Innholdsfortegnelse for July 3, 2024 i Country Life

LAST year was a good one for jellyfish. More people than ever spotted these intricate, tentacled wonders in the seas around Britain and reported their findings to a citizen-science project run by the Marine Conservation Society. These sightings are showing that jellies are not exactly taking over the ocean, as stories of the ‘rise of slime’ would have us believe, but, as members of the public get to know these beautiful species, they’re helping to build a better picture of what’s actually going on with the gelatinous creatures. Jellyfish are simple animals. They have no brain, only a basic net of nerves to control the movements of their soft, boneless bodies. They don’t have blood and no need for a heart to pump it around. Despite their delicate appearance, jellyfish…

THE ancient parish of Claverley, near Bridgnorth, covers an area of more than 8,000 acres in rural east Shropshire, its eastern boundary abutting the county boundary with Staffordshire. In medieval times, much of the parish was covered by woodland as part of the royal Forest of Morfe, which extended westward to the Severn and eastwards to the village of Claverley. After the Dissolution, the monastic lands previously held by the Deanery of Bridgnorth in a number of hamlets around Claverley were sold off by the Crown. Over time, successive generations of the new landed gentry transformed their farms into grand country estates, building fine houses and laying out parks and gardens. Two of the most important were the Ludstone Hall estate to the north of the village and, less than…

THE average visitor to the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) might be forgiven for not knowing that an art school resides within its walls. For years, its educational offering has been somewhat hidden within the vast network of galleries, but it has nevertheless played a vital role in nurturing some of the greatest creative talents our country has ever seen. Since the RA’s inception in 1768, education has been a core principle. When Sir William Chambers first approached George III about establishing a society for the Arts, his petition (signed by 36 artists and architects) proposed not only a programme of public exhibitions and events, but robust artistic training provided by Royal Academicians, which would secure the legacy of future masters. Thus, the Royal Academy Schools were born. Now, 250…

The garden of Lepe House, HampshireThe home of Michael and Emma Page INSIDE Lepe House hangs a pair of charming portraits of John and Emily Jane Forster (both tending plants), who acquired the Exbury estate—including Lepe—in 1880. They were followed by their son and daughter-in-law, Harry and Rachel Forster, who were largely responsible for the intriguing garden, which they created during the decades before and after the First World War. Since 1999, Lepe has been managed by their great-granddaughter Emma Page and the work she has carried out to restore and add to the 14-acre garden is a homage to her distinguished predecessors and what they achieved. Lepe enjoys a spectacular position on the Hampshire coast, facing across the Solent to the Isle of Wight and overlooking the mouth of…

Ingredients 100g unsalted butter, softened175g golden caster sugar3 free-range eggs1tspn vanilla200g ricotta cheese150g self-raising flour200g ripe apricots, halved and stoned50g flaked almondsIcing sugar for dusting300ml double cream1tspn lavender flowerheads Method ▸ Preheat your oven to 160˚C fan/180˚C/350˚F/gas mark 4 and line the bottom of a 25cm (8in) loose-bottomed tin with a baking parchment disc. ▸ Put the unsalted butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and use electric beaters to beat until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at time, beating between each addition, then add the vanilla. Beat in the ricotta and, once smooth, fold through the flour. When just combined, pour the batter into the prepared tin. Arrange the apricot halves all over the top and then sprinkle over the flaked almonds. ▸ Bake for 35-40 minutes…

WE were staying with friends a couple of weekends ago and spent the Saturday afternoon at their local village fête. This turned out to be more of a craft fair-cum-car-boot sale than the traditional tombola and cake-stall affair, with endless bric-a-brac and multiple artisans selling anything from homespun jewellery and corn dollies to knitted baby bonnets and lavender bags. Among them was a lady busily carving elaborate flowers and vegetables out of blocks of soap. I was intrigued—not, I hasten to add, because I had a particular penchant for a piece of soap that looked like an artichoke, but because it took me back to my own inglorious attempts at vegetable carving. This was never a skill I had imagined adding to my limited portfolio of accomplishments, but, when an…

Milk: The truth, the lies and the unbelievable story of the original superfood Matthew Evans (Murdoch, £16.99) I SHOULD declare a slight acquaintance with Australian author Matthew Evans, who visited my farm when researching Milk. My team of hardened dairy-farming fanatics were sceptical about meeting Mr Evans, who farms 70 acres in Tasmania where he milks between one and three Jersey cows, as well as rearing pigs, ‘chooks’, bees and goats and running a market garden, heritage orchard and olive grove. It all sounded a bit good lifey. ‘Milk has sustained us for at least 8,500 years as “a mobile tap for high-quality protein”’ Large-scale farmers tend to look down on smallholders, whom they dismiss as ‘hobby farmers’, but Mr Evans could teach us a thing or two about farming…

Future Publishing Ltd, 121–141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London W2 6JR 0330 390 6591; www.countrylife.co.uk I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied. IT is hard to think of words that more evocatively capture the yearning for a salty sea breeze, an open sky and mesmerising tides than John Masefield’s 1902 poem Sea Fever. The Times columnist Melanie Reid, who is tetraplegic, recently wrote of being pushed along the St Andrews sand in her adapted wheelchair, feeling a kind of freedom on the beach where Chariots of Fire was filmed and there being ‘something deliciously mind-scouring about the seaside’, with its wind and mewing gulls. Robert Browning wrote of the sea’s ‘tumultous…

The eye on the storm THE piece by John Lewis-Stempel about animals predicting the weather (‘When the ass begins to bray, surely rain will come that day’, May 15) reminded me of the story that Admiral Horatio Nelson (right) could sense a weather change in the stump of his amputated right arm—or his ‘fin’. At the Battle of Trafalgar and following his fatal wound, Nelson instructed Capt Thomas Hardy to ‘Anchor, Hardy, anchor!’, imposing his command before he died. The following day, a vicious gale blew up off Cape Trafalgar, necessitating anchoring and caution for the next five days. Had Nelson predicted that weather change? Perhaps, as humans, we do indeed have that ability. Ian Fraser, Devon ‘A set of teeth that are unrivalled’ I FEAR that Claudia Pritchard has…

Hunters in the Snow by Pieter Bruegel the Elder ‘I love Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, which I’ve twice seen at its home in Brussels. I’m also a fan of his satirical work, such as The Land of Cockaigne, with replete villagers gorged on gluttony in idle sloth. But my favourite has to be the gorgeous panorama of Hunters in the Snow–a much more sympathetic depiction of country life. The weary peasants and their dogs tramp their painful way through deep snow. Everyone is wrapped up in multiple layers against what must be a fierce wind. A lonely woman staggers home beneath a faggot of brushwood. In the distance, skaters amuse themselves on a frozen pond, with, beyond, fearsome sharp-toothed mountains. Rustic merry-making, fellowship and…

THE storm scene that opens Shakespeare’s The Tempest has on occasions been all too real for audience and players at the Minack, the astonishing amphitheatre hewn into a steep, westerly Cornish cliff. It was the vision of Rowena Cade (1893–1983, right), who moved to Lamorna after the First World War and bought the Minack headland (Minack is from meynek, Cornish for ‘rocky place’) for £100. She offered to create for a local amateur-dramatic company a theatre in which to stage The Tempest. The resulting landmark, a wonder of the West Country, was built by hand—and with ‘the odd stock of dynamite’—chiefly by Cade’s gardener, Billy Rawlings, who cut up boulders ‘much as the English cut butter’. She recalled: ‘Most were handled into position inch by inch with bars, on the…

DURING the heyday of the 1980s and 1990s, the sprawling Alhambra-inspired roof gardens that topped a department store in Kensington drew a devoted crowd. The Gardens boasted an Art Deco tea pavilion, fragrant borders and infamous resident flamingos —legend has it that well-oiled patrons would wager bets on how high the blush-coloured birds could fly, if thrown off the roof (answer: not very high at all). What did fly high, however, were the thirsty bon viveurs occupying (then) Europe’s largest roof garden. Kensington Roof Gardens first opened in 1938, but it wasn’t until 1981, when Richard Branson acquired the space, that it came into its own, becoming one of the capital’s hottest party spots. About the same time, at Julie’s restaurant in Notting Hill, Tina Turner was making dents in…

PERHAPS 20 years ago, I met my first Japanese quince. Dragged somewhat reluctantly to Knightshayes—a National Trust house and gardens in Devon, a hop and a skip from the M5—I discovered a superb walled garden and an excellent cream tea. Enjoying the latter in a sunny seat against the house, I caught an arm on something spiky. My wife assured me that Chaenomeles japonica, also known as the Japanese or Oriental quince, was the culprit. Swearing over, I noticed its thorny branches were dotted with lime/yellow fruit that surrendered not even a little to a squeeze, but they did give my fingers the most glorious perfume. Two weeks later, I had planted a couple and they have been ever-present in my life since then. Unlike the familiar tree quince (Cydonia…

THIS month, there is a surprising grain of truth behind the most famous piece of weather lore, which relates to St Swithin’s Day (July 15): St Swithin’s Day if thou dost rain, for 40 days it will remain, St Swithin’s Day if thou be fair, for 40 days will rain no more. Over high summer, our weather tends to lock into a pattern and so whatever that is by July 15 is quite likely to continue until late August, when we start to see the beginning of autumnal weather. An idea that has persisted for thousands of years is that of the ‘dog days’—the hottest, muggiest days of summer, which fall between mid July and mid August. The phrase comes from the heliacal rising of Sirius, the Dog Star and…

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Birds in strange places APHEASANT at Charing Cross Hospital, a lesser whitethroat in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, a lapwing on the Thames foreshore in front of City Hall and a woodcock flying over St Pancras are among the sightings listed in the latest London Bird Report, the annual overview produced by the London Natural History Society (LNHS) on the state of the capital’s avifauna. Other notable sightings include an Egyptian goose, an introduced species now resident and successfully breeding in London, calling from the top of Marble Arch one winter evening, and skylarks on Primrose Hill, where they were still breeding into the late 19th century despite the location’s growing public popularity. These sightings fell within what the LNHS classifies as its Inner London recording zone, which, centred on the junction…

NOTHING works in Britain’—that’s today’s attitude, which the media encourages. No doubt, there is always real room for improvement, but this carping, cynical approach saps confidence and inhibits our ability to improve. We really do need to get a sense of proportion, even where radical reform is needed. If we are to deal effectively with failures, we must first recognise success. In the midst of all the dire reports about the NHS, we should remember the many examples of really excellent and timely care. A colleague was recently referred by his GP to a London hospital where he was seen within days and, after a worrying blood test, had a scan that pinpointed the problem and, a week later, led to a successful operation. Of course, there are many who…

WHERE you find Mark Edwards, there’s a strong chance you’ll find water. Born in Wands-worth, London SW18, in 1954, within a holloa of the Thames, the master boatbuilder has spent the bulk of his life near the riverbank. His father took him out on punts as a toddler and he has memories of hours spent staring across the Richmond waterfront as a child. ‘I used to watch the boatmen in their waistcoats and braces, hiring out skiffs,’ he recalls. ‘A seed was sown.’ Fast forward almost seven decades and Mr Edwards is one of the country’s most renowned boatbuilders, with a legacy that includes the Gloriana Royal Rowbarge—commissioned for Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee—and, most recently, a pair of replica 1936 racing boats for the George Clooney-directed film The Boys in…

THIS year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show offered a deep seam of inspiration for anyone planning to make the most of their garden with an outdoor structure. A notable attraction was Tom Stuart-Smith’s beautifully crafted shed, at the end of a winding path, shaded by hazel trees and surrounded by woodland planting. (‘Beneath the boughs’, May 15). Designed in collaboration with his architect son, Ben Stuart-Smith, and bespoke furnituremaker and woodworker Fenton Scott-Fielder, the ‘über-hut’ included a small AGA cooker at its heart. The structure is clad in cleft oak from Dorset with a meticulously made planed-beech interior. ‘I wanted it to have an earthy, crafted quality; to be simply, but beautifully made with a mix of clean lines and soft edges,’ explains Mr Stuart-Smith Snr. ‘If you are lucky enough…

Shop of the month Niwaki, 38 Chiltern Street, W1 THE bestselling product sold by Niwaki, the Japanese-style gardening and knife shop on neat-as-a-pin Chiltern Street in Marylebone, is a carbon-steel trowel that looks as if it could gut a bear. It’s called the Niwaki Hori Hori and, unlike most gardening tools, which are typically made of duller-edged stainless steel, it slices easily through roots, making quicker work of weeds. The trowel needs to be maintained—oiled and sharpened—but the idea is that you shouldn’t ever have to buy another one. This is the modus operandi behind most of the items made or imported by Niwaki: everyday things, upgraded. Take the tripod ladder, for instance: a single back leg allows the gardener to position themselves more precisely beside a hedge or topiary,…

IT’S hardly a secret. Stare seawards from the fortified old town of Dalt Vila in Ibiza, Spain, and you’ll see it, almost in touching distance. Bulky ferries chug there and back from Port d’Eivissa (Ibiza Port) more than 60 times a day in summer. But Formentera exists at a remove from, well, everything. As the smallest and most southerly island of the Balearics, the lazy shorthand would be to describe it as the rugged unspoilt wild side of Menorca meets the barefoot bohemian soul of old Ibiza. Its Balearic classification is still relatively new; since ancient Greek times Formentera, Ibiza and a scattering of nearby islets have been part of the Pityuses. The name comes from the Greek word for pine tree and, as you make your way inland from…

IN my callow youth, a friend and I visited Châteaudun, roughly midway between Chartres and the Loire in France. The château itself contains a remarkable collection of 17th- and 18th-century tapestries, but, unfortunately, the experience put me off them for many years. We had arrived late in the day and the guardian admitted us only with reluctance. He then led us from room to room, saying as we entered each one: ‘Regardez ces belles tapisseries…’, but rarely opening a shutter, so we got little sense of the quality and none of the colours. Thereafter, his phrase became a code between us for anything boring. Much later, I realised that tapestries are not necessarily worn and brown and, even if faded, can be very beautiful. Originally, they were not only intended…