Country Life 11 January 2023

Here's a look at what is inside:

The roads most travelled

The ghosts of drovers and their herds can still be felt in ancient churches and old pubs. Gavin Plumley follows their winding ways

The remains of the day

Dusk, dimpsy, an ephemeral time, when the owl and badger emerge: twilight has a special magic, says John Lewis-Stempel

Happy to be in the soup

Tom Parker Bowles is always ready to tuck into a hearty bowl of bouillabaisse or borscht

Sweeping statements

Old snowdrops are enhanced by snowy new plantings at Benington Lordship, Hertford-shire, finds Kathryn Bradley-Hole

Eat your new greens

Tantalise your taste buds with agretti, salsify and Good King Henry, suggests Mark Diacono

Kate Mavor’s favourite painting

The chief executive of English Heritage picks a regal portrait

Of Constable and clouds

Fiona Reynolds embraces the rain on a walk past Flatford Mill

Masterpiece

Jack Watkins admires Geoffrey Grigson’s whimsy-free writing in The Shell Country Alphabet

Ancestral Modernism

Old and new are imaginatively blended in the Dalrymples’ Leuchie Walled Garden, East Lothian, discovers Mary Miers

Native breeds

The dark woolly coats and sweet white faces of Herdwick sheep enchant Kate Green

The fork in the road

The ubiquitous fork is a remarkably recent addition to our tables, explains Matthew Dennison

Interiors

Wood-burning stoves are cleaner and cosier than ever

That’s got my bird name written all over it

Old French, confusion, Gaelic, lilting song or clumsy movement: the reasons for avian names are legion, reveals Derek Turner

The good stuff

Time for tartan, says Hetty Lintell, as Burns Night approaches