ON THE FELLING OF ANCIENT TREES

It was quite by coincidence that I read an article about the gradual removal of old Badbury Beech Avenue trees on the Kingston Lacy Estate, designed in exile by William John Bankes, aesthete, scholar, friend of Lord Byron and Percy Shelley. Bankes designed and executed the estate while in exile, having been apprehended giving head to a common guard in a public garden....and thereby risking the then homophobic death penalty for his "crime".......The wealthy dilettante jumped bail, travelled to safety abroad and continued his Elton John/Michael Jackson/Andy Warhol shopping sprees, amassing a museum-level collection of Egyptian "stuff" and completing his Kingston Lacy project......while being denied the pleasure of dwelling there..........And, just reflect on Life in our own country just 50 years ago.....where our own progressive society would have issued a lobotomy permit for Bankes.

Musica da Camera by Streicher Trio