ON LOCATION
SOMERSET
Timeless Landscapes Steeped in myth and legend, this ancient county features some fine gardens
A direct train from London Paddington to Taunton takes one hour forty minutes, and to Bath it’s an hour and twenty minutes.
I
f one place evokes the spirit of ancient England, it is the county of Somerset. This is the beginning of the West Country, where cider apples hang thick upon boughs and the deep vowels of the traditional West Country burr shift minutely from town to town. Its landscape is by turns deeply wooded and expansive, bordering Dorset and Devon in the south, Wiltshire in the east and metropolitan Bristol in the north.
8 THE ENGLISH GARDEN MAY 2022
Central to the county is Glastonbury Tor (nationaltrust.org.uk), a prominent 158m hill rising sharply from the surrounding flat landscape. Visible from miles around, this striking landform is steeped in legend: Jesus is supposed to have visited it as a young boy and the Holy Grail, the cup used at the Last Supper, is rumoured to be buried here. The legend has made it a place of pilgrimage over millennia, and the remains of the monastic St
