These terracotta caryatids were made in 1819 by John Rossi for architects William Inwood and his son, Henry, for St Pancras, Euston, London N1, the most expensive church built in the capital since St Paul’s. They are modelled on the figures that supported the Erechtheum on the Acropolis of Athens, one of which was put on display in the British Museum in 1817. Each figure holds a funerary jar and an inverted torch
A man roars in discomfiture at the burden of the chancel arch that he notionally shoulders in the parish church of Coombes, West Sussex. This fresco was painted in about 1100 and was uncovered as part of a wider scheme in 1949–52. The depiction of the man’s face is strikingly cartoon-like
Lady Ursula and Lady Isabel Manners pose as caryatids by the Long Gallery fireplace at Haddon Hall, Derbyshire. It’s one of a series of photographs taken of the two sisters in 1933, following the installation of Rex Whistler’s painting of the building, above their heads
A detail of the 1760 saloon fireplace by Lightfoot at Claydon House, Buckinghamshire. It tells the story of the invention of the Corinthian Order as related by Roman architect Vitruvius. Here, the sculptor Callimachus, with his dividers and a broken column, spots a memorial entwined in acanthus to a maid
This corbel of about 1300 in Wells Cathedral, Somerset, shows a man thrusting the foot of a crutch into the mouth of a monster as he nonchalantly supports the spring of the vault with one hand. From the 1390s, it became common to rest roofs on the backs of angels
This story is from the July 15, 2020 edition of Country Life UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the July 15, 2020 edition of Country Life UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
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.
