THE Stonor family has been in this lovely bit of the Chiltern Hills for an extremely long time. The drive winds through ancient trees and up steep grassy slopes (which afford excellent, albeit hazardous and hair-raising, sledging opportunities) until the house and chapel are revealed. Quite a lot of country houses have chapels: Stonor Park goes one better. Not only does it boast a remarkable example, but it also possesses an ancient stone circle, around which pagans frolicked about 5,000 years ago.
The chapel was built in the 13th century (using one of the ancient stones as a foundation) and has been in use as a Catholic chapel ever since. If you remember that for at least 250 years of that period Catholics were not exactly encouraged (and at times hounded), then that shows pretty extraordinary commitment to faith and house. There are not many advantages to a couple of centuries of persecution and crippling fines, but it does mean that Stonor Park retains a great deal of its original character. No billionaire ancestors to demolish chunks and build Gothic extensions; instead, it is a house that has gently and stoically evolved over the past 800 years.
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin June 21, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin June 21, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds
