trying to convey some timeless essence about the abbey.

The point about the Donwell gardens is that they were severely unfashionable for the time. No avenues have been rooted up by previous generations of Knightleys attending to the claims of the landscape movement. Capability Brown and Humphrey Repton have not been employed here ;-)

There is not a fashionable and expensive column or massive stone obelisk or urn terminating the view at the end of the walk. It leads to "nothing". But that nothing is something JA held rather dear,IMHO. A view of the English countryside,but not the idealsied but useless landscape of the picturesque so beloved of people of the 18th century.

No, this was something very different.It wasn't merely beautiful.It was something productive. The "working" English countryside . Abbey Mill Farm with its well run acres and of course, the river which would I suppose have powered the water mill,after which the Farm got its name.

Industry,hard work and old fashioned values were all the charms of the Abbey and its surroundings. The Knightley had scorned passing fads and kept their money invested in their lands, looking after their tenants as they did so.