Strachey had acquired literary celebrity earlier in the same year with the publication of Eminent Victorians—four irreverent biographies of notable figures from the period—and he was enjoying the novelty of being lionised by the wealthy. Hutchinson, a denizen of the Bloomsbury Group, had particularly requested a report about his recent stay of several days at Lindisfarne Castle.
His host at Lindisfarne was a London businessman, the founder of COUNTRY LIFE, Edward Hudson, who hoped Strachey would write for the magazine. Hudson had bought the castle in 1901 and employed his friend, the architect Edwin Lutyens, to remodel it. The project was a labour of love for the two men, both of whom relished the romance of the spot. As the work was nearing completion in 1906, Lutyens even brought a tame raven to Lindisfarne, a bird that—after the example of the Tower of London—he clearly thought no self-respecting castle should be without. It proved a mischievous pet.
Strachey must have travelled north by train —the evening before his arrival at Lindisfarne he had been dining in Gordon Square, London—and in his letter he marvels at the change of scene. For the final leg of his journey, he describes mounting a dog cart at sunset and crossing ‘3 miles of sand, partly underwater, with posts to show the way—rather alarming to the nervous—then a vision of an abrupt rock with a building on it (Fig 1)—a village past, and various windings—an unexpected stop. Ecco old Hudson in evening dress.’ This seemed a remote spot, but city manners held sway.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 30, 2022-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 30, 2022-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
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A tapestry of pinks
THE garden is now entering its season of vigour and exuberance.
Bringing the past to life
An event hosted by COUNTRY LIFE at WOW!house is one of the highlights of a programme that features some of the biggest names in interior design
This isle is full of wonder
GEOLOGY? A bit like economics, the famously boring science? I confess I suffered the prejudice—agriculture and history being my thing, both of them vital in every sense— but Robert Muir-Wood’s voyage through the past 66 million years of the making of the British landscape has biblical-level drama on almost every other page. Flood, fire, ice… or, perhaps, the formation in rock, sand, mud and lava of these isles is best conceived of as fierce poetry.
Empire protest
Without meaning to issue a clarion call for independence, E. M. Forster perfectly captured the rising tensions of the British Raj. One hundred years later, Matthew Dennison revisits the masterpiece A Passage to India
Hops and dreams
A relative of marijuana, hops were a Teutonic introduction to British brewing culture and gave rise to the original working holiday
Life and sol
The sanctuary of the Balearic Islands has enchanted a multitude of creative minds, from Robert Graves to David Bowie
'Nature is nowhere as great as in its smallest creatures'
Giving himself neck ache from constantly looking upwards, John Lewis-Stempel makes the most of a sunny May day harvesting ‘tree hay’ and marvelling at the myriad wildlife including flies and earwigs–that reside on bark
'Plans are worthless, but planning is everything'
Country houses great and small were indispensable to D-Day preparations, with electricity and sanitation, well-stocked wine cellars, countesses to run the canteens and antique furniture to feed the stoves
The darling buds of May
May Morris shared her father’s passion for flowers, embroidery and Iceland, but was much more than William’s daughter. Influential both as a designer and as a teacher, she championed the rights of workers, particularly women, as Huon Mallalieu reveals
Achilles healed
Once used to comfort the lovelorn or soothe the wounds of Greek heroes, yarrow may now have a new starring role in sustainable agriculture