Country Life 15-Jun-2022

AMONG the significant anniversaries this month, one that may have gone under the radar is the sale at auction 210 years ago, on June 17, of what was billed as the world’s only perfect copy of Boccaccio’s Decameron; the successful bidder, the Marquess of Bland-ford, paid the equivalent of about £100,000 for the collection of short stories told by a group of young people holed up in an Italian villa during the Black Death. The celebrations that followed the sale could loosely be described as the first ever book-club meeting, although this one featured considerably more lavish comestibles than a few glasses of rosé and a quiche, and the subsequent tradition of get-togethers involved the reproduction of and discussion on ancient manuscripts, rather than plucking a novel off the bestseller lists…

Feathers in Salisbury’s cap IN tribute to The Queen and after a public vote, the peregrine falcon chicks of Salisbury Cathedral, hatched in April, have been named after royal dogs. The Wiltshire cathedral’s tower has famously been home to nesting peregrines since 1864 and their absence was felt keenly when they disappeared in 1953. During the following two decades, their countrywide population plummeted, mostly due to the use of organochlorine pesticides, which worked their way up the food chain to cause eggshell thinning and failed nests. However, the chemicals dropped out of use, numbers increased and, since 2014, the birds have returned to the cathedral every year to breed. Since then, 27 chicks have been ringed and successfully fledged. The heaviest of this year’s four is Willow, named for The Queen’s late corgi,…

Wuthering dips A natural, wildlife-friendly lido, cleaned by plants and mineral gravel, is to be created on the West Yorkshire moors, 1,240ft above sea level, near the Brontë village of Haworth Shipping enthusiasts Brunel's PS Great Western, the world's first transatlantic passenger liner, will be rebuilt and displayed at Albion Dockyard, Bristol Slow and steady An 80-year-old tortoise called Twin, who ‘ran' away eight months ago, has been found by the side of a railway and returned to the Hertfordshire family she'd lived with for 70 years What lies beneath As preparations are made to dredge the lake at Blenheim for the first time in 100 years, archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 14th-century watermill, probably connected to Woodstock Palace, demolished in 1720 Like scallops to a flame? No need to dredge the seabed -these molluscs are drawn…

Cat people The RSPB should shop targeting game shooting, ‘considerable wildlife benefits', says Countryside Alliance chief executive Tim Bonner, and focus on domestic cats, which, according to a new study, kill up to 270m wild animals a year in the UK Sweet peppers We're about to lose 50% of them from supermarket shelves, with half the country's pepper-growing glasshouses empty due to heating costs and labour shortages Ill-favoured fish No one wants to save ugly species with silly names, such as real bastard trumpeter or breaksea cod, laments the University of Montpellier professor behind new research…

THE past week has been dominated by exams. Each morning, the children have gathered the necessary stationery in special, transparent pencil cases (presumably to make it clear what’s inside them) and set off to school. These are not public exams, but, after two years of universal suspension, it’s clear the schools want to re-create the experience of sitting them. The children then return each evening and consistently give a totally contrary account of what has happened. One optimistically reports everything as a triumph, with the vast majority of papers ‘aced’. By contrast the other laments the mess they’ve made of the day’s labour. Regardless, both of them reliably go on to reveal shocking mistakes. The Battle of the Boyne, for example, was not fought during the First World War. Nor is…

THE dog roses and elderflowers are bedecking the hedgerows in soft pinks and creamy whites. The mercury is rising, the days are still getting longer and the scent of summer is upon us: ‘flaming June’ has arrived just in time for Royal Ascot, which will delight the ladies and leave the men sweating in their full morning suits. The average Briton’s ideal temperature is, apparently, 21˚C and the forecast predicts that we are going to overshoot that number this week by some margin. ‘It’s too hot,’ will be the greeting of choice. I am always amazed that so many leave Britain for overseas summer holidays when the temperatures on the Continent will far exceed our nation’s preference. There is an alternative. The vast majority of the garden photography for this magazine is…