Diana’s country estate of Northam Park has a ha-ha.  Somewhat like the dower house at Lavenham Court, in Georgette Heyer’s marvelous Talisman Ring:

I mentioned this landscape feature in an earlier post because it figures largely in the book preceding Diana’s story entitled Notorious Vow.You cannot jump one in a side-saddle.  Trust me on this.  If you have, please comment and share your experience.In Diana’s story, this barrier that separates the immediate grounds of the mansion from the outlying agricultural fields is not immediately apparent from the house.  The architect of the estate’s landscape features tried to incorporate the beauty that is Leicestershire into a working farm so that its master, the earl of Northam, could enjoy the glory of his property without being reminded that it was the rents collected from labor and cultivation that made it all possible.