White Benches, Emmetts Garden, Ide Hill

Today we decided to visit a National Trust garden that we'd never been to before, Emmetts Garden in Ide Hill near Sevenoaks. It's a stunning example of an Edwardian garden which, under the ownership of Frederic Lubbock, was transformed into a plantsman's paradise with rare trees, shrubs and plants from across the world. The design was influenced by William Robertson, a well-respected gardener and horticultural writer.
There was a bit of a shock for the two of us as it came to not far short of £30 for entry but, on balance, it was worth the expense. We walked through a stunning rock garden, a rose garden (where I took the main image of the white benches) and it's beautiful, calming woodland which, at one point, had a quite magnificent view over the High Weald. 
The extra shot was taken nearby at the starkly named Ramp Pump Pond  - it's a reflection of the trees in the water of this man made structure. Many country houses had a pump pond and a lot are still in use. They worked on the principle of a large volume of water (in the case of Emmets Garden it was 10,000 gallons) that fed through a large pipe (via valves) that generated enough pressure to drive the water to a much greater height. This was ideal for a site like Emmetts which is very steeply sided and was used as a supplementary process for watering the precious trees, shrubs and plants.
The woodland walk itself involved a long steep climb up from the pump pond so by the time we got back to the car we felt as if we'd done our exercise for the day. Therefore, we headed to the village of Ide Hill itself for a drink and some food at The Cock Inn. The pub itself was beautiful inside, lots of low beams and wonky floorboards, all lit with glorious autumnal sunshine. Unfortunately, when it came to ordering food we were out of luck. The landlord informed us that they had tables of nine, six and four that had just ordered before us and so we would face a very long wait due to the fact that they only had the one chef.We decided to cut our losses and so headed down the hill to the White Horse in Sundridge. It was much quieter and the lady behind the bar was really warm, friendly and chatty so we partook of our lunch there instead. All in all a rather lovely day.