“Wow – that was quick!” These are the words that greet me every time I log onto the website (www.vopres.co.uk) of the little company my brother and I have been running for a couple of years. Vopres makes little videos for websites, like the one of me on the Knebworth House “Welcome” page that appears “instantly” to greet visitors. These words are constantly in my head – I dream them, they have become the coda to everything that happens during the day, I can even see them on my tombstone! I am trying to replace them in my head with the more positive “fill the unforgiving minute” from Kipling’s poem “If” – in fact I am tempted to translate that phrase into Latin and write it on the wall as the new family motto.
But here I go again… “Wow – that was quick!” Our 2011 Summer Season is upon us. It seems only yesterday that we were “closing” for the winter. Although we never technically “close” – it has been a full winter of weddings, Christmas events, film companies, repairs & maintenance, and, of course, contract meetings for all of next summer’s events. A big project this winter has been trying to get our new Gift Shop built – despite our best intentions, this won’t be ready for our opening on Saturday 26th, but there will be an impressive new building frame to look at, along with the daffodils, if you accept our invitation to this year’s Parish Open Day. To celebrate the start of our 2011 Summer Season, Knebworth House, Gardens and Park will be free to residents of Knebworth Parish on Sunday 27th March. Please enter via the white gate by St Mary’s, and please bring something that indicates you live in Knebworth (i.e. a copy of this magazine). Put it in your diary – it’ll be here before you know it!
Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com