Country Life UK – March 04 2026 – Country Life UK

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We will notify you in advance of any price changes. Please allow up to six weeks for delivery of your first subscription issue. Payment is non-refundable after the 14-day cancellation period unless exceptional circumstances apply. For full terms and conditions, visit magazinesdirect.com/terms Subscribe for someone now and get 12 months for £175 Subscription offer Easy ways to subscribe Visit: www.magazinesdirect.com/XCL/DN22T Telephone: 0330 333 1120 (quote code DN22T) The perfect present Make someone’s week, every week, with a subscription 72 | Country Life | March 4, 2026 A map, a map, my kingdom on a map GOOD map is a joy to behold.

Think of it: a two-dimensional translation of our world as seen from above; a faithful portrayal of our manmade and physical geography; a scaled-down rendering of the real, with everything in its right place. To pore over a map of somewhere you know well is like examining a little miracle of design. Reliable cartographic depictions of the regions where we live are now so commonplace that it can be odd to consider a time when they didn’t exist.

Who was the first to map our lands with accuracy, in published form? In the case of England and Wales, it was a 30-something farmer from West Yorkshire, in a time of religious and social turmoil. Step forward Christopher Saxton. His atlas of county maps, which appeared in full in 1579, during the reign of Elizabeth I, are striking not only for their aesthetic value —emerald hills here, sinuous rivers there, galleons and marine creatures bobbing in the seas—but for their precision.

In the main, his coastlines and regional boundaries are unerringly true and the reams of handwritten town names mean that, even in the 21st century, it’s still possible to navigate by eye across familiar regions. In their own way, the maps are a 450-year-old triumph. Saxton has only a hazily recorded youth.

Born in the early 1540s, into a family of yeo- men—a social class above most agricultural workers, but below the rank of gentleman —he possibly went to grammar school in Wakefield, but possibly didn’t (and possibly then studied at Cambridge, but possibly didn’t).

Flying high: the birds doing brilliantly Horse sense: how Stubbs changed landscape art Paddington Bear and British chances at Cheltenham MARCH 4, 2026 EVERY WEEK Mrs Grace Breen Grace is a marketing manager for Schöffel and a graduate of the Royal Agricultural University in Gloucestershire, who coaches at the Quorn Hunt branch of the Pony Club. She is the daughter of Michael and Sharan Mulligan of Seagrave, Leicestershire, and married Joshua Breen last August. Photographed with Boots at home in Seagrave, Leicestershire, by Alex Bradbury VOL CCXXVI NO 10, MARCH 4, 2026 32 | Country Life | March 4, 2026 Contents March 4, 2026 A great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) (Paul Watkins Wildlife/Alamy) COVER STORIES 58 The legacy Emma Hughes salutes Michael Bond, the author who brought us Paddington from darkest Peru 60 Sing when you’re winning Mark Cocker celebrates the soaraway success stories of British birds, from great spotted woodpeckers to glossy ibis and little egrets to pinkfoot geese 76 A wedding who’s who Giles Kime assesses the stereo- typical cast list in attendance at truly 21st-century nuptials 90 Will English eyes be smiling?

Jack Watkins counts down to the Cheltenham Festival as British trainers are tipped to fight back against Irish dominance 136 His blessed plot Horse painter extraordinaire George Stubbs was also the pioneer of English landscapes. Bendor Grosvenor investigates 142 Art market Huon Mallalieu picks out some of the treasures taking centre stage at this month’s TEFAF Maastricht in the Netherlands THIS WEEK 46 Does the bell toll?

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 2592aca2775c41ed
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 97,771,087 bytes (93.242 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 157
• Language: English (en)

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