...At "Sonning" I used to love the way children would run back to the house all starry-eyed to tell their mothers about the little paths they had found and how they had come upon a small pool just as a green frog dived into it and how they found a tree that "would be beautiful to climb" at which their ardour would usually be dampened by, "Oh you wouldn't think of doing that, would you dear?"

...I said "It's quite alright, they will do no harm ...except break their necks, perhaps."

One little soul came quietly back to say. "Oh mummy, wouldn't the Queen love this garden?"

We were a little dubious about that - and yet Queen Elizabeth perhaps, but not Queen Victoria!