Innholdsfortegnelse for March 20, 2024 i Country Life

Future Publishing Ltd, 121–141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London W2 6JR 0330 390 6591; www.countrylife.co.uk TWO hundred and twenty years ago this month, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) was founded, originally as the Horticultural Society of London, at a meeting of seven men that included the great plant collector and botanist Sir Joseph Banks and horticulturist John Wedgwood (son of Josiah). The aim of this small learned society of garden enthusiasts, professional gardeners and nurserymen was to share their knowledge with the wider public. Back then it cost three guineas to become a member and two guineas annual subscription—equivalent to £2,500 and £1,600 respectively—so not exactly open to all. Indeed, women were not allowed to join until 1830. Today, the RHS has more than 600,000 members and, through the RHS gardens…

Tales of rope REGARDING recent correspondence on the subject of the official hangman’s ropes, they were indeed also made in Bridport, hence the local saying about ‘being stabbed with a Bridport dagger’, which needs no translation (Letters, March 6). Brian Jackman, Dorset World without walls I SO enjoyed reading Carla Carlisle’s latest article (Another country, March 6). It reminded me of another book called West With The Night by Beryl Markham (right), which describes life in colonial Kenya at about the same time—it is beautifully written and an unforgettable read. Ernest Hemingway said of Markham, ‘she has written so well, and marvellously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer’. Markham was also the first person to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic to North America. Paula…

‘Charley Harper is the greatest, certainly the most original US painter of wildlife since Audubon. His work has a Cubist concern for the simplicity of line and a Rothko-like preoccupation with pure colour. For me, this is his masterpiece. It shows 45 birds flying through a gorgeous plane of star-flecked blue, some visible only as a head or tail. They are, after all, mysteriously missing, primarily because of human destruction. In Harper’s lifetime, North America lost three billion breeding birds. The painting is a plea for deeper environmental action. It also celebrates Nature’s interconnections–between the particular and the cosmos, between the workings of a migrant’s neurological processes and the stars by which they’ve navigated for millions of years. All life is implicit in one magnificent work’ Charlotte Mullins comments on…

With only lawns and shrubberies remaining of the original gardens, their rejuvenation has taken a huge amount of thought and work but, says James Alexander-Sinclair, the results are spectacular AH… the Cotswolds. Shoals of perfect villages with stone the colour of a Californian suntan, rolling fields and fat cattle. Roads that pass between magnificently arched mature beech trees with their newly born, lettuce-coloured leaves. Almost unbearably picturesque pubs crouch welcomingly on corners as we wander down narrow paths into deep wooded valleys and up again into the light of ridges and escarpments. In the distance, the Malvern Hills glint in the sunshine and feathery clouds flit over flocks of happy sheep. You get the picture? Bucolic bliss at its best. In the middle of all this sits a remarkable house…

A LOT of people don’t realise how much these animals contribute,’ sighs the Countess of Bathurst, founder of the National Foundation for Retired Service Animals (NFRSA). ‘They have dedicated their lives to keeping us safe. I believe we should come together as a nation and support them in their twilight years. It’s the least we can do to acknowledge that loyalty.’ When serving as High Sheriff of Gloucestershire in 2016, Lady Bathurst discovered that financial support for service animals comes to an end when they retire. ‘Naturally, handlers want to keep their partners and they can easily cover the expense of food, toys and kennelling, but the cost of veterinary care can be daunting, as insurance is difficult to obtain due to the dog’s age,’ she points out. ‘It’s unthinkable…

Cornwall, £2.5 million Myth and magic permeate the north Cornwall coast, where seals and seagulls flit around Merlin’s Cave, overlooked by Tintagel Castle on the jagged headland above. The village of Trenale lies about a mile inland, intersected by the South-West Coast Path; within it is Grade II*-listed Trebrea Manor, a handsome 14th- and 18th-century property recently renovated by award-winning architect Simon Conder. Within four acres with glorious sea views, its gardens have also been transformed by Jinny Blom, winner of several Chelsea Gold medals. The house’s contemporary kitchen/breakfast room opens onto a sunny, sheltered lawn. Beyond are a formal gated garden and a terraced area rising to woodland, an orchard and a stream. Across the lane, a five-bar gate leads to a paddock. All four bedrooms are en suite;…

TWO reasons why the North Yorkshire town of Whitby is so celebrated are dark, smooth and elegant. One is Count Dracula, the other is Whitby jet. That both are associated with mournful Victorians also accounts for Whitby’s attraction to those of a Gothic frame of mind. Popular legend has it that jet is the fossilised remains of an ancestor of a monkey puzzle tree deposited on the Yorkshire coast 180 million years ago. ‘That’s a myth,’ asserts Whitby-based gemmologist Sarah Steele of Ebor Jet-works. ‘Whitby jet was actually formed from many different types of wood, but I think Victorian jewellers liked the idea of the monkey puzzle tree. It’s certainly an appealing story.’ Whitby jet is light, warm to the touch, hard enough to carve and can be polished to…

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Heroes of the high seas IN the 200 years since the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) was founded, more than 144,000 lives have been saved and, sadly, 600 courageous crew members have died in the process. To celebrate the anniversary, a 200 Voices podcast series has been launched, in which volunteers, supporters and the rescued recount their stories, and, on Saturday, ‘RNLI 200: The Exhibition’ opens at Historic Dockyard Chatham, Kent. In 1823, Sir William Hillary, resident of the Isle of Man, wrote a pamphlet detailing plans for a lifeboat service for the UK and Ireland. There were then some 1,800 shipwrecks a year in British waters and he often assisted in rescues off the Manx coast. Hillary’s idea to institute ‘a large body of men… in constant readiness to…

THE past 12 months have been torrid for plant-based foods. Believing its own propaganda, the industry had expected to go from strength to strength until meat was a distant memory, only eaten in secret by a few remaining heretics—perhaps served blindfolded as for those who once dared to eat ortolan. Instead, the industry’s hopes have come crashing down. Meatless Farm and VBites have called in administrators and Nestlé has closed that part of its business. Sales in the category fell by more than 6%. So bad was the outlook that, last month, once-fierce competitors gathered in London to see what could be done to revive their dreams. More than 40 manufacturers and major retailers came together to agree that plant-based foods need collaboration, a common platform and a campaign to…

SIXTY years ago, my parents spent their honeymoon with Jai and Ayesha, the Maharaja and Maharani of Jaipur, family friends through a shared love of polo. Nine months later, I arrived. I am regretting that it has taken six decades for me to make a pilgrimage to the beautiful pink city of Jaipur to see where my story started. Family history relates that my late parents took a Fortnum & Mason Stilton as a present for their hosts. Halfway through their stay, they were relieved to find it had been a hit when Ayesha asked where the Stilton was and Jai confessed that he had eaten it in his dressing room with his shoe horn, as the last time someone had brought one, he hadn’t had any. Ayesha is better…

BEFORE the growing season gets going in earnest at Brown Flowers, I take stock of the ground available and plan where each variety will be planted, taking care to rotate the annual crops from the previous year. Rotation improves the health of the soil—and, therefore, the plants—by continuously introducing new root structures to the various beds. In the greenhouse The majority of seeds is sown in March and April. We plan to grow 50 separate varieties of annuals, resulting in about 6,000 plants. The selection is based on notes honed over the years, but, with space at a premium, we always sow a lot of cut-and-come-again flowers, such as cosmos, zinnias and scabious, because the yields are so much better. Seeds are sown into individual cells, not broadcast, which saves…

STAND by a stream and you might just hear the gentle chatter in its rippling rhythm. Look up at a tree canopy on an autumn day and see a cathedral of colour. Stand on a hilltop and look out over fields and rivers, villages and market towns. J. R. R. Tolkien’s imagination was populated by these encounters with the British landscape and he richly threaded both knowledge and memory through his work as a fantasy writer. This year, his novel The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring celebrates the 70th anniversary of its original publication, in 1954. The story is of an unassuming, home-loving character named Frodo Baggins, who agrees to undertake a perilous quest that sees him depart a pastoral landscape and venture into increasingly doom-laden…

Spring onion air-fryer beignets with easy herb mayo and sriracha Method ▸ Preheat your air fryer to 200˚C and set the timer for 15 minutes. If you don’t have an air fryer, deep fry the beignets in an inch of vegetable oil until golden. ▸ Heat the butter, water and sugar in a saucepan. Once simmering and foaming, take off the heat and dump in all the flour in one hit. Beat furiously until it comes together and leaves the side of the pan to create a dough. Add the eggs, beat again until smooth and then mix in the chopped spring onions and season. ▸ Use two tablespoons to shape the mixture into balls and place straight onto a tray that goes into your air fryer. Brush each one…

SEVEN down: Shrimps that dwell on the past (6, 7) If this clue seems absurdly easy to you, then it’s axiomatic that you’re someone who cannot fathom the concept of a full day passing without completing a crossword—possibly in the time it takes to boil a kettle or listen to Thought For The Day on Radio 4. Look away now if you don’t want to know the answer, for it is ‘potted history’. If you struggled to work it out, don’t worry. For a century now, the crossword has been interrupting our working day and pushing the more obtuse elements of our brain close to breaking point. ‘I struggle to comprehend the person who has never had any desire, even once, to attempt any kind of crossword, but, for me,…

AS legend has it, Oxford undergraduate John Russell was strolling dreamily in the meadows of Magdalen College—‘Horace [poet] in hand, but Beckford [sporting diarist] in head’—when he came upon an appealing rough-coated terrier bitch called Trump, with a ‘dot, no larger than a penny piece’ on her tail. The Revd E. W. L. Davies, who became Russell’s curate and biographer, wrote that his hunting-mad subject ‘halted as Actaeon might have done when he caught sight of Diana disporting in her bath; but unlike that ill-fated hunter, he never budged… til he had won the prize and secured it for his own’. Tan-and-white Trump became the foundation bitch for generations of what would become known as the Parson Russell terrier, predominantly white with a few patches of colour, long-legged enough to…

Venerable verdigris Handmade recycled copper Riveted Cauldrons are from the Myth collection by Bronzino, from £900 for a 41cm high by 41cm diameter (16in by 16in) size in Copper Green, shown here far left (020–7370 4344; www.bronzino.co.uk) Hot tip This Traditional Square Steel planter is hand finished, from £391.95 for 40cm by 40cm by 40cm (16in by 16in by 16in) size, from Harrod Horticultural (0333 400 1500; www.harrodhorticultural.com) Tuscan terracotta Made of frost-resistant terracotta, the Large Liscio vase, £850, 75cm high by 101cm diameter (30in by 40in) is handmade in Tuscany for Ornamenti by Lapicida (01423 400100; www.ornamenti.co.uk) Collectors piece Cast-iron English urn, £5,040, 51cm by 85cm by 59cm (51in by 33in by 23in), from Westland London, (020–7739 8094; www.westlandlondon.com) Rare find From Pots and Pithoi’s collection of antique pots,…

Never previously described in COUNTRY LIFE, this outstanding Scottish castle is architectural testimony to the exceptional wealth of its creator. John Goodall reports on its history and recent revival ON Tuesday, April 5, 1830, The Times carried a report on a recent electoral scandal in the notorious rotten boroughs of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, Dorset. Drawing on the evidence of a court case, it was revealed that a sitting MP, Col John Gordon of Cluny, ‘a man of large landed estate and considerable wealth as well as of considerable ambition’, had secretly supported the campaign of Edward Sugden—later Lord Chancellor—to be returned to Parliament. He had done so in competition with his own brother-in-law and to the detriment of his young nephew’s interest (of whom he was guardian). All this…

BOUNDED to the east by the River Tamar, which marks the boundary between Devon and Cornwall, sparsely populated North Tamerton—previously located in Devon, but now part of Cornwall—is the only parish in the county that includes land east of the Tamar. Medieval North Tamerton, ‘the town of the Tamar’, which overlooks the confluence of the great river and its tributary, the Deer, is the only village in this landscape of hamlets and farmsteads. Here, in the mid to late 1500s, Leonard Lovis (or Loveys), Elizabeth I’s treasurer for Cornwall and Devon, built his grand family seat, Ogbeare Hall. The 1973 autumn edition of Old Cornwall, published by the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies, sets the scene: ‘Ogbeare Hall may be approached from the road at nearby Hornacott Chapel. This way…

IT started with a headcount gone wrong. When Duke of Gloucester sailed away from the remote island of Tristan da Cunha, to which she had repaired on March 18, 1824, to weather out a storm, Capt Simon Amm accidentally left behind a crew member, Thomas Gooch, a passenger, painter Augustus Earle (1793–1838), and the latter’s dog, Jemmy. If it wasn’t quite Robinson Crusoe, it was close: the island, ‘a spot hitherto unvisited by any artist’, as Earle wrote in A journal of a residence in Tristan D’Acunha, only had a handful of settlers and half a dozen houses. Despite being stranded with ‘no other preparation’ than his sketchbook, his gun and the clothes on his back, the artist was at first sanguine: ‘We must bear our lot patiently, and endeavour…

Queen Victoria and Her Prime Ministers: A Personal History Anne Somerset (William Collins, £30) QUEEN VICTORIA came to the throne at 18, small, lively and feminine. She had little knowledge of the male world of politics, although she had developed a mind of her own, having resisted the odious Capt Conroy, her mother’s intimate, who had been seeking to control her. Once Queen, her girlhood was over and she was all but alone. The one person on whom she could depend for help was the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. Witty and worldly, the widowed Melbourne, then in his late fifties, doted on his new sovereign. Wearing his responsibilities as head of government lightly, he would spend all day with her and she resented the time he was away. ‘I have…

WELL over a decade ago, I sat at a meeting in the village pub, eating a packet of Scampi Fries and drinking a pint of Carling (it wasn’t a sophisticated place, but it was what we had). The meeting had been called—I think by the local landowner—because the pub hadn’t made money for some time and it looked as if the owner of The Flying Pig had no other option than shutting up shop. I was, quite proudly, a bit of a regular. On Wednesdays, I’d stop in for one and on Thursdays—chip night—I’d put away two or three at least. Things could run on until 10pm (hellishly late in somewhere as presbyterian as south-west Scotland). What irked me, however, is that a good 80% of the people who turned…