Innholdsfortegnelse for 7-Dec-2022 i Country Life

ON September 29, 1850, Pius IX issued Universalis Ecclesiae, a papal bull that restored the Catholic hierarchy across England and Wales after the interruption of the Reformation. Catholics had only been able to hold some public offices, including entering Parliament, since 1829, and to worship in public since 1791. The initiative—furiously dubbed ‘The Papal Aggression’ by a deeply hostile English public and Protestant establishment—constituted a province of the Catholic church with 13 dioceses, the number of Christ and the Apostles, under the authority of a Metropolitan, or archbishopric, at Westminster in London. Nicholas Wiseman, the first Archbishop appointed, established his temporary or pro-cathedral at St Mary Moorfields, Finsbury Circus in the City. His domestic arrangements, meanwhile, were divided. He maintained a country house at Leyton, at the time in Essex,…

THE discreet, stucco-fronted façade of the Inchbald School of Design just off Sloane Square gives few clues to its pivotal role in engendering a spirit of professionalism and unlocking creativity in generation after generation of interior designers since it was launched more than 60 years ago. In a profession where, to the outsider looking in, so much can seem arbitrary and sometimes quite frivolous, the school has created a range of courses built on a breadth and depth of teaching that has been the foundation of some stellar careers. At the same time, it has demonstrated that interior design is a discipline that needs to be taken seriously. Listening is at the heart of every successful project Last month, its founder Jacqueline Duncan and I invited three alumni to…

MODERN-DAY gardeners want to work with Nature, not overpower it. Wildflower meadows, no-dig veg patches and borders crammed with winter seedheads are top of their wish lists. Although wild-style gardens (as opposed to simply wildly neglected ones) fit with ideas of ecological stewardship and a harmonious relationship with the earth, they can also be a tough trick to pull off. No one lusts after thickets of brambles, but too much fiddling about and the naturalness is quickly lost. Gardeners searching for that balance may find inspiration in a design idea that dominated English gardens about 300 years ago: the wilderness. Wilderness is wildness artfully contained Wilderness is a slippery word with many connotations, but, in garden history, it is emphatically not wild. It is wildness that is artfully contained. Highly…

Roasted guinea fowl with mulled wine and apple-braised red cabbage (also perfect with roast turkey on Christmas Day) Method • If you’re mulling your own wine, pour the red wine into a saucepan with the clementine juice and zest, sugar, cinnamon stick, nutmeg, star anise and cloves. Bring to a gentle simmer to dissolve the sugar and then rapidly boil for five minutes until reduced and syrupy. Remove from the heat, strain and set aside. • Melt the butter in a large saucepan and cook the sliced onions until softening. Add the red cabbage, apple wedges, garlic, vinegar and peppercorns. Stir everything together and then pour over the spiced-wine reduction (or shop-bought mulled wine). Cover with a lid and cook over a low heat for an hour and a…

Armada: The Spanish Enterprise and England’s Deliverance in 1588 Colin Martin and Geoffrey Parker (Yale, £30) READERS of Ann Cleeves’s ‘Shetland’ series will know that the central character is DI Jimmy Perez, a Fair Islander with a Spanish name. Mrs Cleeves wanted someone who was a Shetlander, but still felt like an outsider: ‘There was a Spanish Armada ship, El Gran Grifon, wrecked off the island, so it’s not completely improbable that one of his ancestors was a Spanish survivor.’ Not completely improbable, no, but, on the evidence of this compendious book, unlikely. Many who survived the wreck died of disease and the rest were eventually evacuated to the mainland via the good offices of Spanish agents in Scotland, which was then, of course, an independent country. However,…

SAY the words ‘sausage dog’ or ‘dachshund’ to a serious sporting type and they’ll probably recoil as if you’ve uttered a shibboleth, such as ‘Veganuary’ or ‘Tony Blair’. Certainly, Sophy Coleman of Gingerfox Gundogs was dismissive of what she perceived as ‘those yappy, whippetty, fragile ones’. Until, that is, her gamekeeper husband suggested that she satisfy her need for a ‘little dog’ with a teckel, which, in this country, broadly means the working strain of the breed. ‘I didn’t want one,’ she recalls, ‘but my husband is very much of the opinion that you can’t have a dog that’s an ornament, it’s got to have a job.’ Since Mrs Tiggywinkle came into their lives 10 years ago, it’s fair to say that Mrs Coleman has embraced the breed with a…

WHEN a 30-year tenancy on Cyder House, one of the properties belonging to Frampton Court in Gloucestershire, came to an end, the Clifford family, who have lived on the estate since 1730, set out to transform it. ‘Having established a successful business hosting weddings and letting both the main house and the Orangery, we decided to turn The Cyder House into another holiday let that sleeps 16 people,’ explains Charlotte Clifford. Each of the bedrooms is named after pear varieties grown on the estate. This room, known as Gypsy Red, is at the top of the house in a space that had previously been used for storage. ‘I decided to install four cabin beds to create somewhere magical to sleep,’ says Mrs Clifford. ‘I designed the outline shapes of each…

Find the best properties at countrylife.co.uk THIS week sees the launch in COUNTRY LIFE of the last major country-house sale of 2022—that of the exquisite, Grade I-listed Great Tangley Manor at Wonersh, near Guildford, in the prestigious Surrey Hills AONB, which comes to the market at a guide price of £11 million through the country departments of Savills (020–7409 8823) and Strutt & Parker (020–7591 2207). Thought to be Britain’s oldest continuously inhabited house, Great Tangley Manor represents a happy union of medieval and Arts-and-Crafts architecture that has been celebrated in COUNTRY LIFE many times over the years, notably in the issues of February 12, 1898; July 30, 1898; August 6, 1898; January 21, 1905; September 22, 1906; and June 10, 1999. There has been a dwelling on the site…

WHEN I started gardening, I have to confess I wasn’t expecting to have Bette Midler as a spiritual guide. Yet, she perfectly summed up the enormity of the everyday pastime of composting. ‘My whole life had been spent waiting for an epiphany, a manifestation of God’s presence, the kind of transcendent, magical experience that lets you see your place in the big picture. And that is what I had with my first compost heap.’ It’s so easy to concentrate on pruning, planting and more obvious ‘gardening’ and relegate composting to an afterthought, but if all we did was build and replenish the soil, so much would take care of itself. As well as recycling the garden and household waste, making compost is the solution to every garden issue I have:…

ALTHOUGH the crown placed on the monarch’s head has developed into the single most recognisable symbol of kingship, another item of jewellery is almost as important and possibly a much older sign of power: the ring. In the coronation ceremonies held at Westminster Abbey, the Archbishop of Canterbury anoints the sovereign with oil and then puts a ring on their finger with the words ‘Receive the ring of kingly dignity’; after this, the monarch is crowned. The oil’s role is to sanctify the King or Queen, but the ring is a symbol of their worldly power. At her coronation, Elizabeth II put on the Sovereign’s Ring, which was first used by William IV and, later, by every one of his crowned successors, except Victoria. The design is reminiscent of the…

PAUL GARDNER ALLEN (1953–2018) appears to have been a billionaire who would have actually been interesting to meet. Technological masters of the universe may be riveting to read about, but, often, they do not give the impression of being much fun socially. Away from the screen, Steve Jobs collected shin-hanga, modern Japanese woodcuts, and Elon Musk is reported to be interested in another Japanese art form, ippitsu ryu, whereby dragons are painted in one stroke without lifting brush from paper. Richard Branson collected contemporary African paintings and then sold them for charity, but Allen and Bill Gates, his school friend and partner in creating Microsoft, are less usual in that they became very serious art collectors. As I have undoubtedly mentioned before, in 1970, I was behind the rostrum…

THEY are a wiry silhouette, dull against the clutter of fuzzy hats, imperious shop signs and misty breaths of a cold autumn evening. But it takes only a moment and the angels above Regent Street come alive in a burst of gold and white, their wings and tails twinkling in festive triumph against the darkening sky. It’s the Christmas lights switch-on and the festive season has officially begun, ushering in a cascade of partying, cooking and frenzied shopping. To paraphrase Louisa May Alcott, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without any light displays. It’s perhaps surprising, therefore, to discover that they only made their first appearance in London less than 70 years ago, although they are the modern incarnation of a much older tradition. Someone in Germany—story wants him to be none…

Belgravia feels a very long way from Scotland in almost every way. What do you love about this part of London? I don’t think there’s anything to compare to the elegance, tranquillity and village-like atmosphere of Belgravia. Boisdale of Belgravia (15, Eccleston Street, SW1), our original restaurant, has a very satisfactory ring to it, which far outweighs the accusations of snobbery I have to endure occasionally. We’ve been here for 33 years and I have lived in the area for 44 years. At Boisdale, you blend Scottish cuisine and drinks with Cuban cigars and jazz. Where do you go to get away from such hedonism? My favourite landmark is the statue of Bolívar on the corner of Belgrave Square. In itself, it’s not a particular beauty, but I do at…

WHERE to start with the past 12 years, as we bring this homage to 125 years of COUNTRY LIFE to a close? So much has changed since 2010. New, ominous words have hammered themselves into the national lexicon: coronavirus, sustainability and Brexit being three of the strongest contenders for how this era will be viewed another 125 years down the line. There have been six Prime Ministers—three in the past six months alone—but the saddest, most poignant national departures were those of the Duke of Edinburgh in 2021, aged 99, and Elizabeth II in September, at the age of 96, two pillars of continuity through most of our lifetimes. COUNTRY LIFE’s great achievements, as well as keeping going through lockdown, were the guest editorships of members of the Royal Family,…

1900 Unpublished Lilford Hall, Northamptonshire, was the home of a noted naturalist, Lord Lilford. His particular fascination was birds, but he also maintained a Pyrenean bear—on a dog-biscuit and vegetarian diet—for 16 years. COUNTRY LIFE illustrated his home and his aviary, but, perhaps unsurprisingly, this photograph of his cattle never appeared in the magazine. Every week for the past 125 years, COUNTRY LIFE has documented and photographed many walks of life in Britain. More than 80,000 of the images are available for syndication or purchase in digital format. To view the archives, visit www.countrylifeimages.co.uk and email enquiries to licensing@futurenet.com…

WESTERN EUROPE is not short of spectacular medieval cathedrals and Durham stands comparison with the best. Whether glimpsed from the window when whizzing by on a train or inspected from the city’s many viewing points, its situation on a steep-banked sandstone bluff, the great towers looming above a woody bend of the River Wear, is unforgettable. It is also a significant building in the story of architecture, one of the finest Romanesque churches in Europe and unanimously recognised as a pioneering building in that tradition. The cathedral is founded, quite literally, upon the corpse of Cuthbert (634–687), one of the most charismatic—if misogynist and vindictive—saints of the early English church. In a unique arrangement, his body, which remained incorrupt throughout the Middle Ages, possessed property and commanded a following like…

WHEN winter comes, it brings strange beauty. The world is stripped back to essence and element. The trees are made naked, the contours of the earth revealed under the thin, faded grass. As Shakespeare phrased it in a sonnet, ‘old December’s bareness everywhere!’ Winter is flowerlessness, a countryside reduced to black and white and grey. In the minimalism of winter, the pure art of Nature is rendered visible; the plain architecture of the trees, the mineral hardness of the stars, the recurring geometry of galed wave ridges on the surface of open water. Desolation is its own beauty, as is the sound of silence. In bleak winter, the ‘very birds are mute,’ continued Shakepeare in Sonnet 97: ‘Or, if they sing, ’tis with so dull a cheer.’ The insects, like…

A FEW years back, I was given a weighty tome chirpily entitled 1,000 Places To See Before You Die, one of those New York Times bestsellers that is simultaneously inspirational and downright depressing—so many wonders of the world to see and only one lifetime in which to see them. Surely the bucket would have been kicked a long time before this list could ever be completed. Nevertheless, I dipped in and, by some uncanny chance, the book fell open on page 332. ‘The Northern Lights,’ it read—a direct taunt, or so it felt, at my abject failure to see this natural phenomenon, despite several attempts to do so. Two trips to Norway in the depths of winter, including one where our base boasted a dedicated Northern Lights viewing…

Oxfordshire, OIEO £2 million Trent Reznor once said: ‘You could have it all.’ Whether he was referring to a new-build black barn in Oxfordshire, we are unsure, but it certainly fits the bill. From the outside, Fernwood House looks like an unassuming traditional black barn, but the property was actually constructed as recently as 2020 and offers all the trimmings—both environmental and comfort—of modern living. Located 20 minutes northeast of the Elizabeth Line’s final destination of Reading, Fernwood House offers four bedrooms, four bathrooms and five acres in the enviable location of Goring Heath between the Berkshire Downs and the Chilterns. Finished to a very high modern specification, the property comes with an EPC rating of B, thanks to a wealth of state-of-the-art appliances, modern materials and a ground-source…