Round About a Great Estate

A gentle meditation on a countryside that is both timeless and quietly shifting, this work opens with a familiar folk story about a cottage‑girl who first mistakes a church clock for a second moon. The narrator uses that image to explore how education and modern conveniences have begun to illuminate rural life, while still longing for a wisdom that springs directly from nature itself.

From that reflective start the narrative moves to the rolling park of Okebourne Chace, where the great house watches over a network of private paths, ash woods and distant downs. Here we meet Hilary Luckett, a self‑reliant farmer whose deep knowledge of the land, the game, and the rhythms of hunting ties him closely to the estate’s traditions. His practical expertise and the vivid description of the surrounding landscape invite listeners to step into a world where the old and the new coexist under the same sky.