Innholdsfortegnelse for 27-Feb-2019 i Country Life

IS there no end to bad news? Last week’s bombshell came from scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder in the USA, who say that cooking a Sunday roast produces dangerous levels of particulate matter. Lolling against the Aga inhaling the sensuous fumes of a leg of lamb roasting in garlic and rosemary may be as unhealthy as standing in the middle of a traffic jam in Piccadilly. Roasted sprouts are, apparently, the biggest culprits. A jolly professor from Birmingham University was called onto Today to calm things down. He mildly pointed out that this is not new news, that although roasting does generate high levels of particulates, it’s a relatively short-term exposure—especially if you open the window—and that no research has yet been done into whether we should be…

THE Earth’s magnetic field is on the move and heading rapidly towards Siberia. This is not a Kremlin plot, nor a cause for any panic, because, according to geological records, it’s happened at least 183 times before. Caused by changes in the current of the molten core of the planet, it does, however, alter where the compass points and, at present, it’s moving at a rate of 60km (37 miles) a year. Other things are changing, too: spring is coming earlier and moving faster across Britain than it did a decade ago. On about January 12, I was amazed to see an Egyptian goose with nine goslings on Barnes Pond in London. She must have started laying her eggs in early December, before sitting on them for 30 days over…

IT is good news that the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries has taken steps towards stocking suitable waters with eels. England has plenty of pools, sluggish rivers, canals and other waters eminently well fitted for eels, and this fish is very much appreciated. It is otherwise in the North of England and in Scotland where there is a long standing prejudice against the eel as an article of diet. It is not founded on any intelligent reason any more than is the refusal of the people in Scottish fishing villages to eat mackerel. In the waters of the English shires, however, this objection would not stand. Stewed eels and mashed potatoes have long been regarded as constituting a dainty dish by the great body of consumers.…

Harry Eyres I have already sung the praises of the Clos Windsbühl, the vineyard around a Hapsburg hunting lodge in the village of Hunawihr that is one of the prize possessions of Alsatian Domaine Zind-Humbrecht. Now, I want to celebrate this estate more generally, because I believe it to be one of the finest on the planet. Why you should be choosing it My first visit to Domaine Zind-Humbrecht was more than 30 years ago, when the person in charge was the imposing, serious figure of Léonard Humbrecht. The reins are now held by the equally imposing figure of his son Olivier. He is serious, but can smile, too (and loves Scotch; he even makes it), and has overseen the conversion of the estate to biodynamic viticulture. Meanwhile, wine-making…

BY the early 19th century, Manchester had emerged as one of the first true industrial cities in the world. It had a skyline of spinning mills and tall chimneys, as well as horrendous slums, but it also had an energetic middle class, dedicated to self-improvement and making money. Late-Georgian Manchester equipped itself with a number of public buildings and cultural institutions, mostly in the Greek Revival style, such as its first town hall on King Street, which was designed by Francis Goodwin and built between 1819 and 1834. By the 1860s, Manchester had outgrown Goodwin’s building. The town’s corporation conceived the project for a new building in 1863 and decided to proceed in 1864. The corporation may have been full of hard-nosed businessmen, but where the new town hall was…

I’m a big fan of rugby shirts and Kent & Curwen has the most wonderful colourways, my favourite being ochre and pistachio. The detailing is superb —the penny collar and the embroidered rose patch add a quintessentially British touch. I’m secretly hoping a bitter-chocolate and sunrise-pink combination will be added to the collection. £135 (020–7240 6618; www.kentandcurwen.com) Being a spectacles wearer from an early age in life, I have tried and tested many different options, but, since being introduced to Tony Gross, of Cutler and Gross, my ocular dreams have been realised. I’ve worn the company’s glasses every day since and stick to one style, of which I have multiple variants, depending on mood and occasion. A current favourite within the collection are these scrumptious tortoiseshell aviators, handcrafted and…

1835 Henry Wink-worth starts his estate agency 1855 Alfred Savill (far left) opens the first office of Alfred Savill & Son 1885 Edward Strutt (far right) & Charles Parker enter into partnership 1896 John Knight, Howard Frank (left) & William Rutley go into business 1897 COUNTRY LIFE is launched 1909 William Rutley dies of a heart attack 1910 Herbert Jackson-Stops (right) founds his company in Towcester 1912 Walton & Lee is bought by Howard Frank 1914 Howard Frank is knighted 1917 Edward Strutt is made a Companion of Honour…

It is a counsel of perfection to sow anything outdoors in February, but we may be fortunate and parsnips should be started early. Make a seedbed by forking through, raking and levelling to a fine tilth. Set a cane at each end of the row and draw out a shallow drill with the corner of a hoe. Sow the big, flat seeds individually: it takes time, but saves trouble later. Sprinkle a catch crop of radishes, which will soon mark the rows, as parsnips are slow to germinate. Shuffle along the row to firm and rake to remove the footprints. SCD…

In the past, public museums and galleries were often sloppy about provenance. Even when paintings had come from important collections, that information was omitted from labels. The idea of mentioning market sources would have given curators fits of the vapours. How splendid, then, that The Bowes Museum, Co Durham, is celebrating the trade in an admirably warts and all manner with ‘SOLD!’, until May 5. The curator is Dr Mark Westgarth, whose remit at the University of Leeds includes the Centre for the Study of the Art and Antiques Market. Displays represent the market in the 19th and 20th centuries, including a well-stocked ‘Old Curiosity Shop’ typical of 1850. With them are dealers’ archives, catalogues and ephemera, plus a few fakes and scandals. On show are some spectacularly rare things,…

HALF-TERM has brought the family to the shores of Upper Lough Erne in Co Fermanagh. The weather, it’s true, has been mixed, but—as one local accurately advised —if you’re unhappy with what’s going on outdoors, wait for five minutes and it will have changed. Besides, watching the lough and the landscape in changing light has been one of the great pleasures of the stay. The visit has introduced me to Lisnaskea. It’s a small town with a roaring main thoroughfare, but, otherwise, it’s a model of what a high street should be. There is a good butcher and baker, a market and shops of every sort. We even coincided with the cattle market. ‘Are we going to buy a cow?’ one of the children asked. I laughed, but, when a…

J. M. W. Turner • Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) was born in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. A child prodigy, he was enrolled at the Royal Academy (RA) at 14. • He opened a gallery in 1804, on the corner of Harley Street and Queen Anne Street, so he could showcase his work away from the crowded walls of the RA. • Joseph Farington, a senior academician of the time, regarded him with ‘puzzled incomprehension’ and Benjamin West, the RA’s president, called his paintings ‘crude blotches’. John Ruskin was the first prominent critic to champion Turner’s work. • Between 1824 and 1850, there was only one year in which Turner didn’t exhibit at the RA. This was 1848, when his health was failing. • When he died, he left behind…

LAST week, the ‘Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms’ show at the British Library closed its doors. Alas, many readers won’t have seen it —it was completely sold out for its last few weeks. This is not something most people would have dared to predict before it opened. British Library exhibitions based on books and documents have a dusty air and the Anglo-Saxon period has never previously been big box office. How amazing, then, that this scholarly examination of a somewhat recondite subject should have proved such a hit. ‘Fears that the world is being irreparably dumbed down appear to be premature’ It’s cause for celebration because ‘Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms’ didn’t, in the manner of the David Bowie or Christian Dior exhibitions at the V&A, court the crowds. Instead, the exhibition presented a collection of…

A FILM critic recently wrote that, when Maurice, the Merchant-Ivory cinema adaptation of E. M. Forster’s Edwardian tale of a coming-of-age homosexual Cambridge undergraduate, was first released in 1987, the world wasn’t ready for it. ‘Well, the UK wasn’t ready for it,’ corrects its star James Wilby. ‘It went down fantastically well in the USA and ran for a year in Paris. My co-lead Hugh Grant and I shared Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival. Japan lapped it up. We did all right over here. The film wasn’t slammed, but Margaret Thatcher had just brought out Clause 28 and there was a semi-resurgence of homophobia.’ RADA-trained Mr Wilby admits that his first big-screen lead role owed much to his co-star. ‘We’d been in a film called Privileged a few…

THE painting submitted to the Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy by portraitist James Gunn in the penultimate summer of the Second World War was a picture of his second wife, Pauline. Labelled by The Daily Mail ‘the “Mona Lisa” of 1944’, Pauline in the Yellow Dress caused a sensation and, within an hour of the exhibition opening, sold for £1,000. Despite wartime privations, Gunn had depicted Pauline in a flowing yellow acetate frock imported from the USA; the former Elizabeth Arden vendeuse is immaculately coiffed, manicured and made-up. Gunn’s is a languorous, elegant, luxurious, seductive image and the adoring gaze of the white Pekingese on Pauline’s lap was matched by many visitors at a moment of austerity and matched by Pauline’s artist-husband, too. ‘That these portraits are among Gunn’s…

THOSE who disparage classic English decoration of the 1980s and 1990s tend to confuse the look with the damage inflicted by the swags ’n’ tails brigade on country-house hotels (‘Why use 15m of fabric when you could use 30m?’ ‘Why combine three patterns when you could use half a dozen?’ ‘Why bother with experience when you have lots of contacts and a few fabric books?’). Many of the carefully considered, sotto voce examples never made it into the pages of the glossies, but, every now and then, there are glimpses of the glorious, long-forgotten reality, notably the breathtaking interiors of Tessa Kennedy’s Knightsbridge apartment and the handsome good looks of the Chelsea flat Geoffrey Bennison decorated for Lord Weidenfeld before their contents were shipped off to Christie’s. Both were…

Henrietta fedora, £470, Maison Michel (020–7629 8643; www.michel-paris.com) Suffolk fedora in camel with pheasant feather wrap, £95, Hicks & Brown (01284 598005; www.hicksandbrown.com) Burgundy-felt trilby embellished with pheasant feathers, £180, Beverley Edmondson (01252 715039; www.beverleyedmondsonmillinery.co.uk) Willow fedora, £395, William & Son (020–7493 8385; www.williamandson.com) Richmond unisex felt hat, £49.95, Alan Paine (01623 415760; www.alanpaine.co.uk)…

‘Sweet and delicious leeks create comforting winter dishes rich in flavour’ More ways with leeks Leek tarte tatin with thyme and feta ( below ) Prepare eight medium-sized leeks by trimming and washing them thoroughly, before cutting them into 2.5cm (1in) coins. Place them on their ends in a round tart tin, dot the tops with butter, season generously, scatter with thyme and roast in the oven at 160˚C for 30 minutes, or until soft. Remove the tin and lay a piece of puff pastry over the top, tucking it in around the edges. Turn up the oven to 200˚C and bake the tart for 20 minutes. Once golden, invert onto a serving plate and sprinkle some crumbled feta over it.…

AS Lampedusa’s Prince Tancredi put it in The Leopard: ‘If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.’ The TEFAF fair at Maastricht has changed mightily over the years and it continues to do so. This year sees a greater turnover among the exhibitors than usual, which should strengthen the Modern sector, but more problematical will be the decision that all dealers and auction-house specialists will no longer be voting members of the vetting committees. It is to be hoped that members of the trade will still be heard, as they often know a great deal that academics cannot be expected to. It is also to be hoped that the new voting vets—rightly including conservators—will be able to make up their minds expeditiously. A number…

Busting a move Breakdancing is set to be included in the 2024 Paris Olympics, pending approval by the committee. However, UK squash fans are unhappy that their sport has been repeatedly rebuffed Crack shots of West Sussex Hownhall, Cowdray estate’s shooting school, has been recognised as one of the best in the country at the inaugural Great British Shooting Awards Royal Horticultural Society The UK’s leading garden charity, founded in 1804, is celebrating reaching a record 500,000 members…

Quiz of the week 1) On a standard QWERTY keyboard, which number shares a key with the ! symbol? 2) What does a galanthophile collect? 3) Which German word refers to a double of a living person? 4) Aphasia is a medical term for difficulty with what? 5) The mineral pyrite is commonly known as what, due to its resemblance to a precious metal? Time to buy Unmissable events Exhibition Until March 29 ‘Nick Miller: Rootless’, Art Space Gallery, Michael Richardson Contemporary Art, St Peter’s Street, London N1. A new body of still-life paintings, capturing cut flowers, weeds and branches in vases, jars and bottles against the backdrop of the artist’s studio. The results are ‘testaments to resilience, fragility and beauty… creating a pause to the inevitability of decay’…

Tell me sweet little lies Q I told what I considered to be a relatively harmless lie to one person, but word has spread and it’s getting out of control. I’ve started avoiding friends and am terrified my family will hear the falsehood. Is there any way to diffuse the situation without having to confess to everyone I know? P. H., Kent A I’m gagging to know what ‘relatively harmless’ error could cause such ripples. I have two possible solutions to your predicament. In our self-obsessed era, clinical psychotherapy is venerated above all gods. Go to your initial contact and, with a faint, brave smile, allude vaguely to Roediger and McDermott, false-memory retraction, the hippo-campus, the Lost in the Mall technique and how shattering therapy is. He/she will feel…

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Maurice will be available from March 4 in two-disc Blu-ray from www.bfi.org.uk/shop Where is your favourite place? Sandoway, Burma—I was born in Rangoon and my father would take us to its coral reefs, teeming with fish What is your favourite building? Cathedral of Sagrada Família, Barcelona Book? Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Márquez) Film? Louis Malle’s Milou en Mai ( May Fools ) Alternative career? Stage director Who is your hero? Nelson Mandela—and my heroine is Meryl Streep…

Floral fantasy G. P. & J. Baker’s new Ellonby features embroidered white flowers and foliage meandering over a handwoven stripe. Seen here in Spice, it costs £129 per m (020–7351 7760; www.gpjbaker.com) Cupboard love Julian Chichester is famous for classic designs with a contemporary twist. His new two-door Gin’s Cabinet, shown here, in Indian rosewood with contrasting black-vellum doors and inset blackened-brass circular detailing, costs £4,200 (020–7622 Mid-century modern Evidence that the clean simplicity of 1950s design is here to stay comes in the shape of this elegant chandelier from Vaughan. It features eight lights with frosted-glass cylindrical shades and costs £1,422 (020–7349 4600; www.vaughandesigns.com) Wit and whimsy With Fornasetti, Cole & Son has created Senza Tempo, a group of whimsical wallpapers, including Arance (left) and Bastoni (above), originally a…

Q What are the similarities between a great work of art and a financial investment? A Both a great work of art and a sound financial investment can be a significant asset to their owner; they both have the propensity to increase in value over the longer term and both need due care and attention in order to preserve their current and potential value. However, whilst enjoyment can be sought through the mere act of looking at a great work of art or sculptural masterpiece, the pleasure gained from a sound financial investment is more indirect. Financial assets, through the return of dividends or capital growth, can bring enjoyment by supporting future generations or your plans for retirement. Q What are the benefits of a carefully managed investment portfolio? A…

There is nothing quite so potent as the elation felt when trying on beautiful high-heeled shoes. ‘When I see customers coming into the shop, they often aren’t looking for practicality, but a mood boost,’ divulges the esteemed British shoe designer rupert Sanderson. ‘Off come their old pair, so they go down a step, but then they put on the new shoes and go way up. I see their whole countenance and posture change, their whole being lights up in front of the mirror and suddenly everything’s okay—shoes have a magic power.’ Mr Sanderson’s passionate relationship with footwear started in 1999, when he decided that his advertising job was making him miserable and shoes were his calling. After studying at Cordwainers College in east London, he moved to Italy to hone…

IT’S the time of year for being reminded that we are but dust and unto dust shall we return. Far from shunning this information, we seem to crave it. Thousands of us will throng into cathedrals and college chapels for Ash Wednesday services on March 6 next week. As we shuffle towards the altar to have our foreheads marked with a cross of ash, the top Cs of the Allegri Miserere from the choir will remind us that, although we are but dust, we can still invoke the celestial. It’s a spine-tingling piece: the 20 verses of Psalm 51, ‘Have mercy upon me, O God’, set in turn to five-part choir, men’s voices in steady plainsong and a solo quartet singing from a distant gallery or transept. I first heard…