Country Life 25-May-2022

FROM John O’Groats to Land’s End, from Belfast to Bath, Carmarthen to Tunbridge Wells, in cities and remote hamlets, kitchen tables are strewn with scraps of colourful material and trays of scones, glue, scissors and cardboard, fruitcake and foliage. These feverish preparations, of bunting, baking and bell-ringing, are all part of a national outpouring of love for a monarch who has been a reassuring constant in the life of everyone aged under 96. The Platinum Jubilee celebrations are for all, from village church choirs practising anthems to soldiers buffing up their boots for Trooping the Colour (page 164), from bakers of sponge cakes and arrangers of flowers to nervous racehorse trainers in charge of expensive Derby runners. In Chelsea, London, there is an ‘Eggs of an Era’ exhibition, a trail of…

The Queen's bond with horses is also the inspiration behind the latest collection of about 70 works by Jeremy Houghton. In it, he retraces Her Majesty's life through the lens of her equine connections, from Peggy, the Shetland pony her father gave her when she was four, to Dunfermline, one of her racehorses. Military and ceremonial horses feature prominently, but Mr Houghton, who has previously been a resident artist for The Queen, as well as The Prince of Wales, devotes as much attention to what he calls ‘the horses behind the scenes'-those that have given her respite from the pressures of a life of service. ‘My time at Windsor made me realise just how important horses are to The Queen, both to her private life and public duties. Her knowledge of…

The art of the royal horse BETWEEN a trip to Muscat to see the Royal Cavalry of Oman and a late evening at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, equestrian artist Freddy Paske has barely had a moment to catch his breath. ‘It’s mad,’ he says, as he prepares to return to Windsor again. ‘But it’s fantastic to be able to capture these incredible equine institutions.’ Mr Paske is the Platinum Jubilee artist-in-residence, tasked with creating paintings and sculptures of the ceremonial horses that will take part in this year’s celebrations. He grew up surrounded by horses—‘we had a policy at home where you had to ride before you could walk,’ he recalls—and that affinity opened the doors to his artistic career. He first took a project with the Household Cavalry (page 164),…

Shiny new trains It's on the Tube map in royal purple, The Queen has tapped an Oyster card and its trains started running yesterday: the new Elizabeth Line A taste of Derbyshire Chatsworth-reared lamb, garden produce, cheeses, sausages, gin, honey and more will be available between May 28 and July 15 at the Sotheby's New Bond Street restaurant, part of the auction house's jubilee festivities Edible furniture A life-size ‘carvery throne' made from Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes and vegetables has been built by food artist Nathan Wyburn for the Bramley Farm pub in Greater Manchester Money for old wood Hilary Mantel is auctioning off the pedestal desk at which she wrote her Booker Prize-winning novels to raise money for the Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival's work in local schools; via Bonhams on June 22, estimate £1,000–£1,500 Archaeological discovery A stone…

THE terrier and I were on our morning circuit, returning through the churchyard en route to the village shop, when we were halted in our tracks, dazzled by a wonderfully cheering rainbow of colour. It was the long-awaited Stogumber Floral Cascade, an extraordinary labour of love by the people of this small rural parish in west Somerset. The vision of Wendy Symes, our resident florist, somehow the colourful jumble of wool, cotton and felt flowers that occupied one side of the church for nine months has culminated in a 65ft train of some 2,000 sewn and crocheted flowers, colour-coordinated in red, yellow and blue and every shade in between, but not too regimented, the gorgeous effect being that of a riotous Gertrude Jekyll border. Netting was laid out and threaded on…

THIS week took Town Mouse to the Hebrides. It was a long journey with some unexpected stops along the way, not least an excellent dinner in Paisley and—seemingly at the end of the world—a tiny island ferry landing replete with its own supply of COUNTRY LIFE (the current issue included). There is magic to such trips, when the joy of seeing remote and beautiful things combines with the pleasure of breaking free from the pull of the office. When the mobile signal failed, the escape felt absolutely complete. The return journey, however, had a magic to it as well. Circling over London on a clear evening, the city looked magnificent and full of life; a dazzling contrast to the emptiness of the island landscape. Back at home, the children showed very…