Staying on the edge of Jesmond Dene - a wonderful leafy park in a deep ravine on the edge of Newcastle - it smells of the woods of my childhood - that is, damp and leafy and mossy. That's hardly surprising, since we lived 44 miles west of here (or so the signpost said: Carlisle: 12; Newcastle: 44). The hotel itself is in a magnificent late Victorian mansion - designed by Norman Shaw, built between 1871-1897, and Arts and Crafts design everywhere one looks in the main part of the house. I have a bow-windowed room overlooking the garden, which backs onto the Dene. Tomorrow, an exhibition of nineteenth century British painting at the Laing Gallery called "Essence of Nature" - but that, to be honest, can be found unmediated and very green outside my window.
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