Innholdsfortegnelse for August 28, 2024 i Country Life

DIRTY Rolls!’ the Etonians called him, but they won’t be laughing now. Charles Stewart Rolls (1877–1910), son of Lord and Lady Llangattock of The Hendre, the grand Victorian estate of Monmouthshire, Wales, developed an enthusiasm for ‘tinkering’ with engines when at Eton and, in 1895, he enrolled at Trinity College, Cambridge, to study mechanical engineering and applied science. At 18, Rolls travelled to Paris to buy his first car, spending £225 on a Peugeot Phaeton. It was the first motorcar in Cambridge and one of the first three to be owned in Wales—when Monmouth townsfolk heard he was driving home, they waited two days and nights to glimpse the car crossing the Monnow bridge. The first driving excursion of the Duke and Duchess of York, later George V and Queen…

I WOULDN’T ask any horse into the house,’ declares Celia Knight in the opening scenes of The Englishwoman and the Horse, Candida Lycett Green’s delightful documentary of 1981. The horse in question, Sam, is seen gently taking a sugar lump from his mistress’s teeth as the family gathers in the drawing room after lunch. ‘He just loves human beings and he’s very placid, so he usually comes in once a week, after lunch, when we’re all sitting around having coffee,’ Miss Knight (later Lady Vestey) explains, as the camera pans back to reveal an enormous skewbald horse standing among the sofas and side tables. The speaker’s sister, Henrietta—the future racehorse trainer—is seen curled up in an armchair, sticking photographs into an album, as their mother pours the coffee and gently…

Best car for the school run Volvo XC60 If in doubt, go Swedish. The staple of the school run for generations, Volvo makes cars of immense practicality and, most importantly, safety. They also look nice and drive well. Five seats, plenty of space in the boot and a good driving position. ‘Designed to simplify and improve your life,’ they say. We can agree with that. Best car for doing the school run with dogs Volvo XC90 As above, but bigger. First introduced in 2002, the XC90 is the ultimate people mover. Jeremy Clarkson has owned three and once described it as ‘designed by someone who must’ve had children due to its practicality’. Like him or loathe him, he does know a thing or two about cars. Best first car Volkswagen…

FIVE years ago, Sophie Eadie and Fi Crole joined forces to establish their own studio, pooling more than 20 years of design experience and a shared love of timeless design. This project required the overhaul of a large apartment that overlooks the piazza in London’s Covent Garden. ‘We made some structural changes, including removing part of the original kitchen and converting the remaining space into a study and television room,’ explains Mrs Crole. Asked by the client to create a cool, calm and timeless scheme for this drawing room, the starting point was a rug in easy-going shades of rust red and grey. Its texture and the clean lines provided inspiration for the rest of the scheme. The bookcase was designed in-house and allows the spaces to be used both…

LONG outliving the pandemic, hybrid working remains a highly popular lifestyle choice. Areas east of London are tempting due to their good access into the capital—especially the City—but also because they can offer greater affordability than comparable pockets in the north, west or south. Cambridgeshire, north Essex, Suffolk and south Norfolk are all rich in charming villages and market towns within one to two hours of London on the train—here are some of the most sought after. The only way is (north) Essex—and beyond Heading beyond the commuting hubs of Chelmsford and Colchester on the A12 towards Ipswich, there is a scenic pocket where Essex meets Suffolk in the Dedham Vale that is perhaps better known as Constable Country; it was here that the Romantic artist revolutionised landscape painting in…

Herb-crusted halibut with lemon Dijon French beans Method ▸ Preheat your oven to 180˚C fan/200˚C/400˚F/gas mark 6 and place the halibut fillets on a parchment-lined baking sheet. ▸ In a medium-size bowl, combine the breadcrumbs, herbs, garlic, Parmesan and seasoning. Pour the melted butter over and stir until you have a crumbly mixture. Press it gently onto the halibut fillets. Bake the halibut fillets in the oven for 12–15 minutes, by which the fish should be cooked and the crust golden. ▸ As the halibut cooks, blanch the beans in boiling, salted water for 3–4 minutes until almost cooked. Drop into ice water for a couple of minutes to stop the cooking process, then drain. Heat a splash of olive oil in a large frying pan and fry the shallots…

YOU could trace the history of the early years of the Turf through George Stubbs’s racehorse pictures. Marske, Eclipse, Gimcrack, Dungannon and Hambletonian were among the 18th-century champions he painted, sometimes set against the vast, austere backdrop of Newmarket Heath, the spiritual home of Flat racing. Ironically, however, Stubbs did not care for the crowds and noise of racetracks. His images were more reposeful and he seldom showed horses in their galloping strides. Perhaps it’s fitting that the animal in his most famous picture, Whistlejacket, was not even a great racehorse and was only moderately successful at stud. ‘Whistlejacket is a spellbinding portrait of grace, power and wildness’ Ever since the National Gallery acquired Stubbs’s rousing study of the 2nd Marquess of Rockingham’s prancing, flaxen-maned stallion in 1997, it has…

Chasing Fog Laura Pashby (Simon & Schuster, £18.99) FOG—quite difficult to grasp. It’s certainly different to mist, which is more transparent, literally so: the technical difference between the two vaporous states is that in fog visibility is restricted to 1,000m (3,280ft); if you can see further in the condensed water-droplet murk, it is mist. It is the impenetrability of fog that gives the weather state its mystique, its transformative power. As the author-photographer Laura Pashby notes in this bravo to brume, ‘fog opens a rift in reality’. The world is blurred, ‘the familiar unfamiliar’. We, too, are altered. Fog robs humans of their highest sense, the ability to see, heightening our other senses, sometimes to our dismay—the boom of a fog-horn is the clarion of potential disaster. Fog can be…

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 NEXT term sees the opening of Winchester College’s new sports hall, which will offer opportunities for climbing, cricket practice, badminton, futsal, tennis, squash, fives, Dojo and dancing. For pupils, all this comes in addition to a world-famous academic tradition established by William of Wykeham in 1382. For parents (or generous, well-heeled grandparents), a place at the Hampshire school currently comes at a cost of just under £50,000 a year. Since the 1970s, there has been an arms race among leading private schools to offer ever-more elaborate facilities. Stonyhurst fired the first shot, offering a nine-hole golf course, in addition to 1,000 acres of Lancashire countryside, a clutch of Old Masters and a Shakespeare first edition. Marlborough,…

Several shades of grey IN editing, my letter repeats the very mistake that I was at pains to point out (Letters, August 14). To be absolutely clear, The Royal Scots were an infantry regiment, a battalion of which fought at Waterloo. The Scots Greys (from 1877, Royal Scots Greys), were a cavalry regiment, the subject of Lady Butler’s painting Scotland Forever! It was the (Royal) Scots Greys who were rescued by Sir John Vandeleur’s Light Brigade when they galloped on too far, not The Royal Scots. Allan Mallinson, Wiltshire Neighbourhood planning HERE in rural Hampshire, north of the South Downs National Park, volunteers from our village produced a Neighbourhood Plan that designated housing sites chosen by the parishioners, not the planners (Agromenes, August 14). The number of housing units included…

FROM one spectacular backdrop to another—six weeks ago, Team GB’s gold medal-winning team in Versailles, Paris, provided the best possible advertisement for five-star eventing. Two out of the three horses in the triumphant Olympic squad were Badminton winners: London 52, ridden by Laura Collett, also the individual bronze medallist and part of the winning Tokyo team in 2021; and Lordships Graffalo with Ros Canter. The third, JL Dublin, mount of the now world number one, Tom McEwen, has twice been highly placed at Kentucky, the premier event in the US. ‘Eventing is a sport that rewards kind horsemanship, courage and partnership’ That the British selectors favoured five-star (top-level) equine form will, it is hoped, give a shot in the arm to the world’s highest-rated competitions, of which Defender Burghley Horse…

Mark Hedges, Editor My first car was a Mini. Its brown colour made it look like a mobile cowpat, but it hid the rust as best it could. It was a gift from a maiden aunt, who pottered around Oxfordshire in it. She wasn’t one for modish things such as a radio, so my six-hour journeys to Durham University were spent staring at the mile counter waiting for round numbers or parts of the Fibonacci sequence to appear. I used to go everywhere in it with my border terrier and to horse events (and the pub) with my great friend, Rachel. The car had some magic—40 years later, Rachel became my wife. Levison Wood, explorer, writer and photographer Ah, my first car—a trusty old silver Audi A4 1.9 TDi, the…

ONE of the many attractions of Focus—the highlight of the interior-design world’s autumn calendar—is the programme of events both in The Design Club at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, London SW10, and in some of the 130 showrooms that make its three domes the beating heart of the industry. Next month, COUNTRY LIFE will host events on September 16, 17 and 18, offering plenty of opportunities to benefit from the wit and wisdom of leading designers. Blenheim: if walls could talk Interior designer Henrietta Spencer-Churchill will offer a personal insight into the palace’s state rooms, as well the private apartments that have been home to 12 generations of her family. She’ll also explain why, as do so many of the nation’s historic interiors, they are providing fresh inspiration to a young…

The garden of Stockcross House, BerkshireThe home of Edward and Susan Vandyk HANDSOME Stockcross House, with its distinctive gables, started life as the village vicarage when it was built in 1848. Appropriately, the adjacent St John’s church, which had been built only a few years earlier in 1839, provides the raison d’être for much of the garden, which folds around it on two sides in an L-shape. The tall, elegant church tower, with its Gothic windows and corner turrets, is the focal point for a subtly changing series of views that reveal themselves as you explore the garden, binding the two together in a reassuring fashion. Susan Vandyk, who has created the garden, says that, over the years, she has constantly looked up and thought: ‘What can I do here…

A LONG-RUNNING exhibition can be a trap for art critics and columnists who have missed the press view. Suddenly, one realises that closure is looming and it may well be too late. The Tate Modern’s ‘Blue Rider’ exhibition has been open since late April and continues to October 20; I have not yet been, but am determined to avoid the trap and to have visited before you read this. We shall see. My prompt has been news about a summer sale in Germany in which Expressionist paintings were prominent. In my February 7 column, I gave a resumé of the auctioneer Ketterer Kunst’s history and a report of the firm’s autumn series of sales at its Munich headquarters. Among the leading prices was €3.92 million (about £3.365 million) for a…

Amy’s final flight THE story of trailblazing pilot Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia, in 1930, will be told in a new extension to Spitfire Visitor Centre Hangar 42 at Blackpool Airport, Lancashire; the museum has launched a fundraising campaign to support the works. Born in Hull in 1903, Johnson was introduced to flying as a hobby and gained an aviator’s certificate in 1929. She set numerous long-distance records in the 1930s and flew as part of the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War. In 1941, she departed from Blackpool Airport to deliver an RAF aircraft to Kidlington airbase, Oxfordshire, but, for reasons unknown, her plane ditched in the Thames estuary 4½ hours after take-off and her body was never found. Volunteers…

FOR nearly 130 years, COUNTRY LIFE has been the focal point of those who want to buy or sell distinguished houses. Sadly, it is often death that brings a house to the market and, sometimes, it is inheritance that enables a buyer to move. In both circumstances, getting probate is crucial and this has never been as protracted or as frustrating as it is today. Of course, there have always been estates that present special difficulties—contested wills, complex settlements and uncertain codicils—but what needs to be highlighted today is the frustration of almost everyone seeking probate, however simple the issues involved. This ought to be a streamlined and competent affair that takes no more than three weeks. Now, the simplest of cases can often take nine months. ‘The Probate Office…

Scone Palace, Perthshire, part IIThe seat of the Earl and Countess of Mansfield and Mansfield ON January 8, 1716, James Francis Edward Stuart, familiarly known now as the Old Pretender, arrived at Scone Palace outside Perth. The cause of his Jacobite supporters, who wished to see him recognised as James VIII of Scotland and III of England, was already faltering as the Hanoverian forces of George I closed in. Nevertheless, he held court in the palace. It was here that the medieval kings of Scotland—as well as Charles II in 1651—had been crowned and his future coronation was confidently proclaimed. Yet the ceremony never took place. Less than a month later, on the night of February 5, the Old Pretender slipped away secretly by boat to the Continent, leaving his…

BEN NEVIS, Scafell Pike and Mount Snowdon represent the three highest mountain peaks in Scotland, England and Wales, respectively. To do all three in succession—and many hard-charging hikers attempt that challenge in 24 hours—requires lots of driving through the UK’s most glorious landscapes, meaning a fast, comfortable grand tourer is of the essence. What car might be best suited to this mission to the great outdoors? Step forward the Aston Martin DBX707. Aston Martin is an ancient (in automotive terms) English brand; this car—its super SUV—is built in St Athan, Wales. The acres of sumptuous interior leather are furnished by Bridge of Weir, Scotland. What emerges, therefore, is a holy trinity of British craftsmanship. ‘I became the first man in recorded history to cook baked beans in an Aston Martin’…

Hounding me GOODWOOD’S 10-bedroom sporting lodge captures the spirit of entertainment for which the West Sussex estate has become famed. Hound Lodge (above) is what country-house fanatics’ dreams are made of and you can pretend it’s all yours for as long as you choose to stay. Lucky guests can bask in the sporting lodge’s beautiful interiors (relaxed, but a cut above), private gardens and courtyards. I found myself imagining the magnificent banquet table surrounded by friends and family—hosting here is bound to be memorable. James, the charming head butler, will tend to your every need and sumptuous food is whipped up by Tim, the award-winning chef. A night at Hound Lodge is £10,000 (www.goodwood.com). Stroke of genius WHO better than Jane Austen to inspire Montblanc’s latest Writers Edition Homage collection?…

EDGAR DEGAS called him ‘the giant of pygmies’. It was quite the insult for Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier (1815–91), a celebrated painter of grand battles and military scenes, but in a France riven between Impressionist avant-garde and the Salon’s academic orthodoxy, he fell squarely in the traditionalist camp, thus attracting the scorn of the younger painter. ‘Degas really despised him because he felt Meissonier was a rather boring, Salonesque painter,’ says Edward Horswell of the Sladmore Gallery in London SW1. Yet, he counters, Meissonier was anything but staid. ‘We have a person who has never studied sculpture and decides, much as Degas would start doing 25 years later, to start modelling, in order to help with his paintings. His sculpture is far ahead of his time. It’s got so much modernity,…