Innholdsfortegnelse for Mar/Apr 2024 i Britain

As the days lengthen, our thoughts always turn to the seaside. This issue we explore the beautiful Suffolk coast (p14), where you’ll find a string of characterful towns and villages (not to mention England’s best fish and chips). We also delve into the noble history of Berkshire, which numbers Windsor Castle, Royal Ascot and the King’s swans among its royal attractions (p62). Sticking to the royal theme, did you know that the King is both a skilled hedgelayer and an accomplished artist? Turn to p25 to find out about the hidden hobbies of King Charles and his royal predecessors, from painting to pigeon-racing. Elsewhere this issue, we discover how Shakespeare plays have been staged on a tiny Dorset island for over 60 years – a cherished tradition that fosters a…

London’s National Gallery, which celebrates its 200th birthday this spring, boasts one of the world’s most magnificent art collections, its 2,600 works (and counting) treasured by Britons, and its iconic Trafalgar Square home a magnet for tourists. But this giant of galleries, in fact, started very small. Its story began on 23 February 1824, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer took to his feet in the House of Commons to confirm how he had decided to spend what he called a ‘Godsend’ – a boost to the British coffers courtesy of the partial repayment of a multi-million-pound loan. The loan had been all but written off in the 25 years since it had been made to the Austrian government at the height of the French revolutionary wars. £60,000 of the…

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King Charles III is renowned for being a champion of organic, environmentally friendly farming, and for his green-fingered love of gardening. Less well known is his passion for traditional hedgelaying: a craft he has practised on more than 15 miles of hedging plants around his Highgrove estate in Gloucestershire. Hosting competitions there for the National Hedgelaying Society (of which he became patron when Prince of Wales) he has celebrated Britain’s wildlife rich network of hedgerows as “this countryside’s single biggest nature reserve”; hedgelaying has also provided a welcome form of royal exercise! Another of the King’s private hobbies went public in 1987 when a watercolour of a Norfolk farm scene by ‘Arthur George Carrick’ was selected for the prestigious annual Royal Academy of Arts’ Summer Show – ‘Carrick’ turned out…

What makes a county royal? Berkshire was designated England’s only royal county by Queen Elizabeth II in 1958; Windsor Castle, her favourite residence, lay within its boundaries. But Berkshire’s royal connections don’t end there. William, Prince of Wales and his brother Harry went to school at Eton College, just over the River Thames from Windsor, and William and his family now live in a cottage in Windsor. Their father, King Charles, often played at the prestigious Guards Polo Club in his youth, and he married Camilla, now Queen, at the Windsor Guildhall in 2005. But perhaps the best example of Berkshire’s regal favour is that it gave the royal family their name: in 1917 George V changed the family’s official name from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the House of Windsor.…

DAY 1 ADMIRE AULD REEKIE There aren’t many cities where, upon arrival, you are greeted with several of the most impressive sights, all at once. Begin at the Scott Monument, dedicated to writer Sir Walter Scott, which towers over bustling Prince’s Street and marks the beginning of the wonderfully historic Old Town. From here, cross lush, green Prince’s Street Gardens and up into ‘Auld Reekie’ (translating to ‘Old Smoky’ in Scots, the fond nickname for the city’s Old Town, which in the 16th and 17th centuries was surrounded by thick smog). Cobbled Cockburn Street leads you up to the Royal Mile, lined with medieval buildings. Shop for tartan, shortbread and whisky to a soundtrack of kilted street performers playing the bagpipes, before making your way up to the Old Town’s…

Hit period drama The Buccaneers, an adaptation of Edith Wharton’s unfinished final novel, follows five spirited American heiresses in pursuit of aristocratic English husbands in the tightly-corseted 1870s. When Wharton wrote her book, she was reporting on a social phenomenon she had observed firsthand. In her time, the daughters of rich American industrialists were barred from entering elite New York society, which centred on the Whartons, Joneses and Astors. The industrialists’ money simply hadn’t aged enough to admit their daughters into the highest caste. But the daughters of the nouveau riche discovered they could spend a summer season in England and marry titled young men who didn’t care how new their fortunes were. These women were called ‘buccaneers’ or ‘husband hunters’, even ‘the alien horde’. According to the book The…

Outside there’s a face-stinging January easterly wind freezing the ardour of would-be Romeos and Juliets. Radiators are superfluous in the crowded audition hall, which hums with hope and anticipation. All are momentarily silenced by the Lady Bracknell-style utterance “A cowshed!” I’m an audition evenings volunteer with Brownsea Open Air Theatre (BOAT), explaining to an actor how we manage to turn a cowshed into a shared dressing room fit for traditional open-air Shakespeare. The cowshed on Brownsea Island is BOAT’s unseen star, serving as a storeroom, workshop and dressing room since 1964. That year, to celebrate Shakespeare’s 400th birthday, Joyce Caton and Edna Clarke, longstanding members of the Bournemouth Little Theatre Club, wanted to stage an open-air production, which then was a ground-breaking proposition. Finding a location was the challenge. Brownsea…

Berkshire is known for its royal connections, and Monkey Island, near the village of Bray, is no exception: King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra often had tea on the lawns here. Now one lucky reader and their guest can feel like royalty with a special stay at the Monkey Island Estate, a refuge of Georgian elegance in the middle of the Thames. Surrounded by manicured lawns are two elegant buildings that were commissioned by the 3rd Duke of Marlborough, who used the island as his private fishing retreat. The estate houses 40 luxurious rooms with beautiful views of the estate and the river, as well as the magnificent Wedgewood Suite, its walls inspired by jasperware sculpted into mermaids, seashells and mythical creatures. Our winner and their guest will enjoy dinner…

BRITAIN: What is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? Jemma: First things first – I’ll have a coffee. Then I’ll spend 20 minutes in my study at home answering emails and working out what my day is going to be like before I drive to the factory. B: How long have you worked at Burleigh Pottery? J: I started working for Burleigh Pottery in about 2001, when I was 21. My mum had come to work at this small pottery at the end of our street where I grew up. I called in while she was working one day and realised that there was this magical, crazy place behind these brown gates at the end of the street, which I knew nothing about. 24…

On 21 April 1930, Princess Elizabeth received a very special gift from her paternal grandfather, George V – a Shetland pony named Peggy. Hitherto she had contented herself with wheeled toy horses. Now, aged four, she ascended the saddle, and a lifelong passion was born. The endearing, doughty little Shetland has had a place in royal affections since Queen Victoria was presented with a pair named Flora and Alma by Italy’s King Victor Emmanuel II. Princess Anne was just two when she was lifted astride Flum. Her daughter, Zara, and Zara’s cousin, Prince William, learnt to ride on Smokey and Llanerch Topaz. Both the Princess Royal and her daughter would go on to represent Britain in Olympics eventing. The Shetland pony is an ideal ‘starter’ horse for a child, being…