It’s a wonderful thing to be able to visit someone who lives in deep countryside. Views of rolling hills from every window, a few groups of trees over the horizon and maybe a lake or two in the immediate garden periphary. There’s one particular house that I have dealings with on a regular basis. It’s atually a Hall, so bigger than a mansion house but not a palace. Each window at the back overlooks the very fine landscaped grounds which are as wide and expansive. Through the coppice of trees to the right there are the tops of pavillions left from the days of tennis and croquet parties in the 1920s. In the actual garden itself, there are now tables and chairs for the tea room customers and aside these is the ‘bullring’. Not what it sounds. It’s in fact a very large circular lawn surrounded by an attractive pebble and gravel drive. Very impressive on Open Days when guests of note are allowed to park around the edge of the lawn – so long as everyone parks in the same direction and doesn’t have an old banger!