Of Hadrian, Heat And History

One of Britain’s most famous landmarks makes for an epic walk back in time

Making Colour Sing/Scream

Duncan Macmillan is transported by the highly charged works of the pioneering German Expressionist

Country Life/Yiangou Drawing Competition

Readers are invited to enter the Art of the Hearth competition to design a fireplace, in a collaboration between COUNTRY LIFE and Yiangou Architects to promote the role of hand drawing in the design process

Why midges don't like mint

Plant potatoes on Good Friday, grow beans in a horse-hair mattress and scatter elephant dung to keep out roe deer. Jeremy Hobson searches for the truth in our gardening folklore

To Market, To Market!

COUNTRY LIFE, with the expert assistance of Savills, presents the top 10 market towns in Britain.

Do You Believe?

Magic has not lost its power over us, as a spellbinding new show confirms to Laura Gascoigne.

Without Them We Are Nothing

A clutch of new books leaves Bill Turnbull buzzing with new knowledge about his bees.

Bedded Bliss

Interior designer Veere Grenney tells Arabella Youens why the only bed to have is a four-poster.

Southern Comforts

Fortnum & Mason’s newest whisky, which is distilled in the heart of the Cotswolds, goes against the grain.

A Return To Eden

An artist and architect of the Arts-and-Crafts Movement fought to preserve the beauties of Chipping Campden and the Cotswolds. Clive Aslet tells the remarkable story of his struggle and its legacy.

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