When the weekend weather is good, and when travelling, I love to visit gardens and historic houses. It’s difficult to nominate favourites, but there are two gardens that have particularly stayed in my mind.

The first is Stowe Landscape Gardens in Buckinghamshire. Begun by Lord Cobham around 1711, this is a not a garden of flowerbeds, but a landscape full of hidden secrets. While its many meanings would have been obvious to 18th-century tourists, today’s visitors need the help of the guidebook to decode the symbolism. But that is part of the fun of a visit

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