Innholdsfortegnelse for 15-May-2019 i Country Life

Rowan, elder daughter of Dr and Mrs Ewart Lewis, is engaged to be married to Johnny Gilmour, only son of Mr John Gilmour and Mrs Robyn Gilmour. They will be married at Our Lady and St Therese Church, Painswick, Gloucestershire, this weekend. A florist, Rowan recently published her first book, Living with Flowers: Blooms & Bouquets for the Home, and will be speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival in October.…

Lost property A cylinder drilled from one of the sarsen stones at Stonehenge during 1950s restorations and taken as a souvenir has been returned to English Heritage, whose experts relish the thought of X-rays and core analysis Explanations After widespread criticism, MPs will quiz Defra and Natural England on May 21 over their decision to revoke the general licences for controlling wild birds (Town & Country, May 1) Braw lassies The Scottish Highland Games Association has launched a drive to encourage more female participants in its summer sporting events…

Regular readers will know of my predilection for vintage Champagne. So far, no cure for this condition has been discovered, apart from the regular replenishment of exhausted stocks of older vintages with younger replacements. Fortunately, we seem to be living in a golden age of vintage Champagne, with much more regularity of good vintages than was the case in the past. The price differential between vintage and non-vintage remains relatively modest and doesn’t really reflect the vastly increased sharpness of focus you obtain when you look through the lens of a single year. Why you should be drinking it The 2000s were something of a miracle decade for vintage Champagne, with one of the greatest of all vintages in 2002, possibly matched by the splendid 2008, with 2004 and 2006…

ATHENA was delighted when the National Gallery (NG) announced its acquisition of Artemisia Gentileschi’s Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria. With her combination of intense post-Caravaggio style and a tumultuous backstory of rape, torture and arranged marriage, Gentileschi is emblematic of the neglect and abuse of women artists. Since Germaine Greer featured her in the 1979 book The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work, Gentileschi’s reputational star has been rising. ‘An imaginative leap has been made from minor truth to major craziness’ There has long been another fine Gentileschi, Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting, in the Royal Collection, but the new painting is an especially significant addition to the NG. That’s true not only in aesthetic and historical terms, but also because its collection of…

● Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants, Priory Lane, Freefolk, Whitchurch, Hampshire (01256 896533; www. hardysplants.co.uk), has a range of phloxes and other perennials available for mail order. The nursery is also open and is a frequent presence at gardening shows ● Cotswold Garden Flowers, Sands Lane, Badsey Evesham, Worcestershire (01386 833849; www.cgf.net),offers a large range of phloxes and other perennials by mail order. The nursery is also open and Bob Brown attends many shows ● Claire Austin (01686 670342; www. claireaustin-hardyplants.co.uk, mail order only) offers a full range of perennials grown at the nursery, including a list of 30 border phloxes…

• Daubenton’s bat (top of page, Myotis daubentonii) Feeds mainly over water. Common throughout the British Isles, especially southern areas • Alcathoe bat (Myotis alcathoe) Little-known—found at sites in northern and southern England from 2010 • Bechstein’s bat (Myotis bechsteinii) Large-eared, pale-faced. Very rare. A few sites in southern England and southern Wales • Brandt’s bat (Myotis brandtii) Very like the whiskered bat. Rare. Occurs sparsely throughout England and Wales • Greater mouse-eared bat (Myotis myotis) Large. Extinct in Britain, except for a lone male at a roost in southern England (since 2002) • Natterer’s bat (Myotis nattereri) Broad-winged, pale-faced. Quite common throughout the British Isles, except in northern Scotland • Greater horseshoe bat (left, Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) Large, with complex facial ‘nose-leaf’. Rare. Southern Wales and south-west England • Nathusius’s…

ACCORDING to bartending folklore, it’s 100 years since Count Camillo Negroni walked into Caffè Casoni, Florence, and asked for a stronger version of his usual tipple, an Americano. The barman obliged by adding gin (rather than the normal soda water) to vermouth and Campari—and a classic cocktail was born. The true provenance of the Negroni may be lost in a haze of botanicals (as the late chef and author Anthony Bourdain observed of his ‘perfect drink’, it will ‘hit you like a freight train after four or five’), but, since its creation in 1919, it’s become the second-most requested cocktail in the English-speaking world. Nick Williamson of Campari UK confirms a ‘real resurgence’ is under way, with UK sales of Campari up by 37% last year, compared with 2017. This…

• Chatsworth, near Bakewell, Derbyshire (www. chatsworth.org) • New Art Centre, Roche Court, East Winterslow, Salisbury, Wiltshire (www. sculpture.uk.com) • Jupiter Artland, Bonnington House near Edinburgh, West Lothian (www.jupiter artland.org) • Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton, Wakefield, West Yorkshire (www. ysp.org.uk) • Cass Sculpture Foundation, New Barn Hill, Goodwood, West Sussex (www.sculpture.org.uk) • The Sculpture Park, Churt, Farnham, Surrey (www. thesculpturepark.com) • Kielder Art and Architecture, Northumberland (www.kielderartandarch itecture.com) • Grizedale Sculpture, Grizedale Forest, Hawkshead, Ambleside, Cumbria (www. grizedalesculpture.org) • Broomhill Sculpture Gardens, near Barnstaple, Devon (www.broomhillart. co.uk)…

THERE’S no finer time to travel through the country than now, when the hedges are puffed up in their new green coats and the verges change colour almost by the day, as red campions and pale shepherd’s purses give way to the frothing umbels of cow parsley. From train windows, green and yellow fields flash past, iridescent with fresh sap, the oaks acid-yellow with catkins and the innocent white May blossom hiding its vicious spines. Checking The Shepherd’s Calendar, in which the Northamptonshire poet John Clare describes the passing months, it’s reassuring to find the timings haven’t changed so much. As it was in the May of 1827, so it is with May 2019: the white thorn bush is bowed low, loaded with its mockery of snow, the delicate red…

Quiz of the week 1) A hinny is the offspring of which two creatures? 2) In 1935, who became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California? 3) What colour is the inner ring of an Olympic archery target? 4) Who became UK Prime Minister in April 1955? 5) In Morse code, which number is represented by five dots? Riddle me this I am black when you buy me, red when you use me and grey when you throw me away. What am I? Time to buy Royal Victoria list notepads (set of two), £9.99, Historic Royal Palaces (020–3166 6848; www. historicroyalpalaces.com) Chalkdown Cider 2015 Vintage, £12.95, Chalkdown (01962 217760; www. chalkdowncider.com) Seven Seas smoking kit, £4,020, S. T. Dupont (0333 300 1234; www. harrods.com) Five…

Hair today, gone tomorrow QA close friend has had the most disastrous haircut, but she—rather unbelievably—seems to be pleased with it. I know that it’s her hair and her choice, but she’s doing herself a disservice. Is there any way to subtly dissuade her from maintaining this severe look without hurting her feelings? J. G., Oxfordshire A Now, careful. If she’s ‘pleased with it’, how is she ‘doing herself a disservice’? You say—absolutely correctly—that ‘it’s her hair and her choice’. I’d hate to suggest that anyone too controlling cannot be a ‘close friend’. I would, however, suggest that a close friend would wait until an honest opinion is sought, keeping quiet until and unless that happens. Heaven knows, in our selfie-obsessed generation, once she starts posting, there will be…

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BORDER phloxes are fragrant, cut beautifully and look super-fresh during the dog days of August, when they produce strong stems topped with domes of insect-friendly flowers that seem to glow as evening light descends. This is the time to acquire them, before they start to dry out and sulk on garden-centre and nursery benches. Planted now, in good soil, they’ll flower after the roses and will keep on flowering until autumn if deadheaded. There are golden oldies that still hold their own, such as the salmon-pink Eva Foerster (1934) and the pure-pink Rijnstroom, a Dutch variety from 1910. There are taller phlox suited to prairie planting, such as Hesperis, Luc’s Lilac and Utopia, and modern breeders have given us the Sweet Summer series, the Flames and the Peacocks. Gardeners are…

SOMETIME after sunset, but before nightfall, the first bat appears against the fast-darkening summer sky. You think it’s a small bird at first, but your second glance catches its thrumming flutter and on-a-sixpence turns that no bird could manage. Following its zig-zag path is a challenge as it dips into the shadows, but soon it reappears, skimming along walls and treetops, back and forth, a tiny dancing silhouette that comes and goes, finally lost against the sky as the last traces of light fade away. Bat-watching on a warm and balmy evening is one of summer’s great joys for many of us, but bats themselves are inherently mysterious, even alien. Their sensory experience could hardly be more different from our own. Not only can they fly, but they can ‘see’…

New potatoes with pimento olives and salsa ( below ) Roast new potatoes—as in the main recipe—with a couple of sprigs of rosemary and use the back of a fork to squash them down. Sprinkle with Parmesan and chopped pimento-stuffed olives. Season well and bake in a hot oven for about 10 minutes to melt the cheese. Serve with a tomato salsa. Lobster and new-potato salad Cut a cooked lobster into chunks. Make a dressing using three tablespoons of mayonnaise, one tablespoon of ketchup, the juice of half a lemon, a splash of Worcestershire sauce and seasoning. Add 400g of boiled new potatoes, halved to the same size as the lobster pieces, and toss with the dressing. Add a couple of tablespoons of chopped chives…

MAY is traditionally the month for celebrating trout (cue seasonal article on the miracle of mayfly), but it seems more topical to me that 2019 has been designated the International Year of the Salmon. This initiative—which embraces the Northern Hemisphere, concerning both Atlantic and Pacific species—aims to heighten awareness about the freefall decline of wild salmon, plus their biological and economic value. A specially commissioned film has been designed to engage the scientific, political and local communities and promote the sharing of information and resources across the ‘salmosphere’—Alaska to Portugal—to ‘ensure we don’t lose the King of Fish forever’, in Sir David Attenborough’s words. 'The salmon is an evolutionary miracle, worth saving for itself ' The litany of problems afflicting our own Atlantic salmon is formidable and familiar: climate…

• If you’re lucky enough to secure one of the eight seats at the kitchen table in Molecular Tapas Bar, the 14-course tasting menu is a must. Chef Ngan Ping Chow invites gastronauts on a journey of discovery with dishes such as ‘spherified’ onion soup and deconstructed California roll with olive-oil ‘caviar’ • Explore the Nihonbashi neighbourhood on your doorstep with its traditional craft and food shops nestled among the glass-and-concrete monuments to finance (www. nihonbashi-tokyo.jp/en/information_center) • Walk down the brightly coloured, noisy Takeshita Street, spiritual home of Harajuku girls and kawaii (that particularly Japanese cutesy aesthetic), before decompressing with a visit to the neighbouring design district, home to architectural masterpieces that house marquee stores for brands such as Prada and Comme des Garçons • Become acquainted with the calm…

SOMETIMES, you really need to go away to remember what it is you love so much about home. Standing, this week, on the shores of the Golden Horn in Istanbul, it came to me, quite out of the blue: an image of my younger self, in gumboots, stooped over the black ooze and whiskery rubble of the Thames foreshore, mudlarking. They’ve dredged many remarkable things out of the sea in Istanbul: triremes and ingots, ambergris and jewels, plus a complete imperial harbour or two, but they have to do with caissons and pumps what I used to do by the semi-diurnal miracle of the tide. It was only for a few years that I had that freedom of the Thames and I never found treasure. I found truck money, a…

ANYONE can keep bees, but it takes a master to keep them for long. My first step was to place myself in the hands of an expert, and the next was to buy a handbook on bees. My expert can remember the bee-masters of a former age and some of their quaint ceremony; for example, the solemn induction of the new master in his robes of office knocking on the hives and repeating this doggerel: Little bees, your master’s dead, But I will see you want no bread. For a time all went well with me. My stock and my ‘nucleus’ prospered. The handbook gives a list of the enemies of bees including birds, toads, mice, wasps, moths and others; but no mention is made of burglars. Did the bees…

Subtle genius THE photograph used to illustrate Dr Vadgama’s letter about Lutyens in New Delhi (May 1) is, in fact, one of the nearby pair of secretariat buildings designed by Sir Herbert Baker. The Viceroy’s House or Rashtrapati Bhavan (below), as it is now known, showed Lutyens’s genius in the subtle blending of Indo-Saracenic elements with pure Classicism. COUNTRY LIFE’s founder, Edward Hudson, commented: ‘Poor old Christopher Wren could never have done this.’ Richard Page, by email Send in the clowns MY most recent copy of COUNTRY LIFE is now soggy with tears. Our miniature smooth-haired dachshund (‘Small legs, big personality’, May 8) died just before Christmas, aged 15 1/2, and our lives have been wretched without him. He was a flâneur, an international traveller, an inveterate party-goer and…

Water newly planted trees and shrubs Gardeners often do too much watering, but one desirable object of that exercise is the newly planted tree or shrub. The first summer after planting is the time of concern. If water falls from the sky, fine, but, in a dry spell, it’s a good idea to supply a canful of water once a week. Keep the surrounding soil free of weeds to avoid competition and apply a mulch of well-rotted organic matter about now, as this will keep the soil surface moist. At no time should standing water be visible.…

❍ The two key ingredients for phloxes are moisture and deep soil, so those on poorer soils may struggle with many varieties. However, there are toughies for drier gardens, including pale-pink Monica Lynden-Bell, white Grandiflora Alba and mauve-flowered, tastefully variegated Norah Leigh ❍ Phlox need space—they find it difficult to push through other plants ❍ They’re hungry—feed them in spring with either pelleted chicken manure or Vitax Q4 ❍ Plants start into growth early in the year. You can lift and divide phlox in September or in early spring. Always try to move them to a new site, if possible ❍ Divide them every third year to retain vigour and move them to a fresh site, if you can. However, variegated phloxes should not be moved, as this can prompt…

Ortollo, Italian marble, £36,000, William Peers (01288 321988; www.williampeers.com) Spirit, slate, £11,900, James Parker Sculpture (07729 705257; www.jamesparkersculpture.co.uk) Boxing Hares, bronze wire, £22,000, Rupert Till (07921 771284; www.ruperttill.com) Ammonite Jurassic Cracked, bronze, £25,000, Hamish Mackie (01608 737859; www.hamishmackie.com) Torso I, bronze, by Brian Alabaster, £8,950, Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden (01306 627269; www.hannahpescharsculpture.com) Smithsonian pyramid, Welsh slate, £12,000, Howard Bowcott (01766 771450; www.howardbowcott.co.uk) Nut, English oak, £40,000, Alison Crowther (www.alisoncrowther.com) Young Monarch, £9,000, driftwood on a stainless-steel armature, James Doran Webb (www.jamesdoranwebb.com) Finback seat, bronze resin, by Ben Barrell, £9,360, The Sculpture Park (01428 605453; www.thesculpturepark.com) Torus, mirror-polished stainless steel, £32,292, David Harber (01235 859300; www.davidharber.co.uk)…

In Britain, many bat species are rare and all are seriously declining. The problems they face include a crash in numbers of flying insects and losses of traditional roost sites. As a result, they’re strictly protected—you can’t harm them, remove them from a roost or block off their access. If you make a planning application, the local authority may request a preliminary bat survey and a further, more extensive study if evidence of their presense is found. Bats roosting in the open roof spaces of churches can cause significant problems. The congregation may be bombarded with droppings and the urine can stain and corrode marble and fabrics. Cleaning up under a bat roost is a chore for volunteers—the droppings are dry and relatively inoffensive, but copious and dusty. Although the…

THE launch onto the open market of the spectacular 1,468-acre Dinmore Manor estate at Hope under Dinmore, near Leominster, north Herefordshire—through Savills (020–7016 3780) at a guide price of ‘excess £28 million’—shines a discreet spotlight on one of the west of England’s most secretive and most beautiful residential, sporting and farming estates. Having purchased Dinmore from the Murray family in 1999, its present owner has ‘left no flagstone unturned’ in restoring and extending the historic manor house, acquiring 600 acres of additional land and two further properties, establishing an award-winning Limousin cattle-breeding unit and setting up a world-class showjumping operation based on the finest European sport-horse bloodlines. In addition to expertly managed farming and woodland enterprises, it incorporates an exciting high-bird shoot and a portfolio of 19 impeccably renovated estate…

THE other day, I received a mild shock. I was at Hampstead Theatre, reading the programme notes for Jude, when I found its writer, Howard Brenton, claiming that The Bacchae is the greatest play ever written and that only Shakespeare could rival Euripides. As the author myself of a book called The 101 Greatest Plays, I’m no stranger to extravagant claims. All the same, I was taken aback by the boldness of Mr Brenton’s assertions. Although I’m nervous of constructing league tables of dramatists, for me, the playwright who comes next in the hierarchy after Shakespeare is Henrik Ibsen. ‘Ibsen’s plays still get to us because they’re flawless constructs filled with passion’ I feel this even more strongly having just seen Rosmersholm strikingly revived in the West End. Because…

Hever Castle and Gardens Enjoy award-winning gardens set in 125 acres of glorious grounds. During May, the gardens at Hever Castle offer more than just a visual display—all senses are stimulated as wonderful scents waft in the air and spring breezes rustle the drooping heads of wisteria blooms. Hever in Bloom (June 25–30) showcases the gardens along with free garden tours. Kent (01732 865224; www.hevercastle.co.uk) Hoveton Hall Estate The gardens offer visitors an array of colour and interest throughout the seasons. May and June are glorious masses of spectacular colour from the rhododendrons and azaleas. July and August see the more formal herbaceous and kitchen gardens taking centre stage. Onsite is the fabulous Garden Kitchen Café, run by local chef Alex Firman. Norfolk (01603 784297; www.hovetonhallestate.co.uk) Ramster Hall Gardens Ramster…