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HYLAND Thames, with its plentiful supply of 130 species of fish, from sea bass to plaice, attracts grey herons, cormorants and other birds, including an exotic pair of Egyptian geese who visit the park annually. Syon possesses the only significant stretch of natural river bank remaining on the Thames, and this has led to the tide meadow being classified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Until the conversion of farm buildings to a Gardening Centre, inaugurated by the Queen Mother in 1968, there was always a working farm at Syon, dating from the time of the Bridgettine Abbey. The 4 th Duke brought two dozen Jersey cattle and a fine herd of Highland cattle to add a romantic look to the park, and pigs were kept to fatten on the dairy's whey. By the second half of the 19 th century a flock of Southdown sheep grazed the parkland. Between 1797 and 1799 a splendid dairy was built, which included accommodations for the dairy maid, and in 1847 it was extended by building the present dairy, attributed to Decimus Burton, replete with marble benches, shelves and balustrades and a colorful floor of encaustic tile. Rather like Marie Antoinette at the Petit Trianon, the 4 th Duke and his guests would visit this elegant dairy, entering via the Great Conservatory, decorated with four plaster relief panels he commissioned from the sculptor Joseph Gott, showing putti milking goats, racing greyhounds and harvesting grapes.