Innholdsfortegnelse for 08-Jan-2020 i Country Life

NOW that even some of the most vociferous climate-change deniers conclude that urgent action is needed to prevent catastrophe, it wasn’t surprising that all the political parties’ election manifestos promised tree-planting on a massive scale—Labour pledged a crazy two billion by 2040. However, as with many vote-catching commitments, one has to question how much thought went into them and whether these grand ideas are even deliverable. Anyone who’s planted a tree will know that’s the easy bit; keeping them alive and healthy is much harder. Most of the woodland we enjoy today is the result of the foresight of pioneering landowners such as the Earl of Leicester at Holkham in Norfolk, who planted trees for amenity and timber production, as well as to harbour deer, foxes and pheasants for sport.…

THE family was in Northern Ireland for the New Year and enjoyed a spectacular series of outings around Belfast Lough. We scaled the heights of the enclosing hills and strode for many miles along the shore. The children were a little mutinous at the amount of walking, but agreed—after spotting two intrepid women swimming without wetsuits—that going anywhere around the lough was infinitely preferable to going into it. Merely watching the swimmers made me feel cold and I struggled to believe someone who explained the water temperature actually changes very little between the seasons. Another visit took us to the Ulster Folk Museum with its collection of historic buildings from across Ireland. The bitter cold made the sparsely furnished houses seem particularly forbidding and confirmed the children in their belief…

A gift horse QI have started seeing a new chap and, as I’m a horsey girl, he’s insistent that I teach him to ride. A dashing man in jodhs is all well and good, but I find amateurs bouncing around up there like toddlers a huge turn off—it’s just so unattractive. How can I put him off the idea without hurting his feelings? P. W., Suffolk A Whoa, girl! Don’t look a gift horse and all that. You are but a couple of jumps away from winning the Gold Cup: a dashing suitor devoted enough to put himself through agony (a sitting trot is hard on a chap) that he might, in order to please you, morph into the opening credits of Poldark. The most alluring things in life—a…

THE decision of the judging panel to award the 2019 Turner Prize to all four nominated artists enjoyed a brief flicker of attention in the run-up to Christmas last year. Athena was divided in her own mind as to what to think of the news. Was this really a refreshing departure or simply a cop out by the judging panel? After all, if you had four worthy contenders for a job, you wouldn’t console them all with an offer. On the other hand, we manifestly do have an unhealthy obsession with awards and, besides, creative work is not really susceptible to this kind of judgement anyway. These ideas passed through Athena’s mind as she read through the press release. She was just deciding to give the judges and the artists…

Ingredients 2 Dover soles, weighing about 400g each, skinned, beheaded and gutted. Ask the fishmonger to trim the tail, then chop off the flaps on both sides of the fish and keep them for you1 shallot, peeled and finely sliced40g butterSprig of thyme75ml dry white wine100ml double cream1 tomato, peeled and finely diced100g brown shrimps2 tspn of chopped parsleySalt and pepper Method In a saucepan, soften the shallot gently in a teaspoon of butter. Chop the trimmed flaps and add to the pan with thyme, a good pinch of salt and a generous turn of the peppermill. When everything has collapsed and stewed down a little, add the wine and cook for about two minutes, until reduced by half. Add the cream, bring to the boil, then turn down and…

I BUY too many books. I should really adopt the system my wife is desperate for me to employ: book in, book out. But there are some tomes I cannot resist and the prospect of having to say goodbye to an old friend merely to find room for a new one is something I find hard to contemplate. Indeed, the latest arrival has encouraged me to enrich the contents of my Hampshire garden during the darker months of the year. I cannot think of a single recent gardening book that has fired my imagination and been such a useful guide to the diverse array of deciduous trees and shrubs and their colourful barks as Winter Gardens by Cedric Pollet. I defy any gardener not to be uplifted by the…

January 19 St David’s Hall, Cardiff, re-creation of the 1808 premiere of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, Fourth Piano Concerto and choral works, conducted by Carlo Rizzi, 4pm (029–2087 8444) January 19 Barbican Centre, London EC2, Christ on the Mount of Olives conducted by Sir Simon Rattle (020–7638 8891) January 26 Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Missa Solemnis with Roderick Williams, 4pm (0121–780 3333) February 1–2 Barbican Centre, London EC2, all nine symphonies in a Beethoven ‘Weekender’, from 9am (as above) February 27 Milton Court, London EC2, the last three piano sonatas, played by Ronan O’Hora (020–7638 8891) March 2–3 Wigmore Hall, London W1, string quartets with the Belcea Quartet (020–7935 2141) March 5 The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sixth and Seventh Symphonies, conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev (0131–668 2019) March 26 and 29…

Arboriculture Remarkable Trees Christina Harrison and Tony Kirk-ham (Thames & Hudson, £24.95) Trees of Life Max Adams (Head of Zeus, £25) The Story of Trees Kevin Hobbs and David West (Laurence King, £25) THE British rejoice in what we sometimes complacently consider our unique tree heritage. Refreshingly, Remarkable Trees and Trees of Life, which cover similar ground, cast their vision across the continents, with an emphasis on trees of the world that have had a special connection with human culture through the centuries. It is difficult to recommend one above the other. Remarkable Trees has more elegant production values—with images drawn from the extensive archive of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, where the book’s authors are tree specialists—but Max Adams, a teacher of woodland histories, has authored several books…

We present the answers to the Christmas crossword (December 11/18, 2019): ACROSS 1, California; 6, Chesterfield; 14, Initiates; 15, Usurp; 16, Triceps; 17, Pay through the nose; 18, Alamo; 19, Newness; 21, Tartan; 22, Headgear; 24, Amnesia; 26, Wheatear; 27, Equate; 30, Exoneration; 32, Reformatory; 33, Tree-creeper; 35, Whistle-stop; 37, Payout; 38, Instance; 39, Seagull; 42, Labrador; 44, Lovers; 46, Toronto; 48, Grace; 49, Make a pig of oneself; 51, Crimean; 52, Thing; 53, Gibbering; 54, Light-hearted; 55, Investment. DOWN 1, Chippendale; 2, Laity; 3, Faithless; 4, Rations; 5, Insight; 7, House-master; 8, Siphon; 9, Esteemed; 10, Fair and square; 11. Elevate; 12, Discourtesy; 13, Butter bean; 20, Winsomely; 23, Half-time; 25, Awaken; 26, Whipping; 28, About-turn; 29, Gratis; 31, Encouragement; 33, Topological; 34, Rationalise; 35, Wanderings; 36, Pillow fight;…

January is Burgundy month for the UK wine trade: big tastings are held for trade, customers and press. En primeur offers go out, singing the praises of the vintage before the one just harvested and urging us to invest in a few dozen of the wines that are now a little more than halfway through their élevage in small barrels (in the case of the top crus, this may be our only chance). With 2018, the wine trade has a winner on its hands—this was one of the hottest and driest growing seasons on record, producing red wines of ripe, dramatic and bold character, as well as some excellent whites. Why you should be buying them The great heat of 2018 might have produced atypical red Burgundies, but, although…

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THE foundation of Britain was the goddess Diana’s fault. At least, so says the monastic historian Geoffrey of Monmouth in his The History of the Kings of Britain (about 1136). He relates how a Trojan called Brutus, great-grandson of the great Aeneas, was exiled from Rome after killing his father. Reaching a Greek island, Brutus finds a temple of Diana and makes an offering. She instructs him to seek an island called Albion, uninhabited but for a few giants, where he will become king and build a new Troy. Brutus and his men set sail, locating the island and docking near the later site of Totnes. They ultimately kill all the giants save their leader, Gogmagog, who is made to wrestle Corineus, Brutus’s friend. After a rib-cracking struggle, Corineus hurls…

Flora wall mirror, large, £1,100, Balineum (020–7431 9364; www.balineum.co.uk) Red baluster porcelain vase, £1,500, Nicholas Haslam (020–7730 8623; www.nicholashaslam.com) Red wicker linen small square cushion, £95, Fermoie (01672 513723; www.fermoie.com) Jagger table, £1,243, Julian Chichester (020–7622 2928; www.julianchichester.com) Signature scalloped lampshade in raffia with red trim, small, £132, Matilda Goad (www.matildagoad.com) Reversible raspberry and red coral merino throw, £295, Johnstons of Elgin (0344 225 2252; www.johnstonsofelgin.com) Woven round placemat in rouge, £14.95, William Yeoward (020–7349 7828; www.williamyeoward.com) Bitossi bowl Baleno, £38, Pascale (01394 388668; www.pascalestore.co.uk) Red Palmette cushion, £230, Robert Kime (020–7831 6066; www.robertkime.com) Tiered Newport console in Bolero, £5,608, Nina Campbell (020–7352 9518; www.shop.ninacampbell.com) Millicent chair in remy-red, £5,760 plus fabric, Jamb (020–7730 2122; www.jamb.co.uk)…

We are unlikely to linger outdoors in the January garden without good reason. As we walk through it, however, lovely scents demand our attention, revealing the wisdom of planting winter-perfumed shrubs by a path. Some are curious, such as the unique aroma of Hamamelis , the witch hazel, whose spidery yellow flowers are abundant on the bare branches. Among the choicest of all are the Daphnes, such as D. bholua , the thrilling, rich scent of which drifts in great wafts and adds pleasure to the postman’s round. Something to discuss on the doorstep.…

WHEN Beethoven met his hero, Mozart, in Vienna in 1787, the latter reportedly said: ‘Watch out for that boy. One day he will give the world something to talk about.’ This year will see a celebratory calendar of events that dwarfs anything devoted to any other composer in our lifetime; even then, it will be impossible to showcase little more than his fabled oeuvre—in 45 active years, he wrote more than 650 works. The German federal government declared the legacy of Ludwig van Beethoven to be of utmost importance to the nation, pledging € 30 million towards the 250th-anniversary celebrations of his birth, in December 1770 in Bonn. The city where he spent his first 21 years has celebrated him with an annual Beethovenfest since 1845—this year’s Beethoven 250 will…

WE thought for a while that they were prospecting for oil. The table by the road with the splendid vegetables for sale disappeared. A line of dilapidated fencing was replaced by a mysterious stockade of crossed chestnut palings draped with black netting. A company sign went up, a lot of chippings went down and more Land Rovers and white vans were parked on the hard-standing every day. Finally, a huge yellow earth mover lumbered out onto the hill where it seemed to get stuck and, the next time I drove by, the grass had been scraped off an area the size of a football pitch. The spoil was neatly stacked over the strip lynchets. It isn’t oil, as it turns out, but the National Grid embarking on its project to…

BLACK-HEADED gulls have taken up residence in the flooded fields beside the River Meon. These are the gulls that follow the farmer’s plough like confetti in the autumn and have now become the UK’s most common inland gull. Once, they were a major food source, but with their transformation from seabird to urban scavenger, they have fallen completely out of favour. Last summer, the Meon all but dried out below my cottage; today, it is a raging torrent. Water has been bubbling up through the floorboards of some of the houses that fringe the banks and there are signs warning of floods along every road. It has been incredibly wet, but, as with so much in Nature, there are both winners and losers. The clever corvids troop through the sodden…

WE have here, close to the house, four large elms and a few oaks and are anxious to start a rookery. Can you tell us whether this is possible, and if so, how to induce rooks to build there and remain?—J. E. M. Mellor Such an attempt would be quite sensible. Rooks build in elms, oaks, firs, poplars, limes, walnuts, chestnuts—in fact, in all of our tall forest trees. A rookery has been established by the following method: on the topmost boughs were fixed imitation basket nests, about the size of rooks’ nests. These were filled in February with yellow grease, such as is used on railways. The rooks came to look on, at first, but soon began to consume this tempting food. It was replenished and, in March, 17…

What’s cookin’? MY 100% whiff-free cooking method for kippers (‘Holy smoke!’, November 27) doesn’t require an oven, a grill or even a hob—it’s a variation on the Victorian Lowestoft manner. All you need is a pot or pan (a terrine is perfect), in which the folded fish will fit snugly, spine uppermost, and a kettle. Submerged in boiling water, covered and left for only three or four minutes, it will emerge as the definitive article, plump and juicy. One other thing is to tackle it skin-side up on the plate, as the flesh will then simply ease off the bones. Alan Field, Scarrington Squirrelled away I WAS recently tidying my garden in central London when I heard a strange metallic noise emanating from some shrubbery. Moving closer, I was…

• Gundog authority Col David Hancock identified the flatcoat’s distinguishing characteristics as ‘glamour and charm’ • So highly valued were flatcoats by Edwardian shots that, in 1908, H. Reginald Cooke turned down an offer of 260gns for a champion dog. This is equivalent to £30,000 today • Named as ‘Dog of the Century’ by the National Canine Defence League, Swansea Jack was almost certainly a flatcoat retriever that, in the 1930s, in a number of different incidents, rescued as many as 27 people from Swansea Docks • Two key dogs in the establishment of today’s flatcoated retriever belonged to a gamekeeper, Mr J. Hull, in the 1860s. Appropriately, given the breed’s exuberance, they were called Old Bounce and Young Bounce…

THE stone that, in 1769, Franz Michael Diespach set among cascades of brilliant-cut diamonds for Frederick Augustus III of Saxony was the largest, most beautiful green diamond in the world: the 41-carat Dresden Green. The elector wore the glittering brooch in his hat. Brooches have glamour. They are visible and conspicuous, as became clear in the recent response to the spider-shaped brooch worn by a black-clad Baroness Hale the day she delivered the Supreme Court’s verdict on parliamentary prorogation. Within 48 hours of Lady Hale’s verdict, a fashion-data website reported more than 400 online articles and social-media posts about it. Inevitably, the fashion fraternity hailed the return of the brooch. ‘In Britain, no one has done more to champion the brooch than The Queen’ Well, up to a point, Lord…

YOU may expect the Dover sole, that most regal and magnificent of fish, to live a suitably adventurous life. You know, blessed with the mighty tenacity of the salmon or eel. Or, at least, possessed of the mackerel’s pelagic pizzazz. Yet no, this assuredly aristocratic flatfish lingers rather than lives it up, spending all day long doing not much at all. A gentle potter through the mud or stroll across the sand or shingle, perhaps—but nothing as vulgar as hard work. By night, things get a little more active, as it scours the seabed for worms, prawns and anything else that will fit in its gob. Not dissimilar to your average gentleman on his way for dinner at Wiltons or White’s. But really, his is a life of relative…

Beethoven initially admired Napoleon and famously made him the dedicatee of the Third Symphony, but crossed it out in a rage on learning Napoleon had appointed himself Emperor The Fifth Piano Concerto (the ‘Emperor’) was dedicated to Archduke Rudolf; it was completed during the Siege of Vienna The Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, a love interest, was the original dedicatee of Sonata Quasi una Fantasia . Only years after Beethoven’s death was it nicknamed the ‘Moonlight’ The short piano piece everyone learns, Für Elise , was meant to be dedicated to Therese Malfatti, another unrequited love. Published posthumously, 'Elise' was probably a printer’s error The ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata was never actually performed by violin virtuouso Rudolpe Kreutzer—he said it was too difficult. It was originally dedicated to English violinist George Bridgetower, but Beethoven…

WHO was the Renaissance’s perfect Renaissance Man? It was a question pondered by the grandee-portraitist Joshua Reynolds when he established the Royal Academy in 1768. Reynolds wanted to foster homegrown painters who could look the Continentals in the eye and to do that, he thought, our artists should take the great names of the Renaissance as their example. However, Reynolds didn’t choose Leonardo, the universal genius, nor did he plump for Michelangelo, the creator of some of the most potent works in history; he went instead for Raphael. ‘He was the perfect exponent of the “grand manner” and fully merited his nickname “prince of painters”’ Of course, Raphael (Raffaello Santi, 1483–1520) is still one of the most hallowed of names, but, remembered above all for his sweet and gentle Madonna…