In this issue

Jack Watkins celebrates the teddy-bear faces and soft wool of Southdown sheep.

In the thick of it - A heron stays clean as John Lewis-Stempel battles the mud.

Southdown sheep

ONE of the most charming passages in Gilbert White’s The Natural History of Selborne is his letter to Daines Barrington of December 1773, reflecting on how, despite having travelled the Sussex Downs for more than 30 years, he still investigated ‘that chain of majestic mountains with fresh admiration year by year’.

4 mins

In the thick of it

Wading through mud and rueing February for its fickle nature, with frost one day and rain the next, John Lewis-Stempel takes a moment to admire the heron’s ability to keep clean in the mire

4 mins

This is me

In a bid for immortality, painters through the ages have returned to the face they know best. Yet these self-portraits are not necessarily a window into the artist’s soul, believes Matthew Dennison

8 mins

Love or lustre?

Inspired by the East Anglian countryside, a potter, poet and songwriter is reinterpreting shimmering Persian lustreware for the modern age, finds Lucien de Guise

3 mins

By royal example

A grand house ‘practically in the palace gardens’ of Hampton Court and another on the site of a royal hunting lodge in Oxfordshire show how to live the good life

5 mins

Power to the people

Long gone is the Thames-side wasteland– a new neighbourhood is thriving and the transformation of its centrepiece, Battersea Power Station, completes in September

5 mins

Plantaholic heaven

The Coach House, Ampney Crucis, Gloucestershire The garden of Mr and Mrs Nicholas Tanner. It’s no surprise that the garden belonging to the organiser of The Specialist Plant Fairs is filled with very special plants, but it is the way they are displayed that really makes the site distinctive.

6 mins

To the point

An echo of a forgotten age, arrowsmith Will Sherman and his mongrel Bodkin spend their days in a Victorian forge surrounded by medieval weaponry. Ben Lerwill pays a visit

6 mins

‘Sharp in detail, clean in colour'

Known as ‘the boy’ and only 39 when he died on active service in the Second World War, Eric Ravilious had already accomplished so much, thanks to his fastidious eye for mundane detail

8 mins

Building on history

Harrow School, London HA1 The property of the Keepers and Governors of the Possessions, Revenues and Goods of the Free Grammar School of John Lyon within the Town of Harrow on the Hill. As the school celebrates its 450th anniversary, John Goodall looks at its early history and principal buildings

9 mins

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Country Life UK Magazine Description:

Country Life; architecture, gardens, countryside, property, the very best of British life Published by IPC Media. Country Life, the quintessential English magazine, is undoubtedly one of the biggest and instantly recognisable brands in the UK today. It has a unique core mix of contemporary country-related editorial and top end property advertising. Editorially, the magazine comments in-depth on a wide variety of subjects, such as architecture, the arts, gardens and gardening, travel, the countryside, field-sports and wildlife. With renowned columnists and superb photography Country Life delivers the very best of British life every week.