A collector's palace

An outstanding celebration of the Tudor and Stuart worlds has passed another important milestone in its history.

From Adder's Copse to Gallows Down

A quiet part of the North Wessex Downs is redolent with history and wildlife

Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (La Pittura) by Artemisia Gentileschi

Charlotte Mullins comments on Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting

You give me cabin fever

AM I the only one to feel a little challenged by the pervasive use of the word ‘porn’ on social-media sites or in book titles?

Out of Andalucía

You don’t have to venture halfway round the world for a good safari, says Sophia Constant, who trials three different horseback adventures in Spain

King of the jungle

In echoes of Rudyard Kipling’s seminal collection of short stories, Rupert Uloth journeys to India and Suján Sher Bagh in search of his own Shere Khan

A real grass act

The great British lawn is a marvel born of our wet weather, gardeners’ determination and the Industrial Revolution. Whether you like it neat and smooth or with daisies poking through, it remains a paragon of beauty, says Steven Desmond

Give a fig

A FIG eaten straight from the hand of the grower in a market on the Greek island of Santorini ruined me for figs for 20 years. So juicy and luscious was that fruit, and the 11 that followed it on that balmy evening, that all others I bought in this country—picked ahead of the glorious ripeness that figs are born to—felt like leather on the tongue.

Crackling with good ideas

Tilly Ware visits Highlands, a relatively new garden surrounding an old house in East Sussex that is thriving in the care of innovative head gardener Chris Brown, who is introducing a rare and wonderful collection of plants Photographs by Mimi Connolly

Bring home the bacon

London’s streets are chockful of independent and alternative food shops. You just have to know where to look, says Emma Hughes, who rounds up some of her favourites

The fickle finger of fate

Once as reviled as he is now revered, John Nash stumbled, rose and fell again. Carla Passino retraces the life of the man with the face of a monkey

A roost for every bird

These properties in our capital will cater to everyone’s tastes

Curious connections

The walls of these storied properties have quite the tales to tell

In the mix

Kit Kemp and her daughter Willow are bringing the dinner table to life

What lies beneath

Minuscule springtails vault at the base of rough grass, ants march robotically to pursue their mission and, at night, female glow worms light the way with their abdomen. John Lewis-Stempel discovers the life in a meadow’s underworld

Sealing the deal

Fishermen might fear their competition, but most of us are enthralled by their huge eyes and eerie calls. Joe Gibbs goes seal-searching and tries to understand why one British species is declining as another thrives

'My sun one early morn did shine'

Whether a fiery blaze or a gentle blush, sunrise brings life, hope and a time to be at one with Nature. Six early risers tell Ben Lerwill what dawn means to them

Secret splendour

No 15, Kensington Palace Gardens, London W8 | After a period of institutional use and abandonment, a house created for a merchant and philanthropist in the 1850s has been turned back into a family home. Clive Aslet reports

A woman of genius

I KNOW people’s tempers from their faces,’ claimed preeminent 18th-century pastel portraitist Rosalba Carriera and images reproduced in Angela Oberer’s engrossing illustrated biography of the artist—the latest in Lund Humphries’s ‘Illuminating Women Artists’ series—testify to her out-of-the-ordinary insight

Weaving her magic

A childhood spent among raspberry bushes sparked Laura Ellen Bacon’s passion for sculpting the massive, organic willow sculptures that now grace some of Britain’s grandest country houses

Stars back in the limelight

Two rediscovered Rembrandt pendant portraits and a work by Sweerts are top lots among the Old Master paintings on offer at Christie’s

The man who dared to plant a shrubbery

OVER the past few decades, there have been regular declarations in the gardening media that shrubs are making a big comeback

Wave power

A modern kitchen extension was the catalyst for a bold new flower garden

A county of contrasts

Location, location, location… three properties currently on the market in Cheshire highlight the contrast in style, taste and price of a country house

The benefit of hindsight

Hugh Petter’s transformation of a house in Jersey demonstrates how a deep understanding of local architectural traditions is the secret to creating a seamless blend of old and new

Of fish and men

Visionary fisherman Mick May set up a charity to give cancer patients the opportunity to find some peace in fishing. A year after his death, our correspondent joins the trustees for a day in pursuit of trout to honour his friend’s memory

Nothing but sunshine and a sea breeze

A game of beach cricket with captains and kings leaves Steve King with hazy memories, but the all-encompassing glow of a perfect game despite losing by three wickets)

A question of balance

In the age of industrialised agriculture, can our intervention ever truly nurture ecological harmony? We cannot better Nature, but we can enhance it

'Deer need to be managed'

WHEN asked how many wild deer there are in Britain, British Deer Society (BDS) chief executive David McAuley replies ruefully: ‘Too many.’ The charity, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary, aims to ‘educate and inspire’ the public about deer, but also to impress upon them that they need management

Swiftly does it

The one bird you might never see at rest, swifts feed, drink and socialise on the wing, flying thousands of miles and almost never touching down. Yet the future of these near-perfect birds is up in the air