Innholdsfortegnelse for March 26, 2025 i Country Life

Future Publishing Ltd, 121–141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London W2 6JR 0330 390 6591; www.countrylife.co.uk WE didn’t realise how big she would get. And do you know how much she eats?! Not to mention how many walks she needs… she was a real handful.’ The litany of excuses for why the couple in question had decided to give up their labradoodle after a paltry three years could bring you to tears, because these are not valid excuses—they are merely indicators of the sheer ignorance with which some people enter into dog ownership. One would not buy a house without considering how much it was likely to cost in the long term or whether it would still be suitable for their family in a few years’ time. No one would decide to…

Keeping the Faith I BELIEVE leasing under-utilised churches offers a viable alternative to selling (Property comment, March 12). My experience shows that churches can thrive as community assets, such as theatres or libraries, with the church retaining ownership. This arrangement generates income, preserves heritage and allows for future flexibility, should congregations grow again. Leasing provides a sustainable path for churches to remain community hubs and attract new interest. Hugh George, by email Look to longevity ALTHOUGH I applaud your editorial that resists following every short-term interior decorating trend (March 12), it is regrettable to discover that short-term building practices can be so readily accepted (Athena). You state that the replacement of the leaking roof at the River and Rowing Museum at Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, ‘is not surprising after 30 years’, given…

The Fighting Temeraire by J. M. W. Turner ‘The Fighting Temeraire captures my imagination for three reasons. Although, at first look, it tells the story of a ship that has served her nation well, reaching the end of her days, it also speaks to a changing world, where a ship powered by coal and steam is now carrying the burden. Much is spoken and painted about the power and reach of the Royal Navy in the days of sail, but we are also a Service restlessly fascinated by changing technology and the picture points to that ceaseless evolution. Secondly, I am struck that Turner chose to paint Temeraire in almost ghostly tones, perhaps indicating that, although the ship had a great story to tell (including at the Battle of Trafalgar),…

HOW can you govern a country that has more than 246 varieties of cheese?’ It was a question that vexed Gen Charles de Gaulle and one that probably still puzzles President Macron to this day. If wine is the blood that flows thick through France’s veins, then cheese is her soul, a lavish chanson d’amour—be it soft or hard, cow, sheep or goat, ash covered or washed rind—to La République. Maurice Edmond Sailland, the founder of L’Académie Gastronomique, claimed that there were more than 800 cheeses across the land—although Ned Palmer, in his wonderful new book A Cheesemonger’s Tour de France, suspects there ‘might be a little hyperbole involved’ in that figure. As he points out, ‘trying to count all the individual cheeses in France is a hopeless endeavour anyway’…

SINCE antiquity, artists seeking a place to refresh or inspire a hungry imagination have migrated towards the azure seas and skies of Campania in southern Italy, alighting on clifftop perches to write or compose or paint—or, in many cases, to make gardens. It follows, naturally, that in their wake come those wanting to taste a little of the celestial enchantment promised by the prose, the music, the images and the tales of extravagant villas surrounded by scented gardens giving onto infinite blue horizons. Although Grand Tourists had been pursuing the cultural trail that led to the Kingdom of Naples since the 18th century, two events in the following century opened the way into Campania for even greater numbers of visitors from Northern Europe. The defeat of Napoleon (and consequent restoration…

LAST week, two distinguished women made speeches on issues that challenged the fundamental attitudes of their respective political parties. The first delivered a well-researched account illustrated with the latest figures and backed by the input of leaders in her field. The second produced a series of assertions, unsupported by facts and lacking input from experts. It is no wonder that Liz Kendall’s radical reform of the nation’s welfare budget, although controversial, was widely praised, and Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch’s ‘reset’ of policy received a drubbing from business leaders, environmentalists and scientists alike. Both faced inconvenient truths. Climate change is real, but isn’t easy to confront; the welfare bill cannot be ignored and is no longer supportable because spending has ballooned. It seems there are increasing numbers of our fellow citizens…

BY the time Reginald McKenna died in 1943, many people had forgotten that he had been First Lord of the Admiralty, Home Secretary and, for a year during the First World War, Chancellor of the Exchequer. Instead, he was known as the man who, for nearly quarter of a century, had been at the helm of the Midland Bank. It was the death of Sir Edward Holden, chairman of what was then the London Joint City and Midland Bank, that had created a vacancy at the top and McKenna, who did not stand for Parliament in the general election of 1918, was free to succeed him. This was a piece of rare luck for Lutyens, busy with war memorials and cemeteries and still finishing New Delhi, but whose practice had…

If only I’d bought… January 13, 1940, Oxfordshire…

IN the second half of the 19th century, Jean-Léon Gérôme was one of the most famous artists in the world (Art & antiques, May 15, 2024). Now, he is little known. Yet, his influence has proved more enduring than his fame: think of the spectacle of imperial Rome and your imaginings are most likely modelled on Gérôme’s vision. His pictures, filtered through Hollywood epics from Ben-Hur and Gladiator to Spartacus and Quo Vadis, have subliminally shaped the defining images of the teeming and bloody heart of ancient empire. When we picture gladiators, a chariot race or the slave market, we do so through Gérôme’s eyes. The reason for his tumble from prominence is that Gérôme worked in a traditional, academic style that has fallen out of favour. He turned the…

THOSE who indulge in the gentle pursuit of acquiring their dinner from whatever passes locally for ‘wild’ are generally very careful not to cause harm. However, it is sometimes good to be let off the leash and to feel free to pick as much as you want. The native stinging nettle is one such beneficent plant and the three-cornered leek (also known as garlic) is another. In fact, the more you pick of the latter, the better, as this plant is a seriously invasive species that takes over any area in which it finds a foothold. It was brought to Britain in 1759 as a garden plant and was established in the ‘wild’ within 100 years. In England and Wales, it is illegal to allow it to spread to an…

IT felt like a complete disaster. I had just returned from the boxing gym, where I’d been sparring with a young Mancunian whose left hook could kill a horse, when I decided to have a quick look over the manuscript for my forthcoming book. I’m not sure why—the files were already with the printer. I mooched through a few chapters and then it hit me: on page 69, I had written ‘dictaphone’ when I meant ‘megaphone’. A young activist, in my clumsy retelling, picks up a dictaphone and tells the crowd that the land in Britain has been stolen from the people. You can’t address a crowd through a dictaphone. I emailed my publisher immediately. He replied two days later: ‘Book at printer. We can change for paperback. Keep list…

RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN published nine plays, including The School for Scandal, but perhaps the most enduring is his first, The Rivals, which opened 250 years ago at Covent Garden Theatre on January 17, 1775, and is still a staple. The comedy of manners centres around Lydia Languish’s romantic notion of marrying into poverty in the name of true love. In response, her suitor, Captain Jack Absolute, pretends to be an ensign, although this lower rank will not find favour with her aunt, Mrs Malaprop, and results in a loss of fortune. Neither the plot nor the Regency Bath setting were revolutionary, but Sheridan’s sharp, fluent dialogue ensured its longevity and often stellar casting. The first night was disastrous—John Lee, playing the Irish Sir Lucius O’Trigger, another of Lydia’s suitors, had…

I INVITE people to engage and be married to this adventure, this fairy tale, this magical journey,’ enthuses Joana Vasconcelos, standing in the courtyard of the Liria Palace in the heart of Madrid, Spain. Dressed in a black-velvet cloak beside Solitaire, a 23ft-high engagement ring made of crystal whisky glasses and gold alloy wheel rims (something the 53-year-old Portuguese artist describes as ‘bling, bling, kitsch’), Senhora Vasconcelos looks a little like a court magician. You can’t help but wonder if she’s made a Faustian pact to enchant the palace. It comes as no surprise to learn that King Felipe of Spain is en route to meet her. The first of its kind to be held in the residence of the Duke of Berwick and Alba, her exhibition is one of…

SURROUNDED by the Occitanie countryside of southern France, ‘La Ville Rose’ (more commonly known as Toulouse) is predominantly constructed in terracotta brick and, at sunset, the buildings glow a spectacular rose-gold hue. Down a blush-pink backstreet in the heart of the city is the Dominican Church of the Jacobins and here, beside the altar, is a surprisingly small golden reliquary that entombs the remains of a colossal man—both physically and intellectually: the great philosopher and theologian, St Thomas Aquinas. Legend has it that, after his death in 1274, Aquinas’s corpse was boiled to separate flesh from bone and an arm was removed (to be given to his sister), together with two skulls: one is believed to be preserved in Priverno, Italy, and the other in Toulouse. Brilliant as he was,…

AS a specialist sporting, wildlife and maritime dealer, Jamie Rountree has handled pictures by Lavery and Landseer, Munnings and Stubbs, but ask him about his favourite artwork and he has no hesitation: ‘A wonderful oil painting by my great-uncle Frank Avray Wilson.’ A notable Abstract Expressionist, Wilson (1914–2009) painted textured canvases radiating colour energy. There is the same sense of vitality, but with none of the abstraction and a more serene quality, in Mr Rountree’s picture. ‘This is an early work done in a much more en plein air style—which I prefer.’ In it, Wilson captured the beach at Pointe d’Esny, on the south-eastern coast of Mauritius, where he lived for a time. A filao tree—‘a personal favourite of mine’—stands in the foreground, with the Île aux Aigrettes in the…

Forgotten Churches: Exploring England’s Hidden Treasures Luke Sherlock (Frances Lincoln, £15.99) BEFORE the publication of Forgotten Churches, I went to Frome in Somerset, that most alternative of Wessex towns, to interview Luke Sherlock, heritage lover and environmentalist, a bright new voice for a new generation of church-crawling enthusiasts. With his partner, Agathe, he runs Sherlock & Pages, a sustainability-themed bookshop, recently converted from a hair salon, at the foot of Catherine Hill, a cobbled street of fiercely independent shops curving up out of the Market Place. Although small, it stocks more than 1,200 books and has a delightfully homespun atmosphere, with a suspended decorator’s ladder over the sales counter from which hang baskets of flowers. The shop’s mantra, ‘Long live the hedgerows’, evokes Gerard Manley Hopkins’s ‘Long live the weeds…

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