I watched as two children ran happily between the cloud hedges

Chasing their early March shadows under the low land sun

How charming our situation was on this the brightest of afternoons

My wife and I were sipping piping hot tea from bone china cups

Being careful not to scald our lips even though the air was chilled

I was thinking of Hester Stanhope who during a short period

Just over two hundred years ago transformed these gardens into what we see today

She was to die many years later in almost total obscurity in a far off land

But unlike many others has not been forgotten and her likeness can be discovered

Deep within these magical gardens by those who are sharp of eye

 

 

 

 

From the diary of Cecil Burns (March 2019)