AGE appears best in four things: old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust and old authors to read.’ This observation by Francis Bacon isn’t a bad one, but, in my opinion, it doesn’t go quite far enough. There is a fifth instance in which age appears to great advantage and that is cigars.
To be fair to Bacon, tobacco wasn’t always kindly looked upon in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The first European to take up the cigar was Rodrigo de Jerez, who smoked one every day when in the New World and became so fond of them that he brought some back to Spain with him. However, citizens of his hometown, Ayamonte, were so terrified by the sight of smoke issuing from his nostrils and mouth that, not unnaturally, they suspected the work of the Devil. As a result, the Inquisition imprisoned the unfortunate explorer for several years.
A century later, and there was still opposition: Bacon’s great patron James I was the author of a pamphlet entitled A Counterblaste to Tobacco.
Denne historien er fra November 27, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra November 27, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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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
