Fit for a king

Palaces around the world epitomise their countries’ varied architectural styles. Arabella Youens is enchanted

The lay of the land

As people moved into towns, they wanted peaceful depictions of rural life on their parlour walls, leading artists to look at farming through sepia-tinted spectacles

Sissinghurst Castle Garden

IT is impossible to calculate the number of roses which are climbing up old apple trees as a result of visits to Sissinghurst,’ wrote the late Anne Scott-James, author of the best-selling Sissinghurst—The Making of a Garden. Despite its country-house setting conferring a scale beyond that of the most amply proportioned cottage garden, Sissinghurst’s inspirational hold on amateur gardeners spans the generations, because its creator Vita Sackville-West was, or at least started out as, a novice gardener herself.

Easy does it

Despite classic proportions and lofty ceilings, Sophie Conran’s country house in Wiltshire blends comfort with intimacy

Building back better

Sizeable estates in the New Forest and Cotswolds rarely seen on the market show the benefit of improvement over centuries

The West on a roll

Three separate homes offer endless opportunities to make the West Country dream come true

What's good for the goose...

On a soft September morning, John Lewis-Stempel turns his attention to the farm’s Toulouse geese, which need to get fat on the latest flush of grass

Going out on a limb

An eclectic group of artists is breathing new life into the time-honoured pastime of painting trees. Laura Gascoigne meets The Arborealists

Tip-top tables

When laying a table, more is definitely the merrier

Up to speed

The debate over which is faster, the grouse or the golden plover,has raged for decades, finds Jonathan Young, as he aims to gauge our quickest sporting quarry once and for all

The man who can teach any dog new tricks

For many, owning a well-behaved gundog is a goal we never quite achieve, but Ben Randall’s methods and training app look set to change all that, finds Paula Lester, as she watches him put her labrador through his paces

Listening to the land

When Libby Russell moved to Batcombe House, Somerset, it was the countryside with which she fell in love. Over the past 17 years, she has taken cues from that landscape to create a garden that is entirely at home in its setting, reveals Natasha Goodfellow

Comfort and convenience

Modernist country houses of the 1930s and post-Second World War period could be stylish buildings that made use of new technology. They deserve to be better known, as Adrian Tinniswood explains

A taste of earth and sunshine

More than 60 years since Ladybird launched its much-loved series of ‘What to Look For’ Nature guides, Claire Jackson recalls fondly the quartet of books that have recently been re-released

A Northern powerhouse of conservation

Having returned otters to our waterways, the late Philip Wayre’s quest to improve wildlife lives on across a carefully managed tract of land in Weardale, finds Robin Page

Squawking points

THE grand Dutch Master paintings of arranged flowers—works by Jan Davidszoon de Heem and Ambrosius Bosschaert that are at once both orchestrated yet collapsing— are a constant inspiration when it comes to choosing what to grow.

Sweet relief

Faint heart never landed fair salmon, as our indefatigable correspondent discovers after a fishless run, which eventually (and thankfully) comes good

The times they are a-changin'

Through busy centuries and multiple owners, these Cotswold estates have been loved and enhanced

Dante's blessed damozels

He may not have been the most talented member of the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, but Dante Gabriel Rossetti was easily the biggest romantic, says Michael Prodger

Cloche encounters

Good news for gardeners: the traditional cast-iron cloche is being made again by an enterprising young British couple near Bath, finds Tiffany Daneff

On reflection

Hidden by gentle neglect and revealed by research, the remarkably intact 18th-century garden of Chettle House, Dorset, has been brilliantly reinterpreted by landscape designer Pip Morrison, reveals Christopher Stocks

Apples and bears

Cider will be forever associated with the Cotswolds thanks to Rosie. Jane Wheatley meets the makers keeping the tradition alive

Back to the musical

Three new big-budget, spectacular musicals are rejuvenating the West End

A Cotswold dream

A medieval house, developed in the 18th century and again by Clough Williams-Ellis in the 1930s answers the popular ideal of a Cotswold home. Jeremy Musson reports

How To Avoid A Chainsaw Massacre

Why foresters have to be a hardy breed

Growing for gold

It is the designer who gets the applause, but behind every successful Chelsea show garden is a nursery that supplies the plants. Val Bourne meets the busy Mark Straver of Hortus Loci

‘Through dead men's eyes'

The tradition of ‘eerie’ literature and art, invoking fear, unease and dread, has flourished in the shadows of British landscape culture for centuries, says Robert Macfarlane

‘She can always paint more pictures'

The vigorous creativity of Vanessa Bell and her lover Duncan Grant’s work owes much to the countryside surrounding their farmhouse in the Sussex Downs, says Matthew Dennison

Natural splendour

Val Bourne finds out the secrets behind the astonishing swathes of naturalised bulbs grown at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire

Once bitten, twice shy

Whether they bite, suck or sting, some insects are a downright pain in the arm, says Simon Lester, as he identifies the most troublesome little nippers