Country Life

CLIMBING over arbours, creeping along red-brick walls and rambling in borders, the kaleidoscopic spectacle of rose blooms at Mottisfont Abbey, Hampshire, is enjoying its brief annual moment in the sun. This year, which marks the collection’s 50th ann

1) On an Ordnance Survey map, what does the abbreviation FM indicate? 2) Which band released the single Prince Charming in 1981? 3) Which king was known as ‘the Merry Monarch’? 4) What colour dye is made from the leaves of woad (Isatis tinctoria)? 5)

WE encourage nettles in our garden (‘A true test of nettle’, May 22). They host caterpillars that turn into beautiful butterflies and, in the spring, they provide leaves for picking that we blend into colourful Victoria sponge cakes (pictured), which

“My brother introduced me to the work of Howard Hodgkin at a wonderful exhibition held at The Hepworth Wakefield in 2017. Many of his paintings were inspired by travels to India, but this takes me to the chalk downlands near where I grew up and the s

Gatewick, Steyning, West Sussex The former home of Charles, James and Primrose Yorke GATEWICK was the Sussex home of the Yorke family for two generations. It was bought in 1953 by David Yorke after his marriage to Anne Mackail, daughter of the writer

FREDERIC Maurice (F. M.) Halford (pseudonym ‘Detached Badger’) did not invent dry-fly fishing—convincing a fish that the fly resting on the surface was a real, tasty above-water insect—and neither was he a great practitioner of the art, but he is rev

MIDSUMMER’S DAY hoves magically into view and, with it, two pieces of weather lore. Until the change from the Gregorian to the Julian calendar in 1752, when Britain lost 11 days, St Barnabas’s Day on June 11 fell on or close to midsummer: Barnaby bri

THERE’S a saying when it comes to car restoration: ‘You’re only one broken bolt away from an eight-hour job,’ reflects Jonathan Hickman, an armoured-vehicle enthusiast based in Chaddesley Corbett, Worcestershire. As a boy, Mr Hickman enjoyed the util

THREE miles south of Petersfield, on the boundary of Hampshire and Sussex, stands a 2,000-year-old yew tree, one of the largest in a domestic setting. For centuries, it has shaded the former Yew Tree Cottage, now Hurstfield House, a picturesque patch

IT’S noon and through the salty-aired sunshine flies a short-eared owl. The raptor scythes low over the island meadow, its moon face scanning the undergrowth, its broad wings outstretched. For several minutes it glides and turns, before suddenly—whom

EVERYONE loves colourful ceremonial uniforms. Together with the music and grandeur of a great State occasion, the sight of mounted and marching soldiers in formation is the essence of pomp and circumstance. By contrast, the camouflage uniforms that s

THOSE of us inclined to a large gin and tonic at the end of the day cannot fail to have noticed the rise of the word ‘botanicals’ in recent years. Where juniper, orange peel, angelica and coriander seeds were once the botanicals of choice in gin, the

THE architect Ian Adam-Smith grew up in what he describes as ‘Lutyens territory’ and was greatly influenced in his early years by the architect and COUNTRY LIFE contributor Roderick Gradidge. Having trained first at Plymouth and then Kingston, he set

FOR sale through Savills (07967 555502) at a guide price of £15 million, historic, Grade I-listed Corby Castle stands at the heart of an immaculate, 711-acre estate bounded by the picturesque villages of Great Corby and Wetheral in Cumbria’s north-ea

Built in 1865 in the Gothic style by architect James Berry, Undercliffe House was extended in the 20th century and sports some unusual features, including porthole windows, two towers and Victorian-style loos. The woodland around the house doesn’t st

TEN years ago, when Pepa González, the founder and creative director of Pepa London, launched her children’s clothing company, it made sense to start online—there were fewer bills to pay and less infrastructure to manage. Ms González’s traditional de

LONDON Zoo is making an appeal—not for money, but for memories. As the Zoological Society of London’s Regents Park home—established in 1826 by Sir Stamford Raffles, founder of modern Singapore, and Sir Humphry Davy, chemist and inventor of the arc li

NOT a great deal of licence would be required to rename the stretch of Knightsbridge that runs from Constitution Hill to Knightsbridge Barracks Hotel Alley. On the Wellington Arch roundabout, we have The Four Seasons, The Peninsula and The Lanesborou

The Gardens of Eton College, Windsor, Berkshire FLOREAT ETONA’, as all good classicists know, means ‘May Eton Flourish’. But its near-gardening connotations are fitting, as the horticultural history of the college stretches back to its royal founder,

▸ Preheat your oven to 180˚C fan/200˚C/400˚F/gas mark 6 and make sure an oven tray is already in there heating up—this recipe requires heat from underneath, because no one likes a soggy bottom. Add a disc of baking parchment to the bottom of a 25cm (

WILD marjoram is not ‘marjoram’. Rather, it is a related, similar herb and is also known as oregano, a herb you can buy in the shops and serve in a pasta dish. Both plants are in the genus Origanum, the Italian favourite being O. vulgare, whereas mar

Whether surfing lesser-known breaks off Sumba and Rote, hiking through the rainforest to a secret waterfall on Papua or snorkelling colourful coral reefs around the Spice Islands, a bespoke charter on Kudanil Explorer taps into blissfully remote area

ONE of my fondest childhood memories is of being in the South African bush. From Johannesburg, the southern end of the Kruger National Park, along the border of Mozambique, is only a 4½-hour drive away. Twice a year during school holidays, my family

TENNIS has never been sexier—at least, that is what multiple critics of the new film Challengers are saying. If you haven’t seen this blockbuster, I suggest you do. There’s no need to be a tennis fan to glean huge enjoyment from the production design

OH, you’re left-handed…’ How many times have you been spoken to as if it is an affliction to bear? Yet countless examples of the great and the good have found it no impediment to their role. The Prince of Wales is left-handed, as was his great-grandf

ONE fine day at the end of 1759, Cupid swapped his arrow for a brush. When wealthy widow Penelope Dukinfield Daniell met painter John Astley at the Knutsford Assembly in Cheshire, she was so smitten that she asked him to paint her portrait. He turned

THE ‘Choycest of my Jewells’, in the codicil to the will written by Restoration noblewoman Christian, Countess of Devonshire in 1674, included two diamond lockets. She had purchased the stones from William Gomeldon, or Gumbleton, an enterprising form

Alistair Moffat (Birlinn, £25) ALISTAIR MOFFAT’S many books on Scottish history are distinctive for the way he weaves poetry and literature, language and personal experience into broad sweeping studies of particular regions or themes. In his latest—a

THEY didn’t put names to them, but certain Victorians appear to have identified risk assessment and mental health. Moralists urged that wild honeysuckle in bloom should not be brought into genteel households because its fragrance, especially powerful

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