Country Life 08-Dec-2021

LAWNS are covered in leaves now that the annual show of autumn colour has been brought to the usual dramatic end by storms and frost. Something like this has been going on for thousands of years in this country, since the woods grew and spread after the last Ice Age. We sweep them up and put them aside, yet in forests everywhere they skeletonise and melt away each year, returning to the soil of the woodland floor in a never-ending cycle. We have become semi-detached from this process, but we still imitate it, and its real significance is beginning to dawn on us. Fallen leaves, which some people still burn, can readily be made into something called leafmould, thick, brown and crumbly, a joy merely to handle and so lovely on…

Not content with Gainsborough’s Blue Boy’s return in 2022, albeit on loan (Town & Country, July 7), the National Gallery has secured the purchase of another British masterpiece, Sir Thomas Lawrence’s Red Boy (1825), for £9.3 million—made possible through various donations, legacies and an Art Fund grant. The painting’s subject, Charles William Lambton, sadly only survived to the age of 13, but his portrait, made when he was six or seven years old, has gone down in history and, in 1967, became the first painting ever to be included on a British postage stamp Online bidding is now open on 260 new drawings by Quentin Blake to raise funds for the House of Illustration, Greenpeace and Downing College, Cambridge. Estimates range from £200 to £2,500 and a selection forms a public…

THE devastating consequences of Storm Arwen have been felt across Britain, not least on National Trust properties, where horticultural legacies were hit hard. Thousands of trees blew down in the Lake District and the Wallington estate in Northumberland reported the worst destruction caused by a storm in 40 years. Among the thousands lost to 98mph winds were 250-year-old oak and beech trees planted by Sir Walter Calverley Blackett, as well as the Atholl Larch—the last remaining of six given in 1738 by the Duke of Athollwhich has split in two. At Bodnant Garden in north Wales (above) the 50 or so uprooted trees include a 167ft-tall ‘Champion’ coast redwood—the largest in Wales—and many unique hybrid rhododendrons have been lost; Andy Jasper, head of gardens and parklands at the Trust, calls it ‘a…

THE UK’s weasel population has halved in the past 50 years and needs legal protection, says a report published in Biological Conservation. Scientists studied 37 mammal species and found that the weasel is declining the fastest, due to fewer voles, mice and hedges. Co-author Prof Fiona Matthews believes a licence should be required before weasels can be culled, proving ‘overwhelming reason’, such as ‘another species of dire conservation concern that needs to be protected’. However, an Exeter professor argues that, although weasel numbers did decline in the 1970s–80s, this was a return to an earlier norm after drastic increases in the 1950s, when myxomatosis led to fewer rabbits and, therefore, flourishing grassland and more voles. ‘To increase the number of weasels, increasing the availability of voles would contribute much more than species protection,’…

The good word Glorify, an app invented by a 22-year-old Briton last year that offers Christian mindfulness guidance, has been flooded with investment and is now valued at $250 million (£188.2 million) Property market The UK housing market's total spend exceeded £500 billion for the first time in the year to the end of September, ‘an increase of £170 billion on pre-pandemic levels,' says Lucian Cook, head of residential research at Savills Knitting Some 8.7 million Britons find relief from mental-health problems in crafting. Crochet or knitting is the top choice for boosting dopamine…

COUNTRY LIFE In our December 1 issue, a last-minute addition to Barometer led to us accidentally listing the National Trust trail-hunting ban in the ‘good week' section. The sub-editor responsible will be dressed as a fox and forced to lay a trail as punishment Calls of nature Britain has lost 50% of its public loos in the past decade and there are questions asked as to why there is no legislation around their provision Red squirrels As further casualties of Storm Arwen emerge, these bushy-tailed friends have our sympathies; the destruction of forest in the North and Borders has wiped out many habitats, which could be further damaged in the clear-up Waste not, want not SAVE Britain's Heritage is calling for the halt of the demolition and rebuild of Marks & Spencer's Oxford Street HQ Grey seals Some 800…