Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2, 2025 i Country Life

JOE HENSON was described, by television presenter John Craven, as ‘himself a rare breed’, as well as a ‘true gentleman’. He was born into a theatrical family—his father, Leslie, and brother, Nicky, were actors—but went to agricultural college and later took on Bemborough Farm, Gloucestershire, on an estate owned by Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he opened the Cotswold Farm Park in 1971. Henson’s own innate timing came to the fore, however, both as a presenter on Animal Magic and through his ability to communicate—in the face of some derision—the importance of preserving the bloodlines of Britain’s native breeds for future animal health. Where Henson (1932–2015) differed from most other farmers of the 1950s and 1960s was his interest in these breeds, many of them then in decline after the…

IT is more than 60 years since I first found my way to Cecil Court, a pedestrian street between St Martin’s Lane and Charing Cross Road in London WC2. I was already addicted to antique and junk shops, as well as to second-hand and antiquarian bookshops, so it became a regular haunt during school holidays. The court is about two centuries older than the adjacent Burleigh Mansions, which were built in 1894 when Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury and Prime Minister, was under attack as a slum landlord, although his properties were not as insalubrious as others nearby. Still owned by the Cecil family today, it was first laid out in the later 17th century and had a mixed reputation during the 18th. The first recorded bookseller was a…

IN Book 11 of the Iliad, Homer describes a brief domestic scene in a battlefield tent where the slave girl Hecamede, ‘fair as a goddess’, concocts a drink for her master, Nestor, King of Pylos, and the wounded warrior-cum-surgeon, Machaon. The drink is kykeon, an ancient brew that could have been made from any number of restorative ingredients added to a base of water and barley. In this instance, Hecamede’s mixture combines strong, dry Pramnian wine from the island of Ikaria with grated goat’s-milk cheese and a dash of extra barley meal. And so, if such a claim is to be believed, you have the origins of the cheese fondue. Naysayers will tell you this is nonsense and that cheese fondue has far more recent roots in 18th-century France and…

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Future Publishing Ltd, 121–141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London W2 6JR 0330 390 6591; www.countrylife.co.uk THE Government’s desire to get building fast has put it at odds with some of the wildlife charities that heralded its coming to power. The lifting of restrictions on bat-protection measures has caused disquiet, although surely all parties were shocked to discover the cost of the tunnel being built by HS2 to protect rare Bechstein’s bats in Buckinghamshire: up to £119 million (with some £65 million already spent). HS2 responds that the process of environmental consent is beyond its control; The Wildlife Trusts retorts that a different route should have been chosen. The farming industry and conservation charities, not always in agreement, are now united in condemnation of Defra’s cessation of Sustainable Farming Initiative (SFI) grant…

Trash talk IT had been in the back of my mind for some time that a lot of what was going into our rubbish bin had ‘Don’t recycle at home, recycle with bags at large supermarkets’ on the label. Who has the time or inclination to hoard rubbish and take it back to the shop, I wondered. Yet, as I have become increasingly horrified by the state of our planet, I decided this was one small thing I could easily do to help. Small? Honestly, I think the amount of waste we send to landfill has more than halved. It is staggering the number of packets that, on closer inspection, can be recycled if taken to the correct place—but I fear many of us won’t be bothering. Is it not…

Spring Comes to Manorbier by Philip Sutton Charlotte Mullins comments on Spring comes to Manorbier IN 1989, Philip Sutton and his wife, Heather, moved to the village of Manorbier in Pembrokeshire, famous for its castle. They had previously lived in London, Fiji, Cornwall and Suffolk, where they had raised their four children, but the move to Wales opened up a new world for Mr Sutton and his paintings began to reflect the changing seasons in his garden and the surrounding area. Mr Sutton was born in Poole in Dorset in 1928, but grew up in the East End of London, where he left school at 14 and was apprenticed to a drawing office. He later studied under William Coldstream at the Slade School of Fine Art and won scholarships that…

COPPICE-WORKING Victorian woodmen often encountered a hazel or common dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius), fast asleep in thickets or tree hollows. Charmed by the sweet, golden ball of fur, they’d pop it into a pocket to take home as a pet for their children. Such a practice would now be illegal—numbers of hazel dormouse have plummeted and the species is protected. In any case, as nocturnal, hibernating animals, they make unsuitable companions, despite a gentle nature and a disinclination to bite. Yet it’s possible that the bygone pet-dormouse habit may have led to some of the most-loved English literature for children. In By Way Of Introduction (1929), A. A. Milne noted that, although Christopher Robin had kept everything except a mouse, he himself had a pet mouse in his own boyhood. ‘Probably…

LOOKING around any grand English country house, it’s clear that the drawing room was, historically, a place for social interaction. Typically, the furniture is centred on a substantial fireplace, which would have provided warmth before the advent of central heating, with tall windows for natural light and to set off the fine country views. The drawing room at The Hurlingham Club in Fulham, London SW6, is no different. As part of what the club defines as its ‘heritage rooms’, I was asked to help restore both the drawing room and the long gallery to their former glory, creating spaces for members to gather together throughout the day and evenings. The challenge in the drawing room—something that applies in any of the spaces we decorate where the owners are keen on…

Do put all your eggs in one basket MORE than 100 2ft-tall egg sculptures, designed by leading names in the art, design, fashion, jewellery, theatrical and food worlds, have been scattered across London in time for Easter to celebrate creativity and raise awareness of wildlife conservation. The Big Egg Hunt 2025, coordinated by Clarence Court eggs in partnership with wild-life charity Elephant Family, is a city-wide trail of large-scale eggs (unfortunately, they are not chocolate) that people of all ages are encouraged to seek. This year’s clutch includes Diptyque’s Spring Herbarium, Laura Ashley’s Timeless Treasures Egg and Chopard’s Insofu, as well as offerings from Anya Hindmarch, Fortnum & Mason, Bellerby & Co Globemakers, Duncan Campbell and Charlotte Rey of Campbell-Rey and actress Katherine Parkinson. The eggs can be ‘collected’ via…

The garden at White House Farm, KentThe home of Maurice Foster IF anyone deserves the title of the plantsman’s plantsman it is Maurice Foster.’ That was the verdict of the horticultural luminary Hugh Johnson after a visit to White House Farm in 2017. Mr Foster’s wisdom, experience, energy and enthusiasm for plants are admired by everyone who meets him. His memory is phenomenal, too—he can tell you where every one of the 6,000 plants in his collection came from and whether he thinks it is correctly named. In 1971, Mr Foster and his late wife, Rosemary, bought White House Farm in Kent specifically because they wanted to make a large garden and grow trees and shrubs, such as magnolias. It came with five acres of land, to which they added…

SWEET, heady, evocative, perhaps even a little naughty, the elderflower has a scent beyond compare. A pity, then, that it grows on a tree that almost invariably looks as if it is helping the police with their enquiries. The most untidy of trees, the elder has spindly branches that grow randomly and drop dead for a pastime. I’ve only seen them looking respectable once: along the side of a path in the Purbeck Hills of Dorset, where there is a neat row of elders with single trunks 1ft in diameter. In its normal, disreputable state, it is much hated by farmers for poisoning other trees in hedgerows, before dying and leaving a gap. Such sentiments receive further recommendation in the sometimes-terrifying beliefs about this tree. One should never bring elder…

FEW of us dispute the merits of diversity. Being readily open to the contribution made by people from different backgrounds, as well as affirming an equal place for women in what was once a man’s world, is surely no longer controversial. Why, then, have we missed one glaring exclusion in national life that has grown more pronounced over the past decade? Rural England is now almost unrepresented in national decision making. The present cabinet contains not a single country person and, more surprisingly, neither does the shadow cabinet. The Conservative Party, once the ‘Country Party’, doesn’t have a farmer on its front bench and the jobs held by its leaders outside politics do not include any with a rural connection. When the Labour cabinet meets to discuss the future of…

High Wardington House, OxfordshireThe home of Mr and Mrs Norman Hudson HIGH WARDINGTON HOUSE sits on a steep edge above a surprisingly intimate part of Wardington, known as Upper Wardington, with a handsome group of Hornton-stone houses clustered around a green, known locally as the Old Pool. These houses reflect both the vernacular building traditions of this area of Oxfordshire, close to Banbury, and the historic pattern of the prosperous farming villages of the region. This former farmhouse constituted one arm of a traditional four-sided courtyard grouping of barns and outbuildings. It has all the varied roof levels that were admired and imitated by Arts-and-Crafts architects in the early 1900s and, from the steep approach, its entrance is playfully marked through mature topiary, including figures of a peacock and a…

ONE hundred years ago, an architect named Clough Williams-Ellis went to view an overgrown private peninsula on a wide estuary near Snowdonia (now Eryri), North Wales. The site had been badly neglected. Staring up and around, he saw a deserted mansion on the shoreline, a weed-choked stable block on the hill and gnarled cliffs poking above the trees. As his eyes met each feature, his heart soared. He’d scoured the British Isles for a setting such as this and, finally, here it was on the Welsh coastline. A place to build his village. For decades, Williams-Ellis had harboured a wish to create a township that would be in harmony with the landscape around it, accentuating rather than spoiling the natural scenery. This half-hidden headland was the perfect spot. ‘When I…

Shop of the month George Smith, No 587–589 King’s Road, SW6 AT the George Smith showroom on the King’s Road in Fulham, it’s not unusual to see customers kicking their loafers off, to test different sofa stuffings (there are three natural options: 80% feather and 20% down; 60%–40%; and—the squashiest—100% down). The sales associates don’t bat an eyelid. ‘It’s all part of the process,’ one says approvingly. Since the 1980s, George Smith has been a back-pocket resource, primarily for interior designers and architects, who commission bespoke pieces for their clients. The company is known for top-quality sofas and armchairs, handmade in its factory in Cramlington, Northumberland, and works directly with customers, too, advising on everything from casters to cushion fills to fabric (which can be brought in from other makers…

THE first coffee of the day, the first warm-car interior of late winter that promises imminent spring, the first late-spring swallow: firsts hold a special place in our hearts and so, too, the first fruit of the year. Blue honeysuckle (Lonicera caerulea), also known as honeyberry, takes the gong, with fruit often ripening in May. Blue honeysuckles are not climbers in the way you might expect from other honeysuckles; they form a woody bush between 3ft tall and 9ft wide. Native to Siberia, Japan and China, blue honeysuckle has long been part of the forager’s year, but, in the wild, you take your chances as to whether the fruit is delicious or disappointing. Thankfully, its flavour potential and excellent hardiness saw breeding programmes start in the 1950s, resulting in superior…

THE Maldives have been bewitching seafarers and travellers for hundreds of years. Lying south-west of Sri Lanka, these coral islands were formed over millions of years by volcanic activity under the sea. Flying over them offers an extraordinary view of sandy atolls, ringed first by the vibrant turquoise of shallow reefs and then by the darker blue of the Indian Ocean. Some are tiny, pristine mounds of sand, others are covered in jungle and, increasingly, many are host to the world’s most glamorous hotels and resorts. It is easy to believe that the Instagram pictures and glossy magazine spreads have been filtered, but it really is that startlingly beautiful. Bright sunshine saturates everything, from the tropical flowers in bloom and the whiter-than-white sand to the cerulean and topaz sea. Sunrise…

PERHAPS the most ubiquitous, yet little noticed, piece of furniture in the modern home is the chest of drawers. Whether mahogany or pine, Chippendale or Ikea, almost everyone has at least one. Furthermore, it undoubtedly has one of the longest lineages of all furniture forms, as a DNA-type search would trace it back to about 1300BC and a cosmetic chest, now in the British Museum, that belonged to the Lady Tutu and her husband, Ani, a royal scribe at Egyptian Thebes. It may not have actual drawers, but the joint-built, four-legged lidded chest does have compartments for the couple’s make-up, oils and elaborate wigs. For Western Europe in post-Roman times, joinery was a lost craft and such chests as were made were dug-outs, similar to primitive canoes, which gave us…

Burying The Enemy: The Story of Thosewho Cared for the Dead in Two World Wars Tim Grady (Yale, £25) IN June 1917, when a blazing Zeppelin went down over Suffolk, hundreds cheered its descent, a reflection of the ‘us and them’ attitude that is the inevitable consequence of hostilities between nations. However, as Tim Grady, professor of Modern European History at the University of Chester, writes, the messy reality of enemy deaths in the two great wars of the 20th century seeped beyond battlefield arenas into civilian life. Local communities thus ‘became reluctant witnesses to the dying enemy who all too often expired in their midst’. ‘Common humanity meant providing the war dead with a decent burial’ Watching an enemy aircraft plunging in flames might be a thrill, but the…