South Devon cattle in a herd
Graze beyond a thistled ditch.
House martins nest high in the eaves;
The stone is amber honeycomb.
A wooden bench in memory of
Frances and Gerald Lamb provides
A meadow view of unmown hay,
The red of poppies and the blue
Of cornflowers where a cabbage white
Flies giddily above the green
To creakings of an ancient yew
Up which the ivy tries to climb.
The sky’s a clouded August blue
And like a fragment of the sky
A chalkhill blue hinges its wings
And semaphores a living leaf
Near purple clover, yellow vetch.
And in the garden fountains play.
The crescent of the Orangery
Serves Indian tea in China clay.
Round waterlilies red and white
Reflected skies of Gloucestershire
In elongated lily-ponds
Pay homage to the Taj Mahal,
With yews instead of cypresses.
Money and merchandise designed
This Indianized Arcadia,
An English maharajah’s dream
Who made his fortune from the raj
And wanted to impress the shires.
Hindu and Moghul styles combine
The Brahmin bulls with minarets.
The chattris and the chajjahs are
Subsumed into a country house
Whose Anglo-Classical indoors
Is opulent and Regency.
There is a garden to explore.
A temple and a Cotswold stream,
A triple-snakehead fountain in
An arboretum banked with flowers.
A clock chimes from the stable block.
A sundial also marks the time,
As do the shadows of the oaks
From which the house derives its name:
It’s mentioned in the Domesday book,
This home of English pedigrees
Restored post-war with Kleinwort care.
John Betjeman adored the place
And so do I today at least.
So do not count the princely cost
In exploitation, servitude,
Of this day-trip to paradise
But see the unities alive
In artefacts and artifice
And seize the spirit of the place
To celebrate as at a shrine
The numinous at Sezincote,
With shantih, shalom, om, Amen,
Or with whatever call to prayer
Has meaning now for being here.
Sezincote House is an English stately home in the picturesque Cotswold region of Gloucestershire. It was built in 1805 by Samuel Pepys Cockerell. The house has strong Indian elements and, with its "neo-mughal" style, became the model for the famous Brighton Pavilion.
A painting of Sezincote House from 1880
Poetry collections by Duncan Forbes are available on Amazon