For the record

Following the recent Darwin festival (see reference 1), we thought that we might visit Down House on our recent way to Kent. But, in the event, decided against as being too near the start of the journey for comfort.

We got rather nearer visiting Leeds Castle, an establishment that BH has been dropping hints about for years. We got to the car park. We walked through some very pretty woodland to the gatehouse, a gatehouse tooled up to process lots of visitors, complete with the sort of barriers that you get at cattle markets and football matches. But, unlike comparable NT establishments (this place is an independent), you could not get at the proper restaurant without paying to get in, in this case a substantial sum for the two of us. So we settled for tea and coffee from the snack bar which we could get at.

We actually took our picnic at a village called Littlebourne, a village which came with a large and well equipped village green. See gmaps 51.274483, 1.165926. One item being a collection of exercise equipment, with the one that I tried being seriously hard work. Another item being the orchard illustrated, kindly bequeathed by a villager. Tricky sort of thing for a village green committee to maintain, but they manage pretty well.

PS: and while we are thinking trusty, I have just noticed, à propos of something quite different, that one of things that the Saudis do with all their money is set up lots of nature reserves. Google maps is littered with them. See, for example, reference 2.

Reference 1: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/a-darwinian-fest.html.

Reference 2: https://www.swa.gov.sa/en/protected-areas/saja-um-al-rimth.