Innholdsfortegnelse for 27-Dec-2023 i Country Life

Future Publishing Ltd, 121–141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London W2 6JR 0330 390 6591; www.countrylife.co.uk January Freezing weather prompts returning university students to reject Veganuary and demand warming beef stew and lamb hotpot. February The producers of I’m a Celebrity agree to shoot an episode in Rwanda as part of a desperate PR stunt. The Prime Minister is asked to select an MP to test the gorilla-poo milkshakes. March Hares go on strike and move about quite norm-ally. The Italian rugby team benefits from an extraordinary heatwave to win the Six Nations. April Chaos is caused when the Shipping Fore-cast is delivered in Cockney rhyming slang as an April Fool joke: ‘There are gale warnings in Clumber Spaniel, Wellwisher, On the Dole and Cockle and Mussel.’ May The cross-country course for…

Painting hydrangeas I HAVE masses of hydrangeas in my garden, which are rather drab at this time of year. To combat the doom and gloom, I decided to take a can of floral spray paint to the brown heads. Now gently shaded blue and pink, a bit of colour has been suddenly introduced to my winter garden. For years, I have dried hydrangea heads and given them a quick spray paint to uplift the colour, so why not the bushes in the garden? I thoroughly recommend the treatment. So far, the painted hydrangeas have survived the rain, frost, sun and wind and they still look great. Lyndi d’Ambrumenil, Wiltshire Puzzle of grief I’M a huge fan of jigsaw puzzles, which, over the years, have provided my family with hours of…

1931 Published November 7 In the early 1930s, COUNTRY LIFE launched an occasional series of illustrated essays, The Counties and Shires of Great Britain. This view of the Seven Sisters, showing the startling whiteness of these famous cliffs, came from the first article in the series, on Sussex. There had been concern in the 1920s that this landscape would be built on. 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…

THROUGHOUT history, the eloquence of the written word has deepened connections. It has unfolded love stories, settled scores and reaffirmed friendships by relaying thoughts, feelings and stories onto paper. Today, in this fast-paced digital age, it seems as if we do not have the time to communicate in this format any more. When I sit at my Apple Mac, fingers working faster than my brain, I am functioning on autopilot, ticking off my to-do list. I am conscious, yes, but, by the end of the day, would I be able to list the contacts I have emailed or the specific contents of what I had written in each email? I have to admit, I think not. ‘Opening a letter brings a nostalgic joy in this digital age’ When I have…

• Askrigg Ropemakers, Askrigg, North Yorkshire (07940 454788; www.askrigg-ropemakers.co.uk) • Master Ropemakers, Chatham, Kent (01634 823890; www.master-ropemakers.co.uk) • Ian Outram, King’s Meaburn, Cumbria (01931 714482; https://ropework-uk.com) • Mendip Ropemakers (bell ropes), Kingsbury Episcopi, Somerset (07471 659071; www.mendipropemakers.com) • Ellis Ropes (bell ropes), Costock, Leicestershire (01509 852178; www.ellisandpritchards.co.uk) • Brian Turner Trimmings (decorative cordage), Sawbridgeworth, Hertford-shire (01279 833415; www.trimmings.co.uk)…

IT is not in my nature to be the purveyor of doom and gloom. I am a dyed-in-the-wool optimist. Gardeners, we are told, differ from farmers in that they always think next year will be better; farmers know it will be worse. For both cultivators of the earth, there were lessons learned over the past 12 months—not all of them positive. The most salutary was that cold snap in December of 2022. In Braemar, Aberdeenshire, for instance, on the 13th of that month, the temperature fell to -17.3˚C. The day before had certainly been cold, at -9.3˚C, but the overnight drop amounted to 8˚C. All right, so Braemar is not on a par with the southern counties of England, including my own locale of Hampshire, but even here -5/6˚C of…

Spare a thought for the furniture salesmen of yore. They had the unenviable task of persuading customers to part with a considerable amount of money for a dresser or a cabinet armed only with sketches—until someone thought that they could carry along samples of the finished piece, identical in workmanship and material, but far smaller in size: furniture miniatures. Hop across a few centuries and the one-time sales tool has become a collectable, often more expensive than the furniture it advertised. ‘A good example of this would be an average, reasonable-quality, late-18th-century miniature mahogany side table with one drawer,’ says Robbie Timms of S&S Timms Antiques (www.timmsantiques.com). ‘The normal price of a full-size example would be £1,000–£2,000, whereas we recently sold a couple of miniatures for £2,000–£3,000.’ The main reason…

TWO and a half centuries of age difference matter little when there is affinity. Which is why eclectic gallery Adrian Sassoon (www.adriansassoon.com) pairs Sèvres and Vincennes pieces with contemporary ceramics, glass, silver, steel, lacquer and hardstone. ‘Such display allows for interesting juxtapositions,’ says director Mark Piolet. He likes to pair this Sèvres tray from about 1770—‘an old friend I first sold in the 1990s, quietly grand’—with two vases by artist Andrew Wicks. ‘His work is exceptionally fine. His wheel-thrown, bleached vessels are painstakingly carved into, creating organic surfaces akin to coral. He often groups pieces for display, referencing 18th-century export-trade porcelain garnitures.’ The curves of the vases pay enough of a homage to the tray’s sinuous shape and their almost ethereal paleness sets off the blue ground and gilded pattern…

Quiz of the week 1) Which items bearing The King’s profile went on sale on April 4? 2) Which liquid measure is equal to a quarter of a pint? 3) If the number three is on the top of a die, which number is on the bottom? 4) In which county is Blackpool? 5) What type of sea creature is a lion’s mane? Word of the week Cacophemism (noun) A derogatory or unpleasant term used instead of a neutral one; the opposite of a euphemism 1) Stamps 2) A gill 3) Four 4) Lancashire 5) Jellyfish. Riddle me this: Because once you find it, you stop looking Time to buy ‘All the emails I get these days start with sorry but I’ve been so busy, and I don’t understand how…

Anyone lucky enough to see a foraging jack snipe—a much rarer bird than his resident cousin, the common snipe—will immediately be enchanted by his bouncing gait, as if he’s walking on soft springs instead of the long-toed, greeny-grey legs that carry him furtively through marsh and field. Cow-poached grazing land is a favourite haunt of these winter visitors from Scandinavia and Russia. Watch him bumble along, poking his long bill into the mud for worms and molluscs. At this time of year, Jack is a lonesome thing, not given to travelling with Jill, being far less sociable than the common snipe. Migration flights are thought to be solo and occur chiefly at night. By day, the plumage is so stealthy in its symphony of browns and creams amid the bleached…

COUNTRY people have every reason to be encouraged by COP28 in Dubai this month. For the first time, the world has recognised that the countryside must play a crucial role in fighting climate change. In Dubai, representatives from almost every country in the world were meeting to try to reinforce action against global heating. The prospect didn’t look very rosy, not least because this was an oil state and Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member. Indeed, many green groups had objected to the Emi-rates being named as president for 2023, but everything has to proceed by consensus in the UN. That means that everybody has to join in and petrol states must have their turn. The previous key meeting was in Glasgow in 2021 and Britain was responsible.…

The seasons THE vicissitudes and predictable unpredictability of the British climate, not to mention the national obsession with discussing it—always a reliable conversation filler—have undoubtedly affected the way we live. But wouldn’t it be dull if it was always the same, as it is for some countries. ‘Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun,’ wrote Noël Coward, but the fact is that if the British waited for the perfect weather, they would never do anything. We are still pleasantly surprised when we can eat outside, we plan for rain at summer events and we still associate Christmas with snow, even now that it is a rarity. The owners of gardens and historic properties open to the public are learning that no month need go untapped, for there…

THE practice of knotting is an ancient one. Our Neolithic ancestors used them to fish, snare and survive—weaving and tying together the threads of life, the humble knot was essential to everyday existence. From sea-faring to farming, soldiers to surgeons, knots have always been a vital tool for those engaging in particular trades and pursuits. It’s no surprise then, when the fragility of life can hang on a purposefully tied knot, that the art of binding and releasing gave rise to folklore and magic. Plato, alarmed by the power of the dark arts, wrote in his Laws that ‘the sort of man who injures others by magic knots or enchantments or incantations or any of the like practices, if he be a prophet or diviner let him die’. Equally enchanting…

FOLLOWING a bright start to the year, uncertainty caused by inflation, rising interest rates and a worsening world situation saw a lull in the country-house market in the summer and early autumn, although a late surge of activity in November and early December saw deals still being done in the run-up to Christmas. Mark McAndrew of Strutt & Parker reflects on two high-level sales that, he says, indicate the current situation at the top end of the market, where most serious players tend to be cash buyers and a shortage of new stock has helped to sustain property values. On the other hand, the increasing complexity involved in processing the sale of historic country houses and estates means that transactions often take much longer than expected to complete. The sale…

PERHAPS your farm is missing a fearsome Fairy Dog to keep your livestock in line or you’d like to try your hand at hatching a fork-tongued Cockatrice? Could a winged horse give you the edge in eventing and are they worth the damage they do? Here, we navigate the mythical world of plausible pets and add a few family favourites to the menagerie. The Cockatrice Never oversleep again by adding a Cockatrice, with its ear-piercing crow, to your coop. Featuring a cockerel’s head, serpent’s body and dragon-like wings, this Biblical crossbreed lacks the charm of the traditional farmhouse rooster, but its fiercely territorial nature does mean that it doubles as an effective intruder deterrent. One legend tells of a Cockatrice terrorising the Hampshire village of Wherwell and feasting on human…

Slim Aarons: The Essential Collection Shawn Waldron (Abrams, £130) THERE’S nothing slim about this kaleidoscopically illustrated 416-page edition containing many of the photographer’s best-known images. It captures the golden age of travel on Mustique, the Costa Smeralda and many other such hotspots. ‘More than visual Prozac to be devoured by the optic nerve,’ as Nick Foulkes puts it in his essay inside, these images capture a moment in the ‘development of modern leisure culture’. Cala di Volpe Nicky Swallow (Assouline, £100) I CAME across Sardinia’s Hotel Cala di Volpe—a 007 fan’s 007 film location—when writing my own book, James Bond Destinations, for the same publisher. This title delves more deeply into that storied hotel’s origins, design and setting, exploring how this perennially charmed corner of the Costa Smeralda (the Emerald…

MUCH has been written lately about the assumption of the male plumage on the part of female birds, and vice versa. This phenomenon has been observed in various members of the avian tribes. A notable recent example is afforded by a female golden pheasant, in the possession of a resident of Worksop, Notts. Some months ago the cock pheasant died and, latterly, the female has assumed, not the widow’s robes of mourning, but the gorgeous livery of her departed spouse! It will be interesting to note if she continues to produce eggs. The male golden pheasant (above) is one of the most splendidly attired of all birds, while the female is of comparatively sombre colouration. Hence, the transformation from the female to the male type of plumage is rendered all…

The War Cloister, Winchester College, HampshireThe Warden and Fellows of Winchester College WHEN Rudyard Kipling visited Winchester in October 1925, it was expressly to view the recently completed War Cloister in the college, designed by his close friend, the architect Herbert Baker. Kipling was there on ‘a perfectly clear, Italian-skyed day’ and glimpsed, through the far end of the Cloister, a ‘framed picture of the boys playing against the background of a wall’. The building was ‘as near perfection as human work can be’ and he delighted in ‘the colour, the idea, the balance, the layout of the whole thing, and the air that flooded it and the sun that adorned it’. It was, he wrote, ‘incomparably the best of all the War Memorials’; a record of the 513 Wykehamists…

WHEN Outhwaites Ropery in Hawes, North Yorkshire, closed its doors for good in June 2022, one of the firm’s employees, Caroline Rodgers, bought the machinery and moved it to a unit in nearby Askrigg. ‘I’m 55 years old. I suppose I could have done some-thing else,’ Ms Rodgers admits. ‘However, Outhwaites had been making rope for more than a century and I couldn’t bear to see the tradition of Dales rope-making die.’ It is not only in the Yorkshire Dales that Ms Rodgers’s chosen craft is under threat. Traditional rope-making is on the Heritage Crafts endangered list, alongside other fading skills, such as lorinery, flintknapping and split-cane rod-making. It was not always so. Built in 1791, the ropery at the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent, was once the longest…

The garden at Long Barn, near Sevenoaks, KentThe home of Lars and Rebecca Lemonius IN February 1936, a rich young American couple drove down to Sevenoaks from London, in search of a house they were hoping to rent. Writing in her diary, published as The Flower and the Nettle: Diaries and Letters 1936–39, Anne Morrow recalled: ‘All the way down we kept saying gloomily and angrily, as though to prepare ourselves, “I don’t call this country” and “I don’t call this a little town.” “He [the owner] said it wasn’t suburbia,” and, at various houses on the road, large, ugly, and unprotected, “There it is!” ‘Finally we asked for “Long Barn” and were told “Over the brow of the hill” and then we both said, “There it is!” Low and…

WHO wouldn’t want to have a whisky out of a hippo?’ ponders Ben Brown of the eponymous Mayfair, Hong Kong and Palm Beach art gallery. Who, indeed? Yet, Hippopotame II (Bar), a large bronze by François-Xavier Lalanne dated 1976/2007—if you thought he was talking about a dramdispensing hippo of the living kind, I’m sorry to disappoint—failed to sell when Mr Brown showed it in one of his first exhibitions of works by the French artist and his wife, Claude. ‘Therefore, I decided to buy it myself.’ Mr Brown had been introduced to the Lalannes in the 1990s through his parents and remained their friend and UK representative until the couple died, François-Xavier in 2008 and Claude in 2019. By the time they met, the French artists had long been known…

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