TOGETHER with the rain and Queen Salote, the feature of the last coronation that remains most clearly in my memory is the guard of honour formed by the Queen’s Beasts outside Westminster Abbey. James Woodford’s 10 heraldic figures symbolising the Queen’s ancestry seemed to have emerged from Lewis Carroll’s world into ours and, for this six year old at least, may have helped prompt a lifelong fascination with history. The originals, now brightly coloured, survive in Quebec, Canada, and Woodford’s Portland-stone replicas guard the approach to the Palm House at Kew, but I doubt whether similar beasts will be on parade this time.
However, heraldry plays a significant role in the coronation exhibition that opens on Saturday at the Bristol jeweller, silver and objects-of-art dealer Grey-Harris & Company, 12 Princess Victoria Street, Clifton (www.grey-harris.co.uk). The business was founded in 1968 and has become one of the leading antique dealers in the west of England. On a side- track, I observe that, around the country, a number of businesses of similar standing and with similar stock choose slight variations on British racing green for their shop fronts; could that be a quasiheraldic use of colour to indicate quality and dependability?
Denne historien er fra April 19, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra April 19, 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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Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning
