Britain

There’s no cosier place in the depths of winter than a Cotswold village, the honey-stone cottages all aglow and the rolling hills blanketed in silvery frost. This issue we visit some of the loveliest examples, all clustered together in the North Cotswolds (Pretty as a Picture, p14). And there’s plenty more to cheer you, from the proud tradition of the Welsh male voice choir (Land of Song, p56) to stirring stories of Britain’s bold medieval queens (Warrior queens, p33). Elsewhere this issue, we explore the new King’s homes (Royal residences, p49), from grand castles and palaces to country manors, and find out how you can stay on one of the royal estates; we meet the Duchess of Rutland, who shares her surprising journey from farmer’s daughter to chatelaine of Belvoir Castle (A…

STAR LETTER NORTHERN BEAUTY In September 2022 my husband and I enjoyed a wonderful holiday touring the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District. We visited stately homes, historic churches and some glorious gardens. But most importantly, we just soaked up the beauty of the English countryside. When we arrived back in Nova Scotia, a copy of BRITAIN (Vol 90 Issue 5), my favourite magazine, was waiting for me. As usual, I couldn’t wait to open it and begin flipping through its pages. What a delightful surprise to find that you had featured articles on both Yorkshire and the Lake District. It was such a pleasure to ‘visit’ these special places all over again, through Herriot country and its sheep-dotted dales to the many little towns and villages we meandered through. Once…

GARDENS Horticultural heritage A much-loved historic maze, Glendurgan in Cornwall, has become once again a place to lose yourself. Planted in 1833 by a Quaker couple, Alfred and Sarah Fox, to entertain their 12 children, this cherry laurel maze was starting to fail until the National Trust stepped in, restoring its 700 metres of winding paths over four years. Once described as ‘a small piece of heaven on earth’, the maze is set to delight for generations to come. www.nationaltrust.org.uk EXHIBITION The crime uncovered Treason – the crime of betraying one’s country – has been the downfall of many famous Brits, from Anne Boleyn to Guy Fawkes. A new exhibition at the National Archives in Richmond, London (until 6 April 2023) explores nearly 700 years of this most serious of crimes. Treason: People, Power & Plot…

Picture the quintessential English village. Chances are you’re thinking of a hamlet of honeycomb-coloured cottages, all thatched roofs and rose gardens. There’ll be a cobbled street, with a tinkling river running alongside, and a creaking pub with an open fire, where you can warm yourself after a bracing walk through the green hills on the horizon. Chances are you’re thinking of the North Cotswolds. The Cotswold Hills stretch for nearly 800 square miles across the heart of England, but it is the chocolate-box charm of its northern villages that draws visitors from all over the world. Trying to pick the prettiest is a lifelong challenge for some, but the villages are so clustered together in this bucolic corner of the country that you don’t have to settle on just one. Start…

Wild Thyme & Honey is a new boutique country inn in the heart of the Cotswolds. Set on the banks of a peaceful brook in the quintessential village of Ampney Crucis near Cirencester, the inn has 24 beautiful bedrooms. A love letter to Cotswolds living, it is a place to escape to for a taste of the good life and is ideally situated for exploring the pretty villages of Bibury, Burford and Tetbury. One lucky reader and their guest will win a two-night stay at this Cotswolds retreat, in one of the beautiful Ampney Hills rooms, with idyllic views over the surrounding hills. The bedrooms have been designed to make guests feel right at home, decorated in a calming palette of soft greys, rich creams and tactile textiles, with plenty of…

“Lovely Crack on!” Emma Manners, the Duchess of Rutland declares brightly after we have exchanged greetings at the beginning of our interview. Her Grace has recently published a lively autobiography charting her journey from pony-mad daughter of a Welsh farmer to chatelaine of Belvoir Castle, and ‘crack on’ seems a fair description of her energetic approach to life. The Belvoir Castle we see today, its fairytale towers and turrets rising from a hill over the Vale of Belvoir in Leicestershire, is the fourth castle to stand on the site. Its name (pronounced ‘Beaver’) derives from the French for ‘beautiful view’, harking back to Norman times when Robert de Todeni, William the Conqueror’s standard-bearer at the Battle of Hastings, first built a motte-and-bailey fortress here. The estate has since passed in an…