Country Life UK

A bitter legacy Graeme Peacock/Alamy; Dea Picture Library/Getty Images; Mick Sinclair/Alamy; Bon Appetit/Alamy; CoffeeChocolates/Alamy; Country Life Picture Library; John Taylor/Alamy; DP Wildlife Invertebrates/Alamy Stop these modern- day invadersT HANK you for highlighting the litter problem in Britain today. W E have too many illegal immi- for their fur, these mink escaped or were wilfullyThe grey gobs of chewing gum that grants. Too many who come here released into the wild without concern for theare building up on our streets are and displace the British born ecological damage their actions would wreak.creating a surface our grandchildren who have lived peaceably forwill have to wade through, if they Yet there are many other guilty men. Justcan, in the future. generations, only to find that the newly arrived as entrepreneurs imported mink to make money I have become increasingly sad-dened—and angry, too—by the litter take their homes and even the food out of their out of the lucrative fur trade, so, only abouton motorways and feel there shouldbe a national focus on this blight— mouths. No, I’m not making a post-election 40 years ago, they introduced the signal cray-it is one that could so easily be solved.There could be many more large appeal for UKIP, but just pointing to the serious fish to satisfy the booming Scandinavian foodmotorway signs put up and fast-foodoutlets should certainly be involved issue of invasive plant and animal species that business. It was gardeners bent on fame andin the recovery of their packagingand in contributing to the finance are now such a concern throughout the country. profit who brought in giant hogweed, Himalayanof the campaign. Perhaps anyonecaptured on road surveillance cam- People thought that pennywort was just balsam, floating pennywort and Japaneseeras chucking rubbish out of theirvehicle should have their licence a pretty addition to their ponds until it began knotweed. Even today, individuals pick uprevoked for a period of time? to take over, but, now, the Canal & River Trust plants from abroad and import them without Recently, I took some photos of verges in can spend thousands of pounds a year to clear any understanding of the risks they’re taking, both the UK and France to highlight the ast- a single infestation from a waterway. Then, there’s putting pride and profit before precaution. ounding difference. Sue Sills, Kent the giant hogweed. It looked That word precaution may really good in aristocrats’ be the key to the problem.Windsor’s gone Some of these invadersall topsy-turvy Giant hogweedparks when, in the 19th cen- come here unannounced simply because we haven’tI THOUGHT it might interest you tury, they brought it in for their been careful enough. Imme- to know that I have a picture virtu-ally the same as the one belonging to looked really goodornamental gardens. Now, itBaroness Trumpington entitled Viewof Windsor Castle, shown in the in‘aristocrats’ parks,spreadsbewilderinglyquickly,Country Life (April 1). Mine has producing 80,000 seeds until it caused diate profit and the mini-been confirmed as by William Havell. before it dies. Eradication mising of direct costs makeInterestingly, the drive and the horsesare the opposite way round in my severe blistering’is all the more difficult bec- us cut corners and avoidpainting. If anyone is interested to see responsibility. It’s not justit, it is at my stud in Newmarket. ause its sap causes really the diseases and pests thatAnthony Oppenheimer, London severe blistering if it gets on arrive on legally imported plants, but also skin that’s then exposed to sunlight. even more sinister arrivals, such as the mittenCOUNTRY LIFE Nor is it just plants. The native British crayfish MAY 20 is fighting a losing battle against its aggressive crab that comes from the ballast water 212-page issue: American cousin, which takes over its habitat, released from ships and the killer shrimp know your cater- pillars, craft your eats its food and spreads a disease that is fatal. brought over from the Black Sea. own couture and the osprey—our most Just as the grey squirrel has driven our native red The result is huge costs borne by the com- charismatic raptor to the fastnesses, so this tough red immigrant munity—local authorities, the Environment Make someone’s week, every week, with a looks set to destroy our white-clawed crayfish. Agency and the Canal & River Trust. Tax- COUNTRY LIFE subscription 0844 848 0848 Just as damaging, its tunnelling habit under- payers and donors are paying the cost of other mines and destroys our riverbanks. people’s profits. The market isn’t working Another destructive tunneller is the mink, because the polluter doesn’t pay. In this week which threatens the water vole, the original after the election, we should be demanding of Ratty in The Wind in the Willows, with that the new government insists on tough new extinction. The water-vole population had laws to prevent new invasions. We’ll have reduced by 90% by the end of the 1990s and to carry the cost of what’s already here, but a single hungry mink can destroy a whole we want no more. It’s just too expensive a legacy colony of water voles. It will also attack king- for our children. Enough is enough. fishers and moorhens as well as what remains of the British crayfish. Once imported and farmed Follow @agromenes on Twitterwww.countrylife.co.uk Country Life, May 13, 2015 49

Interview PeterDonohoe How to win the musical lottery The pianist on judging dilemmas, Russian influences and avoiding neurosis T HE distant landmark— at the University of Leeds, where understand how a piece “breathes” indigenous composers as the in 2018—of his 65th he joined a rock group—but it and gives an appreciation of what Russians are of theirs. The Russian birthday (for which he would be wrong to think he spent the person at the back is playing. tradition of piano teaching and the already has a Wigmore Hall an isolated childhood shackled I rather like the idea that I know ‘duty’ to eschew hobbies and devote engagement) is giving Peter to the piano; indeed, he worries how orchestras work and, when oneself to promoting national music Donohoe cause for reflection. for the prodigies who do. He sang I conduct, what it must be like was ‘like a rolling tank’, although Britain’s greatest living pianist in Manchester Cathedral choir and to be on the receiving end.’ he says it’s less influential now, talks a lot about the ‘butterfly effect’ found every instrument easy. especially with the march of pian- for, it seems, even those with dream An accomplished string player, Mr Donohoe’s special association ists from the Far East. However, careers ponder how a different hand he happily sat in the orchestral with Russian piano music results much of the drama in Russian music might have shunted them into the rank and file and was offered from a lifelong love affair with has its roots in extreme experiences cul-de-sac of the also-rans. a permanent job as percussionist that country and his well-honed that the British can only imagine. with the Hallé. One shudders to understanding of its politics and Thirty years ago, as now, inter- think of the loss to British virtuoso their effect on the Arts. Having He has returned to play many national piano competitions were piano playing had he accepted. already won numerous prizes, times, most memorably at the end the major springboard to huge including the Leeds International of winter in 1996. ‘Stravinsky’s The careers. In 1982, Mr Donohoe was ‘People with in 1981, he didn’t really need to Rite of Spring [which provoked an ante-post favourite for the most enter the Tchaikovsky back in the a riot when premiered in 1913] prestigious of all, the Tchaikovsky, ruthless ambition 1980s, but did so through peer is a seminal piece, which a lot held every four years in Moscow. often end pressure and the welcome oppor- of us think of as harmonically That year, bizarrely, the jury tunity to visit the Soviet Union. revolutionary,’ he says. ‘But you decided not to award a first prize, up disappointed ‘When I was a boy, Yuri Gagarin, wouldn’t if you lived through their so he and Vladimir Ovchinnikov the first man in outer space, springs. We arrived in balaclavas shared the silver medal, a tech- and bitter’He devoted himself to the piano visited Manchester—it was and boots and snow up to our nicality that did nothing to inhibit twinned with Leningrad. We all waists. By the time we left, they their immediate superstardoms. belatedly, studying in Paris with waved Soviet flags as his convoy were in shorts. I remember the thaw the great composer Olivier drove past our school,’ he recalls. sounding like an earthquake, Nonetheless, Mr Donohoe thinks Messiaen, among others. ‘Until icicles smashing your windscreen, the outcome could have been I was 24, I rather railed against ‘I was fascinated by this gigantic the flooding, flowers you could different. Towards the end of this being a soloist. Fear of disappoint- country and its secretive ways. almost see growing. The savagery marathon contest, he idly sliced ment made me hesitate. I couldn’t It was the height of the Cold War of it! No wonder the Russians his hand on a can of Carlsberg. visualise the lifestyle, all the and we thought the end of the thought spring was the arrival On doctor’s orders, he wasn’t to travelling and spending so much planet was coming because of of a pagan god.’ touch a key for five days, so he was time on your own,’ he explains. them. There was a lot of propa- bumped on to play last in the ganda from both sides, but when Nowadays, Mr Donohoe splits finals—he thinks this cannot but ‘I had a lot of fun in orchestras I finally got to Moscow, I found his time between performing have helped keep him at the fore- and benefited from influences many they were just like us. The Slavic around the globe, curating his front of the jury’s collective mind. other soloists don’t get. It helps you nature is family-orientated and own festival at Fishguard, Pem- very culturally aware.’ brokeshire, and teaching. He lives ‘There is always a huge element in the West Midlands, convenient of lottery in competitions,’ he He’s saddened that Britain for the Birmingham Conservatoire admits. ‘I am on juries myself nowa- has never been as proud of its where he’s vice-president, and days [including the Tchaikovsky admits enthusiasm for HS2.John Millar since 2011]. Are the judges truly On the record “in gear” in week one? Can we Students don’t always want to really remember how well the first Peter Donohoe plays Scriabin, Rachmaninov and Ravel at the hear their professor’s advice about out of 104 starters played? And Newbury Spring Festival, Berkshire, on May 20 (0845 521 8218; life choices, but he warmly encour- that’s just one part of who is most www.newburyspringfestival.org.uk) ages any musician to pursue the ready for the profession you are most rounded life possible. about to land them with. Do you Where is your favourite place in Britain? Hyde Park, London ‘Neurosis is a big “killer” in our send through the entrant who plays What is your favourite building? The Kremlin, Moscow profession,’ he says. ‘I hope I’ve four pieces to an equal level, the one Book? Plum Pie (P. G. Wodehouse) avoided becoming neurotic by hav- whose Scarlatti was miraculous, but Music? Rachmaninov’s Symphony No 2 ing done so many other things. his Debussy appalling, the teenage Food? Lentil soup People with ruthless ambition often genius or the 29-year-old who will Holiday? Staying at home end up disappointed and bitter. be too old to enter next time? Alternative career? Cold War historian This will sound like a bit of a pose, It’s a big responsibility.’ Who is your hero? Sir Anthony Eden but if something I want to happen Ideal dinner guest? Lee Kuan Yew, the late Singaporean doesn’t happen, I accept it as destiny.’ Mr Donohoe says he wasn’t one Prime Minister There goes that butterfly again. of the ‘cool’ kids growing up in Pippa Cuckson Lancashire—popularity came later, 50 Country Life, May 13, 2015 www.countrylife.co.uk

www.countrylife.co.uk Country Life, May 13, 2015 51

My week Griff Rhys Jones Messing about on the Caribbean A RE you back from Africa?’ people have been asking me, as if I’ve just shaken the dust from my boots, as if the sort of Friday-night television series I’m currently making happens on the hoof and doesn’t require three months’ editing and fuss. I got back from Africa before Christmas. I have actually just returned from Antigua, a different place altogether. ‘We were ‘It’s moments like these when I wish I hadn’t bunked off from swimming lessons at school’Illustration by Clare Mackie. John Phillips/UK Press/Getty Images beaten by four have scratched my moustache when the tide made it to us and of the Deben Rowing Club and, seconds... or hummed half the opening we had to be back before it went having rowed the Thames, they’re bars of the Minute Waltz. out. The sail and mast lived in the now going to tackle the Deben. four seconds! shed and we could cross the Stour It will probably take them about I shouldn’t T hanks to the internet, my estuary to swim on the beach a morning if they catch the tide. have scratched other current television in Essex, at Wrabness. This part my moustache series, The Quizeum, followed of the Suffolk Stour is very wide The narrow river estuary that me across the Caribbean. It was and very shallow and the beach runs from Woodbridge to Felix- ’I went there merely to take still being edited in Great gives way to half a mile of mud, stowe Ferry and debouches Guildford Street on the South but it suited us—until somebody opposite Bawdsey (where radar a desultory role in the regatta, Bank, but I would get back to the stole our rudder, mast, sail and was developed during the Second casually planned with a few villa and, after complicated down- the rowlocks out of the back World War) must be one of the friends, aboard my boat, Argyll. load protocols, peer at Lars of the truck in the cart lodge. loveliest inlets in Britain. It winds A few people told me they were Tharp through salty glasses. to the sea through gentle banks sort of moseying out to join This was before hopping off The last time we put the little and offers a quick resumé of all that me and the rest of the crew was to English Harbour to watch the tub in the creek, it began to fill makes Suffolk a top place: red- made up from the leavings of gig racing and eat cream teas with water, so I suggested we brick farmhouses, round churches, the dockside and passers-by served by ladies in flowery try her on the duck pond, where stretches of marsh, coverts, sandy (and excellent they were, too). hats—a fair impersonation she filled with water. Turned out cliffs, woods and riverside pubs. ‘It’s mostly reaching,’ someone of Bosham in the 1950s. there was a leak, then. It doesn’t erroneously told me, so I didn’t matter how small the boat, it’s There are probably many who think much about it until I got As I watched these 12ft luggers a constant tide of mending, live nearby who have never done there, when I became ferociously and single-sailed pram dinghies spending and maintenance. the trip and have no idea of its competitive, totally obsessed bobbing among the exploded bath marvels. But how could they? and determined to win. toys of the superyachts, I decided, O n a sunny Suffolk spring It’s not easy unless you have not for the first time, that this was weekend, with only a patter- your own boat. That proved no good to any- the sort of sailing I should be doing: ing of light drizzle, I had my one, least of all to Argyll. We proper, amateur yachting—simple, photograph taken with the ‘three Griff Rhys Jones is currently were disqualified from the first fulfilling and, above all, cheap. women in a boat’: journalist appearing in Slow Train Through race an hour before it started Catherine Larner, training and Africa on ITV and The Quizeum when we sailed straight through For years, a 10ft dinghy was development consultant Jacq on BBC4. He enjoys messing an exclusion zone. Apparently, my only ‘yacht’. It lived on a cut Barnard and landscape architect about in boats the entire fleet of some 70 yachts in a muddy salting in a Suffolk Lucy Hollis. They’re members was aware of this no-go area, creek. We got four hours’ sailing Next week: Kit Hesketh-Harvey but not us—we had our radio turned down. Nevertheless, we fought our way back to a respectable third overall in our class, beaten by four seconds on corrected time. Four seconds! I shouldn’t 52 Country Life, May 13, 2015 www.countrylife.co.uk

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Myfavouritepainting BobbyDundas Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies by Claude MonetThe Metropolitan Museum of Art/H. O. Havemeyer Collection/Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929 Bobby Dundas Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies, 1899, by Claude Monet (1840–1926), 36½in by 29in, (Viscount Melville) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA is a professional polo player and an ambassador for British Polo Day ‘Impressionism has always been my favourite movement in art history and, although Manet was considered its father, for me, Monet was the king! I love how he depicts light and reflection in his waterlily- pond series. His brushstrokes and the striking use of his colour palette make it seem as if the lilies are alive and real, so much so that I want to reach out and grab them. Hypnotic in effect, this paint- ing gives me an immediate sense of calm and peacefulness every time I see it, and the thought of sitting down on the edge of the pond with a good book surrounded by such tranquility makes ’me very happy John McEwen comments on Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies M onet’s early career was a struggle. the Monets and Hoschedés (ernest fitfully) bought the house. Hoschedé died the follow- His artistic mother died when he was lived together outside Paris, which was cheaper. ing year, leaving Alice free to marry Monet. the 16; his father wanted him to join the When Camille died in 1879, the arrangement Giverny garden became a preoccupation. the family grocery business. He married Camille, continued. Alice jealously destroyed all evidence footbridge, copied from a Japanese print, was his favourite model, the first of their children of Camille, but would neither rejoin nor built as a vantage point to contemplate the having been scandalously born out of wedlock. divorce Hoschedé. Monet left if Hoschedé new lily pond, which replaced the meadow. stayed. He travelled extensively to paint new From 1899, Monet painted 18 views of the ernest Hoschedé, a rich Parisian business- subjects and was helped financially by his bridge and pond, peaceful reflections after man, was an early supporter. He and his wife, association with the dealer Paul Durand- years of financial and domestic strife. Alice, entertained lavishly. In 1876, Monet was Ruel, who crucially established an American ‘Inventing Impressionism: How Paul commissioned to paint pictures and panels market (Country Life, March 4). Durand-Ruel created the Modern Art for their château. He became Alice’s lover Market’ is at The National Gallery, and may have fathered her youngest and In 1883, Monet rented a house with a garden London WC2, until May 31 (020–7747 sixth child; meanwhile, Camille gave birth and watermeadow at Giverny, normandy. He 2885; www.nationalgallery.org.uk). to their second. Hoschedé went bankrupt. began to paint sequential subjects. In 1890, he 54 Country Life, May 13, 2015 www.countrylife.co.uk



Parish church treasuresReaping in joyPhotography by Paul Barker and text by John GoodallT his is a detail of the choir stalls dating The Church of early 17th century. its nave and transepts were to about 1400 that survive at Astley. St Mary the Virgin, demolished, a new tower begun and, in 1608, in their original form, the canopies Astley, Warwickshire a medieval chapel was rebuilt as the chancel. were decorated with a series of paired figures of Apostles and prophets. Each of the Apostles These stalls appear to have been recon- held a scroll inscribed with the sentence from figured in their present position at this time. the Creed that they were respectively credited Remarkably, the imagery on them was also with having composed. The counterpart prophet retouched and the Latin texts over-painted held a related Biblical quotation. with quotations from the Psalms and New Testament in English. They constitute a fas- Along the cornice of the canopy was painted cinating instance of the careful preservation a vine. Prior to the Reformation, the stalls stood and adaptation of medieval fittings in the in a grand cruciform church with a landmark 17th century. The scroll visible to the far right spire popularly known as ‘the Lanthorn of Arden’. ends the series with the optimistic statement: This building was badly damaged following ‘They that sowe in tears, shall reape in ioy. the Reformation, but it was repaired in the ANo DMi 1624.’56 Country Life, May 13, 2015 www.countrylife.co.uk



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Re-creating childhood The nursery at Audley End, Essex A property of English HeritageA set of watercolour views has helped reconstructthe nursery rooms used in the 1830s and 1840sby Lord Braybrooke’s eight children. The processopens a window on the experience of Victorian children, as Tom Boggis explains Photographs by Paul HighnamN urseries are surely family. The arrival of their eight child- at the house by the special Fig 1 above among the most transient ren—richard (1820–61), Mirabel Operations executive. left: One of the of all domestic interiors. (1821–1900), Louisa (1822–89), Charles two crucial They grow with a family, (1823–1902), Henry (1824–54), Latimer Derelict, empty and showing water anonymouschanging to accommodate the needs (1827–1904), Lucy (1828–1919) and damage, the rooms have remained views of theof each new arrival, developing rapidly Grey (1830–54)—necessitated the inaccessible to visitors since the house day nurseryas the babies grow to children. Then, fitting up of new nursery rooms. sur- came into public ownership in 1948. interioras surely, they pass from use as, one viving accounts in the family papers showing theby one, each child reaches adulthood show that this process began in 1822. The starting point for the re-creation furniture andand leaves their parental home. This of the nursery suite is the fabric of the doll’s house.whole process of change—and more The nursery was occupied by the boys rooms themselves, which remained Fig 2 above:—has had to be unpicked in the pro- until they departed for eton at the battered but intact to the early 21st The recon-cess of re-creating the early-19th- age of 11. For the girls, by contrast, century. What made possible the structedcentury nursery occupied by the their educational experience—in fact, re-creation of these spaces in their interior of thechildren of the 3rd Lord Braybrooke their whole life until marriage— 1830s form, however, was a small day nursery.at Audley end in essex (Fig 2). The remained centred on the nursery and group of mid-19th-century water- The patternedwork has involved peeling back suc- adjoining schoolroom. colours that show this interior. some wallpapercessive layers of change through the are known to be by the 3rd Lord is copied19th and 20th centuries. even after the children had moved Braybrooke’s daughters and some from surviving on, the relative remoteness of the are dated, but others have neither fragments richard Neville, the future 3rd Lord nursery preserved it from any sub- a recorded artist nor date. in anotherBraybrooke, and his wife, Lady Jane stantial subsequent change. its most nursery roomCornwallis, came to Audley end in 1820 recent period of intensive use was The most important are two veryas newlyweds, when the house had during the second World War, when similar views of the day nursery, aboutlimited facilities to house a young it was used to billet Polish soldiers which tantalisingly little is securely who were being trained in secrecy known. in both of these, the room has been painted from the same viewpoint,60 Country Life, May 13, 2015 www.countrylife.co.uk

with furniture very similarly arranged ‘It’s tantalising ween 1844 and 1855. The watercolour and even what appears to be the same is clearly captioned as a bedroom, sitters—by the fireplace—arranged to speculate on how although no bed is shown, presumably in the same postures (Fig 1). Apart the interests and because it must be behind the artist’s from the contrast of seat upholstery careers of these vantage point. It shows a Pembroke —from red stripes to blue dots—and children were shaped table set up with writing implements some alterations to the picture hang, in a corner of the room, an American the watercolours show an almost in these rooms’the work of Lady Charlotte Neville- robin under a glass dome on the identical scene. mantelpiece and W. R. Bigg’s oil Grenville, wife of the 3rd Lord Bray- painting The Cottage Door hanging The watercolour with the red-striped high over the chimneypiece. seat upholstery was discovered as brooke’s brother, although they do not a loose-leaf insert in a volume of Realising the new interiors from watercolours by Louisa, although, compare very well to her drawings these charming and vivid images has confusingly, it bears little resemblance involved a great deal of careful thought to Louisa’s known work. It is not dated, at Magdalene College, Cambridge. and detective work. Where the pieces but the earliest suggested date for of evidence fit together, the results have it is the late 1830s. The watercolour The other room in the nursery suite been very satisfying. For example, with blue-dot upholstery is from two although none of the original carpets albums of watercolours dated 1853. that appears in the watercolours is survive, it has been possible to re-create the green, pink and dark-grey chequer- These albums were the subject Lucy’s bedroom and this has a definite board in Lucy’s bedroom with some of a Country Life article by John confidence (Fig 4). The possibility that Cornforth in 1976 (July 8), but the attribution. It is signed by her sister the watercolour shows an oilcloth was identity of their artist remains unclear. One possibility is that they could be Mirabel and, although undated, belongs considered, but, in one point, it proved ➢www.countrylife.co.uk within an album in which most of the Country Life, May 13, 2015 61 other watercolours were painted bet-





the contrary: the image shows two according to the watercolours to its Fig 3 preceding library for Sir John Griffin Griffin,pattern repeats across the width of the historic position in the day nursery. pages: A detail a room dismantled by the 3rd Lordhearth. Historically, carpets were The doll’s house dates from the 1820s of the doll’s Braybrooke in the early 19th century.woven in strips of 27in and the width and 1830s and is remarkable for the house. Theof the surviving fireplace at the corres- completeness of its interior decoration children must Modern chintzes and furnishingponding points is exactly 54in. and furnishings. The contents consist have collected fabrics were chosen in sympathy of a mix of bought, specially com- old papers and with early-19th-century designs, the In the other rooms, it has been missioned and homemade elements cloth from the Audley End watercolours and otherimpossible to re-create carpet patterns created by the Neville children. house; the contemporary sources, including thewith such exactitude. Appropriate Materials were taken by them from furnishings watercolours of Mary Ellen Best and19th-century carpet designs have whatever was available in the house, include some illustrations and descriptions intherefore been selected from the including 1780s curtain material from fabrics taken J. C. Loudon’s An EncyclopaediaWoodward Grosvenor archive in the Robert Adam Dining Parlour from the state of Cottage, Farm and VillaKidderminster, now held by Brintons. used to make the green curtains apartments. Architecture and Furniture andThey have been woven by Grosvenor in the doll’s house (Country Life, Fig 4 above: The Workwoman’s Guide. A redWilton. A crimson-and-maroon swirl- September 24, 1998) (Fig 3). Lucy Neville’s stripe was sourced for the day nurserying design from the first half of the bedroom as seat upholstery and complimentary,19th century, in tone similar to the The vibrant greens, blues, pinks and restored, with but different, bright floral chintzescarpet recorded in the day nursery yellows of the wallpapers, typical its chequer- were mixed throughout the rooms.watercolour with the red-striped seat of early-19th-century Regency taste, board carpetupholstery, was selected for that room could originally have been lining The newly opened nursery at Audleyand one of the bedrooms. A design papers for boxes and trunks. End gives a sense not just of these veryby Watson, Wood and Bell dated colourful and eclectically furnished1843 was selected for other rooms. Unfortunately, 19th-century inven- rooms, but sets the lives of the child- tories of the house offer no detailed ren who grew up here in a fascinat- ‘The three account of the nursery furniture, ing context. Richard served in the so appropriate pieces have been Grenadier Guards and went on to sistersÕ lives were acquired for the rooms. The water- become the 4th Lord Braybrooke, rooted in the colours suggested the rooms were whose interest in natural history furnished with earlier Georgian fur- is evident in the large amounts of nursery for much niture, relegated to the nursery once taxidermy in the state rooms. His longer than those no longer considered fashionable for brother Charles, as the 5th Lordof their brothers the state rooms. Certainly, a view Braybrooke, was responsible for of the schoolroom—an interior adja- much of the current arrangement’Re-creating the wallpapers pre- cent to the nursery suite, but distinct and display of Richard’s bird and from it—clearly shows one of the mammal specimens in the house.sented another intriguing problem. bookcases from Robert Adam’s A keen cricketer at school, CharlesIt is not clear how the wallpapers in laid out the cricket pitch at Audleythe watercolours relate to each other End by the lake in front of the house,or exactly what their patterns were. which continues to be used today.Here, careful scrutiny of the roomsthemselves has offered an answer. Latimer spent 49 years as MasterOne of the surviving original wall- of Magdalene College, Cambridge,papers in the nursery, a trailing-leaf and became the 6th Lord Braybrookedesign, is an early machine-printed in 1902. Henry and Grey were bothwallpaper dating from the 1830s to killed, within days of each other, in1840s, during the occupation of the action in the Crimean War—Henrynursery by the 3rd Lord Braybrooke’s at the age of 30 and Grey at 24.children. It survives almost entirelyin one of the subsidiary rooms in the The three sisters’ lives were rootedsuite and fragments of it were found in the nursery for much longer thanin some of the other rooms and in some those of their brothers. Louisa wasof the cupboards. interested in botany, Lucy was a pianist and Mirabel enjoyed paint- It seems possible, therefore, that this ing. Unlike her sisters, Mirabel neverone bold pattern was used to decorate married. All three remained in con-the entirety of the suite. Allowing for tact with their old governess, Missartistic licence, its pattern could be Dormer, well into adult life. It’s tan-reconciled with the evidence of the talising to speculate on how thewatercolours. This paper has, there- interests and careers of these child-fore, been conserved where it remained ren were shaped in the nurseryintact and reproduced for the other at Audley End. Whatever the case,nursery rooms by Anstey Wallpaper. it is once more possible to visit their rooms and experience part of the The crucial surviving nursery fur- world they inhabited.nishing is the doll’s house, now restored Acknowledgements: Dorian Church, Gareth Hughes, Phillippa Mapes, Helen Pickles, Mary Schoeser, Annabel Westman64 Country Life, May 13, 2015 www.countrylife.co.uk

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Lighting thetouchpaper of Nature Rockcliffe, Upper Slaughter, Gloucestershire Taking the long view, garden designer Emma Keswickhas spent 25 years creating and refining the gardens of her family’s Cotswolds home. Tania Compton explores Photographs by Clive Nichols

I f you stuck a pin into a map gardener with a spade certainly knows Above: Dove- at Northleach in the Cotswolds when they hit the “cliff” that lurks tailed conver- and cast a radial swoop of under our shallow Cotswold brash.’ It’s sation: a pair 15 miles in all directions, you hard to fathom now, but, being exposed of yew birds,would have a circle within which every and cold (at 550ft above sea level) surroundedpicture-postcard village must boast with nutrients leached away with every by moon daisies.between one and a handful of virtuoso cloudburst, Rockcliffe was a forlorn Below: Fruittraditional English country gardens. place without a garden when the cages need notTurn this circle into an imaginary Keswicks first came here in 1981. They be dull—fretworkclock face and, where the hour hand then returned to Hong Kong, where they and finial orna-reaches one o’clock, is an eight-acre have lived off and on throughout their ments lift themgarden created by Emma Keswick marriage, so the creation of the garden into anotherthat has reached a pinnacle of English only got under way in 1990. dimensioncountry-garden perfection. The Brontë-esque name Rockcliffesuggests a house sitting on the edgeof a windswept, craggy chasm, butthere’s nothing remotely Gothicor forbidding about the 1860 honey-coloured manor house, with the additionof its beautifully proportioned wings,orangery and mansard roof designedby Simon and Emma Keswick’sfriend, the architect Nicholas Johnston.The view from the south-east-facingfront door is over countryside moreappropriately conjured by the nameof the local village, Lower Swell,nestling in the idyllic contoursof Heythrop hunting country. The name Rockcliffe makes moresense at the rear of the house, wherea wooded slope leads down to a lakeformed by damming of the River Eye.According to Mrs Keswick: ‘Any68 Country Life, May 13, 2015 www.countrylife.co.uk

By this time, Mrs Keswick was itch- Above: On high and observing, rather than from ‘I believe mosting to get going. ‘I have gardening ground above a prescribed masterplan. Year on year,in my blood. Both my grandmother the kitchen developments have accrued to trans- gardening ideasand great aunt were wonderful garden- garden, the form it into the wonderful assemblage are triggereders and it’s from them that I developed dovecote’s of enclosures you see today, shifting by a memory,a love of plants. Wherever we have lived, design is an in mood from intimate to outward-even if I only had a rooftop balcony unapologetic looking, but all peppered by sensational then refinedin intense heat, I’ve always wanted amalgam and prodigiously healthy planting.to grow plants. Luckily, I also instinct- of buildings to suit the site’A trip to Helen Dillon’s Dublinively knew that structure is supremely Emma Keswick ‘I believe most gardening ideas areimportant. Get that right first and has seen triggered by a memory, then refined garden sparked Mrs Keswick’s lovethen light the touchpaper of Nature.’ on her travels. and reproduced to suit the site,’ of Cornus controversa Variegata, Preceding confides Mrs Keswick. ‘Much of what The plant enthusiast in her aims pages: The I’ve done here has been unconsciously encouraging her to place six aroundto have a bloom for every day of the steep Cotswold inspired by an element of somethingyear on her desk, but it’s the Mrs slopes ensure I saw in a garden on my travels.’ her rectangular fishpond. Their tieredKeswick who trained as a garden magnificentdesigner who remains on alert during views of the The beech obelisks that taper branches now touch from oppositeher many daily walks around the house and its to elongate the perspective leadinggarden. Like most characterful and fine trees from the house to the ha-ha were sides, floating above a statue of Nandiatmospheric gardens, Rockcliffe’s inspired by a row of statues, similarlyhas developed as a result of walking positioned, in the garden of the the bull, the mythological attendant Palazzo Corsini in the heart of Florence. of the Hindu god Shiva. ➢www.countrylife.co.uk Country Life, May 13, 2015 69

The dovecote is an unapologetic to Mrs Keswick, giving a punctuation Mrs Keswick’s in autumn and winter, which canamalgam of buildings Mrs Keswick has of solidity and height that anchor the disciplined be agonisingly long here, but the key isadmired on her travels around British billowing, romantic planting she feels approach that the gardeners are master pruners.’gardens and it’s become a catalyst suits Rockcliffe. Chess-pawn-shaped ensured theto visitors, so the baton of inspiration yews thread in a visual sequence evergreen Mrs Keswick’s desire to temperis now being handed on. The topiary through various adjoining areas structure was structure with softness has been putdoves in yew, ascending the slope lead- of the garden, but Mrs Keswick uses created early into striking practice on the wide,ing up the orchard to the dovecote, yew in conjunction with lime, horn- on. ‘The south-facing terrace that echoes thehave prompted one of Mrs Keswick’s beam and beech, which she feels help gardeners are footprint of the house. ‘We had everygodchildren with an idea for a book. to tone down the deadening effect master pruners,’ type of box disease, so I ripped the of too much matte-black green. she says whole lot out and asked Rupert Golby These, and the other topiary in the ‘Topiary is also always at its best to help me with the overhaul.’garden, are of paramount importance Mr Golby, a Cotswolds-based designer ➢70 Country Life, May 13, 2015 www.countrylife.co.uk



who has a profound understanding ‘The planting Walk this way: of interest, such as the blossomingof what plants do well where—and an attractive and fruiting Malus hupehensis, risean intimate knowledge of every fold is so varied that path provides out of grass that is studded within the Cotswolds—collaborated with it feels as if there’s perspective Tenby daffodils and ox-eye daisies,Mrs Keswick and came up with a con- a surprise revealed and direction. soft meadows with a high proportioncoction that includes various salvias, every time I open The border of flowering British natives being onesuch as Salvia candelabrum, S. gluti- is deep enough of the compensations for only havingnosa and purple sage S. officinalis my curtains’Mrs Keswick and her team of three to give a sense a few inches of stone-studded soil atopPurpurascens, as well as santolina and of billowing, a cliff. Such conditions are hard toteucrium that, with regular clipping, gardeners, headed by Thomas Unter- romantic fathom when you see the borders andremain bushy and formed. dorfer, love growing plants from seed, profusion lushness of the planting in this glorious so that drying heads cover various and includes Cotswold garden and, at 25 years Scented daphnes, roses, honey- tables in the orangery in autumn, astrantias, of age, it’s now in its prime.suckles and regale lilies, euphorbias when carpets of Cyclamen hederi- roses, hardy Rockcliffe, Upper Slaughter, Glou-and cistus congregate around obelisks folium cover the bases of pleached geraniums, cestershire. The garden will be openand buns of yew. ‘The planting is limes and myriad hedges. Likewise, foxgloves, on Wednesdays June 10 and 24,so varied that it feels as if there’s the dry bases of beech trees have peonies and 12pm–6pm, for the National Gardensa surprise revealed every time I open become the happiest spot for natural- thalictrums Scheme charities (www.ngs.org.uk)my bedroom curtains.’ ising home-grown martagon lilies. and June 17, 10am–6pm, for the Brit- ish Red Cross (www.redcross.org.uk). The terrace is also home to some As the borders and enclosures around An account of the creation of theof Rockcliffe’s many large planters the house are established and thriving, garden at Rockcliffe by Emma Keswickthat give Mrs Keswick a chance Mrs Keswick has more recently will appear in ‘Private Gardens ofto ring the changes and grow lots turned her attention to planting trees England’, to be published this autumn.of new plants from seed and cuttings, in the paddock beyond the orchard: A proportion of the royalties from theindulging any particular new plant ‘It’s the only thing I regret not doing book will go towards the establishmentcravings. Cold frames are an unsci- sooner.’ Trees with two seasons of an archive of garden design at Theentific, but revealing, barometer of the Garden Museum in Lambeth, of whichlove and attention being dispensed Emma Keswick is a trustee (www.in any garden. At Rockcliffe, they’re gardenmuseum.org.uk)as exuberant and neat as the kitchengarden in which they reside.72 Country Life, May 13, 2015 www.countrylife.co.uk

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In the garden Alan Titchmarsh The pleasures of a brief encounter I ’VE lost count of the number of times I’ve been asked to recommend a gar- den plant that is evergreen and will flower all the year round. In mischievous mood, I’m tempted to suggest gorse. ‘When gorse is in bloom, kissing is in season’ goes the old saw. The country folk of yore were more observant than the townies of today, as they knew that the spiky bush is seldom without at least one or two of those bright yellow flowers that are scented so deliciously of coconut. However, the truth of the matter is that flowers that bloom all the year round would quickly pall. We need variety in our gardens and, for me, our cool, temperate climate, with its endless seasonal- ity, is a rich blessing. At the opposite end of the flowering spectrum are beauties that have but a single, spectacular Floral fireworks: the spectacular yet fleeting display of peonies should be savoured, not spurned season. For me, they are prized treasures, not to be spurned, The Swing, Coral Sunset with to remember one or two important They will also appreciate some but to be anticipated eagerly, its astonishing salmon-pink goblets requirements. The most critical support in the form of circular wire as although they may bloom or Bowl of Beauty, a nest of creamy of these is planting depth. When grids on legs, placed over the shoots only fleetingly, they are all the white icicles held in a dish of pink, committing a pot-grown peony when they’re 6in high so that the more appreciated. These firework would be a poorer season. to the earth, on no account bury wire circle itself sits about 1ftJuliette Wade/Getty Images; Julian Nieman plants are the leavening of the There are rich-crimson peonies it too deeply, for to do so will above the ground. Soon, the shoots loaf, a fleeting treat without which and there are those of pure white. surely deprive you of flowers for will grow through the supports and life would be all the poorer. There are singles with a central many a year. The yam-like roots the leaves will mask the framework. An accusation frequently boss of gold or cream and others (massive, sweet-potato looka- Pests and diseases? There are directed at peonies, for example, that are so double the petals seem likes) need to be only fraction- assorted blotches and blights— is that their flowering season is impossible to count. Plant them ally below the surface of the soil. grey mould (botrytis) is the one too brief. I have friends who will where they can show off when Next, don’t feel that you have most likely to be a pain—and ants have no truck with them, saying in bloom and where other plants to dig them up and divide them will clamber over them in search that, for all their spectacle, their will make up for their dullness when every three or four years as is the of sticky honeydew. But if the season of beauty is so short as to the blooms fade and you can mask case with many herbaceous pere- plants are grown well in the airy, be laughable. Oh, but a late spring their deficiencies without depriving nnials. Peonies love lazy gardeners sunlit conditions they like, then without Sarah Bernhardt in her yourself of their Maytime delight. who leave their clumps alone, neither of these problems should soft, double-pink glory that is the Not that growing peonies is to fatten and grow more generous pose a great long-term threat. floral equivalent of Fragonard’s always easy. It can be, but you need with the years. And if you really can’t come Peonies are not especially to terms with the short flower- Horticultural aide memoire demanding when it comes to ing season, do as I do and grow No. 20: Sow French beans growing conditions, asking only peonies in rows on the veg for a spot in full sun and well- patch for cutting. Walking back The French bean is deservedly a favourite and is simple enough drained soil. A sprinkling of rose to the kitchen with an armful to grow, but it will not germinate in a cold soil, which effectively, fertiliser in March will encourage of blooms is the most extravagant in this country, means you have to wait until the second half them, along with a mulch of well- feeling of all. of May. Set out a double row of canes, lashed together rotted manure or garden compost, at the top, and cover the framework with bean netting. and then, in April, when their My Secret Garden by Alan With a trowel, make holes at 4in intervals along each almost prehistoric-looking shoots Titchmarsh is published by side and drop a couple of beans into each. When of red and maroon start to push BBC Books (£25) they come through, remove the weaker of the two up from the soil, you can wait and gently nudge the winner towards the frame- with bated breath to see how Next week: Gravetye echiums work. TheyÕll soon get the hang of it. SCD many flowers they will produce. 74 Country Life, May 13, 2015 www.countrylife.co.uk

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Chelsea Flower Show Preview The week that Chelsea rocks Remarkable stonework from Chatsworth and painstaking plantsmanship of a very English kind bring a welcome shift of emphasis to the show this year, reveals Mark Griffiths A LTHOUGH as spectacular and enjoyable as ever, the Chelsea Flower Show is having one of its quiet years in terms of design innovation. Just one of the Show Gardens stands out and it would do so even if the competition were stiffer. The Laurent-Perrier Chatsworth Garden sees a return to Chelsea forRoyal Horticultural Society Media Image Collection; Also look out for… A compact bush, it bears pleasingly neat Rosa Desdemona (left) is a notable addition Ashley Cooper/Alamy; Tate Images and narrow foliage and a long succession to David Austin’s cast of cultivars named for As always, there are numerous new intro- of small, richly fragrant double flowers. Passing Shakespeare’s characters. A broad and ductions of irises, clematis, yet more heucheras, from deep to pale pink, the petals are pointed vigorous shrub to about 4ft tall, it’s covered a perennial snapdragon—Antirrhinum Pretty and irregular in size and shape, giving the in myrrh-scented chalice-shaped flowers all in Pink—and Pyracantha Golden Paradise, blooms a tousled, antique air. summer long. As if recapitulating the heroine’s whose yellow leaves do not, I fear, dissuade me fate, these turn from blushing bride peach from wanting to consign all firethorn to the in the bud, to innocent white when full-blown. pyre. But I shall be taking a closer look at: Dahlias Roses When we need some flash and dazzle, dahlias In the Grand Pavilion, two literary introductions are perfect for late-summer pots on a terrace, from David Austin Roses (GPF7) beckon. in visual quarantine from the garden’s decorum. Aptly, Rosa Sir Walter Scott is a cross involving To consult a living catalogue of cultivars old and the tough little Scotch rose, R. pimpinellifolia. new, visit the National Dahlia Collection’s 76 Country Life, May 13, 2015 www.countrylife.co.uk

The Laurent- Perrier Chatsworth Garden by Dan Pearson (above), with huge rocks from the estate (right)Sentebale— Dan Pearson after an 11-year absence. wilderness are edited, with some of their installation, rather thanHope in His design is inspired by two areas removed to create vistas and others taking decades of abandonmentVulnerability, of Chatsworth’s 105-acre gardens: left and cherished. The emerging result to achieve their casual-seemingpresented by the picturesque trout stream that is an accidental Arcadia of a kind that perfection. He is, then, the idealyoung designer snakes through the arboretum and no designer could ordain—unless designer to respond to the PaxtonMatthew the labyrinthine rock garden. These he happens to be Mr Pearson. features at Chatsworth, where horti-Keightley, were begun in 1835 and 1842 respect- culture at its most magisterial wasevokes the wild ively, by that giant among horticul- Mr Pearson is the pioneer of a philo- overtaken by Nature and restorationlandscapes turists Sir Joseph Paxton, when he was sophy that fuses wild with cultivated is now producing a hybrid of the two.of Lesotho on gardener to another horticultural to create landscapes of remarkablebehalf of Prince visionary, the 6th Duke of Devonshire. poetry. Although these appear Inspired by this transition, hisHarry’s charity spontaneous, like the long-formed Chelsea exhibit, created by Crocus,for vulnerable Recently, the restoration of both products of purely natural forces, consists of twin acid woodland gladeschildren features has been extraordinarily they are, in fact, painstakingly cal- in which delicately coloured orna- sensitive, accepting that time and culated and on-song within months Nature have transformed them in ways mentals dance as if for joy, amid oaks ➢ that, far from always needing correct- ion, may be aesthetic and ecological improvements. Rather than being cleared wholesale, invading trees and Iris Seed- display (GPN3). But it’s the tale of rediscovery and white. In some, the blooms were bicolor— lings by told by a very different National Collection for example, golden upper petals and chestnut Sir Cedric that provides the most poignant and horti- lower petals. Others were traced with contrast- Morris culturally important exhibit in the Great Pavilion, ing veins, robed in shimmering dark velour (1943): if not in the entire show. or laced with white marbling and stipple. Many a range of displayed the iridescent gradations of azure, irises bred Cedric Morris irises rose and mauve that gave Iris its name. by the artist Iris takes its name from the Greek and Latin will be term for rainbow and I doubt anyone will ever In 1937, Sir Cedric established the East exhibited understand its floral spectrum better than Sir Anglian School of Painting and Drawing. Three by their Cedric Morris, one of the most enchanting, if years later, it moved to Benton End, a farmhouse custodian, undervalued, British painters. From the 1940s at Hadleigh in Suffolk, where he lived and Sarah Cook onwards, his canvases were filled with bearded taught until his death in 1982. There, he raised irises (I. germanica and its kin) in shades of thousands of irises from seed, naming any purple, blue, opal, pink, bronze, buff, yellow that deserved a permanent place in the borderwww.countrylife.co.uk Country Life, May 13, 2015 77

Royal Horticultural Society Media Image Collection and other native species. Rugged significant in design. Strangely, Edo no Niwa, territorial skirmishes and civil war. boulders and rippling water punctuate JapanÕs most widespread type of by Kazuyuki In the new climate of peace and this idyll, in homage to both PaxtonÕs garden is all but unknown in the Ishihara, stability, towns flourishedÑmost art and DerbyshireÕs natural terrain. West. WeÕre familiar enough with is a faithful notably, Edo (Tokyo) itself. Samurai, the austere rock and gravel composi- re-creation gentry who might once have expected Not only is this beautiful green space tions often associated with temples; of a town garden short and turbulent lives, settled the best-conceived and most techni- with stroll gardens, the lyrical land- of the Edo in their expanding districts. Some cally accomplished garden in the scapes that grace palaces and parks; Period—they remained in the active service of show, itÕs an important meditation and with the intimate green enclo- were places for their feudal masters; others became on the nature of gardens anywhere. sures that cradle tea houses. But the plantsmanship intellectuals, artists and professionals. Happily, it will find a permanent home town garden (for want of a betterÑ and horticul- Many took up gardening on their new at Chatsworth, where it can be seen or anyÑterm) has been a well-kept tural hobbyism urban plots. In this, they were encouraged from spring 2016 as part of the trout- secret until now. by the nationÕs executive ruler, the stream regeneration project. Shogun, for whom horticulture was JapanÕs Edo Period (1603Ð1868) the ultimate improving art. Among the Artisan Gardens is the brought an end to centuries of only other exhibit to present something and on canvas—about 90 varieties in all, many Right: Primula x anisodoxa Kevock Surprise in the 20th—shade gardening has long been with the Benton prefix (Country Life, April 29, makes its debut on the Kevock exhibit a British forte. It suits our climate. If pushed, 2015). But, within a few years of his death, most of our leading plant connoisseurs would if gardeners could be bothered at all with grown for showing (and, ultimately, for sale) by admit to preferring species that like a dapple bearded irises, it was with new, compact and Howard Nurseries, on the Suffolk/Norfolk border. loudly coloured cultivars. Many Benton End beauties disappeared from gardens and Woodland perennials the nursery trade. A good dozen nurseries exhibiting in the Grand Pavilion this year are specialists in perennials, Over the years, Sarah Cook, Hadleigh-born bulbs, shrubs and trees for shade or wood- and former head gardener at Sissinghurst land. The would-be English olive grove Castle, has developed the National Plant Col- (forecast for the past two decades by climate- lection of irises bred by Sir Cedric (Country Life, change advocates) has, thank teeming heavens, July 20, 2011). The highlight of the Great Pavilion reverted to ferny glade. in 2015 is a gloriously romantic exhibit of these irises (GPG2) as tracked down by her and Pioneered by William Robinson in the 19th century—and elevated to an art by Beth Chatto 78 Country Life, May 13, 2015 www.countrylife.co.uk

Among the charming ArtisanGardens is A Trugmaker’s Garden,celebrating the traditional gardenbaskets of East Sussex Meanwhile, a merchant class A Perfumer’swas emerging, affluent and Garden insocially competitive. Emulous of Grasse, bythe samurai, they, too, fell to cul- James Bassontivating the grounds of their city for L’Occitanedwellings. Businesses followedsuit: a garden was a vital asset For their features, these new gardens contemplate their miniature domainfor any inn or restaurant that looked to their grander antecedents, of lakes, mountains and woods.wanted to make its mark. abounding in rocks, gravel, lanterns, Although this design is a periodNurseries proliferated to serve moss, cascades and pools. But their reconstruction, countless such gardensthis green-fingered metropolitan scale and ethos were entirely differ- survive and they’re still being made,bourgeoisie, as did garden design- ent. Small, concentrated and closely but, as I mentioned, they’re little-ers, publications, flower shows and related to the house, they were known outside Japan.horticultural societies—all uncannily private worlds, microcosms, and it’smodern-seeming. in this that their magic lies. They By turns tranquil and intense, this were also places for plantsmanship, is a rare glimpse of the true face ofof shadow, at least, and Clematis for collecting and horticultural a great gardening culture at home.a damp woodsy soil. Recent Cloudburst, hobbyism: many of the Japanese For those who wish to create theirdecades have seen a steady from cultivars most familiar in the West own Japanese gardens, this, ratherinflux of introductions for Thorncroft were selected for—or in—them. than the famous public or institutionalsylvan sites and the landscape masterpieces, is the modellaunch of nurseries One of these domestic paradises to study.devoted to them. appears at Chelsea this year. Edo no Niwa (‘Edo Garden’) is Kazuyuki Dedicating Paradisus (Paradisi We’ve also realised that Ishihara’s re-creation of an Edo in Sole Paradisus Terrestris), hiswoodland is no prerequisite; Period town garden, complete with encyclopedia of cultivated plants,that these plants and this look engawa, the all-important verandah to Queen Henrietta Maria in 1629,suit smaller plots, and walled city on which householders would sit and John Parkinson described the bookgardens especially. Collectively, those nurseries’displays this year make for an exceptionally as ‘this speaking Garden’. But what ➢fresh, cool and verdant big top. KBHwww.countrylife.co.uk Country Life, May 13, 2015 79

for him was a figure of speech has Lesotho’s most vulnerable and Left: An antique scent manufacturers have been back-become the reality of many Chelsea needy children. Evoking the king- air: Rosa Sir ing a revival of domestic cultivation,gardens in recent years. Created dom’s landscape, flora and buildings, Walter Scott, partly out of feeling for France’sto represent causes, policies and this design presents an allegory launched by rural environment and economy, andphenomena (most of which have no of the passage from wilderness and David Austin, partly because the product is justcolourable connection to horticulture), isolation to safe haven and society. is a cross involv- as inimitable as a wine with uniquelythey not only speak; they argue, woo Its message is powerful, moving ing R. pimpinelli- great terroir. Not to be sniffed at, thisand plead. and inseparable from the quality folia, the tough garden about gardening conveys that of the garden. Scotch rose. good news with élan. Overall, the tendency is harmful. Above: The This yearÕs RHS Chelsea FlowerGood gardens, like great music, Another exception is A Perfumer’s World Vision Show takes place on May 19 to 23begin where words end. In these Garden in Grasse, designed by James Garden by John (RHS members only on May 19 andsermonising and showcasing exhib- Basson. This vivid and intensely aro- Warland is 20) at The Royal Hospital, Chelsea,its, however, the garden medium matic patchwork of flowers and herbs an abstracted London SW3. All tickets mustis all too often secondary to the verbal re-creates a traditional Provençal statement about be booked in advance. There aremessage and seldom as articulate perfumer’s plot down to the tufa, water, rice and no sales on the day. Visit www.rhs.or deserving of our attention. a material characteristic of Grasse, nutrition org.uk/chelsea that forms its sun-soaked walls, But not in all of them. Among the watercourses and paths. Here, the Beyond the showShow Gardens, the most striking sponsor, L’Occitane, is making a pointexception is Sentebale—Hope in not only about its industry, but also • The Sloane Street shop of Jo Malone will be offeringVulnerability. Designed by Matthew about horticulture. for sale its new candle, White Lilac & Rhubarb, ‘theKeightley, it celebrates the opening scent of an early summer garden’, with all sale proceedsof the Mamohato Children’s Centre, In Provence, the growing of plants (minus VAT) going to charities including St Mungo’s,a major development for Sentebale, for perfumery went into steep decline Bristol, and Thrive, the society for horticultural therapy.the charity established by Prince with the rise of synthetics and cheap • The fourth Chelsea Fringe (May 16 to June 7, www.Harry and Prince Seeiso to help imports. Latterly, however, some chelseafringe.com) has scores of off-piste events across London and farther afield. For example, at Nine Elms on the South Bank, a ‘Horticultural Spa & Apothecary Experience’—part greenhouse and part pneumatic bubble—invites people into ‘a futuristic tea ceremony’. Once inside, visitors will be served tea through clouds of fragrant medicinal fog. On June 7, Pick up a Stitch, in the Inner Temple Gardens, London EC4, features a pop-up knitting club, inviting people to create colourful wool decorations for the garden’s trees and statues.80 Country Life, May 13, 2015 www.countrylife.co.uk

Advertising promotion The RHS Chelsea Flower Show runs from May 19 to 23, 2015. For further details and tickets, v isit www.rhs.org.uk/show-ev ents 12Chelsea exhibitors 2015 Next week sees passionate gardeners gather together at theRHS Chelsea Flower Show. We have selected some inspirational contributors of garden design exhibiting at the show 34H ERE are four garden companies exhibiting at the RHS found at www.paulvanstone.co.uk. Details on the garden can Chelsea Flower Show 2015: 1. Fulfil your dream by choosing a Scotts summerhouse — the perfect hideaway be found at www.coombesculpturegarden.co.uk. 3. Haddonstone for your garden. Scotts of Thrapston offers a wide will exhibit the Eton College Fountain at the Chelsea Flower Show,choice of stylish summerhouses and garden buildings, including a alongside a range of other designs including the Seasons Statues andrange designed in conj unction with the Royal Horticultural Society. Plaques, the exquisite Westonbirt Urn and the new GibbsScotts has exhibited at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for more than Classical Porch. Other Haddonstone designs range from bird baths,40 years and is in its 95th year of operation. Stand number WA12 sundials and planters to balustrades, follies and fireplaces. Stand number SR43 (01604 770711; www.haddonstone.com).(01832 732366; www.scottsofthrapston.co.uk). 2. Paul Vanstone’s 4. Rupert Till will be showcasing his latest unique copper andelegant marble and bronze sculptures will be shown on the CoombeSculpture Garden’s stand at the Chelsea Flower Show. Stand number bronze award-winning wire sculptures, Mad March Hares, ShellsWA1 on Western Avenue. More information on Paul’s work can be and the artist’s own Shetland pony. Stand number RGB3 (07921 771284; www.ruperttill.com).

A taste for I n June and July, the Devonshire Clockwise (from top left): Gei-Sho-Ui, origami streamsides at Marwood Hill an old, strong, double-flowered Gardens erupt with multitudes cultivar listed by Yokohama Nursery Marwood Hill Gardens, of blooms, such as candelabra in Japan in the 1890s; Kozasa Gawa, Barnstaple, Devon primulas and astilbes, that relish the registered in 1993; Royal Purple, damp soil. Threaded among them are dating from 1924, is one of theJacky Hobbs meets the holder of the numerous examples of the so-called largest-flowered doubles; and, with National Collection of Iris ensata, Japanese water iris, Iris ensata, rep- purple pencillings on lilac, Let Me resenting more than 130 different See, registered in 1989 by Ackerman. the pocket-handkerchief-like cultivars. Their showy flowers, many Facing page: Head gardener Malcolm Japanese water irises that of them reminiscent of the intricate Pharoah in the lower bog garden illuminate a famous Devonshire foldings of origami paper, ornament with luminous Moonlight Waves garden’s streamsides at high the riverbank weaving its way through the heart of the garden. The spectacle nurseries in America in the 1980s and summer each year extends from the upper lake, following added to them the cultivars he gathered the watercourse downstream for some from Europe and, particularly, Japan, Photographs by Clive Nichols 500 yards, culminating in a ravishing where centuries of hybridising have display around a broad, ox-bow bend. produced an assortment of exquisite single, double and multi-petalled forms. Tall and elegant in their shimmering white, mauve and deep-purple hues, In their Far Eastern homelands, the irises have dwelt in the gulley ensata irises light up damp, acidic for more than 20 years, forming meadows and, in ancient times, seed an acclaimed national collection that was gathered from wild blooms and was initiated by the garden’s founder, sown on the verges of the rice fields. Dr James Smart (1914–2002). Dr Smart With no written calendar, farmers were brought back many selections from guided by nature; when the cherry ➢82 Country Life, May 13, 2015 www.countrylife.co.uk



Above: Pale and interesting: an unnamed ensata in the bog garden. Right: Isi No Nami, another tetraploid from the USAtrees blossomed, hunting in the forest Caprician ‘In their Far they do, breeders worldwide soughtwas suspended and fields were culti- Butterfly, to broaden both colour and form,vated. When the irises came into bloom, registered in Eastern homelands, infilling with tones between the widelyannouncing the onset of the rainy 1984, is a fully ensata irises were available purples such as Royal Purple,season, it was time to transplant the rice. double tetra- sown on the verges mauve Iapetus and white Moonlight ploid bred Waves. They teased out intricately These irises were regarded as a good in the USA and ’of the rice fields decorated petals, relentlessly pursuingomen, so their cut blooms became has received stripes, veining—as in Prairie Chief—a part of ceremonies and festivals the RHS Award Higo cultivars, resulting in prized and picotee margins, seen in Lightand new cultivars were jealously of Garden Merit blooms that were so precious, many at Dawn, whose white petals areguarded where they were bred. Tokyo, were banned from export until 1914. ribboned in inky blue.an important breeding hotbed (famedfor Edo cultivars) extended large Once the European and American Another picotee, Gei-Sho-Ui, a veryspectacular drifts of irises into the breeders were able to acquire these old Japanese cultivar of the 1890s,outlying paddy fields, which were gems, hybridising greatly increased, originally from the renowned Yokohamaflooded as buds came into flower, so that, by now, more than 5,000 Nursery, featured in their early cata-to create beautiful reflecting pools ensata cultivars have been named. logues. These exquisite, beautifullyrather than horticultural necessities. illustrated documents now fetch Ancient and modern upwards of £1,200 per issue. Only noblemen were allowedto witness this lofty vision until the The ancient ensatas were graceful, Double flower forms, with six falls,late 1860s, when the Emperor decreed single flowers and Rose Queen were originally created by Japanesethat the public, for a small payment, is typical of the original, elegant breeder Matsudaira (1773–1856).could also enjoy them. Gardens were Japanese style. But, in the way that Today, modern double cultivars suchbuilt with reflecting pools, solely for as white-and-blue Geisha Gown,I. ensata display. The older, outdoor silvery white Moonlight Waves andEdo cultivars were hybridised with violet Foreign Intrigue show how theJapanese indoor varieties, Ise and traditionally upright standards have ➢84 Country Life, May 13, 2015 www.countrylife.co.uk

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Growing Iris ensata been ‘dropped’, effectively to become Clockwise This flamboyant cultivar has a double falls themselves. The resultant flatter, (from top left): row of fall petals, white based with ‘The acid soil here is constantly floppy, horizontal blooms are large Geisha Gown purple staining and yellow throats, moist,’ advises Malcolm Pharoah. and impressive, but they lack grace dates from creating flowers bigger than two cupped ‘They don’t need to be standing and balance. 1963; an as yet hands, up to 8in across. It stands in water, but they need to be con- unnamed seed- more than 3ft tall and is prized both stantly damp and, ideally, in full sun.’ American breeders have voraciously ling, discovered as a garden and cut flower, worthy The waterside mass planting at adopted ensata irises, pursuing ever growing in the of its medal haul, which includes the Marwood Hill (below) is reminiscent more bigger and better hybrids. gardens at coveted W. A. Payne Medal as well of their natural oriental habitat. Breeder W. A. Payne’s work (1881– Marwood Hill, as the RHS Award of Garden Merit. 1971) is commemorated in the coveted Devon; Iapetus, The irises demand to be fed as Payne Medal, the highest accolade unfurling; and Marwood Hill’s irises are today in the well as they are watered—initially, attributable to any ensata iris. Rose Queen— care of head gardener Malcolm Pharoah, Mr Pharoah plants them in manure- something who continues the tradition of building enriched earth, but then feeds them Towards the end of the 20th century, of an anomaly, the collection, combining historical and each spring with a liquid seaweed American breeder McEwan and having been contemporary cultivars, but perhaps fertiliser to invigorate blooms. ‘It Japanese breeder Hirao introduced long listed it is his colourful juxtapositioning of the takes a year or two to build the plants tetraploid cultivars, the double as an I. laevigata collection with other exuberant stream- up; even then, they don’t all flower chromosome count facilitating even cultivar side plants, including another national at once, sometimes not even in the stronger stemmed, more vigorous (erroneously)— collection—of Astilbe—that make its same year,’ he warns. ‘These are not plants, even bigger flowers, sometimes was raised waterside viewing so memorable. plants for impatient beginners. Moon- with nine to 12 falls, in different in the early 20th Marwood Hill Gardens, Marwood, light Waves and Ocean Mist are colour combinations. Tetraploid irises century by the Barnstaple, north Devon (01271 among the more reliable cultivars.’ Let Me See and Ike-No-Sazanami add Society for 342528; www.marwoodhillgarden. dash and splash to Marwood Hill Japanese irises co.uk) are open daily from mid Irises tend to produce three large gardens, but the real jewel in the March to September individual flowers, one following crown is Caprician Butterfly. on from the other, each precious bloom surviving but a few days, www.countrylife.co.uk especially in hot weather, before being superseded by the next.86 Country Life, May 13, 2015



For Tsar and Country! Mark Goodman reveals the extraordinary story of an Old Etonianwho was awarded the Imperial Russian Army’s highest gallantry award four times before dying in action 100 years ago From college to the Carpathians: George Schack-Sommer wearing his Old Etonian tie (inset) and leading two of his Cossack regiment’s horses across the mountainsT HEstoryofGeorgeSchack-Sommer ‘George Schack- wide or low as I didn’t hear the bullets.’ For is one of the more extraordinary this, George was promoted to corporal and of all the extraordinary stories Sommer decided that awarded the Cross of St George, 4th Class. that were thrown up by the First the quickest wayWorld War and yet his name is unknown. His to the front was Subsequent actions on February 9 andanonymity is partly due to the fact that he to join the Imperial March 3, 1915, led to his being awardedjoined the Russian rather than the British Army, Class 3 and Class 2 of the Cross. Then,however, he was awarded Russia’s highest Russian Army’matched for hue: dun with dark mane and tail, on June 7, during an engagement near theaward for gallantry no fewer than four times. town of Galitch (now Halych, Ukraine), he dun with light mane and tail and one squadron was shot in the stomach. This deteriorated On leaving Eton in 1907, George became was comprised solely of strawberry-roan- into peritonitis and he died the following daya mining engineer. During a holiday job coloured horses. In order to source sufficient on the hospital train as it steamed eastwards.in a mine in Siberia, he worked with Siberian dun horses to fill a regiment, it would have He was buried in the cemetery in Tarnopolponies. As a result, he was interviewed required an equine population so large that (now Ternopil) in a common grave with sixby Capt Scott in 1910, with a view to his Russia was probably the only country that other comrades. For this final action, he wastaking the role subsequently filled by fellow could have achieved this. Such was the regiment awarded the Class 1. His commission wasEtonian Capt Lawrence Oates. that Schack-Sommer joined as a mounted confirmed on August 21, 1915. trooper in Galicia in late 1914. He was soon Taking a job in the Tanalyk goldfields, in action as the Russian Army moved through George died almost exactly a century afterhe became proficient in Russian and acquired the Dukla Pass in the Carpathian Mountains. the Battle of Waterloo and, in his last lettera love of the country and its people. When home, he ended by saying: ‘I don’t think thethe First World War broke out, he therefore On December 29, 1914, he volunteered playing fields of Eton are any worse thandecided that the quickest way to the front to find out what he could by making his way they were 100 years ago!’ During the pastwas to join the Imperial Russian Army. as close as possible to the Austrian trenches. 100 years, a further 20 Etonians have been‘Think of the Russian people I live with going ‘There was no moon and it was snowing, but awarded the VC, a further 10 have beenoff to fight for their country; surely it would the snow on the ground made it light enough appointed Field Marshal and many hundredslook terrible for an Englishman to sit tight to faintly see, and be seen. When about have been killed in conflict. George’s assertionand leave it to others,’ he reasoned. 20 yards from the lines, I heard voices and surely still holds true for this century. waited some 20 minutes and ascertained that After successfully petitioning the Tsar, several men were there. Then I saw two men The Cross of St George was awardedhe joined the 12th Artirsky Hussars. This and they spotted me, so I beat a hasty in four classes, a higher class for each suc-distinguished regiment was founded in 1651 retreat. They fired twice, but either very cessive award. The holder of Class 1 wasas a Cossack regiment in the Okhtyrka region automatically commissioned and was entitledof Ukraine, with the role of defending Russia’s to remain seated in the presence of thesouthern flank from Crimean Tartars. Tsar. Such was its prestige that, even after the Russian Revolution, the Soviets kept the The regiment was unusual in that it only distinctive black-and-orange striped ribbonrode dun-coloured (pale gold) horses, which for their own highest gallantry award.are a rarity. Each squadron had horses88 Country Life, May 13, 2015 www.countrylife.co.uk

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How to keep your head The complex, multi-dimensional art of portrait sculpture is alive and well, finds Clive Aslet, as he visits the studios of three leading exponents I AM in what, in other circum- bronze is beyond the pocket of all Left: Karen stances, would be a North London garage, surrounded but the most successful artists. Newman, seen by heroines of the French Resistance. There are men, too— Although individual commissions here amid her a famous actor, a successful busi- nessman—and an elegant Art Deco may be less common, there is still crowd of sculp- bathing belle who is about to launch herself off a diving board. It’s like plenty of demand from corporations, tures, focuses a gloriously unpredictable cocktail party in which the guests are station- town councils and committees that on revealing ary and silent, for this is the sculptor Karen Newman’s studio. have a hero or event they want the ‘different ‘The studio is to memorialise. These help to keep components like a gloriously the techniques of the Renaissance of the sitter’s unpredictable cocktail party alive, despite the determination personality’. in which the guests are stationary of some sectors of the art establish- Below: Detail and silent’We sip tea (green with roasted ment to forget about them. of Karen’s brown rice) as she explains the chal- Sculpture still seems a natural and The Diver lenges of making portraits. ‘I’m trying to isolate a moment,’ she says, ‘in which appropriate way to remember Nelson the different components of the sitter’s personality are revealed.’ Mandela (Parliament Square), Sir John To the uninitiated, it may seem that Betjeman (St Pancras station) or even portrait sculpture died with the Victorians but, like Classical archi- Animals in War (Park Lane), not ➢ tecture, there is, when you look forRichard Cannon it, a surprising amount about. To some extent, it has benefited from the surge of interest in portraiture that has established Nicky Philipps, Jonathan Yeo and others as heirs to the tradition of Sargent. However, as Olivia Mus- grave, president of the Society of Portrait Sculptors, observes, so much more is involved in the commission of a sculpture than of a painting. If cast in bronze, the cost of mat- erial and labour (making moulds) will amount to several thousand pounds before the artist earns a penny. As a result, some works shown in the soci- ety’s annual exhibition, which opens next week, will be made of resin—

“Who taught me?” asks Ian Rank-Broadley rhetorically.‘ ’“He’s been dead 100 years”to mention civic dignitaries and Above: Ian Rank- Ideally, Karen likes her subjectsother local figures; if the results, Broadley, who to give her 10 sittings. Time allowsparticularly in the latter depart- designed the the sitter to open up. ‘You come acrossment, are apt to be unequal, that image of The different aspects of their personality.is all the more reason for would-be Queen that app- Some people don’t spend so long,clients to consult the society however, and it can be less; a lot canbefore committing themselves ears on British be done from photographs and video.’to a large expenditure with coins, with She once created a portrait bustlong-lasting consequences. his clay of Nancy Wake, the White Mouse model of of the maquis during the Second One client with specific and the 15th World War, from a few indistinctexigent requirements is Mad- Lord photographs, using her knowledgeame Tussauds, whose wax- Lovat. of this feisty, life-loving woman—whoworks are made with the Left: was, for many years, an institutionsame expectation of fidelity The at the American Bar of the Staffordto the subject as when the artist’s Hotel, where the bust now sits—tooriginal Madame Tussaud sat daughter project personality into the image.at the feet of the guillotine Violaduring the French Revolution. Made in three dimensions, sculp-This was the museum that ture allows a single work to embodyaided Karen Newman’s early a more complex interpretation ofcareer—she was employed a sitter than a painting, which can onlyas a freelancer for 21 years, show one angle. ‘As you walk aroundmodelling Stevie Wonder, Eric a sculpture and the light changes,Clapton, The Duke of Edinburgh the work can suggest different ele-and Tony Blair. ‘We had a lot of fun,’ ments of your subject’s character.’she recalls. Priorities could hardlyhave been more different from Although Ian Rank-Broadley hadher student days at the Chelsea known from boyhood that he wantedSchool of Art, where abs- to be a sculptor, he didn’t find arttraction ruled and ‘I virtually school any more helpful in developinghad to fight to have a model his passion than Karen did. Welding,to work from’. in the style of Anthony Caro, was the fashion of the early 1970s, not92 Country Life, May 13, 2015 www.countrylife.co.uk

‘Changes of expression figures of this kind begin as nudes, give a vitality and before clothes are added. psychological depth that wouldn’t exist at the same Since winning the 1997 commis- sion to design the face of The Queen ’moment in real life used on the British coinage, Ian has become known for portrait reliefs or medals. These follow the tradition of the medals made by Renaissance rulers and often presented as gifts. Not only do they require fewer sit- tings (much can be done from photographs), but some owners may find them easier to display at home. Subjects have included The Prince of Wales, Dr Donald Buttress, former Surveyor of Westminster Abbey—made to commemorate his mastership of the Art Workers Guild —and the architectural historian John Harris. Antony Dufort isn’t only a sculp- tor, as the numerous drawings and paintings hung around the walls of his studio, and the etching press in a corner, amply testify, but, in recent years, he has received rather more publicity than he would have wished for one of his portrait sculp- tures: the figure of Lady Thatcher that stands in the Members’ Lobby of the House of Commons. Inevitably controversial, it was modelled from life; when Antony thanked the former ➢ Left: Antony Dufort in his studio, a former chapel. Below: Antony’s monu- ment to the Free Minersfigurative work. After the Slade, for war memorials, such as the twohowever, he won a travel scholar- large groups, 14 figures in all, thatship to Italy, to pursue his love of the he made for the National MemorialRenaissance and Baroque traditions, Arboretum in Staffordshire.but he had to quarry other resourcesto understand how sculpture used Another military commission wasto be made. a silver centrepiece for the Royal Anglian Regiment, in the form of ‘Who taught me?’ he asks rhetori- a soldier carrying a gun; particularcally. ‘He’s been dead 100 years.’ The care had to be taken in modelling theinfluence he’s referring to is Edouard weapon, given the sculpture’s know-Lantéri, whose three books on model- ledgeable audience. Sadly, his winningling and sculpting the human and design for a memorial at the Châteauanimal form appeared shortly before de Hougoumont in Belgium, whichthe First World War. shows guardsmen in the famous action of closing the gate, was never Ian works from a farmhouse near finished due to shortage of funds.Stroud, Gloucestershire, a centre,by coincidence, of metal casting, as A recent commission was a lifesizeis Cheltenham. His studio, formed out figure of the 15th Lord Lovat in battle-of an old barn, is an airy space, whose dress, which stands in the memorialmetal shelves are stocked with portrait garden at Sword Beach as a tributebusts, portrait reliefs and struggling to the 1st Commando Brigade, whichfigures, some of them maquettes he commanded. In the Lantéri spirit,www.countrylife.co.uk

Prime Minister for having shown Above: Antony’s clay model of Margaret Thatcher. Left: Ian’s Dean Colet memorialpatience as a sitter, she replied wisely:‘It was in my own best interest to do so.’ Antony works in the former Baptistchapel in the Forest of Dean thatserves both as family home—livingspace is provided by the old school-room on the lower-ground floor—and studio in the chapel room above.We climb up a scaffolding to the roofspace that he is converting to aneyrie-like office. Among maquettesof ballet dancers, Bowler fromLord’s Cricket Ground—by goodfortune, Antony had an assistant whowas a cricketer and could keep the poseof a bowler in the ‘follow throughposition, having just delivered a ball’—and a magnificent Henry VIII(one of a series of Tudors for theRoyal Borough of Greenwich, whichsadly fell victim to local-authorityspending cuts) is a clay head of theart dealer Philip Mould.‘Sculptors have found, perhaps surprisingly, a new friend’in technology As we walk around it, Antony points Although Free Miners still rely on the to changes of expression that give strength of their arms and the sharp- ness of their pickaxes, sculptors have vitality to the image, as well as found, perhaps surprisingly, a new psychological depth, but would friend in technology. Techniques inv- not exist at the same moment in olving laser scanners and 3D printers can save months of labour—and there- life. He has a particular attach- fore a large sum of money to the ment to the statue that he made client—when enlarging from the for Ampleforth Abbey of Car- maquette. What would Edouard Lantéri have thought of that? dinal Hume, who was his house master at the school there. Further information Clearly, portrait sculpture Society of Portrait Sculptors 01962 isn’t just a matter of conveying 860904; www.portrait-sculpture.org a likeness, but accuracy can’t FACE 2015 is at La Galleria Pall Mall, be ignored. A monument to the 30, Royal Opera Arcade, London Free Miners for the Forest of SW1, from May 18 to 23 (020–7930 Dean was modelled from life, 8069; www.lagalleria.org) down to the nails on the hob- Karen Newman nailed boots, and Antony was glad of the trouble—helped by his www.karen-newman.com model, himself a Free Miner—that Ian Rank-Broadley he took over the detail. When it was unveiled, an old miner climbed www.ianrank-broadley.co.uk onto the plinth to check that the Antony Dufort switch on the miner’s lamp was correctly shown in the ‘on’ position. www.antonydufort.co.uk www.countrylife.co.uk

Monthly extras, exclusive to subscribers20% discount across Complimentary roomthe whole range upgrade and a bottle of wine when you dine25 free 7” x 5” prints Free £5 voucherFree pass to 3 classes Exclusive post show puppetry demonstration and pre theatre meal when you purchase a show ticket PLUS! WIN A 1 NIGHT CHAMPNEYS PAMPER BREAK FOR TWO PEOPLE (WORTH UP TO £548) Join for free today and get even more from y our magazine. Handpicked ofers, unique giveaway s and unmissable prizes. Join Rewards today atcountrylife.co.uk/rewards Not a subscriber? Visit our sister website magazinesdirect.com for the latest ofers.The Rewards scheme is available for all active print subscribers of magazines published by Time Inc. UK, free of charge. It is also available to digital subscribers as long as the subscription has been purchased directly through the publishersat magazinesdirect.com. Only the recipient of the subscription is entitled to access Rewards. While most offers are only available in the UK, some will be open to subscribers based overseas. Full terms and conditions for all partner offers are available at mymagazinerewards.co.uk. We may at our discretion, change, remove, suspend or discontinue any aspect of our services at any time without notice, including the availability of content, which may vary between countries. For enquiries contact [email protected] or call 0330 333 0233 between 08:30am to 17:30pm (GMT) Monday to Friday.

Focus on the Visual Arts Edited by Michael Hall Collecting time Huon Mallalieu celebrates The Lonsdale one of the greatest private Tompion. A collections of clocks and miniature time- watches from the golden piece with a gilt- age of British clock-making. brass and blued- Assembled by the late Tom steep dial and Scott, it will be dispersed gilt-brass basket top. It has an alarm by sale later this year and silent pull- quarter repeat. About 1683. T HOMAS TOMPION seems to be marked as head of his profession by the mere music of his name, as its syllables chime slowly and solemnly upon the ear’—so wrote Sir Sacheverell Sitwell (who well understood the euphony of nomen- clature) in 1945. Sitwell also understood beauty, quality and craftsmanship, but admit- ted that the mechanics of clock-making were ‘a mathematical subject beyond our grasp’ and, in this last, he parted company with Tom Scott (1944–2012), owner of probably the largest group of clocks by Tompion (1639–1713) ever assembled, together with many more by his partners, apprentices and rivals during the great period of English clock-making, from 1660 to 1780. Scott grew up in Nottingham, left school chairing CI Traders. He was also involved in Carter Marsh, with highlights first being shown at the Masterpiece Fair at Chelsea at 15 and joined his father and brother in the both property investment and development Hospital between June 25 and July 1, followed by two selling exhibitions in Win- motor trade and a nascent crane-hire business. and television. He had an estate in Leicester- chester, from July 4 to 25 and November 7 to 28. The formula is similar to that used with In the beginning, he was hired out as oper- shire, where he bred pedigree Charolais, and success by the Fine Art Society to disperse the—unrelated—John Scott Arts-and-Crafts ator with their first crane, but by 1975, the farming interests in Hungary and Ukraine. collection over the past year. business had prospered so far as to be able Pedigree fowl were another interest. Scott bought from dealers and at auction and many of his clocks have appeared in the to buy the world’s largest telescopic He had a reputation both as pages of COUNTRY LIFE on previous occasions as they passed through the market. Several crane. In 1981, the Scotts a hard-nosed businessman and a articles on them have been written by Richard Garnier, formerly head of Christie’s bought a subsidiary of Taylor philanthropist, and his fortune grew clock department, who, as a consultant and independent dealer, was often involved in Woodrow that had been to £175 million, in spite of substantial building the Scott Collection. Indeed, as the book he has written with Jonathan Carter— losing £1 million a year, donations to charities, principally Prostate The Golden Age of English Horology: Masterpieces from the Tom Scott Collection, turned it around within Action and the Animal Health Trust. published by The Square Press, the publish- ing company of Carter Marsh—makes clear, six months and, in 1987, Not surprisingly a collector of cars, he must be credited with building more than just the collection. sold it for £75 million. he turned his attention to clocks Scott then moved to the and, also unsurprisingly, he Channel Islands, where collected them very seriously. he continued his entre- He was still acquiring superb preneurial activities, initially examples within a year of his in the car-dealership market, death. but later becoming the Marks Now, more than 90 itemsCrystal Bridges & Spencer and Safeway/Morrisons from his collection are being supermarket franchisee as put on the market. Rather well as involving himself with Small gold quarter repeat- than going to auction, they Guernsey and Jersey Gas, a foot- ing watch in engraved are being marketed through ball club and a brewery, and case, about 1735 the Winchester clock dealer 96 Country Life, May 13, 2015 www.countrylife.co.uk

The restoration of the Scott- Cumberland Tompion is a triumph ‘ ’of scholarship and detective work Left and right: The Scott-Cumberland Tompion. Now superbly restored, the clock dates from between 1704 and 1708. It has a 13 month duration and a multi-layered, highly complex movement The identification of the movement for in the manner of The Duke of Edinburgh. funds, he determined to outdo his late brother-what is now known as the Scott-Cumberland Until Queen Anne’s accession, her hus-Tompion—important clocks are named for in-law. First, he commissioned a year-goingtheir most eminent owners—its restoration band was kept short of money and givenand the creation of a replacement for its virtually no employment; after it, he was longcase clock from Tompion and his thenlong-lost case are triumphs of scholarship denied the title of Prince Consort, let aloneand detective work allied to superb crafts- King. However, on marriage in 1683, he not partner Edward Banger, which is distinctlymanship. only assumed the recently deceased Prince Rupert’s title of Duke of Cumberland, but more complex than one made for William. This clock is also the centrepiece of Mr shared some of his scientific interests, par-Garnier’s thesis, expounded in the book, ticularly through the Royal Society, and The Scott-Cumberland stands in similarthat Queen Anne’s much-denigrated con- ultimately followed him as Lord Highsort, Prince George of Denmark, was not Admiral, head of the navy, taking a closer relationship with the Mostyn, generallyjust a drunken buffoon. Charles II famously interest than has often been allowed.said ‘I have tried him drunk and I have tried regarded as Tompion’s masterpiece.him sober, but there is nothing in him’, William III had patronised Tompion, whoWilliam III took pleasure in snubbing him provided him with several of his greatest Mr Garnier had posited the existence of suchand Queen Victoria believed him to have creations, notably the Mostyn Tompion, nowbeen ‘very stupid and insignificant’. It is in the British Museum. However, Mr Garnier a Cumberland clock, but none was knownargued that he was, instead, a ‘useful Royal’ argues that, on William’s death in 1702, when at last Prince George had access to until the emergence in an American collection of a faceless, caseless movement of great complexity, which could be convincingly attributed to Tompion and which fitted two known cases similar to the Mostyn, one at Burghley, the other in the King of Spain’s study in the royal palace at Madrid; both contained later movements, the latter by George Graham, Tompion’s last partner and successor. ➢www.countrylife.co.uk Country Life, May 13, 2015 97

Focus on the Visual Arts Left: Ebony- veneered oak architectural eight-day striking spring table clock by Joseph Knibb, about 1670–75. The drawer might prevent loss of the key Right: The Henry Graves Knibb. A walnut and olivewood longcase with double-six hour grande sonnerie strike by Joseph Knibb, about 1680. It is named for an American former owner Mr Garnier has managed to link the various It is thought that, before he settled inelements, thanks in part to marks of damage London, he first worked as a journeymanto the movement caused by the snapping of for Ahasuerus Fromanteel (COUNTRY LIFE,one of the fusee drive-chains. Queen Anne did May 5, 2010), one of the Anglo-Dutch familynot share her husband’s horological enthu- that launched the great period of Englishsiasm and, after his death in 1708, this clock clock-making. When, in 1657, Fromanteelmay well have been demoted from his Ken- was reproved for employing a ‘mere smith’,sington Palace bedroom and then cannibal- he retorted that his man had served fiveised so that the case could be reused for years in the country making jacks, clocks,a diplomatic present to Spain. It is not yet guns and locks and could do better workclear how the movement made its way to than most of the Company’s Court: this wasBurghley, where it was recased, but it prob- possibly Tompion.ably continued to give trouble there and wasonce again ejected. By the end of 1670, he had settled in Water Lane (now Whitefriars Street) off However, Mr Garnier persuaded Scott Fleet Street; Joseph Knibb, a clockmakerto acquire it and to fund the ambitious from Oxford, was nearby and may havere-creation project. The movement has been introduced his first important patron, thetreated to a ‘museum standard’ restoration, scientist Robert Hooke. There are frequentmeaning that all replacements are revers- mentions of Tompion in Hooke’s diaries andible. The new case is based on the Spanish Hooke not only introduced Tompion toone, with decorative elements copied from Charles II and into scientific and intellec-other Tompions. The results are very tual circles, but actively helped in designimpressive indeed. and innovation. In particular, they experi- mented with watches, and one, whereabouts Tompion, the son of a blacksmith, was now unknown, made for the King wasborn in Northill, Bedfordshire, in 1639, just inscribed ‘Robert Hooke invenit, 1658. T.eight years after the incorporation of Tompion fecit, 1675’.the Clockmakers’ Company; previously,domestic clock and watchmakers were That so many of Scott’s clocks were mademembers of the Blacksmiths’ or the Gold- for the Royal Family but later left royalsmiths’, which may be relevant to Tompion’s ownership makes it particularly importantchoice of career. and intriguing to trace their provenances.98 Country Life, May 13, 2015