Spring into action

IT’S easy to see why the term ‘spring fever’ came into being. Those fine, clear days in the first half of February when the sun shone and warmed our backs, reminding us of the inexorable change in the seasons.

Marvels of the moor

Set in a steep valley just below Dartmoor, these romantic woodland gardens are filled with exotic trees and flowering shrubs, many of historic importance, writes Caroline Donald

The real thing

These delightful countryside properties offer the best of pastoral England, all for less than £1 million

Not so quiet on the western front

A trio of houses in Wiltshire, Somerset and Devon set the market going this spring in the West Country

Starting from scratch

Building a house requires everything from planning to patience, says Arabella Youens

The real drive of his life

Never one to idle time away, Sir Henry Royce-co-founder of Rolls-Roycespent his spare moments working on a farm bought through the pages of COUNTRY LIFE, reveals Russell Higham

Raising the flag

From the good old Union Jack to a personal banner depicting your own design, there are countless ways of setting your flag pole aflutter, but be sure to avoid flag cushions at all costs, cautions John F. Mueller

The healing power of honey

Bees are vital for life on earth and, for the past 30 years, a British charity has been helping some of the world's poorest people to become self-sufficient through beekeeping, finds Agnes Stamp

Native breeds Buff Orpington

THE Buff Orpington is one of the matrons of the poultry world, irresistibly rounded and solid looking—the breed standard describes its build as ‘cobby’—and a distinctive, warm honey colour.

Small is beautiful

An 1830s schoolhouse has been reworked to create a perfect smaller country house. John Martin Robinson admires the skill of the craftsmanship and the character of the building

Cheltenham Racecourse

JUMP-RACING hearts skip a beat at the mention of the Cheltenham Festival, although a meeting at the track on any day of the season is special enough.

Squirrel wars and straying sheep

The pine marten is proving a mixed blessing in the task of restoring wildlife

Showing at Tattersalls by Robert Polhill Bevan

Charlotte Mullins comments on Showing at Tattersalls

Wild Britain faces ticking time bomb'

Transforming urban spaces in order to benefit Nature, such as at Waterloo Millennium Green (above), is vital to help Save Our Wild Isles

Take a pew in the choir stalls

The idea of becoming a cathedral-choir chorister, often with a significant reduction in school fees, seems to have fallen slightly out of fashion with parents, yet it offers a wonderful education for life, believes Andrew Green

Heads and their hobbies

The extra-curricular interests of a head can be surprising, as well as beneficial, discovers Tessa Waugh

Let's hear it for the Arts

Curriculums and A-level choices may be gravitating towards science and technology, but the Arts still have much to offer in terms of life lessons, balance and presentational skills, finds Lucy Higginson

Children both seen and heard

Author Nicholas Orme reveals parallels between childhood in Tudor times and the present day

Out of the ordinary

A sale of the macabre contains eclectic items, not all of which appeal, a new auction room gets off to a good start and there is interest in the effects from a Northumberland country house

The 'firework' master

As at home on a theatre set as he was before a canvas, John Piper pioneered abstract art in many materials, from stained glass to textiles, and even choreographed the Queen’s Silver Jubilee firework display, says Peyton Skipwith

Life-changing gardens

VISITING a friend in hospital recently, I came across what passed for a garden.

A cut above

Nothing beats homegrown flowers for beauty, variety and scent. Tiffany Daneff asks three British growers for the best advice on starting your own cutting garden

Edward or Edwin

The early 20th century saw a golden age of living and architecture

Splendid isolation

Two gems in East Anglia come garnished with history, space and privacy

The designer's room

A fragment of handpainted chinoiserie set the scene for the decoration of this bathroom at Keythorpe Hall, Leicestershire

The writing's on the wall

Early on a bright and frosty February morning, John Lewis-Stempel sets about trying to repair a dry-stone wall in the hope of keeping his horse, and other livestock, away from his prized roses

Go ahead, jump!

Once a symbol of fertility and more recently a figure of fun, the frog has always loomed large in folklore, and not only as a means of finding a prince. Now, however, some species’ future is uncertain, finds Ian Morton

An encyclopaedia of architecture

Winchester College, Hampshire, part I The Warden and Fellows of Winchester College In the second of two articles, Jeremy Musson offers an overview of the wealth of boneyes created by Winchester College from the Reformation to the present

Beauty is in the eye of the brush holder

Ever since Leonardo da Vinci followed curiously featured people in the street to capture their likeness on canvas, artists have been fascinated by the grotesque and unusual, says Michael Prodger

Kilvert's Diary

THE poet and novelist William Plomer, when working in his role as principal reader for the Bloomsbury publisher Jonathan Cape in 1937, excavated from a pile of manuscripts two bound Victorian notebooks sent in by the descendants of an unknown country clergyman from the Welsh borders.