HYLAND
Today the Syon Park Garden Centre, built around the
16th century stable block, sells top quality growing stock,
garden furniture, houseplants and books. Visitors to Syon
may not have the fabulous means to inhabit a Syon of
their own, but the Garden Centre provides them with
tools and plants to plot out, in miniature, an Arcadia of
one's own. To end with the American author with whom
we began, here are Thomas Jefferson's remarks on the
unparalleled joy of possessing and working a fertile patch
of land:
"I have often thought that if heaven had given me choice
of my position & calling, it should have been on a rich
spot of earth, well watered, and near a good market for
the productions of the garden…tho'an old man, I am but
a young gardener."
H
