ALAN POWER: Hello and welcome to another National Trust mini

episode. Today I'm in the Sleeping Wood at Stowe and I'm

here to meet Hannah, one of the gardeners on the team here to

learn a little bit more about the sordid background of this

little corner of the garden.

HANNAH: So where we're stood is the like the centre circle we

call it. And as you look around you, there's a perfect circle

around us with alleys coming off it, which is, is basically windy

paths.

So there's, there's six of these windy paths sort of snaking up

around us in all directions. And the point of these is for it to

feel quite disorientating.

So they all look quite similar. They're, they're all planted up

with trees and shrubs and then you've got the, the Herbaceous

Borders in there as well. So as you go along these, it's hard to

know where you are.

You keep getting glimpses through to other areas of the

Sleeping Wood and you get these purposeful cut through so you

can see other bits and it all adds to that feeling of-

Of being in a bit of a dream, not really knowing where you

are.

This centre circle, we had the sleeping parlour standing here

and that was meant to represent sort of Sleeping Beauty in her

palace in the middle.

And this was just a nice small square building. But when you

went inside, it was full of cushions and it was all

luxurious and it was a perfect place to come and escape to

after having maybe a bit too much food, a bit too much drink.

And you can see that we're really quite close to the house.

So it wasn't much of a staggering distance for people

to come and escape into the gardens.

ALAN POWER: It has a sense of mischief, doesn't it? You know,

it has a sense of you could possibly misbehave in here if

you wanted to misbehave and the alleys are mysterious but also

their escape routes in. You know, there you can kind of

sneak off if you shouldn't be in here.

But what's really striking me is this wonderful stone that's

embedded into the grass by our feet. And it just simply says

the sleeping parlour, since all things are uncertain, indulge

thyself.

It's almost giving you permission while you're in this

corner of the garden at Stowe and it's full of mystery.

Hannah, we can see a scar of a foundation of the sleeping

parlour that was here. And what, what's the story behind that?

HANNAH: They were forever moving buildings and monuments around

in line with the fashions and the sleeping parlour was just

knocked down. And thankfully for us, they have used the actual

building to fill in the foundations. So we know a lot

more about what the building was, how it looked.

And they- in line with moving stuff around the outside of it

was decorated with these faces. And if you look around as now

you can see the benches, sort of playing homage to this and

they've actually decorated with faces.

So we have three paths running around the garden. You have the

path of vice, the path of virtue and the path of liberty and this

side of the garden, it's the closest walk, you're getting

your kicks instantly.

Whereas for something like the path of liberty, it's, it's the

longest route around the garden, you've got the most treacherous

footpaths and it's going to be the most challenging because

liberty isn't easy and all the paths are designed to, to

represent what it is that you're walking for. So where we are now

is the path of vice.

And that's why we have the sleeping parlour.

And just around the corner from the sleeping wood we have also-

on the path of vice. We have the golden statue of Venus who is

the goddess of love and she has stood in her rotunda overlooking

the Sleeping Wood and the sleeping parlour in the middle.

ALAN POWER: Thanks for listening to this week's National Trust

mini episode, join us next week for a full episode where we'll

be in Mount Stewart.

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We're @nationaltrust. You can also email us at

podcasts@nationaltrust.org.uk Until then from me, Alan Power.

Goodbye.