Innholdsfortegnelse for July 24, 2024 i Country Life

IN 1994, the president of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch, marked the committee’s century by placing a wreath on the grave of William Penny Brookes at Much Wenlock, Shropshire, declaring: ‘I came to pay homage and tribute to Dr Brookes, who really was the founder of the Modern Olympic Games.’ Brookes (1809–95), a surgeon, botanist, social reformer and founder of the Wenlock Olympian Games to promote sport for all, would surely be astounded at the travelling circus that opens in Paris this weekend (July 26), with its ultra professionalism and vast financial ramifications. The first Wenlock Games took place in 1850, amid fears of a lewd, drunken breakdown in class barriers, but it survived—throwing the javelin and writing an ‘Ode to the Olympic Games’ was added in 1859—and…

TUCKED away off a winding lane in rural Hampshire, surrounded by rolling fields on the edge of an airfield, is what appears to be, at first glance, a small industrial estate. The unremarkable entrance belies the extraordinary hive of creativity that is buzzing away inside the collection of warehouses and steel-frame buildings. This is the home of Morris Singer, one of the oldest art foundries in the world, which has made some of the country’s most famous public sculptures, as well as countless private commissions. It’s likely that you’ve passed by many of its pieces without realising it, whether it’s the renowned lions that preside over Trafalgar Square or the enormous statue of Boadicea and her chariot that parades on Westminster Bridge by the Houses of Parliament. ‘There’s a constant…

IT has long been said that west is best—and, with increasingly flexible working provisions, going way out west no longer means stopping at Charlbury, Oxfordshire. Welcome to the West. ‘There is a perspective that the north Cotswolds is an easier commute to London, but we’re not bad out here in south Gloucestershire,’ says Sebastian Hipwood, co-founder of Blue Book Agency. Even if the rail fares can be more expensive, he adds, ‘many of our buyers are willing to take that on the chin on the basis that you are in a beautiful part of the Cotswolds, getting better value for money than being closer to London.’ The opening up of life beyond Charlbury brings into focus long-term second-home favourite Moreton-in-Marsh and the surrounding villages of Great Wolford, Paxford and Little…

Cherry-and-pistachio yoghurt cake Method ▸ Preheat your oven to 160˚C fan/180˚C/350˚F/gas mark 4 and line a 2lb loaf tin. ▸ Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition, then add the vanilla and yoghurt. Fold through the flour until just combined. ▸ Pour half the mixture into the loaf tin, then spoon over the pistachio paste in an even layer, followed by two-thirds of the cherries. Pour the rest of the mixture over and bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. ▸ Once baked, cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely. ▸ To make the glaze, add the icing sugar to a bowl…

Three Choirs Festival in Ten Concerts Simon Carpenter (Logaston Press, £12.99) WHEN the diarist and polemicist William Cobbett visited Gloucester in 1826, he was indignant at not being able to find a bed. ‘For what should there be here but one of those scandalous and beastly fruits of the system called a “Music-Meeting”,’ he fumed. ‘From this scene of prostitution and of pocket-picking I moved off with all convenient speed.’ Cobbett’s arrival coincided with the Three Choirs Festival, the world’s oldest classical music festival, a wonderful choral tradition that has rotated between the cathedral cities of Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester for more than three centuries. This year’s is at Worcester (July 27–August 3). Simon Carpenter, volunteer archivist and guide at Gloucester, charts the festival’s history in 10 brisk chapters, beginning…

Visit Tottering-By-Gently on our website: www.countrylife.co.uk/tottering We are committed to only using magazine paper which is derived from responsibly managed, certified forestry and chlorine-free manufacture. The paper in this magazine was sourced and produced from sustainable managed forests, conforming to strict environmental and socioeconomic standards. All contents © 2024 Future Publishing Limited or published under licence. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used, stored, transmitted or reproduced in any way without the prior written permission of the publisher. Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) is registered in England and Wales. Registered office: Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All information contained in this publication is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. Future…

Future Publishing Ltd, 121–141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London W2 6JR 0330 390 6591; www.countrylife.co.uk CITIUS, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger). These noble words spoken at a schools sports day in France in 1881 were subsequently adopted by Pierre de Coubertin as the inspiration for his grand sporting project. In 2021, Communiter (Together) was added to the official motto for the Olympic movement, a much-needed leitmotif for these fractious times as the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad start this weekend (Athena, page 50). Both de Coubertin and his English counterpart, William Penny Brookes (Legacy, page 60), would recognise and salute the heroic sporting endeavour of the next fortnight, even if they would be astonished by the kit worn. What might horrify them is the exorbitant cost and political point scoring; ruthless…

In the company of friends HOW right Huon Mallalieu’s verdict is on Saturday morning Radio 3 (Art market, July 10). It used to offer classical music intelligently presented and discussed. It now feels like a chummy Radio 2-style chat show featuring easy listening, jazz, folk, musicals and film music. I wish the BBC well in its desire to draw in a wider, younger range of listeners, but I am clearly not alone in being someone who has stopped tuning in to Radio 3 on Saturday (and Sunday) mornings. Simon Lawton-Smith, Oxfordshire Label legacy I WAS struck by the plant- label photograph that accompanied Charles Quest-Ritson’s article, as we have one that shares the exact same plant name, albeit a much simpler version (In the garden, July 10). Twenty years ago,…

A SMALL, brown dot appears in view down on the far side of the valley, moving swiftly up the hill away from us behind a flock of sheep. At a long blast on the whistle from shepherd Mark Banham, standing next to me, the dot stops abruptly and drops to the ground, before two short whistles cause it to arc around to the left of the sheep, changing their course. The dot is, in fact, seven-year-old brown-and-white collie Taff and Mr Banham is patiently talking me through each instruction as he gives it on the whistle: ‘lie down’; ‘steady’; ‘left’; ‘small left’; ‘wide left’; and so on. Even if I was fully concentrating on the commands, I’d be struggling to keep up—there are so many variations given in such quick…

I’VE seen decent shots go to pieces on the Isle of Lewis. Standing on a peg in the Home Counties and taking on 35 yard-high pheasants isn’t easy, but there’s really only one skill at play. If you can knock clay pigeons out of the air fairly consistently, you’ll probably be fine on an average driven day. Shooting grouse, over dogs, on the most north-westerly point of the British Isles is a very different thing. The most essential requirement to shoot grouse meaningfully on the Grimersta estate is being pretty fit. You can often walk 12 miles a day and if you’ve spent the summer, as I’d done, cadging fags at book festivals and drinking pints in Soho, any lack starts to become pretty apparent. Fieldcraft, that dying skill, is…

WOOD is perhaps the most ancient of all building materials. In Britain, archaeologists have uncovered traces of timber-frame homes dating back 10,000 years. During the Middle Ages, the flexibility of timber as an easily worked, ubiquitous and—if properly protected from damp—resilient material encouraged its use in every sphere of construction, from bridges to houses and churches. Its portability also made it valuable for the battlefield and the creation of siege machines and fortifications. The distinctive tradition of timber framing that developed as a consequence produced such architectural masterpieces as the 1390s roof of London’s Westminster Hall, its vast span seemingly supported on the backs of fluttering angels, or the great octagon over the crossing of Ely Cathedral. ‘These creations are a reminder that timber buildings in the Middle Ages could…

A WHITE-STUCCO villa sits in welcome at the end of a meandering drive, reached via an unassuming country lane near Tunbridge Wells. The borders and turning circle are loosely planted with perennials, such as geraniums, heuchera and deep-red Rosa ‘Tuscany Superb’, punctuated by beech and yew, which are loosely clipped into balls and beehives to mirror the arch above the porticoed front door. All very charming. Wander around the side of the house and past a towering lime, one of several parkland trees that suggest there might be more to the place, and bang: there’s the big reveal. Beyond the lawn that runs along the front, the land drops away dramatically and the view opens to wide skies and a wooded and heathland landscape that stretches as far as the…

HAIL Caesar! The imperial brow was adorned as usual by a laurel wreath, for only the most prestigious Roman personages were granted the symbol of excellence, the leafy crown. Ever fearful of treachery in those days of shifting allegiances, he had faith that laurel would live up to its reputation of offering protection against all manner of misfortune, seen and unseen. Among its guardian virtues, laurel would never be struck by lightning. In that respect, as far as we know, it worked for all the Caesars other than Marcus Aurelius Carus, emperor in AD282–83, who was reportedly felled when campaigning against the Sassanid empire, now Iran. He was probably wearing a metal helmet instead of his wreath. Whence did the formidable power of laurel in the classical era originate? Native…

ONE morning in 1919, Fernand Léger, the avant-garde painter of modern Paris, was sitting in a Montparnasse café when Jeanne-Augustine Lohy pedalled past in full bridal dress with billowing veil. Her bicycle was a wedding present and she’d been unable to resist a spin, but she’d taken the wrong route and was now late for her nuptials. The handsome artist stepped in and assured her all was not lost. ‘Before long,’ recounts Mary McAuliffe in her book When Paris Sizzled, ‘Lohy became Madame Léger.’ The surreal vignette encapsulates the spirit of Paris on the brink of les années folles, the decade that would see the city’s resurgence as European capital of modernity. Léger was fascinated by machines, as well as by film and graphic design. After returning from the Western…

Lifeline for our land ON Monday, the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF)—which marks its 30th anniversary this year—launched a 10-year initiative to benefit Nature recovery with a pot of £150 million. Termed Landscape Connections, the programme hopes to boost rural economies, enhance landscapes and connect people who might work together, particularly within and around the UK’s protected landscapes. ‘There is much discussion about the need to increase biodiversity in protected landscapes,’ explains Julian Glover, NLHF trustee, chair for the Midlands and East region and author of the pivotal 2019 Landscapes Review, ‘and we want to connect the dots. The first thing is to have long-term funding. Normally, with such funding, it’s year by year and it’s hard to think of connected activity in this way. That’s why this is a…

THE devotees of wild swimming mustn’t be allowed to skew the vitally important national debate about water. It is not a priority, or even a practicality, that we should be able to swim in every waterway, everywhere. Clearly, we need to stop using rivers as dumping grounds for waste, particularly human waste. Stopping that is going to be expensive and won’t happen overnight, but it has to be done and the wild-water campaigners who think that that won’t mean increases in water bills are living in cloud-cuckoo land. The reason we need such huge spending is that successive governments have pressed Ofwat, the water regulator, to keep bills down and so it has stymied necessary investment for more than 15 years. ‘Government accepts that the increase in investment has to…

Woodford Hill Farm, Northamptonshire IT is always a challenge to design a new house to fit well into an old landscape. A number of important factors are at play—the particular topography, the appropriate materials and the overall spirit of place. The architect Francis Terry has recently completed Woodford Hill Farm, a new house for a family with strong equestrian interests, located in that distinctive rolling Northamptonshire landscape not far from Canons Ashby House. It fits into its existing landscape like a glove. This handsome new house replaced an existing building of some size, which had however, been considerably extended in different stages. Its new owners had received permission for further extensions, but concluded that the resulting house would not be right. Instead, they decided to start again, retaining a reduced…

THE sparkling pied plumage and plaintive two-note call of a northern lapwing are some of the most evocative sights and sounds of the countryside. In spring, male birds tumble acrobatically through the sky, rolling and diving to attract potential mates; on the ground, their long pink legs, iridescent emerald and purple feathers and jaunty crests bring a touch of style to farmland. In winter, when both sexes join up with larger flocks of Continental birds, their numbers mask the sad fact that populations of native lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) have plummeted by 60% in the past 25 years and the bird is now red listed by the RSPB. The lapwing is a member of the Charadriiformes order and, despite recent declines, it’s still the UK’s most common breeding wader. Often heard…

MY season on the streams in the soft South got off to a flying start on May Day, when Editor Hedges and I were guests on a private stretch of the fabled Test. After the freakishly wet spring (according to those clever chaps with pluviometers), the river was over its banks in places, but the fish had not seen an artificial in a longish while and several came obligingly to my Kaufmann’s Stimulator. I also saw my first mayfly of the year—a delicious amuse-gueule to the coming feast. I have been fishing our chalkstreams for nearly 60 years. I was brought up on one—a tangly, unkeepered stretch of the Hertfordshire Rib that was home to a few vast wild brownies and nobody else fished it but me. I may not…

WILL MATTHEWS of Knight Frank’s country department (020–7861 1440) quotes a guide price of £12 million for the 286-acre Landford Lodge estate, a secluded and diverse country property located near the hamlet of Landford on the northern edge of the New Forest National Park, 10 miles south-east of the cathedral city of Salisbury, Wiltshire, and 18 miles north-west of the historic port town of Lymington, Hampshire. The area is steeped in naval tradition and the manor of Landford was owned in the 19th century by Frances Elizabeth Eyre, who became Countess Nelson of Trafalgar when, in 1835, her husband, Thomas, Admiral Nelson’s nephew, inherited the Nelson earldom on the death of his uncle William. Thomas died shortly afterwards and the earldom passed to their son, Horatio. Countess Nelson lived on…

THE importance of bread to the Anglo-Saxons cannot be overstated. Life was focused upon its production: growing, harvesting, milling and baking, requiring input from the whole community. Bread was the focus of every meal and the 10th-century manuscript Ælfric’s Colloquy informs us that, without it, ‘every table would seem empty, and without bread all food would be distasteful’. The Anglo-Saxons conquered and dominated the area of Britain that would become known as England from the 5th century until they were eventually conquered by the Normans in 1066. At first, they were Pagans, but Christianity would be adopted by the various kingdoms over time in a mosaic fashion. Lammas, held on August 1, marked the beginning of the season called hærfest, from which we get the word ‘harvest’. The word lammas,…

THIS week, I am making an effort to retrieve some exhibitions and other events that would lurk otherwise overlooked in the deeper recesses of my inbox. If you happen to be attending the Olympic equestrian events at the Palace of Versailles (July 27–August 6), it should be well worth your while to make time for a visit to nearby Marly, originally Louis XIV’s secondary residence and suitably grand hunting lodge. Life at this château, built at the same time as the palace, was slightly less formal, so courtiers vied for the privilege of accompanying the King, who spent a couple of days there each fortnight and more as he aged. However, it was less popular with Louis’s successors, because it was damp and on a north-facing slope, so, eventually, the…