London's best secret gardens
St Dunstan in the East, a garden created in the remains of a church first built in 1100, and destroyed in the London Blitz in 1941.
Secret no more, but how lovely these gardens are. I like seeing Dunstan blossoming out of ashes, the beautiful gardens left to citizens by entrepreneurs, the citizens of London happily sharing their public gardens. Keeping gardens open and safe is a sign of civilisation, no?
Dunstan, by the way, studied under Irish priests at Glastonbury, was attacked and exiled by English kings, eventually became Archbishop of Canterbury and inaugurated the Coronation Ceremony, which has lasted a thousand years. He established the revolutionary covenant which had the king swear to give the people justice, equity, and mercy.
The whole story appears in Share the Inheritance (see sidebar), a good book to carry into a garden and read. . .