The gabled house had become hemmed in on two sides by overgrown beech and yew trees and untidy mixed woodland of mainly larches, which had grown uncontrolled for decades. Indeed, to call the surroundings a garden would have been overstating things, such was the advanced state of decay.
‘I was a city girl from Chicago, working in finance. I had no idea,’ says Mrs. Stainer, who freely admits her previous lack of gardening knowledge. However, two decades later, she’s reeling off plant names and explaining how different species were chosen for specific places and associations.
She highlights one strength they brought to the creation of their garden: ‘Robin has an unfailing eye for design and structure.’ This is revealed in what have become two or three of the garden’s signature features.
I love the story of the house’s origin. Towards the end of the Civil War, in one of the last sieges of the conflict, 100 Royalists took refuge in what was then a medieval tower. They were besieged by Parliamentarians, one of whom fired a grenade so accurately into the top of the tower that it fell to the armoury in the basement and destroyed the whole structure. The present house is its replacement.
Denne historien er fra September 25, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra September 25, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
