SOME years ago, I decided to re-create an old-fashioned cornfield, the sort of poppy-resplendent arable scene you seldom find these days outside the frame of a Constable painting. I had two principle guides for this experiment in retrofarming. One was my own boyhood memory from the early 1970s of a rustling wheat field embroidered with wildflowers (weeds, if you will). My greater guide, however, was a chance reading of Walks in the Wheat-fields by Victorian countryside writer Richard Jefferies. One particular picture-in-words arrested my heart:
'Let your hand touch the ears lightly as you walk... There are hares within, and many a brood of partridge chicks that cannot yet use their wings... Finches more numerous than the berries on the hedges... There are, then, the poppies, whose wild brilliance in July days is not surpassed by any hue of Spain. Wild charlock-a clear yellow-pink pimpernels, pink-streaked convolvulus, great white convolvulus, double-yellow toadflax, blue borage, broad rays of blue chicory, tall corncockles, azure corn-flowers, the great mallow, almost a bush, purple knapweed...'
Jefferies made 'no further catalogue' of the wildflowers growing in corn land, because it would take 'pages more. Before the coming of herbicides and pesticides in the 1950s, the arable fields of Britain vibrated with colour and life. Now? The wheat field has become a monotone, monochrome unit of production and flowers familiar to farmers since the Stone Age have become extinct. (RIP lamb succory, interrupted brome, stinking hawksbeard, (possibly) York groundsel.) Arable plants are our most critically threatened group of wild flora. They need saving.
Denne historien er fra May 31, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra May 31, 2023-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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Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery
