CATEGORIES

New for old
Country Life UK

New for old

The gardens of Pembury Hall, near Tunbridge Wells, Kent The home of Mr and Mrs Paul Hilgers

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5 mins  |
February 28, 2024
A new vision
Country Life UK

A new vision

Conversions and new-builds of every shape and hue

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2 mins  |
February 28, 2024
End of an era
Country Life UK

End of an era

After more than a century in one family, the sale of a great Suffolk estate reveals a history that runs from a 17th-century MP via a Repton Red Book to a 'Galloping Major'

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5 mins  |
February 28, 2024
Character building
Country Life UK

Character building

How do you make a newly built space look like an old one? The transformation of a house on the Cornish coast, by HÁM interiors, may provide the answer, believes Arabella Youens

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4 mins  |
February 28, 2024
Rascals and rusticants
Country Life UK

Rascals and rusticants

Pet bears and lobsters on chains, horses in the bedroom and firearms at the window: British universities have long tolerated outlandish behaviour. But when is enough enough, asks Harry Pearson

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6 mins  |
February 28, 2024
Hitting the sweet spot
Country Life UK

Hitting the sweet spot

Barley sugars, pink shrimps and flying saucers: more than merely a sugar high, 'sweets were like currency at school', discovers Madeleine Silver as she gets stuck into tuck shops

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3 mins  |
February 28, 2024
How does your garden village grow?
Country Life UK

How does your garden village grow?

A garden city planned by Sir Edwin Lutyens was never brought to completion. Plans to redevelop it today, however, threaten to destroy the character of what was created. Clive Aslet reports

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7 mins  |
February 28, 2024
Here's rooking at you
Country Life UK

Here's rooking at you

Rooks may be fond of gathering in sociable eyries high in the treetops, but it would be unwise to take them for granted, cautions Mark Cocker, for they are one of the most complex and consistently misrepresented birds in this country

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5 mins  |
February 28, 2024
And they called it puppy love
Country Life UK

And they called it puppy love

Partial to a poodle? Loopy about labradors? Cuckoo for cocker spaniels? You are not alone, says Victoria Marston, as she discovers the nation’s favourite dog breeds, decade by decade

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10+ mins  |
February 28, 2024
Hedge of eternity
Country Life UK

Hedge of eternity

As old as husbandry hedges may be, but that doesn't mean they cannot be beautiful, too. Charles Quest-Ritson considers the many options,

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5 mins  |
February 21, 2024
A seed of an idea
Country Life UK

A seed of an idea

There is a lot more to successful wildflower propagation than scattering a packet and hoping for the best, discovers Tilly Ware, as she visits the UK’s biggest wild-seed producer

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3 mins  |
February 21, 2024
A tower of thorns
Country Life UK

A tower of thorns

Made with wind, sea and thorns on the wild west coast of Scotland, Blackthorn Salt brings surprising health benefits, as well as being a unique example of sustainable craftsmanship, says Ben Lerwill

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3 mins  |
February 21, 2024
Love and marriage
Country Life UK

Love and marriage

Marital relations are the central theme in these three plays. A real-life couple put on bravura performances, but an Austen adaptation misses

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4 mins  |
February 21, 2024
When West met East
Country Life UK

When West met East

The Arts flourished in the Ottoman Empire during the 16th century and their influence reached across space and time to Tudor and Victorian England

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3 mins  |
February 21, 2024
All in a life's work
Country Life UK

All in a life's work

Shropshire lads supreme and joined-up thinking in Oxfordshire

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4 mins  |
February 21, 2024
Where be dragons?
Country Life UK

Where be dragons?

Lucien de Guise finds the answer in the original source of Hic sunt dracones ('Here be dragons'): a small copper globe of about 1510. The location is East Asia, where the dragon is still most active... as it is, of course, in Wales

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5 mins  |
February 21, 2024
On a wig and a prayer
Country Life UK

On a wig and a prayer

Like marmalade on toast, saying sorry and the Shipping Forecast, there are few things more typically British than the courtroom wig, says Agnes Stamp

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3 mins  |
February 21, 2024
Follow your art
Country Life UK

Follow your art

In a heist with a happy ending, a stolen Lavery oil made its way back to Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, where it now inspires headmaster John Browne,as Carla Passino discovers

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2 mins  |
February 21, 2024
Man of the world
Country Life UK

Man of the world

Sir John Lavery is best known as a Society portraitist, but he was also a plein-air painter of modern life who moved easily between continents, painting as he went. Mary Miers follows his peregrinations

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6 mins  |
February 21, 2024
Blooming marvellous
Country Life UK

Blooming marvellous

From Duccio, who sneaked a vase of lilies into his depiction of the Annunciation, to Georgia O’Keeffe, who plunged viewers straight into the heart of her poppies, Michael Prodger explores how flowers have inspired artists across the centuries

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7 mins  |
February 21, 2024
Brothers in art
Country Life UK

Brothers in art

IN October 2022, the museum and former home of the celebrated Victorian artist Frederic, Lord Leighton reopened after an award-winning redevelopment.

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8 mins  |
February 21, 2024
All in a day's work
Country Life UK

All in a day's work

Duck dating, snowdrop splitting, welcoming avian visitors and manning the barricades against an unwanted national park

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3 mins  |
February 21, 2024
Lighting the way
Country Life UK

Lighting the way

LAST week’s announcement by Arts and Heritage Minister Lord Parkinson that four historic gas lamps on Russell Street, WC2, have been granted listed status is seen as a good omen by lobby group The London Gasketeers.

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2 mins  |
February 21, 2024
Love in the time of Austen
Country Life UK

Love in the time of Austen

FOLLOWING on the dainty heels of Hilary Davidson’s Jane Austen’s Wardrobe (Books, September 6, 2023) and with a canny Valentine’s Day publication date, comes another stance on the Austen age. As the writer acknowledges in the preface, all authors of such social histories owe a debt to Lawrence Stone’s The Family, Sex and Marriage in England, 1500–1800, published in 1977.

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3 mins  |
February 14, 2024
The stuff of legends
Country Life UK

The stuff of legends

The late Maurice 'Dick' Turpin, a celebrated antiques dealer and largerthan-life character, had wide-ranging interests, from fine furniture to Blue John, revealed in one of Sworders' final sales of his London home's contents

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3 mins  |
February 14, 2024
More than a pretty face
Country Life UK

More than a pretty face

John Singer Sargent shot to fame for his Society portraits, but he was as adept in other genres and excelled at watercolor, often capturing 'off-duty' records of his many trips and travelling companions

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5 mins  |
February 14, 2024
Root planner
Country Life UK

Root planner

I HAVE a house plant that will be 50 years old in April. We used to call it Setcreasea purpurea—in fact we still do— but the RHS tells us that we should use the older name of Tradescantia pallida ‘Purpurea’, which is almost as grim as its common name of purple spiderwort.

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3 mins  |
February 14, 2024
Grand tour
Country Life UK

Grand tour

History lives on at these fine country houses in the North of England

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3 mins  |
February 14, 2024
Family affairs
Country Life UK

Family affairs

The comings and goings of various generations and owners make these houses all the more fascinating

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5 mins  |
February 14, 2024
Interiors
Country Life UK

Interiors

Louise Bradley transformed the rear of her Chelsea home with a calming, pared-back garden room

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1 min  |
February 14, 2024