125 YEARS OF PERFECT PARTNERSHIP
For 125 years, Country Life magazine has offered readers authoritative commentary and escapist rural dreams. For 124 of those years, says Matthew Dennison, Knight Frank has been there, too
It is no easy matter to discover by analysis whence comes the charm of those pleasant old houses that are still to be found in most of the rural districts of England,’ wrote Peter Anderson Graham, in an article entitled ‘Old Houses in Kent and Sussex’, published in Country Life on 5 January 1901. For 120 years since Anderson Graham’s article – as, indeed, in the five years preceding it – Country Life has consistently showcased ‘the charm of pleasant old houses’ in rural districts. The verdict of the Duchess of Argyll, chatelaine of Inveraray Castle and President of the Georgian Group, is one shared by many of the magazine’s readers: “I love all of my weekly Country Life, but especially the articles on beautiful houses and gardens. Perhaps part nosiness, but also my huge love of architecture and especially Georgian interiors. A lockdown highlight was finding a stash of really old ones in the attic full of fascinating articles on houses.”
Yet the magazine, arguably Britain’s best known, which this year celebrates its 125th anniversary, does a great deal more than showcase the nation’s unique architectural heritage. “Country Life is about joy, it’s about celebrating,” editor Mark Hedges tells me. “It celebrates the remarkably good things about Britain, the finer things in life, yes, but also the idiosyncratic things.” It is the sheer scope of Country Life’s sphere of enquiry – from biscuit-making to field sports, rare terriers to aubergine recipes, luxury jewellers to bellows-makers, fashion advice to birdsong – that ensures its remit remains relevant, engaging and joyful as it advances confidently and with marked commercial success through its second century. A consistent increase in sales every year for the last 12, as Mark Hedges points out, is a remarkable trajectory not only in terms of British magazine publishing but magazine publishing anywhere in the world.
The secret of its success? Country Life is an evolving shop window for the best of Britishness, which has kept pace with the shifts in outlook of its target readership while appearing to embody consistency. Government statistics identify some 21% of the population of England as living in what are termed ‘predominantly rural’ areas: the percentage of the population that aspires to country living is considerably higher. A dense concentration of readers live in London, much like the magazine’s visionary founder, Edward Hudson; like Hudson, their attitude to the country is romantic, nostalgic, admiring. “If one thinks of all the branches of modern English art,” wrote German architect and champion of the Arts and Crafts movement Hermann Muthesius, in 1904, “one comes to the conclusion that the best and most attractive work is to be found in the small country house.” More than a century after Muthesius, Country Life, like its readers, continues to celebrate the world of the country house both large and small: its architecture, gardens and landscape, its contents, diversions, aspirations, entertainments, shibboleths and even its pets. Into the bargain, the magazine is also an authoritative crusading voice, championing the preservation of the natural and man-made glories of this ancient island kingdom. If its devotees consider it a weekly treat, it is undoubtedly the case that Country Life intends to do more than entertain. The two biggest-selling issues in the magazine’s long history were both guest-edited by the Prince of Wales. The Prince’s passionate, engaged, long-standing commitment to rural life mirrors the magazine’s own. His participation offered him opportunities to articulate his concern for the survival, not only of rural communities, but the very landscape itself: proof, suggests Mark Hedges, of the level of trust that Country Life inspires.
The first ever 1897 edition of Country Life, including one of Knight Frank’s first advertisements, a practice continued to this day
Edward Hudson, the visionary founder of Country Life magazine
Yet, as any Country Life reader knows, the magazine is more than its editorial content. High on its list of attractions are its advertisements, above all its property advertising. Former architectural editor John Cornforth claimed these were “arguably more widely studied than the Country Homes articles themselves”. ’Twas ever thus. Among advertisers in the magazine’s inaugural issue were Mayfair-based estate agents Walton & Lee. A year later, on 27 August 1898, the magazine ran its first full-page advertisement for a two-year-old partnership of valuers, surveyors and auctioneers called Knight, Frank & Rutley. Founder Howard Frank paid the magazine a record price for the illustrated black-and-white splash, which included sales instructions for a 25,000-acre sporting estate in Scotland, letting particulars for an estate with rough shooting in Sussex, and “one of the most beautiful estates in the West of England”, and a photograph of an Elizabethan house in Herefordshire standing in “grounds of indescribable beauty”. It was the beginning of a business relationship of remarkable and ongoing longevity. “It’s been a very, very long, happy relationship,” reflects Mark Hedges. “Personally, I’ve always found dealing with Knight Frank one of the most enjoyable and interesting things I’ve done in my time as editor. We’ve shared the same dreams.” Knight Frank has repeatedly given evidence of the value it, too, attaches to the relationship. In 1912, the company paid £4,000 for Walton & Lee. Having advertised in Country Life’s first issue, Walton & Lee enjoyed special treatment, including a contract for advertising on the magazine’s front page. With their buyout, it was a privilege Knight Frank acquired for itself. Other agents followed suit: by 1913, issues of Country Life typically included as many as 40 pages of property advertising, lingeringly referred to by aficionados today as ‘property porn’.
“It celebrates the remarkably good things about Britain, the finer things in life, yes, but also the idiosyncratic things”
James Cleland, Head of Country Business at Knight Frank, explains: “The weekly ritual of quietly leafing through the latest issue of Country Life is part of the fabric of life at Knight Frank. We are proud to have featured so heavily within the magazine for so long and our clients love seeing their houses in it; many consider it a badge of honour and an endorsement of the quality and prestige of their property, and so many of our buyers will have first seen the house they buy in Country Life.
“That the magazine has embraced the surge of online editorial and social media, and still remains the pre-eminent source of country property, says everything about the affection in which it is held by its readership. And, of course, with Knight Frank having celebrated its own 125th anniversary last year, we are proud to call ourselves contemporaries.” .
Country Life, says Mark Hedges, includes elements of “charming, harmless fun”. It encourages dreams – sometimes escapist, sometimes nostalgic – and, like all British national treasures, refrains from taking itself too seriously. The ‘girls in pearls’ page remains its frontispiece, but today’s girls – including a Bond-film stunt driver and a lieutenant in 3 Rifles – seldom wear pearls.
Hudson House, the former home of Country Life on Tavistock Street, built in 1904