NOW, more than ever, the ‘ageless hills and waters’ of the Tweed Valley, inspiration for writers such as John Buchan and Sir Walter Scott, are attracting buyers to the Scottish Borders, says James Denne of Knight Frank, who moved there from Kent more than 30 years ago. ‘People who come here, particularly from the South of England, are blown away by the clean air, clear skies and overall quality of life that we enjoy in this most accessible region of Scotland,’ he declares.
Today, Mr Denne is overseeing the launch of the spectacular, 3,884-acre Stobo estate, located some six miles upstream from the Royal Burgh of Peebles, where the River Tweed meanders through a landscape of rich lowland pasture scattered with hillside woodlands and flanked by heather-clad, round-topped hills. Knight Frank (0131–222 9600) expects offers ‘in excess of £12 million’ for the estate as a whole, or in seven lots.
Historically, the estate was part of the lands of nearby Stobo Castle, the seat of an ancient barony re-granted to Sir John Maitland, Lord Chancellor of Scotland, in 1587. Over the following century, ownership alternated between opposing sets of Stuart allies— Maitland’s descendants, the Earls of Lauderdale and the Dukes of Lennox and Richmond, favoured kinsmen of the English kings James I, Charles I and Charles II. After the Glorious Revolution, the barony passed to the Murrays, wealthy baronets who supported the Jacobite cause and forfeited lands and titles in the wake of the 1745 Rebellion.
Denne historien er fra August 26, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra August 26, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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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.
