Winds of change for King Charles

PROFITS from a wind-farm deal on the Crown Estate will be used ‘for the public good’ rather than go to the Sovereign Grant, The King has asked. It was announced last week that six new offshore-wind-energy lease agreements, worth £1 billion a year, have been agreed.

Bonfire of the vanities

A BILL repealing all the remaining EU laws still on statute books by the end of the year has been described as ‘not democratic’, ‘inefficient, and possibly incompetent’ by critics. The Retained EU Law Bill was passed last Wednesday by 59 votes, despite efforts from MPs in both the Conservative party and Opposition to defeat it. The bill will likely face opposition in the House of Lords.

Eat cake

AMID the dispiriting news last week—that teachers are to go on strike, that the tragedy of Ukraine is relentless, that heating prices surge as it freezes outside and so on—came the pronouncement from the chairwoman of the Food Standards Agency that a cake lying temptingly on a shelf in an office is akin to passive smoking.

Still tottering

IN January 1993, in these very pages, a new cartoon strip appeared. It told the tales of a certain Lord and Lady Tottering and life in magnificent Tottering Hall.

Ahoy, sailors of the first Elizabethan age

A RARE Elizabethan ship was dis-covered in a Kent quarry last year, it was revealed last week. The ship was uncovered in April 2022 by a team from CEMEX, which was ‘dredging for aggregates’ at a quarry on the Dungeness Headland.

My favourite painting Kate Mavor

Charlotte Mullins comments on Munni

Rediscovery points to an Italian master

A well-travelled Bronzino, perhaps a self-portrait, is set to make waves in New York

That's got my bird name written all over it

Many, such as cuckoo and rook, might be onomatopoeic and others, including lapwing, owe their moniker to the nature of their flight, explains Derek Turner, as he takes a bird's eye view of avian nomenclature

Freezing points

THE Book of Ecclesiastes reminds us that for every-thing there is a season— a time to be born and a time to die. Gardeners know that there is a time to sow and a time to reap.

Eat your new greens

Whether you are looking for new flavours to tickle your tastebuds or something different. to grow in your garden, little beats obscureand sometimes strange-looking-vegetables, says Mark Diacono

Sweeping statements

The garden at Benington Lordship, Hertfordshire The home of Mr and Mrs Richard Bott Snowdrops have grown here for centuries, but recent plantings have greatly increased their variety and spread, says Kathryn Bradley-Hole

Empty promise

Lucy Denton asks why we have so many uninhabited dwellings and what we can do to save them

Land ahoy

The market for Scottish estates is changing, as the demand for 'natural capital' soars

A roaring trade

It's not only the energy crisis that is creating unprecedented demand for stoves: clean-burn technology, app-based controls and new designs fuelled by alternatives to wood are also transforming possibilities

Happy to be in the soup

Whether it's a laborious bouillabaisse, a sophisticated French consommé or a citrusy avgolemono, no dish is as comforting or democratic as soup, says Tom Parker Bowles

The fork in the road

Once viewed with suspicion, forks remained the preserve of royalty until nearly 200 years ago. Matthew Dennison takes a stab at the king of cutlery, which changed the way we eat

The remains of the day

Described by John Clare as 'Eden in such an hour' and 'the weakening eye of day' by Thomas Hardy, the twilight hour is a bewitching time for John Lewis-Stempel

The roads most travelled

In driving cattle, sheep and geese to market over the centuries, drovers shaped many of the routes we still use today. Gavin Plumley charts their harsh journeys across the country

Ancestral Modernism

Leuchie Walled Garden, East Lothian A home of Sir Hew and Lady Dalrymple A Modernist home created during the 1960s within the walled garden of a historic house stylishly blends the contemporary and the historical.

The Shell Country Alphabet

THE middle decades of the 20th cen-tury were a time of much curiosity about the appearance of Britain, its countryside and townscapes, its landforms and archaeology, as well as contrasts between the regions.

Of Constable and clouds

A walk in the painter’s Suffolk stronghold triggers new appreciation of his depiction of big skies

Can the tide be turned?

SLOWLY, but increasingly surely, Rishi Sunak is pulling back on the forays of his predecessors as he seeks to re-establish his party as a credible force in British politics. He may not succeed, but he has brought a sense of reality to the Government. It isn’t, of course, a quick fix. The spoilers are still in the wings.

A bridge too far for rare gulls

KITTIWAKE nests have been removed from a bridge in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, after concerns that the birds’ excrement was damaging the structure.

Farewell to a giantess of the trade

A selection of the late Jan Finch’s stock at Sworders reflects her wisdom, flair and eclectic taste

Bearing gifts, we traverse afar

Festive entertainment—music, ballet, pantomime— is easy to find at this time of year, but the Christmas opera is a rarer beast, suggests Henrietta Bredin

A remarkable restoration

IN torrential rain and buffeted by vicious cross winds, I drove over the old Severn Bridge into Wales recently to meet Helena Gerrish at High Glanau Manor, her house near Monmouth, originally designed for himself by Henry Avray Tipping.

Trumpet majors

The magnificent new glasshouse display at West Dean, West Sussex, shows why it's time that hippeastrums came in from the cold, says John Hoyland

Welcome to the party

Tired of hiding away the fine cutlery and taking down the family heirlooms? Then where better to entertain than a party barn?

Halfway houses

Two properties could be greater than the sum of their parts with a little investment, as another shows that a ruin is anything but

Putting a barn to work

Transforming a barn into a wedding venue, accommodation—or both— can be a nice little earner, finds Arabella Youens