Six English memories: the collection of a new English perfume house

HERITAGE is a new English perfume house with six eaux de parfum, and each one began as a single English memory: a paddock at first light, a library after dinner, a river in July, a tack room before the meet, a glasshouse in midwinter and a lodge late in the season. What follows is a plain introduction to all six, so that you can decide which you would choose first. Nothing can be bought yet. Registering is free, and it commits you to nothing.

What we mean by an English perfume house

English, for us, is a manner rather than a boast. The most beautiful house on the lane is usually the one with the plainest gate, and the best-dressed man in the room is seldom the one you notice first. We wanted fragrance in that spirit: not a signature that enters the room before you do, but something closer to good tailoring, noticed by those who stand near enough.

So each composition begins with one memory, held precisely, and we work backwards from it, taking away anything that does not belong. We use natural materials where they are genuinely better, and modern ones where they are finer, more stable or kinder to the world. Every fragrance is an eau de parfum, and every bottle holds 50 ml.

The six fragrances

Each belongs to a different family, and each is one room, one hour and one kind of weather. Read them as you might walk through the rooms of a house.

Racing Green: the paddock, first light

Racing Green, our green chypre, is the house signature. It opens on galbanum, bergamot and cut grass, the sharp, bitter green of the paddock on a cold morning before anyone important has arrived. Violet leaf, vetiver and clary sage bring an earthy depth, and it settles on saddle leather, oakmoss and cedarwood. Think of an engine warming in the cold, and a steering wheel that has seen fifty summers. It is at its happiest on cool mornings, on wool and waxed cotton.

The Library: after dinner

The Library, our woody amber, is leather-bound spines, pipe tobacco forgotten in a waistcoat pocket and the last embers of an oak fire. Pink pepper, cardamom and a little bergamot strike first, like a match in a dim room. Tobacco leaf, papyrus and orris follow, over a base of Virginia cedar, labdanum and benzoin. It is warm and dry, and entirely unhurried: a fragrance for long evenings and short sentences, autumn into winter, on cashmere and corduroy.

Henley: the river, the first week of July

Henley, our aromatic fresh, is the brightest of the six. Bergamot, cucumber and garden mint come first; then fig leaf, orange blossom and a clean linen accord, like starched shirts drying in the sun; then white cedar, ambrette and vetiver. It is named for the town and its river. The memory is the week of the regatta, with fig leaves over the towpath and something cold in a silver cup, though our only connection with the regatta is a fondness for the river. Wear it on warm days, out of doors.

Saddle Room: the tack room, before the meet

Saddle Room, our leather fragrance, is a leather without swagger. Saffron, bitter orange and clary sage give it the light of a lantern hung on a nail. Hay absolute, suede and a thread of birch tar make up the heart, over tonka bean, sandalwood and leather: the leather of care and use, rather than of a new handbag. It is a fragrance for October to March, on tweed and suede.

The Orangery: midwinter

The Orangery, our citrus floral, is sunlight kept under glass: glasshouse citrus in February, when the rest of the estate is white with frost. Neroli, Seville orange and petitgrain open it. Orange blossom, jasmine sambac and a tomato-leaf note that smells of the potting bench sit at the heart, and it finishes on white musk, orris butter and blond woods. A daytime fragrance, kindest in winter and at ease in spring.

Highland: the lodge, late in the season

Highland, our aromatic smoky fragrance, is the wildest of the collection, and its warmest. Juniper, Scots pine and black pepper; then wild heather, lapsang tea and labdanum; then peat smoke, guaiac wood and moss. Heather on the hill, peat in the grate, and the long walk home across the moor. Wear one spray, or two on a cold day, out of doors and by the fire.

How the collection is being made

We are making the collection to order, and in two parts. Three fragrances are made first, in time for Christmas, and the other three follow in the new year. We have not chosen the first three, and we will not pretend otherwise. When you register, we ask a single question, “Which would you choose first?”, and the answers decide.

That is also why nothing is for sale today. When pre-orders open, the first hundred people to register, the Founding Hundred, have 48 hours to pre-order before anyone else, at the founding pre-order price of £95 a bottle. After that, the price is £110. A pre-order may be cancelled for a full refund at any time before it is dispatched, and we will give you the dispatch date before you pay.

The Discovery Set, which holds all six in small atomisers, opens with our first pre-orders, as do The Pair and the Seasonal Box.

Which to choose first

If you already know the room you would return to, the choice may have made itself. Someone who keeps a waxed jacket by the back door will probably find Racing Green or Highland. Someone who reads late will find The Library. Summer people will find Henley. Those who ride, or wish they did, will find Saddle Room. And anyone waiting for February to be over will find The Orangery.

If you are less certain, our Consultation asks four quiet questions, about a room, an hour, a cloth and how you would like to be remembered, and suggests two fragrances to begin with. Undecided is also a perfectly good answer to give when you register.

A young house with old manners

We are a young house, and we would rather say plainly how we work than make promises. We do not hold sales. We write four letters a year, and never more. When you write to us, a real person writes back. Our fragrances are never tested on animals, and neither are their ingredients.

And we would rather you chose slowly. A good fragrance, like a good coat, should be noticed by the person standing beside you and by nobody else, and that is not something to decide in a hurry.

If one of the six has already found you, register free for a founding place and tell us which you would choose first. It costs nothing, and it helps decide which three are made for Christmas.