The weather was perfect for walking round the gardens at Antony:  not too hot, luminously clear, with puffed clouds.   The original gardens were laid out when the house was built in 1724, then modernised to an extent, but incompletely, by Humphrey Repton (the Red Book survives in the house) and the hedges and many of the trees were planted in the 1890s and later.

We started in the courtyard in front of the house, looking up to the gates on the horizon:-

Then we stood on the terrace in front of the house, looking out towards the Black Walnut in the middle of the lawn:-

Then we walked round the garden, along the gravel paths, admiring the great trees:-

This is the Cork Oak:-

More trees:-

Two garden benches:-

And Mary’s garden:-