CATEGORIES
Fowl play
TO garden with hens successfully, one has to understand hens. Regardless of their breed and reputed egg-laying numbers, all chickens are ancestral woodland birds at heart, at their happiest when nestling in the leaf litter under a canopy of twigs and leaves where they feel safe.
The last Modernist
A striking muse filled with irrepressible joy, it wasn’t until a decade after her husband’s death that Rose Hilton truly flowered as an artist, believes Ian Collins
The rewards of loyalty
The royal confidante on finding fame late in life
Oh, deer–are they out of control?
With most of our six deer species increasing in range and numbers, Joe Gibbs considers what can be done to bring populations back to more manageable levels
Thoroughly modern mansions
In the 1930s, COUNTRY LIFE found one of these four Home Counties beauties ‘stimulating’ (although Betjeman wasn’t keen); another has water canons and ‘intelligent’ technology
Virtual temptation
Circumstances have forced the Masterpiece fair online, from which we display a small sample from the 1,000 or so items on offer
In a bit of a bind
Although treasured by children for the pop of those white trumpet flowers, bindweeds are no friend to gardeners, says Ian Morton
There's no place like home
Picture-perfect cottages in the Home Counties
As others see us
Watercolour paintings served as an important visual record of Victoria and Albert’s lives–both of whom were keen and knowledgeable collectors– as well as a comfort in times of sorrow, says Huon Mallalieu
Rosa ‘Gertrude Jekyll'
BRITAIN GREATEST MASTERPIECES
Reaching towards the horizon
The inspiration for the garden of The Manor, Priors Marston, Warwickshire, was to create a landscape to meander through, with talking points along the way, reveals Tiffany Daneff
All ages of England
Elton Hall, Huntingdonshire, part II The seat of Sir William and Lady Proby In the second of two articles on this remarkable country house, John Goodall looks at the history and changing face of the buildings from the Middle Ages to the 19th century
An English classic
The recent auction of John Evetts’s Wormington Grange collection is the perfect excuse to revisit the unostentatiously beautiful furniture of Georgian great Gillows, says Rufus Bird
A Shaw thing
It’s a joy to have live performances and richness of text, with a mix of the old and the new, the political and the musical
The Spark In Our Bonfire Hearts
Lit to warn of Viking invasion, to celebrate a Diamond Jubilee or merely to indicate bathtime, beacons are a time-honoured method of sending a message, says Jeremy Hobson
Our Little Princess Lilibet
Fond of dogs, ponies and a tortoise called Madame Butterfly, The Queen has described her childhood as a ‘happy atmosphere of love and fairness’, although, as Matthew Dennison observes, she and her sister were afforded little privacy
A vision in green
Restoration of the historic gardens at Holcombe Court, Devon, has been a slow and thoughtful process that harnessed the individual qualities of the entire garden team to great effect, says Tiffany Daneff
The art of revival
Elton Hall, Huntingdonshire, part I The seat of Sir William and Lady Proby, In the first of two articles, Jeremy Musson looks at the exemplary revival of both a house and its outstanding collections on the eve of its handover to the next generation
Sculpting reality
This year is the tercentenary of Grinling Gibbons, a sculptor whose proverbial skill in wood carving has never ceased to command admiration. John Goodall looks at his career and art
The jeweller, the baker, the bicycle maker
How many times have we repeated the phrase ‘Buy British’ on these pages? Here, the COUNTRY LIFE team recommends its 66 favourite makers and businesses
Come out of your shell
With delicate flesh that’s far harder to extract than that of a lobster, the humble crab is a hard-shelled hero that never fails to delight, says Tom Parker Bowles
Diverse divas of the past
Sopranos tend to attract all the attention, but the operas Handel wrote for London audiences also favoured the richly mellow alto voice, as well as the famous castrati of the day. Henrietta Bredin explores the vocal fashions of centuries past
The great British safari
Overseas wildlife-watching trips to gaze at brown bears or giraffes have become so popular that we forget the rewarding diversity of creatures the British Isles has to offer–if you are patient, quiet and warmly dressed. Kate Green suggests 30 creatures that are thrilling to glimpse
Those gorgeous Georgians
From waterside idylls to the abodes of masquerade impresarios, these are houses to beat
Good For Body And Soul
Two beautiful Suffolk churches prove physically and spiritually nourishing
You either love 'em or hate 'em
Despised by minimalists, treasured by those with more eclectic tastes, Staffordshire figures bring humour and merriment wherever they’re put, believes Catriona Gray
The bigger picture
Grand proportions in Hertfordshire, Devon and Somerset prove that big is beautiful–and elegant, too
Prince or pauper
What happens when the details of listed buildings are inaccurate? Lucy Denton investigates
The tranquil reaper
With the arrival of June, medieval peasants would take their scythes to the long golden grasses, says Amy Jeffs
Free for the nation
The National Gallery, London WC2 To mark the re-opening of museums, John Goodall looks at the architecture of the National Gallery, its interior photographed by COUNTRY LIFE during lockdown