He is standing looking towards a river that is some fifty yards away and flowing from his left to his right.

He is at the bottom of a long open grazed area that lies in front of a fine house. This house - built in the gothic manner - is the only building, other than a small summer house, visible in the dramatic wooded landscape.

Between him and the river, at a level some two yards lower than him, is a piece of cultivated land some 200 yards long by 75 yards wide. It is a garden.

In contrast to the rest of the surrounding landscape, which is informal, wild and asymmetrical, this garden is laid out on more geometrical lines in the style of Mr. Brown.

It covers some two and a half acres and is laid out alongside the river. It is divided into three strips lengthways by pathways that run the whole length of the plot, and all of these three strips are cut in half by a pathway that runs at right angles to the first, thereby creating six roughly equal pieces of cultivated land.

The four of these closest to him are further sub-divided to create eight smaller plots, making ten plots of land in all, surrounded on all sides by footpaths.

Along the long side of the garden furthest away from the river is a small building - presumably a place to sit, a place to store equipment or even a gardener's domestic accommodation.

He is watching five people at work in the garden.

One young man is on his own up a stepladder beneath what appears to be a fruit tree - a pear, perhaps. Two others - an older man and a boy - are tending one of the patches. They are working systematically around the ground between formally laid out areas of greenery. These may be vegetables such as comfrey or borage, or flowering plants such as digitalis or foxglove.

The remaining two people are standing talking and pointing at an area on the ground in front of them where a square hole has been dug. Judging by the amount of earth piled by it, the hole is one yard by one yard on plan and one yard deep. It would appear that one of the pair - a young man - has been responsible for the work, and the other - a woman - is giving him instructions as to how to proceed.

From his elevated vantage point he can see that the woman is having great difficulty understanding the responses she receives from her gardener and, in looking away momentarily, she sees him standing at a distance watching her. He smiles broadly and begins to raise his arm to acknowledge her visual contact. She responds by pretending that she has not seen him, turns slightly away from him and walks away from the conversation with the gardener.

He remains smiling, arm half raised.

For her part, she holds her gaze on the freshly dug hole.

It is 7.30 on a morning in September. Within four years he will be dead, and within two years of his death, she will burn every letter, every document and every paper reminder of this place.

Cliff McLucas