The world on the doorstep

England, Africa, Italy or China-it's possible to travel the world without leaving this imaginatively designed garden, which divides into four distinct geographical sections. Each one has resonance for the owners, reports Caroline Donald

- Caroline Donald

ON a sunny day, Amanda and Stephen Clark hang out by their pool in Italy for the afternoon with a good book. From there, they can move to England for a sundowner, breathing in the heady scent of hundreds of roses in the parterre, before brushing their way through the copious growth of Spanish reeds (representing maize), cannas and bananas surrounding a South African hut. 'Let's go to China,' they might then decide, meeting up with their nephews and nieces, who live next door, for Peking duck in the shade of an impressive, double-height 'ting' pavilion.

Instead of owning a supersonic jet, Mr and Mrs Clark have given these names to the four highly distinct areas they have created in their large walled garden at Seend Manor in Wiltshire. There is rhyme to their seemingly quirky reason: 'It just seemed so nice to think of places we love,' explains Mrs Clark.

They are among the last of the colonial generations: Mrs Clark grew up in Hong Kong and Mr Clark, an investment banker, was born in Kenya and worked in South Africa. Bringing to mind the romance of an English country garden is what keeps them going in hotter climes 'It is the England of your dreams'― and Italy 'is where everybody falls in love and goes on honeymoon,' themselves included.

As each area tries to capture the essential spirit of a place, the whole evokes a Persian paradise garden, divided into distinct quarters and with water-the river of life-at its centre. A magnificent Chilstone fountain, with an obelisk surrounded by sphinxes and gunnera, represents the source of the Nile.