Blowing their own delicate trumpets

DAFFODILS have long been a feature at Hever Castle in Kent. When William Waldorf ‘Willy’ Astor, the richest American of his day, acquired Hever in 1903, his journal insisted they ‘should be planted right across the estate’.

The first Viscount Astor, a self-confessed romantic who had taken British citizenship in 1899, was captivated by the childhood home of Anne Boleyn. He caused massive oak trees from Ashdown Forest, some 12 miles south, to be hauled to the castle across the North Downs on horse-drawn carts, for Ash-down was reputedly where Henry VIII first saw Anne Boleyn when out hunting.