Country Life June 3, 2026
Country Life June 3, 2026, celebrates Constable country, scarecrows, the gardens of Dummer House and the best Derbys ever run.
Here's a look at some of what you'll find inside.
Taking the scenic route
History, hauntings and high-jinx figured in Britain’s first motoring guides, finds Jack Watkins
What a Derby day
Epsom hosts one of racing’s most thrilling spectacles. Jack Watkins picks 10 of the best winners
Monaco
Adam Hay-Nicholls explores the changing face of Monaco, Steven King treads the Prince Rainier III sculpture trail, Arabella Youens seeks out the best properties for sale in the Principality and Mark Hedges cruises serenely into town
His green and pleasant land
John Constable painted places he knew and loved the best. Susan Owens examines how insight influenced his landscapes
Outstanding in their fields
From ‘shoy hoys’ to Worzel Gummidge, Aeneas Dennison traces the story of scarecrows
Andy Wilman’s favourite painting
The television producer chooses a work that reveals a human response to the brutality of war
Country-house treasure
A godfatherly gift ensures that Sir Edwin Lutyens and Shilstone House in Devon are happy bed-fellows, discovers John Goodall
Building on the past
In the second of two articles, John Goodall reveals how Elizabethan Doddington Hall is thriving into the 21st century
The legacy
Octavia Pollock profiles Percy Shaw, the inventor of cat’s eyes, the 20th century’s top design
Winging it
The feral pigeon’s modern-day scavenging masks a more valiant history, suggests Mark Cocker
Drawn to the land
Katharine Freeland meets artists who are mapping estates in an echo of traditional landowners
Jack Watkins strolls the streets that became an artist’s muse, our writers have all you need to know this month, Will Hosie shares seven of the best homes on the market and Rupert Clague charts the rise of the capital’s coffee houses
Death, taxes and Tests with New Zealand
What next for England’s Bazball approach, asks James Fisher
Luxury
Amie Elizabeth White is on red alert — and gives pearl a whirl
Interiors
Arabella Youens admires an extended Cotswolds cottage and Giles Kime ponders going it alone
Dreaming of roses
Charles Quest-Ritson shares 1,000 reasons to fall in love with the restored walled garden at Dummer House, Hampshire
Arts & antiques
Rebecca Salter, president of the Royal Academy, outlines her ambitions to Carla Passino
Travel
A mountain-top encounter rings a bell with Pamela Goodman
And much more
