One of the joys of May walks in towns and villages is admiring what grows in other people's gardens. Stanley Spencer manages to capture the beauty of ordinary garden plants, such as the lovely Clematis montana and short-lived but glorious lilac, in scenes which could be in many of our novels such as 17, The Grove, home and garden of Celia and Thomas in They Knew Mr Knight. This is Lilac and Clematis at Englefield (1955, private collection).