Country Life 8-Feb-2023

Victoria is the lead facilitator of the medical-technologies global programme at BioPhorum and is engaged to Christophe Gailly de Taurines, Knight Commander of the Order of Merit of St Joseph of Tuscany, whom she will marry at home, Newbold Pacey Hall, Warwickshire, in June. She is the daughter of Geoffrey and Iona Ludlow of Hythe, Kent, and follows in the footsteps of her grandmother Miss Ann Toler-Aylward and her aunt Miss Amelia Fisher, who appeared on the Frontispiece on January 23, 1953, and October 13, 1983, respectively.…

OCCASIONALLY, one is asked, why a career in journalism? It’s easy to splutter the usual clichés: ‘speaking truth to power’ and ‘an interest in people and their stories’. Often, the real truth is simpler: for some of us—and perhaps farmers, builders and mechanics as well—it’s about not having to put on a suit every day, iron a shirt and spend money on nice ties. Good news, then, from the Jockey Club, which announced last week that dress codes are out at its 15 racecourses. No more enforced jackets and ties for the National. Feel free to watch the Gold Cup in a pair of jeans and Crocs. Chuck a baseball cap in the air when a winner comes in. It would be easy to deride such a decision as yet another…

Rooting out hidden gems THE Threatened Plant of the Year competition is underway, Plant Heritage has announced, and those with a love of gardening, plants or flowers have been asked to scour their own green spaces for ‘hidden gems’ that could become 2023’s winner. The competition is seeking ‘unusual, rare, or special cultivars’ that are not currently commercially available, and are named cultivars that have been sold or grown in the UK or Ireland prior to 2013. Last year’s winner was Paeonia ‘Gleam of Light’, which was discovered in the garden of Roz Cooper. ‘Roz’s garden was the only recorded location of this type of peony, which is one of the reasons it won,’ says Vicki Cooke, conservation manager at Plant Heritage. ‘Thanks to her ongoing care, its future is much brighter, as…

Quiz of the week 1) Which marine mammal found in British waters is also known as ‘puffing pig’? 2) Who wrote Agnes Grey? 3) Which is England’s smallest town, complete with mayor and town hall? 4) The name of which common flower derives from ‘day’s eye’, for its habit of opening in the morning and closing at night? 5) How many kings named Edward have ruled over at least a portion of England since the 9th century? Word of the week Jugulate (verb) To kill, usually by cutting the throat 100 years ago in COUNTRY LIFE February 10, 1923 AN ideal place to begin a collection of rhododendrons is an oak or birch coppice, or even an old orchard. The old idea that peat was a necessity in their successful cultivation is a fallacy; they subsist just as well in a…

Letter of the week All creatures great and small I ENJOYED Jamie Blackett’s article about his overwintering lambs (‘Return of the woolly menaces’, January 18). As well as introducing me to a new word, cowpies (presumably pronounced cowp-ees rather than cow-pies), it reminded me of life as a child back in Pembrokeshire. Whenever there were sheep in the field behind my parents’ garden, I would regularly climb over the fence to rescue the unfortunate animals whose self-righting mechanism had failed and, having rolled onto their backs, had found themselves stranded with legs flailing in the air. Then there was the time I borrowed a pair of my father’s wire cutters to cut free a seemingly ungrateful, snarling badger caught by a back leg in a snare at the bottom of the field. But…

IN the countryside, where you know your neighbours, there are always those you don’t quite take to. It’s not that there’s necessarily anything specific, nor that they’ve actually done you down, it’s just that if there’s a slightly sharp way of doing things, a clever wheeze for avoiding paying or a good excuse for getting out of contributing, there’s always one. Most people do their best, mucking in when necessary, and can be relied upon when the churchyard needs tidying, the poppy collection requires more helpers or a child has to be picked up from school. But there are also those who are never there when there’s something to be done or someone to be helped. It’s the same with politicians. There are some whom you know will always do the…