CATEGORIES

St Paul's Cathedral

Britain’s greatest masterpieces

The cult of the continuation car

Time travel is afoot in England’s storied car factories, which are revisiting their greatest hits. But are these remakes the real deal, asks Adam Hay-Nicholls

Northern idylls

Three magnificent properties prove it’s far from grim up North

The goat with a GSOH

We’re not kidding–the delightful and versatile English goat is making a deserved comeback, as Julie Harding learns from devotees

Rain, rain, please don't go away

Unlike George II, who was not a fan of the wet British summer, John Lewis-Stempel is delighted by an early-June morning deluge on the lush lawn

A bolt from the blue

Once considered so sacred that Druids consecrated their weapons with its starflower petals before battle, borage deserves greater regard, says Ian Morton

Treasure island

Arabella Youens revels in the history, food and culture of the largest Balearic island, now earning a justified reputation for sophistication

The Plants That Came From Afar

Steven Desmond searches for beloved garden staples that originally came from foreign lands and suggests where you can see them in their old homes

A plain house

Stormont Castle, Belfast Home to the Northern Ireland Executive and the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister A century ago, the Stormont estate was chosen as the seat of the government of Northern Ireland. In the first of two articles, John Goodall looks at the history of this decision and the castle now at the centre of politics

It's a kind of magic

Widely thought to be a form of witchcraft, water divining relies on a pair of rods and ‘the uncanny reaction of the human nervous system’ to factors unknown. Yet it is still employed by water companies today, discovers Catriona Gray

Pale into significance

More than 130 years ago, fears over the little egret’s fate–and our obsession with its plumed feathers– helped to form the RSPB. Now, this exotic migrant is making a comeback, reports Jack Watkins

Better than ever

Two glorious estates have been lovingly brought back from the brink

Dear Mr Stillman...

The finest example of a classically inspired 20th-century American garden, at Wethersfield in the Hudson Valley, is at last being given the attention it deserves. Jane Garmey recounts its extraordinary story

Enter the dragon

Fizzing over water like a fairy aeroplane, the swooping and hovering bejewelled dragonfly is one of the insect success stories of the 21st century–and, as a rule, it won’t bite you, says Jack Watkins

Fowl play

TO garden with hens successfully, one has to understand hens. Regardless of their breed and reputed egg-laying numbers, all chickens are ancestral woodland birds at heart, at their happiest when nestling in the leaf litter under a canopy of twigs and leaves where they feel safe.

The last Modernist

A striking muse filled with irrepressible joy, it wasn’t until a decade after her husband’s death that Rose Hilton truly flowered as an artist, believes Ian Collins

The rewards of loyalty

The royal confidante on finding fame late in life

Oh, deer–are they out of control?

With most of our six deer species increasing in range and numbers, Joe Gibbs considers what can be done to bring populations back to more manageable levels

Thoroughly modern mansions

In the 1930s, COUNTRY LIFE found one of these four Home Counties beauties ‘stimulating’ (although Betjeman wasn’t keen); another has water canons and ‘intelligent’ technology

Virtual temptation

Circumstances have forced the Masterpiece fair online, from which we display a small sample from the 1,000 or so items on offer

In a bit of a bind

Although treasured by children for the pop of those white trumpet flowers, bindweeds are no friend to gardeners, says Ian Morton

There's no place like home

Picture-perfect cottages in the Home Counties

As others see us

Watercolour paintings served as an important visual record of Victoria and Albert’s lives–both of whom were keen and knowledgeable collectors– as well as a comfort in times of sorrow, says Huon Mallalieu

Rosa ‘Gertrude Jekyll'

BRITAIN GREATEST MASTERPIECES

Reaching towards the horizon

The inspiration for the garden of The Manor, Priors Marston, Warwickshire, was to create a landscape to meander through, with talking points along the way, reveals Tiffany Daneff

All ages of England

Elton Hall, Huntingdonshire, part II The seat of Sir William and Lady Proby In the second of two articles on this remarkable country house, John Goodall looks at the history and changing face of the buildings from the Middle Ages to the 19th century

An English classic

The recent auction of John Evetts’s Wormington Grange collection is the perfect excuse to revisit the unostentatiously beautiful furniture of Georgian great Gillows, says Rufus Bird

A Shaw thing

It’s a joy to have live performances and richness of text, with a mix of the old and the new, the political and the musical

The Spark In Our Bonfire Hearts

Lit to warn of Viking invasion, to celebrate a Diamond Jubilee or merely to indicate bathtime, beacons are a time-honoured method of sending a message, says Jeremy Hobson

Our Little Princess Lilibet

Fond of dogs, ponies and a tortoise called Madame Butterfly, The Queen has described her childhood as a ‘happy atmosphere of love and fairness’, although, as Matthew Dennison observes, she and her sister were afforded little privacy