The Joys OF SPRING

Each morning when Sir Algernon Heber-Percy opens his bedroom curtains at Hodnet Hall he experiences a surge of adrenaline, and this is particularly the case in spring when the magnificent gardens are also waking up. In the distance a dovecote built in 1656 nestles in a gentle landscape of rounded hills close to stands of oak and beech with the south Shropshire hills as a backdrop. The gardens, a tapestry of fresh growth and early blooms, tumble down from the house to a large pool, the first in a ‘daisy chain’ that threads through a shallow valley at the heart of the estate. A stream, warmed slightly by underground springs, feeds these