Innholdsfortegnelse for 24-Aug-2016 i Country Life

NATIONAL identity is often founded upon myth and nowhere is this truer than of Scotland. The shared Scottish story is peopled with glittering heroes and evil bogeymen, the villainous laird being prominent among the latter. Subscribers to this myth can never forgive Victorian landowners for their part in the Highland Clearances, which drove families from the hills and led to mass emigration. This explains the passion with which land reform is being pursued north of the border. Big landowners are often English or from overseas, and invariably rich, so it’s axiomatically right to some politicians that their lives are made as difficult as possible. The fact that they pour money into their loss-making estates and support an economy that would collapse if they were to leave is regarded as immaterial,…

Sporting pride It's rare for a host nation to improve on its medal tally four years later, but Team GB has had its most successful ever trip to an Olympic Games, finishing second in the medal table Female theatre visitors The Theatres Trust's Spend a Penny scheme is offering grants of up to £15,000 to 10 theatres to improve the parlous number of ladies' loos generally found Tenant farmer Dan Jones from Anglesey has paid £1 to rent a National Trust farm for year; he'll take over Parc Farm on the Great Orme, which has important rare habitats…

SCOTLAND was at its prettiest last week, with the hills painted purple by the heather under cloudless skies. We were in the midst of a heatwave, which was disastrous for the purpose of luring a salmon to come to my fly, but unforgettable for the beauty. Without fail, each morning, a golden orb rose in the east, an apt reminder of the golden days and nights our athletes were having in Rio at the Olympics, where we won a staggering 67 medals to finish second in the medal table, beating China into third. In these difficult times, sport has the ability to unite a nation. The raw emotions of success and failure were enthralling and there was so much to be proud of. It was a joy to see our…

Auction August 29 Fine Modern and Vintage Sporting Guns, Gleneagles Hotel, Auchterarder, Perthshire. This year, Gavin Gardiner's annual auction includes a 12-bore Royal de Luxe model by Holland & Holland ordered in July 1972 and delivered in June 1976, estimated to fetch £14,000–£18,000 (www.gavingardiner.com; 01798 875300) Country show September 2–4 Chatsworth Country Fair (above), Chats-worth, Derbyshire. Alongside dog agility and fly-fishing, enjoy The Household Cavalry Musical Ride, the Band of The Corps of Royal Engineers, the Red Arrows and live demonstrations from Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry (01328 821821; www.chatsworthcountryfair.co.uk) September 3 Moreton-in-Marsh Show, Batsford Road, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire. Fly-fishing demonstrations, vintage tractors, displays from Service Dogs UK, Q&A with the NFU, and livestock competitions (01608 651908; www.moretonshow.co.uk) Flower show September 8–11 London Flower Show, Osterley Park and House, Isleworth, Middlesex.…

‘The debate over the fate of the Marbles has boiled for years’ ATHENA rejoiced at the news that the Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I has been ‘saved for the nation’ thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Linbury Trust, the Headley Trust, the Art Fund and thousands of individual donors. In these days of hyper-inflated art prices—Lucian Freud’s Pregnant Girl sold for £16 million earlier this year—£10.3 million seems a modest price to pay for what is not only the definitive image of the Virgin Queen, but a powerful reminder that Britain was the greatest maritime power in history (Visual Arts, July 13). We look forward to seeing it in Greenwich when the Queen’s House is reopened to the public in October. The successful purchase…

‘The first-aid kit was found to contain a half-empty bottle of whisky and little else’ I HAD thought to add a Citroën 2CV to our collection of classic vehicles (or old wrecks) as a surprise present for my wife. She’s hankered after one for many summers. A jaunty red-and-white ‘Dolly’ version for sale in the neighbourhood caught my eye on Gumtree and I called the number given. A familiar voice answered. It was Bert. Now, Bert has had an interesting career in second-hand car sales, although the word career should be conjugated in this instance more as a verb than as a noun. A recent period ‘off the road’ rather punctured his ability to trade, so he’d turned to retailing electric bicycles, for which it seems a road-traffic licence…

No. 34: Trim lavender Lavender is an easy enough shrub to cultivate, but if it's left to its own devices, it will almost imperceptibly develop an ungainly habit, wandering about on great crooked woody shoots with a mere tuft of the desired grey and blue at the tips. Act now to prevent this. Cut off the flowers, complete with their stalks, and continue your clipping to include all but an inch or so of the current season's leaves. Do not cut into the bare wood or it will stay that way. An annual treatment of this kind will maintain a neat hedge indefinitely.…

THE view from Dick Levens’s workshop stretches across the Pentland Firth to Dunnet Head, the most northerly tip of mainland Scotland. In the distance, the mountains of Ross-shire fringe the horizon. There are no trees to obscure the outlook, as Mr Levens lives on South Ronaldsay, the southernmost of the almost naturally treeless Orkney Islands. For the past 20 years, Mr Levens has lived in a former schoolhouse outside the village of St Margaret’s Hope on the north coast of the island. This sturdy, late-18th-century stone building, ornamented with typical crow-step gables, counts among its alumni William McGonagall, notorious as the writer of some of the worst doggerel produced in 19th-century Britain. The musicality or otherwise of McGonagall’s execrable verse is a moot point, but, thanks to Mr Levens, musicianship…

A COMMON image of the Scottish country house, at least before the 18th century, is of a domesticated castle with rooms stacked one above the other and linked by tight spiral stairs. It is assumed that such houses—in effect, towers, their outlines enlivened by jettied walkways and pepperpot turrets —fell out of fashion when life became sufficiently settled for the protection they offered to be unnecessary. In the Borders at least, tower houses thereafter spread outwards, with the addition of low subsidiary ranges into generous architectural maturity. Nisbet House, just a few miles north of the border near Duns in Berwickshire, however, is an intriguing example of an early-17th-century house that was enlarged in the peaceful late 18th century by the addition of a massive tower. Dates for Nisbet are…

For sale £1.675 million Sydney Lodge is an Italianate villa in the Grange, one of Edinburgh's trophy neighbourhoods, not far from Fettes College and St George's School. It has elegant reception rooms, five bedrooms and beautiful gardens with a summer house. Knight Frank (0131–516 4608) For sale £395,000 This pied-à-terre on Regent Terrace Mews, a short walk from the city centre, isn't enormous, but it has resident's access to the prestigious Regent Gardens (for a modest annual fee). There are three bedrooms, a kitchen and a sitting room, all in superb condition. Rettie & Co (0131–624 4066) For sale £1.15 million The grandest floors of a splendid town house in sought-after Moray Place, the apartment has four bedrooms, a stately entrance hall, cornicing and a flamboyant sweeping stair with cupola…

IF Anthony Meyer describes an Inuit artefact as ‘an enigmatic object of anthropomorphic form’, then its meaning must indeed be obscure. Is it human, animal, fish, bird or insect? Mr Meyer, of the eponymous gallery in the rue des Beaux-Arts on the Parisian Left Bank has dealt in Oceanic tribal arts since the 1980s, but he also collected early Eskimo art—as he terms it—and he is internationally respected for his expertise. In 2010, he launched a specialist department to deal in it and the 7 1 /2in walrus-tusk carving is his poster object for this year’s Parcours des Mondes from September 6 to 11 (www.parcours-desmondes.com). It is about 1,000 years old, give or take a couple of centuries, and comes from the Alaskan Punuk culture on the Bering Sea. Mr…

‘The oven defeats us and the ice-cube tray is a snare, I’M writing at my brother-in-law’s dining-room table in my brother- and sister-in-law’s Oxfordshire house. They, I assume, are having breakfast in the kitchen of our Suffolk house. This is because we’re doing a house swap. Most Augusts, they spend a week beside our moat and we spend a week not far from Blenheim Palace. It has all the advantages of self-catering without the cost. It’s worth mentioning that dining-room table: it was a wedding present for Hew and John’s great-grandfather from his architect brother, J. J. Stevenson, a pioneer of the Queen Anne revival movement. Although this heavyweight, gothick oak table would surprise Queen Anne, what it does show is prescience. With extra leaves (kept in a disguised dresser),…

WE are delighted to welcome to the editorial staff this week Giles Kime as Interiors Editor. Giles, who will be bringing weekly interiors coverage to COUNTRY LIFE from October, was previously Executive Editor at our sister magazine, Homes & Gardens. He is also a former Editor of Decanter and is author of the books Decorate to Speculate and Secrets of Wine. He can be contacted on giles.kime@timeinc.com Giles can be seen in conversation with Dan Hopwood, owner of Studio Hopwood, at Decorex International on September 19 and talking about the evolution of the bath on September 20. The annual design and interiors exhibition, part of the London Design Festival, takes place at Syon Park in the London borough of Hounslow, from September 18 to 21 (www.decorex.com).…

WE’RE first in the queue for Renfrew Rose, which is lucky, as she only takes two cars. Valiantly, she plies the Cromarty-Nigg crossing, her landing method a run-and-hit manoeuvre that rarely fails. Ropeless, she bounces against the pier as we disembark backwards down two narrow ramps. Nerve-wracking, but it saves the long drive round to the Tarbert peninsula, where soon we’re clambering down a gorsey bank. The Ballone Games has to be the most unpretentious—and aesthetically edifying—of Highland gatherings: a medieval spectacle of tents and games enclosure pegged out in tweed bunting on an emerald sward. Beneath the clifftop castle, venison burgers sizzle in the drizzle, sack-racers somersault, bales of hay are tossed and the chief strides about in feathered bonnet and golden chain. I judge the sculpture contest: an…

The writer of the letter of the week will win a bottle of Pol Roger Brut Réserve Champagne MATTHEW DENNISON’S article ‘Pulling the stops out’ (August 10) brought back a nostalgic wartime memory. Early in the Second World War, the Fleet Air Arm commissioned 784 Squadron at RAF Drem in East Lothian to train night-fighter crews to embark in small aircraft carriers protecting Atlantic and Russian convoys. Although Drem was little more than a hamlet, it had a small railway station on the main LNER Edinburgh to King’s Cross line. When we were given a few days’ leave, it was attractive to spend it in London. We discovered that Drem station enjoyed a useful privilege whereby, if we telephoned Waverley station in Edinburgh on the morning before the night express…

One of the dealers exhibiting in the Parcours de la Céramique is Antoine Lebel from Brussels, who is enjoying the hospitality of the galerie Jacques Leegenhoek in the rue de Lille. By training, Dr Lebel is a Classical archaeologist with a DPhil from Oxford, but he specialises in Chinese export porcelain. Although now based in Belgium, in 1992, the gallery originally opened in the Carré Rive Gauche. A highlight of his show is a rare pair of aiguières-that is, goose-shaped ewers intended for water. Although for the European market, there is something unmistakably Chinese about this 8½in-high pair, with their high lids, coral spirals and green goose-necks. They date from the Kangxi period, about 1700.…

FARMING bodies have welcomed the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s recent announcement that the Treasury will honour current levels of agricultural funding until 2020 as he seeks to reassure an industry that is vulnerable to the loss of EU subsidies after Brexit. Defra Secretary Andrea Leadsom clarifies: ‘Any agri-environment schemes agreed before the Autumn Statement will be fully funded—even when these projects continue beyond the UK’s departure from the EU.’ However, the plan for subsidies after 2020 starts with a clean slate. The RSPB argues that commitment to maintain current levels shouldn’t lock the country ‘into the perversities of the CAP [Common Agriculture Policy]’ but rather set out ‘a clear direction of travel’ towards more sustainable farming. All bodies agree that confirmation is needed on how agri-environment schemes are to be…

ANEW Picture Librarian is being sought for when COUNTRY LIFE’s extensive archives are moved out of London to our editorial offices in Farnborough, Hampshire. The job involves managing the most important photographic survey of architecture and gardens in existence, driving its digital development and realising its commercial potential. The successful applicant will be a team player who is interested in the editorial process and the world of COUNTRY LIFE and has strong organisational, IT and business skills and knowledge of photography. Apply to the Architecture Editor, John Goodall (john.goodall@timeinc.com).…

Late summer seems to me the ideal time to sip German Rieslings, preferably in a garden: they make the perfect aperitif for an alfresco meal, but the drier styles are also wonderfully versatile food wines. Why you should be drinking them A Riesling revival has been under way for some time now, but much of the focus has been on wines from Australia (and I love Clare Valley Riesling), New Zealand and Austria -anywhere other than Riesling's true and original homeland in the valleys of the Mosel, Saar, Rhine and Nahe. The wines from the steep slopes above those rivers are still the most exquisite, piquant and nuanced Rieslings of all; they offer remarkable value compared to other top wines. What to drink Behind the ordinary-sounding name of…

John McEwen comments onTitian Preparing to Make his First Essay in Colouring ‘William Dyce is arguably one of the greatest painters to come out of Scotland and certainly the greatest out of Aberdeen. His work in the robing room of the House of Lords may be his most famous, but my personal favourite is Titian Preparing to Make his First Essay in Colouring. Every time I go to the Aberdeen Art Gallery, I am drawn to this amazing piece of art. The precision of the painting is astounding and the subject matter is so interesting and different to most of his religious-themed works’ WILLIAM DYCE, best known for his Arthurian frescoes in the House of Lords, anticipated and was influenced by the art of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and must surely…

Old-fashioned cherry pie with amaretto whipped cream Line a tart tin with a pre-rolled sheet of shortcrust pastry and scatter with ground almonds. In a separate bowl, mix together 2 generous handfuls of halved and stoned cherries with a few tablespoons of sugar and a tablespoon of cornflour and pour into the tart tin. Top the tart with a second sheet of pastry, either plain or decoratively in plaits, brush with beaten egg and bake for about 35 minutes in a moderately hot oven. Serve with whipped cream, laced with a little amaretto and icing sugar. Coconut panna cotta with cherries To make the panna cotta, heat 400ml coconut milk and 300ml double cream to a near boil, then add a teaspoon of vanilla-bean paste and 100g caster sugar. Spoon…

‘Although dead birds could be studied more minutely, Lear tried to show them as they would have looked in life, ONE day in October 1831, Edward Lear paid his first visit to Knowsley Hall in Lancashire. We don’t know his feelings as the carriage swept up to the house, but they might well have included trepidation and awe. Lear was not yet 20 years old and Knowsley was one of the greatest of all aristocratic houses. Its owner, then an old man, was the hospitable sportsman the 12th Earl of Derby, a descendant of the Lord Stanley who had won Henry VII the crown through his dramatic intervention at the Battle of Bosworth. Lear was large-nosed, wispy-moustached and bespectacled, but more handsome than he thought himself—and far from the baggy-clothed,…

TEN years ago, the film version of Alan Bennett’s hit play The History Boys was released, bringing the multi-award-winning production to a new audience following runs at the National Theatre, in the West End, in Australia and Hong Kong and on Broadway. Its young cast became stars and, unusually, many of them are now even hotter properties in this country and in the USA. Probably the most successful has been James Corden, who has taken America by storm as a chat-show host. One of the most popular segments of his Late Late Show is ‘Carpool Karaoke’, in which he rides around in a car with a celebrity singing along to their hits with his characteristic abandon. His ride with Adele drew more than 110 million internet views and that…

Walking with James Hogg: The Ettrick Shepherd’s Journeys Through Scotland Bruce Gilkison (Edinburgh University Press, £14.99) Culloden: Great Battles Murray Pittock (OUP, £18.99) Scotland: A Literary Guide for Travellers Garry Mackenzie (I. B. Tauris, £16.99) The Book of Iona: An Anthology Edited by Robert Crawford (Birlinn, £14.99) Island on the Edge: A Life on Soay Anne Cholawo (Birlinn, £12.99) The Small Isles (right) John Hunter (Historic Environment Scotland, £25)…