Living: Real Tennis. An indoor sport favoured by 

the fleet-footed Henry VIII. Chaucer, too, was known 

to ask "but canstow playen racket, to and fro?"

Racquets available at Jesmond Dene.

Game, set & match: René Lacoste, 

with the first appliquéd trademark, applied 

to the the first piqué sports shirt, 1933.

Living: Copper plate steel engraving 

at Dempsey & Carroll, established 1878.

Alive and kicking: The country club.

Living: Terra cotta roof tiles. The Greeks discovered 

that by molding clay around a pipe or human thigh they 

could keep out rain more efficiently than with thatch. 

Photograph by Fuori Borgo.

Living: Avarcas. Made of cowhide and old tyres, 

this traditional Catalan sandal is the eco flip flop.

Available at Ancient Industries.

Living: The Chelsea Flower Show, since 1862.

Best courtyard garden: the Fenland Alchemist garden.

Living: Slewing. The use of multiple strands 

of woven willow to create a wattling effect.

Photograph by Chris Draper.

Living: Wattling, a perishable woven willow fence, 

popular in Medieval gardens and still in use today.

Living: The barbecue. 

Again, Primitive Man and all that.

Living: Stencils. If pre-historic caves 

are to be believed, then human hands 

were the first form of stencil, followed 

a bit later by the written word.

Living: Red, from Old English read. 

Heat, energy, blood, anger, passion, love.

Photograph by Madame Yevonde, 1932.

Living: Ian Mankin, natural and organic fabrics. 

Woven in an ancient family owned mill in Lancashire.

Yew, Wightwick Manor, Wolverhampton

Yew, Packwood House, Warwickshire

Box, Kingston Lacy, Dorset

Living: Topiary, from topiarus, Latin, Roman, &c., 

Pliny the Elder and the Younger were simply mad for it.

Photographs from the National Trust Photo Library.

Jane, 2009

Henry, 1999

Living: Pet portraits. 

Kings did it, knaves did it,

Even men who lived in caves did it.

Above portraits by Duncan Hannah.

300SL Gullwing Coupe, 1954

300SL Panamericana, 2009

Living: Gullwing, or Flügeltüren, by Mercedes-Benz.

Corduroy, c.1945

Cotton, corduroy, sacking materials, c.1950

Cotton and synthetic knits, c.1965

Living: The American quilt. Made popular with 

the introduction of mass-produced textiles in the 

1840s and still made today. Courtesy of Inchmark.

Frizz top horsehair bar wig

Black metal upright wig case

Living: The barrister's wig, adopted soon after 

Charles II made the wig fashionable in England.

Available at Ede and Ravenscroft, est 1689.

Maija and Kristin Isola, Dombra, 1960

Living: Marimekko, since 1951. 

Stridently modern, unabashedly antique.

Living: Richard Baker, 

paperbacks, gouache on paper.

Matisse, 1940s

Lino mounted on wood backing

Barron and Larcher, 1920s

Living: The linocut. When linoleum* was invented in 

1860 it was soon taken up by artists and textile designers 

as a more pliable carving material than wood.

*linum: flax, oleum: oil