Levens Hall

One visits Levens Hall to see the topiary and it is exceptionally fine and ancient. This was Christine's first visit and she was very impressed, but in particular by the way the landscapers and gardeners had combined the curio geometry of topiary with imaginative design and planting in other sections of this stunning garden.
We toured the hall too and ate a rather splendid lunch in Bellingham's Buttery, I think it was called.

Visitors pass from one section of garden to another through narrow arches in the beech hedges, or via exceptionally well-crafted arch-ways and pergolas.
Double herbaceous borders have been imaginatively planted, even with cephalaria! I was excited to see this rather crude giant of the scabious genus because I first identified it in our Ash Cottage garden in Caton, Lancashire 26 year ago, and from a very old gardening book with black and white photos showing gardeners in trilbies and waistcoats.





There were several enormous open spaces, some prepared for games of croquet like this one above, or informal, sparsely tended ones or fairly rough ground.

And then we had to find the way out and go home. However, I still managed to forget my dental appointment that afternoon and received a well-earned letter of disapprobation from Dr. Gooder.