My childhood was spent making dens in the hidden corners of the landscaped gardens of a grand country estate in the Lake District. I wandered woods full of baby pheasants being fattened up for the shoot. I had lakes to paddle in and a dinghy that we bumped down the ­path to a private beach. First in Yorkshire, then in Bedford, then on Graythwaite Estate, in Cumbria in the Lake District. For centuries, it was not uncommon for the offer of a job in the English countryside to include accommodation.

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Persons: —, didn’t Locations: Lake, England, Yorkshire, Bedford, Cumbria, Graythwaite