On reflection
TOM and Rosamond Sweet-Escott liked Chettle so much they almost bought it twice. This beautifully eccentric early-18th-century house came up for sale in 2015, having been owned by the same family for the previous 400 years. The Sweet-Escotts put in an offer, but were pipped to the post, only for the buyers to have second thoughts and sell it to them after all. The tale of its long and painstaking repair has been detailed by John Martin Robinson in COUNTRY LIFE (November 18, 2020), but the gardens of Thomas Archer’s Baroque edifice have proved to be as fascinating—and enigmatic—as the history of the house itself.
Chettle was
