A WALK through a bluebell wood is, for many of us, a rite of passage of spring. The sight of a sea of blue, where usually there is only green, is magical, disconcerting even, as if the sky is suddenly reflected on the forest floor. On a day when the shafts of sunlight are filtering through the unfurling trees, the birds are singing from the branches and the flowers’ heady, sweet scent is hanging in the air, it’s akin to being in a fairy kingdom— indeed, in Celtic legend, bluebells are known as the fairy flower.
So it is in Beatons Wood, down the winding country lanes outside Hailsham, East Sussex. However, this ancient 23-acre wood of oak, hornbeam and sweet chestnut, which dates to at least 1600 (and is probably far older), holds an enchantment like few others —for the bluebells wash in like a tide after a blanket of white wood anemones. ‘When the wood anemones appear, it’s almost as if snow has come,’ notes John McCutchan, whose father bought the wood from the Michelham Priory estate in 1925. ‘Then the bluebells join them and the wood turns blue and white, before the whole thing becomes a haze of blue.’
Don't rain on Venus's parade
TENNIS has never been sexier—at least, that is what multiple critics of the new film Challengers are saying.
A rural reason to cheer
THERE was something particularly special for country people when one of the prestigious King’s Awards for Voluntary Service was presented last week.
My heart is in the Highlands
A LISTAIR MOFFAT’S many books on Scottish history are distinctive for the way he weaves poetry and literature, language and personal experience into broad-sweeping studies of particular regions or themes. In his latest— and among his most ambitious in scope—he juxtaposes a passage from MacMhaighstir Alasdair’s great sea poem Birlinn Chlann Raghnaill with his own account of filming a replica birlinn (Hebridean galley) as it glides into the Sound of Mull, ‘larch strakes swept up to a high prow’, saffron sail billowing, water sparkling as its oars dip and splash. Familiar from medieval tomb carvings, the birlinn is a potent symbol of the power of the Lords of the Isles.
Put it in print
Three sales furnished with the ever-rarer paper catalogues featured intriguing lots, including a North Carolina map by John Ogilby and a wine glass gibbeting Admiral Byng, the unfortunate scapegoat for the British loss of Minorca
The rake's progress
Good looks, a flair for the theatrical and an excellent marriage made John Astley’s fortune, but also swayed ‘le Titien Anglois’ away from painting into a dissolute life of wine and women, with some collecting on the side
Charter me this
There’s a whole world out there waiting to be explored and one of the most exciting ways to see it is from the water, says Emma Love, who rounds up the best boat charters
Hey ho, hey ho, it's off to sow we go
JUNE can be a tricky month for the gardener.
Floreat Etona
The link with the school and horticulture goes back to its royal founder, finds George Plumptre on a visit to the recently restored gardens
All in good time
Two decades in the planning, The Emory, designed by Sir Richard Rogers, is open. Think of it as a sieve that retains the best of contemporary hotel-keeping and lets the empty banality flow away
Come on down, the water's fine
Ratty might have preferred a picnic, but canalside fine dining is proving the key to success for new restaurant openings in east London today, finds Gilly Hopper
