Lands of plenty

From £2 million to £20 million properties, 2021 was a stellar year for sales of farms and estates

Blasts from the past

Two dealers are remembered at Sworders, through a painting by a limbless artist and a Soviet state dinner service

Something old, something new

Unusual architectural features are having a revival, finds Lucy Denton, from medieval moats to ice houses

The designer's room

A striking copper bath and classically inspired joinery have brought this bathroom to life

Through the mists of time

A history of the past 125 years can be read in COUNTRY LIFE’s thousands upon thousands of property advertisements. Annunciata Elwes dives in

Good sense in spades

For more than a century, COUNTRY LIFE has championed the finest garden writing. Steven Desmond looks back at our unrivalled contributors, from Gertrude Jekyll to Alan Titchmarsh

Born to paint a happier land

Thanks to vast canvases such as The Hay Wain, we might think we already know John Constable’s inimitable style. However, in later life, his work–now on show at the Royal Academy–became more radical and expressive, says Peyton Skipwith

A garden of the imagination

Timothy Mowl celebrates what may be the most atmospheric, the most beautiful and the most intellectual garden in the country, Rousham in Oxfordshire

LET'S START AT THE VERY BEGINNING

The first issue of COUNTRY LIFE was published 125 years ago. Former Editor Clive Aslet takes a look at what was happening in London at the same time

A genteel gatehouse

The Broad Gate, Ludlow, Shropshire The home of Sir Keith and Lady Thomas A 13th-century fortification that defined medieval Ludlow has been transformed into a Georgian townhouse. John Goodall examines its remarkable story and restoration

A digital treasure trove

A hugely ambitious initiative to digitise the contents of the COUNTRY LIFE photographic archive during the magazine’s 125th anniversary year promises to make its riches properly accessible to everyone for the first time. John Goodall reports

Taste the seasons

The joy of seasonal eating is devouring food at its delectable peak, be it butter-drenched asparagus, heather-scented grouse or sticky-toffee-apple pudding. Tom Parker Bowles presents his month-by-month guide to culinary delight the seasons Taste

Withnail & I

A pair of drunken anti-heroes they may be, but Marwood and Withnail struck a chord with students that continues to resonate

Consider plaquettes

A neglected art form takes centre stage at Olympia sales this month

White-hot snow

Carla Passino explores six of the best winter destinations across the world and picks great properties for sale to enjoy life on skis

What a difference a year makes

The country-house market has ridden the wave of this strange year in jubilant form

Talking about a resolution

We make them, we break them, yet, as Felicity Day reveals, our famous forebears –from Pepys to Woolf–were equally as bad at keeping New Year’s resolutions

Shaken, not stirred

Battles, Beatles, Bond and an ancient Egyptian curse–there’s a lot to remember in 2022

Nooks and crannies

NOBODY understands more than a gardener that Nature abhors a vacuum.

Charlotte Mullins comments on Julia, Lady Peel

Julia, Lady Peel by Thomas Lawrence

A story for our times

It is hard to say if Cold Comfort Farm is prophecy or warning

A one-woman show

She was a brilliant observer of boxers, ballet dancers, gypsies, horses, coastlines and women at war. To overlook the vitality of Dame Laura Knight’s work is nothing short of snobbery, argues Ian Collins

Do your ears hang low?

Incorrigible and exasperating, vocal yet always entertaining and seemingly almost human, the basset hound is a force of nature, says devotee Flora Watkins

Ready when you are

With renovations and materials in such high demand, high-spec historic houses, such as these three in Hampshire and West Sussex, should be snapped up

Dearly beloved

Old rectories, parsonages and vicarages we’re glad the Church didn’t hold on to

The designer's room

Interior designer Sarah Brown has created a perfect townmeets-country kitchen in her Chiswick home

A blaze of colour

A great window of heraldic stained glass by A.W.N. Pugin has been restored at Alton Towers in Staffordshire. John Goodall reports on this dazzling project.

A modest manor

Rippington Manor, Cambridgeshire The home of Peter and Gay Johnson A delightful 16th-century manor house is revealed to have an unexpectedly complex history and an unusual story to tell. John Goodall explains

The Life of the Robin

THE robin regularly tops the vote in public surveys to find Britain’s national bird. The reasons aren’t hard to imagine. A Christmas-card staple, the bird is familiar and attractive. It has a sweet song, endearingly heard at times of the year when other birds are silent and often in the evenings or late at night, seduced by the glow of streetlights. A regular garden visitor, it’s loved for its tameness. It can be trained to take food from the hand, and may even enter the home to feed or perch on an armchair.

Where a giant walked

You can see from Wales to Gloucestershire from The Wrekin