Rebels and romantics with a cause

The traditional costume of the Scottish clans and later synonymous with punk, tartan has had an extraordinary journey. Mary Miers explores the world's most famous pattern

View to a thrill

No garden has left Alan Titchmarsh as impressed by the quality of its cultivation and overwhelmed by the sheer joy of its location as that of the Minack Theatre, carved out of a cliff at Porthcurno, Cornwall

The perfect 10

The tantalising tail streamers of the swallow, the musical tumble of the skylark, swirling skies darkened by starlings: Stephen Moss shares the 10 birds we must spot in a lifetime

For succour and relief

Royal Hospital Chelsea, London SW3, part I Managed by the Board of Commissioners of Royal Hospital Chelsea This year is the 300th anniversary of the death of Sir Christopher Wren. In the first of two articles, Roger Bowdler revisits one of his most celebrated creations

To the end of Wales

Another extreme point of Britain is ticked off with a trip to the end of the Llŷn Peninsula

Rule 'chaos' puts shoots at risk

MORE than 200 English shoots are fearing for their futures after a ‘chaotic’ decision to change licensing laws was implemented in a bid to combat avian flu.

What makes a great garden designer?

IN the pantheon of great garden designers, the name of Russell Page looms large

A dream fulfilled at last

The gardens of Mounton House, Chepstow, Monmouthshire Henry Avray Tipping’s masterwork, into which he poured his vast inheritance, would have gone the way of so many Edwardian gardens had it not been for its new owners, who had the brilliant idea of asking the designer Arne Maynard to bring it back to life. Helena Gerrish tells the story

Slim, rich and famous

One of the most famous photographers of the 20th century, Slim Aarons captured the post-war jet set, but his images belie a desire to document

The best master of Italy

As we celebrate the quincentenary of Perugino, the artist who set the stage for the Renaissance, Mary Miers explores the beauty of the region in which he lived and worked

Trailing clouds of glory

The romantic appeal of the past hums through three historic country houses

The designer's room

Lucy Cunningham used a rich mix of patterns in a palette of blues to create a comfortable living room at this riverside house near Marlow

Finally meeting my Waterloo

As commuters dash to catch their train home from south London and lovers meet under its giant clock, Julie Harding explores Waterloo–Britain’s busiest railway station–on the eve of its 175th anniversary

Open all hours

‘If we don’t have it, you don’t need it’: an Aladdin’s cave of useful items, the local hardware store is the shop that time forgot

Their way to heaven

One hundred years ago, a utopian community of artists, farmers and thinkers sought ‘a country life worth living’ in the heart of West Sussex

Nature's towers of strength

The world’s strongest people have nothing on the horned dung beetle, which can tow the equivalent of six double-decker buses, or the golden eagle, with a grip that could burst a car tyre

Hay, good looking

Sweating under the heat of the June sun, John LewisStempel helps his former neighbour Ian–with the aid of a Massey 135–to gather in hay bales before the rain falls

Sprung from the earth

The reconstruction of a Romano-British villa at The Newt, Somerset, has prompted a wonderful experiment in living archaeology. Bronwen Riley steps into the past

Oh, what a circus

The idea of misused patriotism is the theme of an intelligent play that features Putin’s rise to power and Giffords is still the best circus in town

A colourful life through a lens

Suffragette and groundbreaking photographer Madame Yevonde was as adept at capturing COUNTRY LIFE Frontispiece subjects as she was at creating conceptual art with high-society models sporting rubber-snake headdresses, says Lucinda Gosling

Why treasure is a universal word

The new Treasure House fair carries the hopes of the art and antiques market

Keeping the faith

The garden at Stonor Park, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire The home of Lord and Lady Camoys: From their first mention in the late 14th century, the gardens of Stonor Park have gone through as many ups and downs as the family that still lives there. Today, after decades of careful work, they are in top form, finds James Alexander-Sinclair

Pearls of wisdom

Pearls of wisdom What Jackie Kennedy’s $35 necklace tells us about price and value

Legend of his time

Jacky Ickx won the 24 Hours of Le Mans six times between 1969 and 1982. As the gruelling endurance race turns 100, Simon de Burton talks to ‘Monsieur Le Mans’ and finds that motorsport wasn’t the first career choice for the famous driver

Let it go to your head

As supple as an Olympic gymnast and as uncrushable as the bulldog spirit, the Panama hat has long been a staple of the British gentleman’s summer attire, says Harry Pearson

Life, the universe and everything

Does the meaning of life hide in our mystical relationship with our world, as captured by the cave art of prehistoric men, asks Robin Hanbury-Tenison

Medieval beauty: The Cloisters, New York, US Part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of the most important museums of medieval art in the world could only have been created in 1930s America, as Jeremy Musson discovers

The man who bought Stonehenge

On a whim in 1915, Sir Cecil Chubb made a bid for a plot of land that would never get planning permission. Bernard Bale looks at the life of the barrister who gave Stonehenge to the nation

Flights of fancy

Capturing images of British butterflies dancing through the air like petals on the breeze has been a labour of love for photographer Andrew Fusek Peters, as he tells Ben Lerwill

The big one

It’s the series we’ve all been waiting for. Can Pat Cummins and co resist the hottest team in world cricket,