Londoners selling up in record numbers to move north

Hamptons International says relocations have trebled since 2010, with buyers drawn by bigger, cheaper houses

Record numbers of London homeowners are selling up to buy cheaper property in the north and Midlands, using profits made in the capital to splurge on bigger homes.

Research by agents Hamptons International found the proportion of Londoners leaving the capital for northern England or the Midlands had tripled since 2010.

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Alexander Pope designed London's Marble Hill garden, says historian

A note on the 18th century poet’s manuscript has linked him to one of the lost gardens of Georgian England

Two words in faded brown ink on the back of a translation of Homer’s Odyssey have linked the 18th century poet Alexander Pope to the design of a grand garden created for one of his best friends, Henrietta Howard, a mistress of George II.

Emily Parker, a landscape historian, said the words “Plum Bush” jumped off the page at her, as she pored over Pope’s manuscripts in the British Library, looking for proof that he had indeed designed one of the great lost gardens of Georgian England. Parker is landscape advisor to English Heritage, which now cares for Marble Hill house and its grounds by the Thames in west London.

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Poet Alexander Pope designed London's Marble Hill garden, says historian https://t.co/RZgyE0ziJk Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/GmjoJxU3bM

Poet Alexander Pope designed London's Marble Hill garden, says historian https://t.co/RZgyE0ziJk Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/GmjoJxU3bM (via Twitter http://twitter.com/conveyandmove/status/1033753338918125568)

Poet Alexander Pope designed London's Marble Hill garden, says historian

A note on the 18th century poet’s manuscript has linked him to one of the lost gardens of Georgian England

Two words in faded brown ink on the back of a translation of Homer’s Odyssey have linked the 18th century poet Alexander Pope to the design of a grand garden created for one of his best friends, Henrietta Howard, a mistress of George II.

Emily Parker, a landscape historian, said the words “Plum Bush” jumped off the page at her, as she pored over Pope’s manuscripts in the British Library, looking for proof that he had indeed designed one of the great lost gardens of Georgian England. Parker is landscape advisor to English Heritage, which now cares for Marble Hill house and its grounds by the Thames in west London.

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The living lottery of seed saving

Accidental breeding projects can turn up bumper crops – and some weird and wonderful plants

I was always an unusual kid. At seven my dream wasn’t to grow up to be a fireman, astronaut or ninja, but a plant breeder. Having been read a children’s encyclopedia entry about the prolific 19th-century American plant breeder, Luther Burbank, the idea that I could play Willy Wonka with plants somehow fired up my imagination. A definite case of early-onset geekiness.

Yet, sadly, the reality of plant breeding is far more painstakingly methodical and boringly stats-driven than my seven-year-old self realised, not to mention expensive. Commercial breeders can take years to come up with breakthrough creations, growing tens of thousands of plants at a time, most of which never make it anywhere near becoming an interesting commercial variety.

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In praise of the daisy

The early risers of the roadside verge are a particular favourite

I have long been drawn to daisies – scattered through meadows, waving out of walls, made into chains of flowers by kids, worn as crowns by country queens. They are among the first up and out in spring, spangling summer roadsides. Lipstick-kissed, clustered in grass; ox-eyed, tall and swaying in front of our beach hut window.

I have a pot or two on the rooftop, though they colonise the others. They grow out of bricks and mortar and cracks in tiles, a miraculous hold on life and moisture where there shouldn’t be any. They are a first flower, the sort that children draw, simple petals, central stem. Easy on the eye and to understand. They are also a source of fights with my wife when she wants to mow summer grass. I fight for their life though I know it’s futile: her neatly trimmed lawn (my nascent wild meadow) will not long be denied.

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Wish you were here: coastal Kent

A sauna, sunroom and snug all add to the warm welcome for family and guests at a coastal hideaway

For me, a sauna was always a must,” says Alex Bagner. We’re peering into what was once the outdoor privy of a Victorian fisherman’s pub. “It’s a bit of a DIY job, but it works.” Bagner was born in Stockholm and has transposed the Swedish bathing ritual – an ice-cold dip followed by a stint in the sauna – to Kingsdown on the coast of Kent. “We do it all year round. People think we’re mad, but it’s starting to catch on.”

Alex and her husband, Chris, bought the Victory as a holiday home eight years ago. Chris’s great-grandfather owned the local Walmer brewery, and his mother grew up here, so they had a connection to the area and the Victory, once owned by the brewery. The pub served its last pint in the 1950s, but for many years it sat next door to the Zetland Arms, which is still open. “In that pure Kent way, I guess they thought, the more the merrier,” says Bagner.

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