Fresh fields and pastures new

The racing world not only develops first-class runners, but also first-class property

A seafarer's choice?

The Velvet Room at Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire, is decorated with a highly unusual silk. Annabel Westman offers a new interpretation of its imagery and purchase

Written in stone

From epitaphs to large-scale monuments, letter carvers can elevate even the most straightforward inscription to an elaborate work of art

On gossamer threads

Wreathing the land like an ethereal veil, mist turns valleys into an opal sea, coats moss with an emerald glow and wraps the tingle of the skylark into a wispy enigma. John Lewis-Stempel revels in its silvery beauty

Sailing with the silver darlings

Sailing and fishing from a 30-ton boat with no engine, entirely subject to the whim of wind and tide, is no mean feat, says Joe Gibbs, as he joins the crew aboard St Vincent, a restored early 20th-century 'Zulu' herring drifter

Season of mists and mellow artfulness

Vincent van Gogh painted it as olive trees buffeted by the wind, Claude Monet as frothing orange leaves, David Hockney as a triumph of woodland colours. Michael Prodger explores how autumn's many beauties have long inspired artists

A living fossil

This year, two connected institutions in the heart of London celebrate their 900th anniversary. In the first of two articles, John Goodall looks at their foundation story

A sporting canvas

WITH two rangy bay horses’ conker-brown coats glistening in the dawn sunshine, warm breath emanating from their nostrils into the cold air like puffs of smoke and mist wreathing the parkland behind, two elegant tweed-jacketed and peak-capped members of hunt staff escort a pack of hounds on their morning exercise…

Green light for urban planting

THE Prime Minister should declare a national mission to ‘regreen’ Britain’s towns and cities, according to a think tank called Create Streets.

Following the North star

Victorian artist Marianne North braved jungle rapids, forests and mountains to capture the blowsy beauty of tropical plants on canvas. Carla Passino paints the life of a woman who defied conventions to forge her own path

The nurseryman's nursery

Tilly Ware visits Marchants Hardy Plants in East Sussex, one of the most beautifully designed and horticulturally significant nurseries in the country

Private passions

Next week's sale of Robert Kime's personal collection offers a rare insight into a brilliant, but enigmatic designer

The magic carpet goes electric

Specialising in cars so smooth you won’t spill your Champagne, Rolls-Royce was born for the all-electric market–and the Spectre is well worth the two-year wait

Just another day in paradise

The chatelaine of Meikleour has not only transformed her husband's home, she's also introduced a host of fisherwomen to the delights of the Tay, discovers David Profumo, as he joins Mrs Reel Life for a day in piscatorial heaven

Last of the summer wine

As the warm September sun begins to wane, John Lewis-Stempel visits John Clare's grave, where he laments the sad demise of Nature's favourite son and wonders why the peasant poet's genius was never fully appreciated during his lifetime

You've got to roll with it

Incorrectly considered a pest, the woodlouse-a land-based crustacean with a hard, armadillo-like outer shell that rolls into a ball to protect itself-plays a pivotal role in our gardens and literature

Under pressure

Barometers and altimeters have saved thousands of lives since their invention, although their occasionally inaccurate predictions have caused tempers to flare

The need for tweed

Given the chance create his very own 'estate' Harris tweed, David Profumo knocks at the door of Donald John Mackay, the Hebridean weaver who has changed an entire industry

And the beat goes on

Wrestling through brambles or wading through sodden cover crops are all in a day’s work for beaters. Essential to the success of a shoot day, they also often have the best fun, enthuses retired gamekeeper Simon Lester

Here's one I trained earlier

Any gun who's ever looked enviously at a neighbour's dog sitting patiently on the peg, as their own over-excited charge lunges on its lead, may want to consider buying a pre-trained gundog

Loved to life

Shilstone House, Devon The home of Sebastian and Lucy Fenwick Work to a new drawing room in the Jacobean style brings to completion the remarkable rebirth of a Devon country house

Wright on time

Frank Lloyd Wright's visionary creations brought American architecture to the forefront. Agnes Stamp rounds up iconic residences for sale looking for their next guardian

Through the looking glass

A Mirror is the best new play so far this year and raises the question of whether reality must be portrayed literally or through the filter of imagination

A blessing in disguise

With its messy, lopsided leaves and tiny yellow flowers, wood avens would never win a beauty contest, but this unprepossessing plant has a rich spiritual history and even some surprisingly snuggly qualities

Kew's Herbarium should stay put

TO describe the Herbarium at Kew Gardens as its beating heart could be seen as ironic—all the plant specimens it contains are as dead as the dodo—but its importance to science and the future of the world’s botanical riches cannot be underestimated.

Set in stone

This former working farm in the Cotswolds with its scattering of ancient buildings has been transformed into a series of beautiful gardens surrounding the main house

Taking stock in the Cotswolds

A sense of normality has crept back into this once frenetic market, but some noteworthy sales are still being achieved

Follow your (white) hart

Whether a harbinger of death, a religious symbol or an inspiration for artists and poets, the white deer has long loomed large in our imagination, as Deborah Nicholls-Lee discovers

All in the family

Exquisite craftsmanship and attention to details are the bywords at jeweller G. Collins & Sons, where the second generation is now at the helm

Lark Rise ascending

Flora Thompson’s evocative trilogy captures the ‘threadbare idyll’ of a countryside on the cusp of dramatic change, says Matthew Dennison, as he looks back on a world of rustic wonder, 80 years after the third book was written