Light the touch paper

AS the strength of the sun fades with each shortening day, the blaze in the garden at Spilsbury, near Cranborne Chase in Wiltshire, only burns brighter. On the slopes that run around the edge of the meadow, beacons of liquidambar, cercidiphyllum and acer beat back the gloom, as orange willow wands and scarlet dogwood stems gleam out of the wild grasses. Wherever one is, whether from the vantage point of the house at the top of the garden, on the far side of the pond at the bottom of the hill or walking the mown paths through the meadow where summer’s perennials collapse in the falling temperatures, the enchantment is