A PREGNANT labrador waddles past the picture windows and settles in a shady spot on the lawn. A tree buzzes; Louie Warburton-Lee takes a look. ‘They’re not my bees,’ she observes, gently guiding me towards a beautiful office space across the courtyard. A loyal cocker spaniel follows, keen not to miss anything.
Laid out on the awaiting table are piles of sketchbooks containing studies of fungi, wildflowers, plants, fish, shells and all sorts of wonders from the natural world. The paintings feature a bold, yet strictly observational palette and are packed with detail. Many could almost be scientific drawings, although not many botanical illustrators would sign their work with a tiny mouse —the signature of wildlife artist Mouse Macpherson (1940–86). Her daughter, Mrs Warburton-Lee, has begun making many of Macpherson’s original pieces available as prints and charming cards through the newly launched project Wildlife By Mouse.
Macpherson liked to be surrounded by her subject matter: as well as her beloved ponies (Man and Woman), Mrs Warburton-Lee remembers growing up with an eclectic menagerie of pets and recuperating wild animals. ‘There were two red squirrels called Alice and Solomon that used to run up and down the curtains and we often had owls and kestrels—people would bring them to us after finding them by the side of the road,’ she recalls. ‘We had a peregrine that had hit a high-voltage wire and sliced off its wing.’
Denne historien er fra August 4, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra August 4, 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.
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.
