a detached double car barn and even a gym. All of the bedrooms are en suite and the master has a parquet floor, walk-in shower room and extensive dressing room. The various garden areas are peaceful and well kept, with mature trees, some raised beds, hedgerows and a pergola over the outdoor dining area. Strutt & Parker (01428 788636) Oxfordshire, £3 million In a highly desirable Cotswolds location,…

Red-cabbage and gin-cured salmon with red-cabbage slaw and blinis Method ▸ In a bowl, mix together the sliced red cabbage, gin, salt, sugar and lemon zest. ▸ Take a large piece of clingfilm and add half the red cabbage mixture to it, spreading it in an even layer. Place the salmon fillet on top, skin side down, then add the remaining mixture on top. Ensure the whole fillet is entirely covered. Wrap the clingfilm all around the salmon, so that it is entirely enclosed. Place in a serving dish and refrigerate for 48 hours to cure. ▸ Once cured, wash the salmon clean and refrigerate again until ready to serve. ▸ Make a slaw by finely slicing or grating the other half of the red cabbage and the red onion,…

THE complicated, close and much-misunderstood relationship between fox and huntsman is adroitly captured in fiction by David Rook in his 1970 novel The Belstone Fox. An abandoned cub, Tag, is brought up in hunt kennels before being released into the wild, where his cleverness in evading hounds engenders affection and respect from the huntsman who reared him. After many runs: ‘Tag had the devil in him—the game had slowed down to the point where it had become boring, so now he was going to liven it up a little’ and the fox leads the pack across a railway track with tragic, bloody results. The huntsman, maddened by grief at the loss of his hounds, obsessively determines to catch Tag and, some members of the anti-hunting fraternity may be pleased to…

TURKEYS are cool, turkeys are wicked,’ wrote the late, pioneeering poet Benjamin Zephaniah in 1995. Unfortunately, however, all 10 heritage turkey breeds listed by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) are struggling for survival and are categorised as ‘priority’. The handsome Buff, which originated in America, used to have its own breed club, but is now in need of improvement, according to the RBST. The charity has undertaken research into the healthier qualities of native turkey breeds over commercially produced ones. The Norfolk Black (pictured) is thought to be Britain’s first turkey variety, arriving from Spain in the 16th century; it is the breed adopted by farmers in the turkey stronghold of Norfolk. The weighty Bronze—stags can reach up to 40lb—the Slate, with its attractive blue-grey plumage (and thus the…

AMONG the earliest forms of human artistic expression are depictions of animals. A native pig painted in a cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is believed to be at least 45,500 years old and the famous 17,000-year-old cave art in Lascaux, France, comprises hauntingly beautiful representations of stags, bison, cattle and, above all else, horses. Art offers a valuable insight into the dynamic relationship between humans and animals throughout history—from the admiration for creatures vital to human existence shown in cave art to the heavily symbolic meanings attributed to animals in Roman mosaics and Renaissance paintings. Art has also long reflected their place in our hearts as companions. Affection for domesticated animals is particularly conspicuous in portraits and photography of the Victorian era—animal artist Sir Edwin Landseer, a royal…

THE first time I tried on pointe shoes when I was a little girl, it felt like a dream—I remember that moment so clearly,’ reveals junior soloist Ivana Bueno, one of the dancers who will play the lead role of Clara in the English National Ballet’s (ENB) production of The Nutcracker at the London Coliseum this year. ‘I think I was about 10 years old. The older ballerinas had blisters on their feet; and, after wearing mine for the first time, I can remember excitedly checking my toes to see if I had any blisters, too.’ Sitting in a bright boardroom in between rehearsals at the Mulryan Centre for Dance, the state-of-the-art headquarters of the ENB in London City Island, Miss Bueno gestures to her pointe shoes as she outlines…

CHRISTMAS is rich with customs. We each have our own. Presents, for instance, must be opened at a fixed point: pre-dawn for children, dusk for weary cooks. Alongside tickets for the panto or The Nutcracker, divisive boardgames and a lone tangerine in the toe of a stocking, these traditions amass over time to create individual versions of the feast. The alchemy is rarely questioned, however, as the origins begin to blur, and that is certainly true of the music that provides the soundtrack and focus of our celebrations. Musically, Christmas is a luxuriantly international affair, with a disparate repertoire. At one end of the spectrum are the relentless janglings of commercialism, the sleigh bells and shop bells vying for supremacy. At the other is the austere yet beguiling output of…

THE most I could pay you is £20.’ The child who had uttered these words looked around 10 years old. She wore a jumper featuring a Welsh terrier in a Christmas hat. ‘Funny coincidence,’ was my thought at the time. My brother George and I have a Welshie; George had taken him out for his morning walk five minutes before this girl knocked on our door. Her name was Lauryn Redgate. She turned out to be 13. She took three mince pies from the plate I offered her; her manner suggested no one was going to stop her, though no one had tried. She had made an appointment in the proper way and arrived on time; to some, this dual achievement might sound insignificant, yet it is a hurdle that…

Quiz answers How did you do? Check your answers to the Editor’s Christmas quiz (page 160) So that was 2023 1) Walrus 2) Not wearing a seatbelt in a moving car 3) Flying Scotsman 4) Just Stop Oil 5) George VI and Queen Elizabeth 6) Mars bar 7) Glastonbury Festival 8) June 9) Orkney 10) Spain 11) Sir Michael Caine 12) Wales A right royal affair 1) Rudyard Kipling 2) St Mary Magdalene, Sandringham, Norfolk 3) Teatime on Christmas Eve 4) Christmas puddings 5) Three Fa la la la la 1) Good King Wenceslas 2) The Holly and the Ivy 3) Ding Dong! Merrily on High 4) Away in a Manger 5) Once in Royal David’s City Say what you see 1) Buckingham (central London) 2) Eltham (Greenwich, south-east London)…

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