CATEGORIES

The Couple That Shoots Together

For any fieldsports aficionado, the ultimate goal must surely be to find someone with whom they can share their pursuits. Adrian Dangar meets the couples living that dream

It's A Kind Of Magic

Editor Mark Hedges is utterly charmed by a days fishing in Colorado, a town worthy of John Wayne and a new way of catching trout

All Tied Up In Knots

From a bowline to a tangled rats nest, knowing how to tie a decent knot is an essential life skill that John Wright is still trying to master

I Say A Little Prayer

Two idyllic old rectories have come to the market, as well as the Cotswold manor house named for the clergyman who helped Henry VIII get his first divorce

Hot Stuff

Eleanor Doughty explains how to keep the home fires burning without damaging the environment

Listen To My pictures

Soanes lecture illustrations form an extraordinary archive of graphic output and ideas about the history of architecture and the education of architects. Jeremy Musson reports on a new exhibition that highlights a select few.

Sorbus, Sorbe, Sorbum

WHEN I was young and poor, I grew a lot of sorbus from seed. I should explain that sorbus means mountain ash or rowan, although Ive never understood why we have two names to describe the same tree. Perhaps rowans are Scottish? S. aucuparia is our native species and I remember short, gnarled specimens around the grouse moors of my youth; the gleaming clusters of orange-scarlet berries never failed to raise my spirits on the Glorious Twelfth.

Living National Treasure

Luthier

Why F Is For Farmers

The National Farmers Union president on bringing food back to the debating table.

It Would Be Rude Not To

WERE about to eat another roast chicken. The difference between this and the countless, truly countless, roast chickens weve consumed over the summer is that, 48 hours ago, it was running around our garden as one of three much-loved silver-laced Wyandottes.

My Favourite Painting Claudia Schiffer

Camouflage by Andy Warhol.

The Chameleon Of The Sea

With a large, slimy head, eight arms and a beak, the octopusas Capt Nemo quickly discoveredis not to be tangledwith.

Who's a naughty boy, then?

We all like to think our gundogs are impeccably behaved, but, as Rupert Uloth observes, theyre capable of letting us down in the most embarrassing ways in the field.

Christmas Cut And Dried

Thousands of flowers are grown in the garden to make the wreaths and many yards of swagging that decorate the wooden chimneypieces and k-panelled rooms of the Tudor manor house of Baddesley Clinton. Jacky Hobbs finds out how it’s done

A Second Coming

The actor and comedian on his return to the stage for a Nativity with a difference

Standing On Dignity- Saltwood Castle, Kent, part I The home of Jane Clark

In the first of two articles, John Goodall looks at the development of a castle, the history of which is inextricably bound up with the lives and fortunes of the medieval Archbishops of Canterbury

'Twas The Night Before Christmas

From how the fly agaric fungus and its hallucinogenic properties might have influenced the image of a jolly, red-faced Father Christmas to cross-dressing in pantomimes, Octavia Pollock examines some common festive customs

Good Things Come In Threes

A trio of superb country houses, one belonging to the Huntington-Whiteley family, has come to the market in Worcestershire and its environs

Grand Fields Of Colour

A major retrospective prompts Ruth Guilding to reflect on the career of an artist critic who created his own brand

That'll Do, Pig

At once sumptuous yet simple, a ham is an age-old tradition that, for many, is the real highlight of the Christmas feasting. Flora Watkins digs in

Seat Of Civilisation

Saltwood Castle, Kent, part II The home of Jane Clark In the second of two articles, Clive Aslet looks at the revival of this great medieval castle as a country seat in the 1880s and its most recent history as the home of the Clark family

The Wilderness, My World

The Edwardian author Kenneth Grahame’s adoration of Nature and landscape was a personal creed that made him passionate about conservation, says his biographer Matthew Dennison

Cinderella Of The Streams

The underrated, enigmatic grayling embodies the spirit of winter and is at its peak during Advent, says David Profumo.

Falling In Love All Over Again

A spell at Ladykirk on the Tweed reawakens The Editor and the Judge’s enthusiasm for fishing

Living National Treasure: Barometer-Maker

We’ve been making thermometers for 160 years’, notes Edward Allen of Russell Scientific Instruments.

Interiors: The Designer's Room

Sophie Paterson has combined Eastern-inspired furniture and leather upholstery to create a soothing sanctuary in the heart of Chelsea

Heeding The Hounds Of Heaven

An east wind cuts through John Lewis-Stempel on a rakingly chill November morning, as he deals with a dead sheep and observes greylag geese streaking across the sky

Seed Capital

Resist the temptation to snip and tidy every last wayward stem, says plantsman John Hoyland. Many plants come into their own when the winter sun is low in the sky and frost rimes their almost alien seedheads

Weedkiller Will Fight Another Day

FARMERS and gardeners have been assured that glyphosate—the key ingredient in several popular weedkillers—is safe and will continue to be available.

Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow?

NUMBERS of Lepus timidus scoticus, the striking mountain hare that turns white to match the snow-clad Scottish uplands in winter, are believed to have fallen to less than 1% of the level they were at in the 1950s.