THERE are those who consider tidiness an affliction. A disease, even. I am not of their number. I am firmly with Sir Winston Churchill who opined that: ‘Tidiness is a virtue, symmetry is often a constituent of beauty.’ My other half is of a similar disposition and we both subscribe to the maxim ‘Don’t put it down, put it away’—indoors at least. We excuse ourselves on the grounds that our first house—a Victorian cottage, two-and-a-half up; two-and-a-half down—was so small (no room measured more than three yards by three yards) that if we did not put stuff away we would regularly fall over something and hit our head on an internal wall. One friend who came to visit shortly after we were married exclaimed: ‘I didn’t know they made houses…
You're reading a preview of
Country Life (Digital) - 1 Issue, January 15, 2025