Country Life

Country Life; architecture, gardens, countryside, property, the very best of British life.

Country Life1 min read
Miss Abbi Pulling
[email protected] WWW.NOONANS.CO.UK [email protected] www.northerfair.com [email protected] www.islandfinearts.com bada.org/friends ■
Country Life2 min read
The Academic Arms Race
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, badmi
Country Life1 min read
Country Life
Editor-in-Chief Mark Hedges Editor’s PA/Editorial Assistant Amie Elizabeth White 6102 Deputy Editor Kate Green 4171 Managing & Features Editor Paula Lester 6426 Architectural Editor John Goodall Gardens Editor Tiffany Daneff 6115 Executive Editor and
Country Life10 min read
Town & Country
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
Country Life5 min read
Town & Country Notebook
1) What word might refer to a young bird’s fine feathers or a crossword clue? 2) What is the chemical formula of ice? 3) In English grammar, what type of word is ‘the’? 4) What colour is the gemstone citrine? 5) Petworth House is in which county? 1)
Country Life4 min read
Letters To The Editor
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
Country Life3 min read
Dying For An Answer
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 circ
Country Life2 min read
Athena
THE Welsh Government has just produced a consultation document that purports to be written ‘for anyone interested in culture in Wales’. Priorities for Culture 2024–2030 is ‘a policy framework for our public and culture sectors in Wales, defining the
Country Life2 min read
My Favourite Painting James Hughes
‘Walking the Dales Way one sodden November, I rested my weary legs in the porch of St James’s Church, Staveley. Having caught my breath, I stepped inside, naturally intrigued by what I would find beyond the beautiful timber doors. Immediately, my eye
Country Life7 min read
A Fatal Court And Folly
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
Country Life2 min read
The Legacy
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
Country Life5 min read
Be Not Hasty To Pluck It
IN August, the knotty brambles that wrap around our fields, woodland and lanes are ‘heaving’ with blackberries, wrote Sylvia Plath, ‘big as the ball of my thumb’ and ‘fat with blue-red juices. These they squander on my fingers’. For Seamus Heaney, th
Country Life5 min read
Can I Tempt You With Another Carrot?
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 mi
Country Life4 min read
Attending The Barley Ballet
‘It is sometimes consoling to remember how much of the pleasantness of the English country is due to men, by chance or design. The sowing of various crops, the planting of hedges and building of walls, the trimming of woods to allow trees to grow lar
Country Life5 min read
From Paris, With Love
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 Badminto
Country Life5 min read
The Summits Of Excellence
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
Country Life5 min read
Wheels Of Fortune
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. ‘D
Country Life5 min read
The Sweet Taste Of Freedom
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-ho
Country Life4 min read
Luxury Notebook
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
Country Life2 min read
The Designer’s Room
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 pi
Country Life2 min read
It’s Good To Talk
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
Country Life7 min read
Eastern Promise
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 comparab
Country Life5 min read
Elegy To A Country Churchyard
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 h
Country Life5 min read
Sporting Chances
SET against the backdrop of the majestic Surrey Hills, the exquisite Charles Hill Court, which is unlisted, stands in more than 17 acres of sumptuous gardens and grounds between the picturesque villages of Tilford and Elstead, 3½ miles from Farnham a
Country Life4 min read
The Plant That Defied The Weather
SO much of what happens, in summer and after, is due to what forecasters like to call ‘weather events’ that occurred in the previous winter and spring. For example, the ‘eventful’ seven months of nearly non-stop rain from last October onwards—a verit
Country Life2 min read
Kitchen Garden Cook French Beans
▸ 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 unt
Country Life3 min read
Woah, Sweet Gale O’ Mine
IT is rare for me to start a foraging article with a health warning, but sweet gale comes with several. It is also, as we shall see, a wonder that anyone would consume it at all, regardless of health warnings. The headline is that women should keep w
Country Life6 min read
Hero Of The Turf
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 bac
Country Life3 min read
Goodnight, My Darlings
MONKS! Monks! Monks!’ Not the most obvious exclamation for Henry VIII to make on his death-bed—or perhaps it is. It’s shorter than calling out to all his wives. Mystery surrounds the death of another king, George V, in 1936, with a rumour that ‘Bugge
Country Life4 min read
A Clear Guide To 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 1,000
Country Life7 min read
Hold Your Horses
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 acad
Country Life4 min read
Freedom Of Expression
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 Apri
Country Life5 min read
Keep Calm And Play On
PLAY up! play up! and play the game!’ rang Sir Henry Newbolt’s 1892 poem Vitai Lampada. It was peak British Empire: a rallying cry for fairness, duty and courage, first on the cricket field of Clifton College, Bristol—and later the battlefield, where
Country Life2 min read
Back To School
Ampleforth College, York, North Yorkshire: September 14 (www.ampleforthcollege.org.uk) Aysgarth Prep School, North Yorkshire: October 12, November 1 (www.aysgarthschool.com) Durham School, Co Durham: October 12 (www.dcsf.org.uk) Giggleswick School, S
Country Life3 min read
Bridge And Crossword
THE first European Winter Transnational Championships took place this April in Alpe d’Huez, France. I recall many years ago playing in the Crans-Montana Festival in Switzerland. Sessions began at 3.30pm to enable a near full day of skiing to take pla
Country Life3 min read
What Will Survive Of Us Is Photographs
EVERY available surface in my study is covered in family photograph albums. Drifts of them block the door. Piles are balanced precariously on the club fender. The dogs have been forced to share their bed with my great-great-grandmother’s cartes de vi
Country Life2 min read
Tottering-by-gently
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 source

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