WHEN The Beatles released their eponymous 1968 album The Beatles, fans believed one of the songs written by Sir Paul McCartney, Martha My Dear, was perhaps an indirect message to his former fiancée, Jane Asher. With lyrics such as, ‘You have always been my inspiration’, you can understand the assumption. Years later, however, the musician revealed the true muse behind the song: it was about a real-life Martha, his beloved old English sheepdog (OES).
To fans of the breed, it is no surprise that an OES might inspire poetry. An instantly recognisable dog, it is striking in both its large size and heavily coated appearance. To put it simply, it’s a big, soft bundle of fur, known for its gentle nature and a comical streak that melts the hardest of hearts. The Kennel Club (KC) standard fittingly reads that, when walking, the OES ‘exhibits a bear-like roll from the rear’.
‘My first OES had two black legs, so it looked as if he was wearing pyjamas,’ laughs Helen Woods of the Greater London OES Club. ‘They’re clowns, but they’re also intelligent and affectionate.’ Miss Woods knew it was the dog for her when one-starred alongside David Bowie in the 1986 film Labyrinth—‘two of my favourite things in one film’—and is the owner of three. ‘They’re a great family pet and fantastic around children,’ she enthuses. ‘Wherever you go in the house, the OES will be at your feet. I simply wouldn’t have any other breed.’
Denne historien er fra September 08, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra September 08, 2021-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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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.
