Tag Archives: Country Life

Culture, History, Homes, Magazines, Previews, Stories, Travel

Preview: Country Life Magazine – Sept 21, 2022

September 21, 2022 boomersdaily Leave a comment

Country Life’s 21 September 2022 issue is a Cotswolds special, looking at gardens, homes and Oxford’s brief stint as the British capital.

Our great good fortune

Long live the Kings and Queens, says Carla Carlisle as she marvels at the balancing act of our enduring monarchy

A Cotswold capital

Simon Thurley explains how Oxford was fortified during its brief spell as Charles I’s capital city during the Civil War

A concentrated Arcadia

Tilly Ware lauds the dedicated restoration of the many buildings and features of a historic Cotswolds landscape garden

Stella Ioannou’s favourite painting

The artistic director of Sculpture in the City chooses a vivid and compelling British work

Culture, Magazines, Photography, Previews, Stories, Travel

Previews: Country Life Magazine – August 24, 2022

August 24, 2022 boomersdaily Leave a comment

Country Life 24 August 2022

Country Life 24 August goes on a Scottish pilgrimage and celebrates the bicentenary of The Queen’s Body Guard for Scotland, The Royal Company of Archers.

Masterpiece

Jack Watkins falls under the spell of The Lady of Shalott

Romance realised

In the first of two articles, Clive Aslet tours Ardfin on the Isle of Jura, a Victorian sporting lodge reimagined for the 21st century

When the saints go marching in

Retracing the Highland route of St Columba to Iona, Joe Gibbs and his fellow pilgrims conquer hill and glen, until sickness hits

Bring me my bow

Royal Archer Jamie Blackett dons his green coat on the bicentenary of The Queen’s Body Guard for Scotland

Art, Arts & Literature, Reviews

Literary Illustrators: ‘The Houses Of Sherlock Holmes’ By Matthew Rice

December 6, 2020 boomersdaily Leave a comment

Dartmoor’s Baskerville Hall is one of the most famous country houses in English fiction. The arrival at its doors of Dr Watson, in the company of Sir Henry Baskerville, is a vivid piece of cinematic direction, artfully combining the Gothic horror tale with the more modern taste for detective thrillers.

Passing a ruined black-granite lodge, Watson and Baskerville go through the gates that are ‘a maze of fantastic tracery in wrought iron’ before reaching an avenue where ‘old trees shot their branches in a sombre tunnel’. The hall is a ‘heavy block’, with a projecting porch, its façade ‘draped in ivy’ within which the odd window or heraldic display can be seen.

Historical, Homes, Travel

Baronial Castle Tour: ‘Auchendennan House’ On Loch Lomond, Scotland

November 28, 2020 boomersdaily Leave a comment

Auchendennan House is an impressive A-listed Baronial castle featuring two turrets, set centrally amidst its 55 acres of beautifully designed landscape of parkland and woods. Located close to the southwest bank of Loch Lomond, it enjoys remarkable views across the loch to the mountains of the national park beyond.

The four-storey sandstone castle is approached from the main road, along a private tarmac drive with speed bumps, lined with trees. Through secure gates fitted with a telephone entry system, the driveway incorporates a carriage turning circle, with an attractive water fountain carved with dolphins and shells.

On arrival, shelter is provided by a striking Porte Cochere with arched coach openings, turrets and a vast array of decorative details.

Entered on basement level, you are welcomed into a grand 20th century vestibule, with oak panelling and a large carved fireplace including cherub and female figurines and inscriptions. Hidden in the panelling one secret door leads to a WC, whilst another leads to an office, various storage rooms, and a two-bedroom staff apartment with bathroom, kitchen and living area. Also on this level is a large reception room with its own garden entrance, currently used as a gym.

Design, Gardens, History, Travel

Italian Gardens: ‘Giardino Giusti in Verona’ and ‘Villa Fracanzan Piovene’ near Vicenza – “Shakespearean”

November 7, 2020 boomersdaily Leave a comment

Giardino Giusti in Verona and Villa Fracanzan Piovene: The centuries-old Italian gardens that evoke the romance of Romeo and Juliet.

The name Giusti has been synonymous with one of Italy’s most celebrated Renaissance gardens since the late 16th century. Originally wool-dyers from Prato in Tuscany, the Giusti family had moved its business north in the previous century, settling in an unglamorous industrial suburb of Verona. Within a few generations, its members were rich and had also acquired the requisite antiquarian and artistic tastes of true Renaissance gentlefolk.

The garden created by Agostino Giusti between 1565 and 1580 was intended to fulfil various functions. It had to showcase his collection of Roman inscriptions and to serve as a setting for the lavish theatrical and musical productions—the predecessors of opera—then in vogue. To this day, the garden retains the surprise element of a stage set, presenting a magnificent and entertaining spectacle that totally confounds one’s expectations of a city garden.

Arts & Literature, Homes

English Country Homes: ‘Ponden Hall’ – Inspiration For “WUTHERING HEIGHTS” By Emily Brontë In 1847

September 26, 2020 boomersdaily Leave a comment

In the early 19th century the house kept an extensive library, and the Brontës were regular visitors; many details of the house, particularly the interior, suggest fairly clearly that it was the inspiration for the Lintons’ home, Thrushcross Grange. Anne Brontë was just as inspired as Emily, incidentally: Ponden is also the model for the titular house in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

Ponden Hall is in the village of Stanbury and is even accessed via a lane with a suitably Gothic name: Scar Top Road. It’s huge: there are eight bedrooms, a paddock, four acres of land and a further two-bedroom annexe — ideal for the Nelly who looks after your family, or for use as a potential holiday let to Brontë-mad tourists.

The oldest parts of the hall date to 1541, but most of the house as it stands today goes back to 1634 — and the evidence of its great age is plain to see.

The beams, walls, floors, ceilings, fireplaces and windows are gloriously authentic — and the owners have doubled-down on the effect with some wonderfully inspired furniture choices, especially with the beds. Don’t fret about the fact that you’d struggle to find similar pieces yourself: the vendors are apparently happy sell it on via separate negotiation.

Home Design, Homes, Travel

Cotswolds Home Tours: “Manor House At Chipping Norton”, Oxfordshire, UK

September 12, 2020 boomersdaily Leave a comment

SEPTEMBER 2020

For the past 10 years or more, the manor’s globe-trotting owner and ‘serial collector’, Tony Hill, has painstakingly restored and modernized the quirky, 3,700 sq ft house set in three-quarters of an acre of totally private gardens in the heart of the town, with guidance and advice from Cheshire-based Nigel Daly Architectural Design.

In the rolling countryside of north Oxfordshire, Grade II-listed The Manor House at Chipping Norton has ‘the wonderful homely feel of a house your parents might have lived in for 30 years,’ says David Henderson of Savills in Stow-on-the-Wold.

Stone steps from the hall lead to the light-filled main drawing room with its oriel window and window seat, where bespoke bookcases made from reclaimed elm boards surround the open fireplace. Another flight of stone stairs leads from the inner hall to the dining room with its vaulted ceiling and impressive carved stone fireplace. A large games/media room is used as a home cinema, office and party room.

Design, Gardens, Travel

Top Gardens: Astonishing “Wisteria Pergolas” Of Petworth House, England

June 3, 2020 boomersdaily Leave a comment

From Country Life Magazine (May 31, 2020):

The wisteria at Petworth’s private garden is simply astonishing. Non Morris takes a look at how it’s done, with pictures by Val Corbett.

The beautiful pergolas in the Cloister Garden are trained with Wisteria floribunda Alba, a white Japanese wisteria selected for the tantalising length of its racemes — up to 24in — and the way the flowers open gradually along the stem, which prolongs its flowering period. The wisteria is pruned once only, in September.