CATEGORIES
Lord of the dance
Poussin’s more riotous works still exhibit a balletic frozen elegance, says Matthew Dennison
Northern revivals
Three substantial homes in the North of England reflect the wealth and taste of their former owners
STRICTLY BALLROOM
90 years after it first opened, the ballroom at Claridge’s hotel has been restored to its former Art Deco glory. Jo Rodgers takes to the dance floor
The Land Rover
Britain's greatest Masterpieces
You can leave your hat on...
A glorious thatch topping makes a house all the prettier
The play's the thing
The long-awaited tale of Thomas Cromwell’s downfall is narrative theatre at its best, but the new Hamlet underwhelms
Vive la France
The Fine Arts Paris fair should help re-establish the French capital as the international centre of the art world
The Charleston effect
The joyful exuberance of the Bloomsbury Group’s spiritual home is having a notable bearing on the work of designers and craftspeople living nearby
Hunting for solutions
The MFHA chairman on a lifetime with hounds, avoiding ‘own goals’ and the future
The thrill of la chasse
At the revamped Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris, it is still accepted that hunting and Nature can be mutually beneficial
Sweet like chocolate
Never judge a book by its cover–or a labrador by its chocolate coat, especially now they are no longer reviled in the shooting field
From rasher with love
Sizzling, crispy and irresistibly pork-scented bacon all starts with a well-reared traditional breed of pig and a slow, careful curing process.
A many-splendoured thing
Our correspondent savours the challenge of casting a few flies on the fabled Naver for the first time and ponders the endless paths a life of fishing roves
Best Autumn And Winter Escapes Across The World
Whether you’d rather take to the slopes or relax by the pool, Holly Kirkwood has the pick of autumn and winter escapes across the world
Into the blue
As one of the rarest gemstones, Paraíba tourmalines are getting rarer and even more desirable, reveals Joanna Hardy
Give us a clue
Can you explain what hair ice, cramp balls and pillow mounds are? If not, don’t worry–naturalist John Wright has all the answers to our most unusual countryside mysteries
Wild for magic mushrooms
No, not the fungi that inspire hallucinations, cautions Tom Parker Bowles, but do take the time to seek out divine-tasting ceps and chanterelles on the forest floor
The man who turned the tide
The first and last member of Enterprise Neptune on mapping the British coast
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