The Gardens at Stancombe Park, near Dursley, Gloucestershire
The home of the Llewellyn family
GARDENS and especially their hidden buildings have always provided ample possibilities for both real and imagined clandestine liaisons. One such liaison was reputedly conducted at Stancombe Park, a secret Georgian garden ornamented by lakes and classical references. According to local legend, the Revd David Edwards, who lived at Stancombe from 1889, created a series of especially narrow tunnels leading to alcoves and grottos, eventually emerging close to the romantic waterside Doric temple, in which a bed is hidden in an alcove. All this he allegedly designed for amorous liaisons with his Romany lover: his corpulent wife, the story went, being unable to navigate her way to these lower reaches of the garden, thus leaving his secret safe in the undergrowth. Edwards was certainly a
