Whimsy in Wales

THE time of year has come for us to pack up the rusty Land Rover Defender and head to north Wales.

The new Olympian standard

Island-hopping in Greece has never been easier, or more desirable, owing to a boom in new hotel and villa openings in the Cyclades and beyond. Rosie Paterson rounds up the best

Presiding spirits

Catherine FitzGerald is the fourth generation of women in her family to put her mark on the gardens of Glin. Caroline Donald admires her subtle tweaks and new additions

A life less ordinary

Unusual properties from North to South, some with inhabitants of note

A family affair

A remarkable Edwardian country house is on the market for the first time and wine, cider and hops spice things up at a manoir estate, both in Herefordshire

Bottoms up

Why do so many animals have such obviously flashy appendages, asks Laura Parker, as she examines scuts, rumps and rears

Up where the air is clear

A shed is merely somewhere to keep tools. A hut, on the other hand, is a doorway to sporting adventure

The secret history of flowers

With no written records, the earliest inhabitants of these isles left a living dossier of cultural history in the folklore attached to our wildflowers

The legacy Sir Henry Tate and Tate Gallery

WHEN Henry Tate, the 11th child of a Lancashire Unitarian minister, had success as a grocer, he branched out into the sugar business (by then less tainted by slavery, which had been abolished in 1833–34).

A consolation and pleasure

Prince Albert took a close interest in architecture and oversaw a series of major building projects. Michael Hall considers his claims to be thought of as an architect

Full steam ahead

The railway may have started its artistic life as a fire-breathing monster that devoured the countryside, but it soon became an emblem of advancing modernity, a cherished memento of the past and even, in the case of one station, the centre of the universe

Stars in the East

Continuing from last week, further East Anglian properties include a moat beloved by wildlife, a Georgian hunting lodge on the site of a Civil War battlefield and a well-restored manor with a Tudor-hall wedding venue

'The oldest Old Thing in England'

Shakespeare was by no means the first to portray the mischievous Puck, a sprite of ancient lineage, with his ass's head, discovers Ian Morton

Coward on a mission

A revival of Noël Coward's final work reminds one of the emotional depth behind the laughs

Having the last laugh

Rotting teeth, modelling woes and an appreciation for solemnity have historically conspired to make painted grins a rarity, but beaming faces never fail to beguile, finds Claudia Pritchard

Mother of herbs

Enjoying a strange association with childbirth, mugwort is of more use in the kitchen and may even induce 'lucid dreams', finds John Wright

Bourne to run

The garden at Emmetts Mill, Chobham, Surrey A flat waterside site has been transformed into a garden full of drama with plenty of delightful places to stop and enjoy the view, writes Kathryn Bradley-Hole

Design brought to life

The 2024 WOW!house is a delightful parallel universe of creativity, finds Giles Kime

Bend it like Beckham

Chippendale, Scotland's only independent furniture school, bears a huge name to live up to, but with courses in wood-bending, marquetry, upholstery, restoration and more, it is flourishing under a new generation, finds Mary Miers

'Makes Buckingham Palace seem rather dull'

The London homes of the British aristocracy were often grander than their country counterparts, palatial without ever being called palaces, says Lucien de Guise

Tripping the light fantastic

A lustrous play of colour alchemy, iridescence can intrigue, camouflage and incite desire. Laura Parker immerses herself in one of Nature's greatest special effects

Venus was her name

The goddess of love and beauty's naked form caused a stir in the 4th century BC, incensed Suffragettes in the 20th and ruled art history in between and beyond, as Michael Hall reveals

The legacy Douglas Bunn and the Hickstead Derby

IT is the stuff of sporting legend. Douglas Bunn flew to Germany on New Year's Eve of 1960, armed with a tape measure.

Opening the shutters

In the second of two articles, John Goodall looks at the way in which this major Georgian house was awakened from sleep as a modern home and place of entertainment

Don't rain on Venus's parade

TENNIS has never been sexier—at least, that is what multiple critics of the new film Challengers are saying.

A rural reason to cheer

THERE was something particularly special for country people when one of the prestigious King’s Awards for Voluntary Service was presented last week.

My heart is in the Highlands

A LISTAIR MOFFAT’S many books on Scottish history are distinctive for the way he weaves poetry and literature, language and personal experience into broad-sweeping studies of particular regions or themes. In his latest— and among his most ambitious in scope—he juxtaposes a passage from MacMhaighstir Alasdair’s great sea poem Birlinn Chlann Raghnaill with his own account of filming a replica birlinn (Hebridean galley) as it glides into the Sound of Mull, ‘larch strakes swept up to a high prow’, saffron sail billowing, water sparkling as its oars dip and splash. Familiar from medieval tomb carvings, the birlinn is a potent symbol of the power of the Lords of the Isles.

Put it in print

Three sales furnished with the ever-rarer paper catalogues featured intriguing lots, including a North Carolina map by John Ogilby and a wine glass gibbeting Admiral Byng, the unfortunate scapegoat for the British loss of Minorca

The rake's progress

Good looks, a flair for the theatrical and an excellent marriage made John Astley’s fortune, but also swayed ‘le Titien Anglois’ away from painting into a dissolute life of wine and women, with some collecting on the side

Charter me this

There’s a whole world out there waiting to be explored and one of the most exciting ways to see it is from the water, says Emma Love, who rounds up the best boat charters