THE garden has always been a subject of close interest to readers of COUNTRY LIFE. Edward Hudson, the founding father, made it his business to secure the services of the best authorities on the subject he could find and their mutually beneficial relationship resulted in a wellspring of good garden writing that shows no sign of drying up.
Some of those authorities are still household names today. Gertrude Jekyll (1843–1932) is surely the best known, teased out of her natural state of year-round hibernation by Hudson, for whom she designed a garden at the country houses he built or acquired and remodelled. Jekyll was famously reluctant to visit any of the gardens she designed, but when Hudson bought Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island in 1901, she travelled north with the equally indispensable Edwin Lutyens to make her garden proposals. She knew which side her bread was buttered. COUNTRY LIFE published her numerous garden books for a voracious readership, so that the last 30 years of her long life made her a sort of mother figure to gardeners across Europe. That influence is still felt today.
Her friend William Robinson, equally as longlived, was another key figure in the Hudson era. He came over the sea from Ireland in mysterious circumstances and, before long, was established as an influential commentator on the making of gardens. In 1897, he was
Denne historien er fra January 05, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra January 05, 2022-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
