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ALAN POWER: Hello and welcome to
another National Trust mini

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

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

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learn a little bit more about
the sordid background of this

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little corner of the garden.

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

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

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

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paths.

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

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

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feel quite disorientating.

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

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

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

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know where you are.

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You keep getting glimpses
through to other areas of the

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Sleeping Wood and you get these
purposeful cut through so you

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

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

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are.

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This centre circle, we had the
sleeping parlour standing here

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

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palace in the middle.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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to come and escape into the
gardens.

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

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

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you wanted to misbehave and the
alleys are mysterious but also

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

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sneak off if you shouldn't be in
here.

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

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

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the sleeping parlour, since all
things are uncertain, indulge

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thyself.

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

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

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

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

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HANNAH: They were forever moving
buildings and monuments around

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in line with the fashions and
the sleeping parlour was just

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

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

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more about what the building
was, how it looked.

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

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

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

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they've actually decorated with
faces.

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

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

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

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your kicks instantly.

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

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

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

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

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

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is the path of vice.

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And that's why we have the
sleeping parlour.

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

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

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

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the Sleeping Wood and the
sleeping parlour in the middle.

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

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

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be in Mount Stewart.

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To make sure you never miss an
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We're @nationaltrust. You can
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Until then from me, Alan Power.

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Goodbye.