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