VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust this Sunday finds you well, perhaps with the last of the Easter chocolate still hidden away in the pantry and the spring sunshine warming the windowsills. There is a particular gentleness to the Sunday after Easter, isn’t there? The grand celebrations have faded, the family have returned to their homes, and the world settles back into its … Continue reading Sunday Prayer
BY ALLISON LEE Coxwold is a picturesque village in North Yorkshire, not far from where I live, and I have visited it on numerous occasions. Although small—there are fewer than 300 inhabitants and around 100 dwellings—it has a lot to offer visitors. Many of the houses in the village still retain their garths: long strips of land behind each property. (A little bird tells me the … Continue reading Coxwold
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN I have never much liked the Elgin Marbles debate. Not because it is unimportant, but because it is the wrong battlefield. It is a quarrel about beauty, about national prestige, about who paid for the boat. Lord Elgin, whatever his faults, did not tear the pediments from the Parthenon while holding a gun to Athena’s head. He took them with a dodgy permit from an … Continue reading Of Gods, Dust, and the Limits of Imperial Curatorship
BY ALEXIA JAMES Jeena Raghavan is a rising force in contemporary art, and her name – which fittingly means “to live” – already says much about her work. In a world where so many artists are shaped by formal education and traditional career paths, Raghavan stands out as a refreshing anomaly. Her story begins unconventionally. Born in London and raised in Bangalore from the age … Continue reading Jeena Raghavan
BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD Reggie’s uncle, the Earl of Bitchfield, had become a backwoodsman. His days were numbered. The last of the remaining hereditary peers were on the chopping block. Centuries of skilful statecraft, high intrigue, prudence and inter-generational wisdom had been replaced by the get-rich-quick, affluent tom-toms and a motley crew of DEI merchants. Oh, the joys of ‘inclusion’. The doors had been opened … Continue reading Changing of the Guard
BY CALUM CAMPBELL The Scottish Government has made peatland restoration a cornerstone of its climate change strategy. Through the NatureScot Peatland ACTION team, and in close partnership with the Cairngorms National Park and the Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park, a major programme of landscape-scale intervention is underway. With over 20% of Scotland’s land area covered by peat, the stated goals are ambitious: improve water … Continue reading The Peatland Paradox: When Restoration Becomes Destruction
BY JACK WATSON For less than the price of a couple of cocktails (£7 / 25 East Caribbean dollars), you can step into 44 acres of Caribbean adventure, history, and jaw-dropping beauty at Pigeon Island National Park. During my college trip to St. Lucia, we discovered Pigeon Island—and it ended up being the highlight of our two weeks. This national park packs in 18th-century British fort … Continue reading Pigeon Island: A National Treasure
BY SEAN WALSH The Devil’s science? The philosophers who believe there are no beliefs. Paul Feyerabend did not think consciousness is a thing. “Is our basic conception of human cognition and agency yet another myth, moderately useful in the past perhaps, yet false at edge or core?” – Paul M. Churchland Paul Feyerabend Eliminative materialists are the philosophers who claim that consciousness does not exist. This seems … Continue reading Eliminative Materialism
BY JANE HARVEY An Interview with Cheryl Anita Miller at Bengaluru’s Most Unusual Museum A Place That Refuses to Sit Still BANGALURU — There are museums one walks through politely, hands clasped behind the back, pausing briefly before each work. And then there are places like the Miller Museum of Anamorphic Art, where standing still is quite useless. Tucked away on Carlston Road in Cooke … Continue reading The Woman Who Brought Illusion Back to Life
BY DENE BEBBINGTON Thirty years ago, when Beryl Burton passed away at the age of 58 while on her bike, my own cycling days were already over. Nearing 30, I’d spent too many hours sitting at a computer, and the convenience of owning a car had left my muscles and willpower weak. Had I tried to cycle with Beryl—even in her late 50s—I’d have been … Continue reading The Woman With the Iron Legs
BY PAUL T HORGAN The ‘Guilty Men’ narrative in the Britain of July 1940 was a necessary myth. The state had given itself such massive powers in the wake of the Dunkirk evacuation as to be a revolution from above, so a superficially credible legend had to be created, as is the case for all revolutions, to justify the legal appropriation of so many traditional liberties. The rapid German … Continue reading Ponzi, Panzer, and Plunder
BY ANDREW MILNE ‘What is Truth?’ Pontius Pilate said at the trial of Christ. Pilate appears in all four gospels. Traditionally, the church has expressed a certain sympathy for the hapless Prefect of Judea. What is Truth, indeed? The question is apposite to our own time when truth is widely regarded as subjective. This means truth can be whatever you want it to be. What is … Continue reading The Way and the Truth
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust this Easter Sunday finds you in reflective spirits, perhaps with the first light of dawn breaking over the fields and the promise of spring stirring in the hedgerows. There is something profoundly hopeful about an Easter morning, isn’t there? The daffodils are nodding their golden heads, the lambs are testing unsteady legs in the meadows, and the … Continue reading A Prayer for Easter Sunday
BY ALLISON LEE Tim Barker started pressing apples for juice and cider with a friend way back in 2015. What initially began as a hobby steadily grew into an annual tradition in which the two would harvest apples from local trees and hedges and press them along with those donated by well-meaning people. As the years progressed, the two friends honed their skills, acquired equipment, … Continue reading Masham Cider Press
BY DAVID CAMPBELL I hail from Western Pennsylvania, that fertile crescent of gridiron greatness known to Wikipedia as the Cradle of Quarterbacks. Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana, Dan Marino, Joe Namath—the list runs to three dozen and more. There are probably more professional American football players from those few counties than from anywhere else on earth. I grew up in the era of the Pittsburgh Steelers … Continue reading An American Who Became a Football Fan
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN The town thinks the British farmer was born to be ruled. They imagine him touching his forelock. They see him shuffling aside for the lord’s carriage. Nothing could be further from the truth. The British farmer did not inherit the land. He won it. And he has had to win it again in every century since the first plough bit the soil. … Continue reading The Farm
BY TOBIAS GRUB ‘Reginald’ – Straw-Stuffed Independent Takes 63% of Vote on Anti-Pigeon, Anti-Party Ticket LITTLE PIDDLECOMBE, DEVON – In what is being described as the most shocking upset in Devon politics for years, a scarecrow erected outside Piddlecombe Village Hall has been elected to the parish council. “Reginald” – a burlap-headed figure dressed in a moth-eaten tweed waistcoat and one broken welly – stood as … Continue reading Scarecrow Wins Election
BY JACK LANG You have to understand the type. In Kipling’s India, you would meet him at a hill station, a man who would explain the local customs to you very slowly, as if you were a mildly defective coolie. He had a small moustache, a smaller sense of humour, and a profound belief that the universe would reorganise itself if only everyone filled out … Continue reading The Dragon-Slayer of Ponders End
BY ALEXIA JAMES A Failure of Conservation: Wildwood Trust’s Wolf Pack Pay the Ultimate Price for Captivity The recent announcement from Wildwood Trust, near Herne Bay, that it euthanised its entire wolf pack is being framed as a tragic inevitability—a “heartbreaking decision” forced by the breakdown of the pack’s social dynamics. But to accept this narrative without question is to ignore the fundamental cruelty inherent … Continue reading Wildwood Trust’s Wolf Bloodbath
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust this Sunday finds you in good spirits, perhaps with the last of the morning mist still clinging to the valley and the kettle just coming to the boil. There is a particular hush to a Sunday morning, isn’t there? A sense that the world has paused for a moment, allowing us to draw breath before the gentle … Continue reading A Prayer for Home
