We all know that precept about an Englishman’s home being his castle, but as the quotation from Sir Edward Coke makes clear, a home is meant for repose as well as defence. Within the walls of the castle, the Englishman or Englishwoman’s garden may be a little Eden, a little Sissinghurst, or even a little Versailles.
Dungeness is not the middle of nowhere. There is a railway and a good road, with regular traffic to and from the power station, and plenty of huts and cottages. But it is on the edge of things, and on the edge of Kent and England.
Some knots in my own life had brought me to Birmingham in December. Wandering through Edgbaston, I went into the Botanical Gardens and found this knot garden. Once you start noticing knots, they are everywhere…