With stylish and besotted owners to boot …
One of the pieces of advice given by Country Life magazine in its list of “20 Things To Do Before You Die”, was “Love a Dog”, reflecting the belief that if an Englishman’s home is his castle, that home is incomplete without a trusty canine companion.
The Earl of Leicester is patron of the Irish Terrier Association, having grown up with the breed at his home, Holkham Hall, Norfolk. Also in Norfolk is Wolverton Hall, which won a Historic Houses restoration award in 2023.
A pug relaxes in the Smallbone kitchen at Wolverton Hall, Norfolk, winner of an Historic Houses Kitchen Award. Photograph by Paul Highnam.
Current residents are the Ellis family and their pet pug. The breed captivated The Duke and Duchess of Windsor who were devoted to their eleven pugs. When Country Life visited their villa in Paris in an architectural capacity in 1987, John Cornforth detailed that: “Pugs, indeed, are almost a leitmotif in the house, and if live ones are no longer snuffling around, there are endless reminders of them in pictures, photographs, china and velvet.”
“Gentle when stroked, fierce when provoked,” the Irish wolfhound is synonymous with nobility, and appeared on the royal coat of arms of ancient Irish kings. Something about Trudie Styler’s 16th-century Lake House in Wiltshire inspired her husband, Sting, to buy her an Irish wolfhound. She now has eight.
English artist Ray Richardson is renowned for his studies of chunky bull terriers, this one is called Tangerine.
The Country Life Book of Dogs, by Agnes Stamp (Rizzoli, €58) is out now.
