Beware Boats That Drive Men Mad
I ONCE knew a man who fell prey to a mad desire to own a large boat. He found the vessel of his dreams, an Arctic trawler, in Norway, but he lacked the captain’s papers to sail a ship of her size, earning, as he did, his living in the London art market. Nothing daunted, he bought a British admiral’s hat with which to bully the Norwegians into submission. The hat was scuffed and Victorian, but officialdom obligingly turned a Nelsonian eye to that and to the lack of qualifications—and to his being only 26—and off he steamed.
I have no boat to my name, but, last summer, I bought a Breton sailor’s hat in a market in the landlocked Provençal town of Apt. My children said I looked silly and my wife dubbed me Capt Haddock. Boxsets of The Onedin Line next, she sniffed sarkily over the blurred points of her knitting needles.
Little did we know what the hat presaged. Even then, I must have been harbouring the germ of a desire to take to the waves, a dream perchance to island hop around the west coast.
Denne historien er fra February 07, 2018-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra February 07, 2018-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds
