Country Life August 31 2016 is our beautiful classic cars issue, featuring vintage vehicles, rallying, restoration and Beaulieu. Find out more:

EMMA BRIDGEWATER: The pottery maker chooses her favourite painting for us and explains why Samuel Palmer’s representation of the natural world is ‘like a prayer’

GARDENS: Buckland Abbey, the former Devon home of Sir Francis Drake, is surrounded by charming gardens that complement the aged building’s stonework, finds Tim Longville

ROYAL BEAULIEU: A monastic gatehouse became the heart of this great Hampshire country house, now the home of the National Motor Museum, reports Bruce Bailey

VINTAGE CARS: Charles Rangeley-Wilson talks to five vintage-car owners about why their cars mean the world to them

RALLYING: Classic-car rallies are opening up a whole new world of adventure motoring, as participant Paddy Walker reveals

COOKING: Melanie Johnson stirs up a sweetcorn-and-seafood chowder

HEDGEROW FEASTS: Our native nuts and berries are everything they’re cracked up to be, says forager John Wright, if you know where to look and what to do with them

WINE: Harry Eyres explains the attraction—and risks—of buying wine before it’s bottled

LUXURY: Hetty Chidwick discovers what Ben Miller and Gabriella Wilde couldn’t live without, how Herring shoes went worldwide and the latest news in the world of luxury

PROPERTY: Opposites attract Scottish house buyers, says Penny Churchill and Carla Passino finds Lewes in East Sussex is small but perfectly formed

** If you loved this issue, why not subscribe to Country Life and get your copy delivered to your door every week? Or subscribe to the digital edition on your tablet and download your copy every Wednesday. Back issues of Country Life magazine can be ordered online here.