Hot under the collar

Wherever you look – from our national flags to carvings on ancient buildings – you can see heraldic designs. They owe their appearance to a formalised system that’s a lot more complex than you might at first appreciate, explains Clare Hunt

Although we may imagine the bathing practices of our ancestors to be few and far between, in fact there exists a longstanding love story between bathing and the British Isles. This tale begins with th

Quaint relic or symbol of bad taste, garden gnomes have gone in and out of fashion. They are generally thought to have originated in Switzerland and Germany in the late 18th century. Then, in 1841, a

Take a good dollop of Victorian innovation, add a fistful of classics, season it liberally with creative genius and you’ll cook up the very British art of literary illustration. Carla Passino charts its history and discovers that it still thrives

From battlefields to celebrations, antique and vintage flags are rich with symbolism and history – speaking of identity, power and pride across centuries, Alice Roberton explains

While performance on the hunting field is everything, the summer prizes on the flags are also hotly contested. Andrew Sallis gets some expert insight