Whitman, it recently transpired, was so hard up that he was forced to supplement his literary earnings by secretly writing a self-help book entitled Manly Health and Training, which contains the following (loathsome) advice: ‘Rise at day-break, rapidly wash the whole body in cold water, rub dry with coarse towels, and use a flesh-brush to put the skin in a red glow. Take a brisk walk before breakfast.’
Personally, I don’t believe in taking any exercise before breakfast, but, if I must, I eat my breakfast first. Anyway, as I say, Charlie roused me out before dawn and then drove me at breakneck speed to Xemxija—sorry, I should have mentioned sooner that I am writing this column from my apartment in Malta—where he parked (badly) and in the half-light dragged me up a steep, stony path.
Despite my annoyance at being abroad quite so early in the day, I admit I was pleased by Charlie’s choice of a walking route, because it took us past something I have been meaning to visit for years: one of the oldest apiaries in the world. Possibly Punic, but probably Roman, its creators carved dozens of individual stone hives into the side of the hill, with access tunnels at the back for the beekeepers and tiny, insect-sized entrances at the front for the bees.
Denne historien er fra September 18, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra September 18, 2019-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.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
