A scented stroll

Rousham is an old estate in Oxfordshire not far from Woodstock. The crenelated house is no longer lived in but the garden is tended with the most loving and intelligent care. You approach it through an iron gate set in a huge, ancient yew hedge some 10 feet wide and suddenly you arrive in this formal series of lawned courtyards surrounded by the most exquisite, soft, English planting. Beautiful old walls are covered with espaliered fruit trees and roses and hundreds of hollyhocks leap out of formal box hedges. You can picnic quietly in the gardens with barely another person to trouble you.

If you ever get the chance, go.