CATEGORIES

Rascals and rusticants

Pet bears and lobsters on chains, horses in the bedroom and firearms at the window: British universities have long tolerated outlandish behaviour. But when is enough enough, asks Harry Pearson

Hitting the sweet spot

Barley sugars, pink shrimps and flying saucers: more than merely a sugar high, 'sweets were like currency at school', discovers Madeleine Silver as she gets stuck into tuck shops

How does your garden village grow?

A garden city planned by Sir Edwin Lutyens was never brought to completion. Plans to redevelop it today, however, threaten to destroy the character of what was created. Clive Aslet reports

Here's rooking at you

Rooks may be fond of gathering in sociable eyries high in the treetops, but it would be unwise to take them for granted, cautions Mark Cocker, for they are one of the most complex and consistently misrepresented birds in this country

And they called it puppy love

Partial to a poodle? Loopy about labradors? Cuckoo for cocker spaniels? You are not alone, says Victoria Marston, as she discovers the nation’s favourite dog breeds, decade by decade

Hedge of eternity

As old as husbandry hedges may be, but that doesn't mean they cannot be beautiful, too. Charles Quest-Ritson considers the many options,

A seed of an idea

There is a lot more to successful wildflower propagation than scattering a packet and hoping for the best, discovers Tilly Ware, as she visits the UK’s biggest wild-seed producer

A tower of thorns

Made with wind, sea and thorns on the wild west coast of Scotland, Blackthorn Salt brings surprising health benefits, as well as being a unique example of sustainable craftsmanship, says Ben Lerwill

Love and marriage

Marital relations are the central theme in these three plays. A real-life couple put on bravura performances, but an Austen adaptation misses

When West met East

The Arts flourished in the Ottoman Empire during the 16th century and their influence reached across space and time to Tudor and Victorian England

All in a life's work

Shropshire lads supreme and joined-up thinking in Oxfordshire

Where be dragons?

Lucien de Guise finds the answer in the original source of Hic sunt dracones ('Here be dragons'): a small copper globe of about 1510. The location is East Asia, where the dragon is still most active... as it is, of course, in Wales

On a wig and a prayer

Like marmalade on toast, saying sorry and the Shipping Forecast, there are few things more typically British than the courtroom wig, says Agnes Stamp

Follow your art

In a heist with a happy ending, a stolen Lavery oil made its way back to Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, where it now inspires headmaster John Browne,as Carla Passino discovers

Man of the world

Sir John Lavery is best known as a Society portraitist, but he was also a plein-air painter of modern life who moved easily between continents, painting as he went. Mary Miers follows his peregrinations

Blooming marvellous

From Duccio, who sneaked a vase of lilies into his depiction of the Annunciation, to Georgia O’Keeffe, who plunged viewers straight into the heart of her poppies, Michael Prodger explores how flowers have inspired artists across the centuries

Brothers in art

IN October 2022, the museum and former home of the celebrated Victorian artist Frederic, Lord Leighton reopened after an award-winning redevelopment.

All in a day's work

Duck dating, snowdrop splitting, welcoming avian visitors and manning the barricades against an unwanted national park

Lighting the way

LAST week’s announcement by Arts and Heritage Minister Lord Parkinson that four historic gas lamps on Russell Street, WC2, have been granted listed status is seen as a good omen by lobby group The London Gasketeers.

Love in the time of Austen

FOLLOWING on the dainty heels of Hilary Davidson’s Jane Austen’s Wardrobe (Books, September 6, 2023) and with a canny Valentine’s Day publication date, comes another stance on the Austen age. As the writer acknowledges in the preface, all authors of such social histories owe a debt to Lawrence Stone’s The Family, Sex and Marriage in England, 1500–1800, published in 1977.

The stuff of legends

The late Maurice 'Dick' Turpin, a celebrated antiques dealer and largerthan-life character, had wide-ranging interests, from fine furniture to Blue John, revealed in one of Sworders' final sales of his London home's contents

More than a pretty face

John Singer Sargent shot to fame for his Society portraits, but he was as adept in other genres and excelled at watercolor, often capturing 'off-duty' records of his many trips and travelling companions

Root planner

I HAVE a house plant that will be 50 years old in April. We used to call it Setcreasea purpurea—in fact we still do— but the RHS tells us that we should use the older name of Tradescantia pallida ‘Purpurea’, which is almost as grim as its common name of purple spiderwort.

Grand tour

History lives on at these fine country houses in the North of England

Family affairs

The comings and goings of various generations and owners make these houses all the more fascinating

Interiors

Louise Bradley transformed the rear of her Chelsea home with a calming, pared-back garden room

In the hat of the moment

The hat was once as essential for leaving the house as a pair of trousers, but the sight of a dapper gent sporting one is now all too rare

Taking the rough with the smooth

With the initiative to rescue sheep and the daring to question its master, the rough collie not only lives up to its heroic reputation, but is always right

Thoroughly good eggs

Tom Parker Bowles meets the mother-and-daughter connoisseurs who supply ethically farmed caviar to the Crown

The romance of the rose

Generations have sought that unattainable mystical creature, the perfect rose: shapely, dark red and sweetly scented. What is it about this flower that holds us so in thrall,