Elegy in a country churchyard

Discover how the UK’s country houses defied the odds to survive as historic monuments and cultural centres

When COUNTRY LIFE’s Henry Avray Tipping spotted a 17th-century four poster languishing in a Herefordshire attic in 1911, he set off a chain of events that saw the bed leave its ancestral home and land at The Met in New York

Somehow, it isn’t hard to imagine the scene of battle here, even on a sultry July morning when only the distant growl of a motorbike interrupts the crooning of collared doves. Perhaps it is the quiet.

Dear Simon, My daughter, Wendy, and I have enjoyed so many visits to Singapore, and this year we felt it was about time we put our thoughts and experiences down on paper. Sir Stamford Raffles was knig

On 1 September 1939, Post Office engineer Tommy Flowers found himself in Berlin to take part in a European conference about telephone systems. Germany invaded Poland the same day. Flowers and a fellow

Often admired and adored during their lifetimes, the great composers would, you might think, enjoy similar reverence after death. Once the last rites had been read, surely these great cultural icons w