Jewel does not sparkle all over

Walk a few yards to your right, then sharp left onto partly cobbled path. Search for the dianthus amongst the dead stems in the wooden planters. Try not to feel as depressed as your surroundings.

Move on to the Nectar Garden, appropriately by the lavatories. Note the air of desolation reminiscent of England after the Romans had departed.

Leave the gardens by the Willes Road gate. Climb the hill. Distract yourself from the traffic by gazing at the still-life of ivy, brambles, and cans and bottles.

Turn into Newbold Terrace. Ten years ago the long border was planted with expensive shrubs. Now they are interspersed by dead bushes, self-seeded sycamore, and the National Collection Of Weeds. Your attention may be especially drawn to the Acclaimed Exhibition Of Bindweed.

Ten years ago Warwick District Council spent four and a half million pounds restoring the Jephsons. They are, we are always being told, the jewel in Leamington’s crown. What sort of jewel sparkles only in its most obvious facets?

A garden has to be maintained as well as made. If it is not it soon declines into slatternly disarray. The Jephsons show how. - Mr R.P Taylor, St. Mary’s Terrace, Leamington.