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Visit these historic houses in Northern Ireland

Ardress House
House tours of this elegant 17th century farmhouse include the impressive drawing-room, fine furniture and paintings. The farmyard, complete with traditional farm implements, is very popular with children. A new programme of family events is arranged each year.

TheArgory
This handsome 1820 house has remained unchanged since 1900. It demonstrates the decorative taste of the family who lived here at that time, and also includes a barrel organ that plays traditional Irish tunes once a month during house tours. There are horse carriages, a harness room, and a laundry in the imposing stable yard. As the house has no electric light, visitors wishing to make a close study of the interior and paintings should avoid dull days early and late in the season.

Castle Coole
Castle Coole is one of the finest late 18th century houses in Ireland. The guided tour shows the rich interior decoration, furnishings and furniture of the time, the state bedroom prepared for the visit of King George IV in 1821, and the elegant hall, where evening concerts of classical music are often held.

Castle Ward
This mid-18th century mansion is an architectural oddity of its time, the inside and outside having been built in two distinct architectural styles. In the surrounding estate there are many holiday cottages available for private lets as well as a caravan site.

Hezlett House
One of the few buildings in Northern Ireland surviving from before the 18th century, this 17th century thatched house is simply furnished in late 19th century style. There is a small museum of farm implements. There are picnic tables outside the house, and for younger visitors a landscaped play area is provided.

Springhill
An atmospheric 17th century home, in a most attractive setting. The house tour takes in the exceptional library, family furniture from the 19th century, the nursery, and the unusual and colourful exhibition of costumes, which has some fine 17th century Irish pieces.

Anglian Water

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Read the text on pages 10 and 11 and answer Questions 28-40.

Meet the Organolecptics 
People who sip, taste and sniff for a living 

A     Paul Fisher sits at a circular table. Before him are two dozen cups of Java coffee of various hues and tastes. The         president of Tristao Trading, coffee importers in New York, is preparing to 'cup'.

He raises a spoon to his lips and tastes. He will rank each sample for body, flavour, grade, colour, degree of moisture  and acidity. He gives high marks for the soft fruitiness of one, rejects the oily smell and taste of another. After each sampling, he avails himself of the spit sink attached to the table. He decides whether the Kenyan AA batch ordered by one of America's top coffee companies gets a high enough grade to make it to the market.

Fisher is an organoleptic, a person who uses his senses of smell and taste to make a living. Organoleptics sip soft drinks, taste teas, taste wines and test perfume performance.


B     Where do companies find these skilled workers? You might imagine huge recruitment campaigns on university campuses, seeking students with large nostrils and sensitive palates. Not even close. Most firms hire tasters and smellers based simply on the fact that these people like the work; anyone with a normal sense of taste and smell can learn to do the job.

According to John Monsell at the Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, virtually all humans are born with an ability to detect sweet, sour, bitter and salty compounds. However, Monsen finds there is a genetic component to having an excellent sense of taste.


C     Most of what we call taste involves smelling from the back of the throat and up into the top of the nose. Smell contributes so much to our appreciation of food that most of us could not recognise our favourite dishes relying on taste alone. For example, if you hold your nose and eat an apple and an onion, they taste the same (although an onion might make your tongue sting).

The average person can detect at least 10,000 odours. Being able to identify those smells is another story. If blindfolded, most people can put a name ('roses', 'fish', 'oak') to fewer than a hundred scents.


D     Organoleptics come from all so1ts of backgrounds. Peter Goggi, president of Royal Estates, the tea-buying arm of Lipton, began his career as a research chemist.

'I used to bring samples down to the tea­ tasters and listen to their comments,' he recalls. 'I started tasting with them, and thought it might be a good job.' To get some training, he moved to England, then to Kenya. 'The best way to learn,' says Goggi, 'is to taste and taste and taste. I would do about a thousand teas a day.'

'We sip the tea and spit it out,' Goggi explains. One good tum around the mouth will tell an expe1t taster all he or she needs to know. 'The important thing is to evaluate tea in the same way from cup to cup,' he says. 'We brew the tea for six minutes and taste it with a teaspoon of skimmed milk to bring out the colour.'


E     Jack Wild's job isn't quite so refreshing. He had a degree in biochemistry when he went to work at Hill Top Research in 1958. The consumer-products market was taking off then, thanks to postwar technology and increased disposable income. People were beginning to wony about odours.

Hill Top Research tests products for eliminating bad odours. People who volunteer to take part in a test are paid not to use soaps or perfumes for ten days. After each participant has been sprayed with deodorant, the researchers start the ranking process. According to Wild, descriptive ability is not important, since being able to say an odour reminds you of one thing or another is not necessary.


F     James Bell staited as a clerk at Givaudan Roure, leaders in the creation and manufacture of perfume. Put through a smelling test, Bell did "­ well and was sent to a special school in France. 'I had to learn to identify about 2800 synthetic and 140 natural materials,' Bell says.

Today, Bell is vice-president and senior perfumer of Givaudan Roure. He recognises as many as 5000 scents and must be able to devise special orders requested by leading perfume companies. They want something 'beautiful' or 'fresh', and Bell takes it from there.

When the experts at Givaudan Roure were asked to develop a men's fragrance named after Michael Jordan, the famous basketballer, Bell's perfumery team went to work and identified four core themes - Cool (in honour of Jordan's boyhood home in North Carolina), Fairway (for his love of golf), Home Run (a leather note to represent Jordan's interest in baseball) and Rare Air (celebrating his basketball achievements). The resulting fragrance has become a top-selling men's brand.


G     Bell is one of the few in his field who believe natural ability is a pre­-requisit for maximaising one's sensibilities. 'You start with a superior sense of smell, but then you must train it, like a concert pianist.'

'Perfume,'hecontinues, 'is likewritingmusic. It hasabasenote,amidnoteandatopnote. You smell thetopnoteinitially, themidnotesenhance the top note, and thebasenotebrings it all together.'

We owe a real debt to all those organoleptics out there. They make our world smell a little better and taste a little fresher. And just what do they ask of you? Not much. Just that once in a while, we take the time to stop and smell the rose-scented room freshener.

Meet the Organolecptics 
People who sip, taste and sniff for a living 

A     Paul Fisher sits at a circular table. Before him are two dozen cups of Java coffee of various hues and tastes. The         president of Tristao Trading, coffee importers in New York, is preparing to 'cup'.

He raises a spoon to his lips and tastes. He will rank each sample for body, flavour, grade, colour, degree of moisture  and acidity. He gives high marks for the soft fruitiness of one, rejects the oily smell and taste of another. After each sampling, he avails himself of the spit sink attached to the table. He decides whether the Kenyan AA batch ordered by one of America's top coffee companies gets a high enough grade to make it to the market.

Fisher is an organoleptic, a person who uses his senses of smell and taste to make a living. Organoleptics sip soft drinks, taste teas, taste wines and test perfume performance.


B     Where do companies find these skilled workers? You might imagine huge recruitment campaigns on university campuses, seeking students with large nostrils and sensitive palates. Not even close. Most firms hire tasters and smellers based simply on the fact that these people like the work; anyone with a normal sense of taste and smell can learn to do the job.

According to John Monsell at the Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, virtually all humans are born with an ability to detect sweet, sour, bitter and salty compounds. However, Monsen finds there is a genetic component to having an excellent sense of taste.


C     Most of what we call taste involves smelling from the back of the throat and up into the top of the nose. Smell contributes so much to our appreciation of food that most of us could not recognise our favourite dishes relying on taste alone. For example, if you hold your nose and eat an apple and an onion, they taste the same (although an onion might make your tongue sting).

The average person can detect at least 10,000 odours. Being able to identify those smells is another story. If blindfolded, most people can put a name ('roses', 'fish', 'oak') to fewer than a hundred scents.


D     Organoleptics come from all so1ts of backgrounds. Peter Goggi, president of Royal Estates, the tea-buying arm of Lipton, began his career as a research chemist.

'I used to bring samples down to the tea­ tasters and listen to their comments,' he recalls. 'I started tasting with them, and thought it might be a good job.' To get some training, he moved to England, then to Kenya. 'The best way to learn,' says Goggi, 'is to taste and taste and taste. I would do about a thousand teas a day.'

'We sip the tea and spit it out,' Goggi explains. One good tum around the mouth will tell an expe1t taster all he or she needs to know. 'The important thing is to evaluate tea in the same way from cup to cup,' he says. 'We brew the tea for six minutes and taste it with a teaspoon of skimmed milk to bring out the colour.'


E     Jack Wild's job isn't quite so refreshing. He had a degree in biochemistry when he went to work at Hill Top Research in 1958. The consumer-products market was taking off then, thanks to postwar technology and increased disposable income. People were beginning to wony about odours.

Hill Top Research tests products for eliminating bad odours. People who volunteer to take part in a test are paid not to use soaps or perfumes for ten days. After each participant has been sprayed with deodorant, the researchers start the ranking process. According to Wild, descriptive ability is not important, since being able to say an odour reminds you of one thing or another is not necessary.


F     James Bell staited as a clerk at Givaudan Roure, leaders in the creation and manufacture of perfume. Put through a smelling test, Bell did "­ well and was sent to a special school in France. 'I had to learn to identify about 2800 synthetic and 140 natural materials,' Bell says.

Today, Bell is vice-president and senior perfumer of Givaudan Roure. He recognises as many as 5000 scents and must be able to devise special orders requested by leading perfume companies. They want something 'beautiful' or 'fresh', and Bell takes it from there.

When the experts at Givaudan Roure were asked to develop a men's fragrance named after Michael Jordan, the famous basketballer, Bell's perfumery team went to work and identified four core themes - Cool (in honour of Jordan's boyhood home in North Carolina), Fairway (for his love of golf), Home Run (a leather note to represent Jordan's interest in baseball) and Rare Air (celebrating his basketball achievements). The resulting fragrance has become a top-selling men's brand.


G     Bell is one of the few in his field who believe natural ability is a pre­-requisit for maximaising one's sensibilities. 'You start with a superior sense of smell, but then you must train it, like a concert pianist.'

'Perfume,'hecontinues, 'is likewritingmusic. It hasabasenote,amidnoteandatopnote. You smell thetopnoteinitially, themidnotesenhance the top note, and thebasenotebrings it all together.'

We owe a real debt to all those organoleptics out there. They make our world smell a little better and taste a little fresher. And just what do they ask of you? Not much. Just that once in a while, we take the time to stop and smell the rose-scented room freshener.

Meet the Organolecptics 
People who sip, taste and sniff for a living 

A     Paul Fisher sits at a circular table. Before him are two dozen cups of Java coffee of various hues and tastes. The         president of Tristao Trading, coffee importers in New York, is preparing to 'cup'.

He raises a spoon to his lips and tastes. He will rank each sample for body, flavour, grade, colour, degree of moisture  and acidity. He gives high marks for the soft fruitiness of one, rejects the oily smell and taste of another. After each sampling, he avails himself of the spit sink attached to the table. He decides whether the Kenyan AA batch ordered by one of America's top coffee companies gets a high enough grade to make it to the market.

Fisher is an organoleptic, a person who uses his senses of smell and taste to make a living. Organoleptics sip soft drinks, taste teas, taste wines and test perfume performance.


B     Where do companies find these skilled workers? You might imagine huge recruitment campaigns on university campuses, seeking students with large nostrils and sensitive palates. Not even close. Most firms hire tasters and smellers based simply on the fact that these people like the work; anyone with a normal sense of taste and smell can learn to do the job.

According to John Monsell at the Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, virtually all humans are born with an ability to detect sweet, sour, bitter and salty compounds. However, Monsen finds there is a genetic component to having an excellent sense of taste.


C     Most of what we call taste involves smelling from the back of the throat and up into the top of the nose. Smell contributes so much to our appreciation of food that most of us could not recognise our favourite dishes relying on taste alone. For example, if you hold your nose and eat an apple and an onion, they taste the same (although an onion might make your tongue sting).

The average person can detect at least 10,000 odours. Being able to identify those smells is another story. If blindfolded, most people can put a name ('roses', 'fish', 'oak') to fewer than a hundred scents.


D     Organoleptics come from all so1ts of backgrounds. Peter Goggi, president of Royal Estates, the tea-buying arm of Lipton, began his career as a research chemist.

'I used to bring samples down to the tea­ tasters and listen to their comments,' he recalls. 'I started tasting with them, and thought it might be a good job.' To get some training, he moved to England, then to Kenya. 'The best way to learn,' says Goggi, 'is to taste and taste and taste. I would do about a thousand teas a day.'

'We sip the tea and spit it out,' Goggi explains. One good tum around the mouth will tell an expe1t taster all he or she needs to know. 'The important thing is to evaluate tea in the same way from cup to cup,' he says. 'We brew the tea for six minutes and taste it with a teaspoon of skimmed milk to bring out the colour.'


E     Jack Wild's job isn't quite so refreshing. He had a degree in biochemistry when he went to work at Hill Top Research in 1958. The consumer-products market was taking off then, thanks to postwar technology and increased disposable income. People were beginning to wony about odours.

Hill Top Research tests products for eliminating bad odours. People who volunteer to take part in a test are paid not to use soaps or perfumes for ten days. After each participant has been sprayed with deodorant, the researchers start the ranking process. According to Wild, descriptive ability is not important, since being able to say an odour reminds you of one thing or another is not necessary.


F     James Bell staited as a clerk at Givaudan Roure, leaders in the creation and manufacture of perfume. Put through a smelling test, Bell did "­ well and was sent to a special school in France. 'I had to learn to identify about 2800 synthetic and 140 natural materials,' Bell says.

Today, Bell is vice-president and senior perfumer of Givaudan Roure. He recognises as many as 5000 scents and must be able to devise special orders requested by leading perfume companies. They want something 'beautiful' or 'fresh', and Bell takes it from there.

When the experts at Givaudan Roure were asked to develop a men's fragrance named after Michael Jordan, the famous basketballer, Bell's perfumery team went to work and identified four core themes - Cool (in honour of Jordan's boyhood home in North Carolina), Fairway (for his love of golf), Home Run (a leather note to represent Jordan's interest in baseball) and Rare Air (celebrating his basketball achievements). The resulting fragrance has become a top-selling men's brand.


G     Bell is one of the few in his field who believe natural ability is a pre­-requisit for maximaising one's sensibilities. 'You start with a superior sense of smell, but then you must train it, like a concert pianist.'

'Perfume,'hecontinues, 'is likewritingmusic. It hasabasenote,amidnoteandatopnote. You smell thetopnoteinitially, themidnotesenhance the top note, and thebasenotebrings it all together.'

We owe a real debt to all those organoleptics out there. They make our world smell a little better and taste a little fresher. And just what do they ask of you? Not much. Just that once in a while, we take the time to stop and smell the rose-scented room freshener.