and depressing story". Gardens and Terrace The gardens were laid out by Charles Howard in the 1650s. The diarist, John Evelyn recorded a visit to Deepdene on 1 August 1655: "I went to Dorking to see Mr Cha. Howard's amphitheater, garden, or Solitaire recesse, being 15 acres, inviron'd by a hill. He shew'd us divers rare plants, caves, and an elaboratory." John Aubrey recorded a visit in July 1673 and described the garden extensively: "…the Honourable Charles Howard of Norfolk hath very ingeniously contriv'd a long Hope… in the most pleasant and delightful solitude for House, Gardens, Orchards, Boscages, &c. that I have seen in England… The true Name of this Hope is Dibden (quasi Deep Dene.) Mr Howard hath cast this Hope into the Form of a Theatre, on the Sides whereof he hath made several narrow Walks, like the Seats of a Theatre, one above another, above 6 in Number, done with a Plough, which are bordured with Thyme, and some Cherry-Trees, Myrtles &c. Here was a great many Orange-Trees and Syringa's, which were then in Flower. In this Garden are 21 Sorts of Thyme. The Pit (as I may call it) is stored full of rare Flowers and choice Plants… "In the Hill on the Left Hand, (being sandy Ground) is a Cave digged 36 Paces long, 4 broad, and 5 Yards high; and at about two Thirds of the Hill (where the Crook or Bowing is) he hath dug another subterranean Walk or Passage, to be pierc'd tho' the Hill; thro' which (as thro' a Tube) you have the Visto over all the South Part of Surrey and Sussex to the Sea…" In 1822, the horticulturalist and planner John Claudius Loudon wrote: "The grounds are not extensive, but are highly romantic, and intersected with walks in various directions, which, with admirable liberality, are at all times open to the public." Thomas Hope, who purchased Deepdene in 1808, built a mausoleum in the grounds in which both he and his son (Henry Thomas Hope) are buried. Under his grandson, Lord Francis Hope, the property began a period of decline, accelerated by his bankruptcy in 1896. The house was occupied by the military during World War I and became a hotel in the 1920s and early 1930s. During World War II it became the headquarters of the Southern Railway. Local concerns that the house grounds would be sold