The John Griff Column: Dreaming the Dream

But away from the front pages, headline broadcasts and public utterances, there are other, much quieter voices which have been finding their own audience in a perhaps unlikely venue. What’s more, those voices have been heard by invitation as a result of an initiative based in the grounds of one of the country’s most exclusive public schools. The voices have come from all ages and backgrounds.

Stowe House is operated by the Stowe House Preservation Trust. It contains a host of English architectural delights – and a significant part of the eponymous school, lying as it does on the Northamptonshire/Buckinghamshire border. The school opened in 1923 with a first intake of 99 male pupils. Now co-educational, the pupil population has grown by a factor of 10 with around 500 staff, a proportion of which live on site. Fees stand at slightly over £46,000 per annum – and before VAT. Amongst a roll-call of politicians and business leaders, former pupils of distinction include the late Prince Rainier, entrepreneur Richard Branson, Supertramp lead singer Roger Hodgson, current English cricketer Ben Duckett, Hollywood composer Harry Gregson-Williams, and Henry Cavill – aka Superman.

The land and gardens surrounding Stowe House have been owned by the National Trust since 1989. Originally worked on by legendary gardener Capability Brown, the Trust has been hard at work returning the landscape to something more of his time – including the school’s former golf course which has been torn up and returned to something rather less manicured. Current Headmaster Anthony Wallersteiner undertakes regular tours of both the school and gardens and as incumbent of the past 21 years is an enthusiastic mine of information and anecdote. Within the gardens as a visitor (about a quarter of a million spend time there annually) you’ll find follies, statues and temples. In one of the temples on a recent visit I came across the initiative I mentioned above.

The Temple of Ancient Virtue sits nestled in trees and bushes above a pair of small, stream-fed lakes. Built in the 1730s, it’s modelled on the Italian Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, and open to the elements. Inside it recently has been an interactive display called ‘Little People – BIG DREAMS’. Originally a biography series created by author Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara, it has been challenging visitors aged between 4 – 7+ to participate, but clearly people of all ages have been taking time to do so. Be it for themselves, their friends or even the planet, there have been some eye-catching and thought-provoking contributions. Space does not allow me to list them all – there were hundreds when I visited a fortnight ago, but I did spy the following, written on cloud-shaped notes in reply to the question ‘What is it that you dream of for the future?’:

My dream is to have healthy children and grandchildren

All of us and nature free and the land of Earth returned back to us for guardianing (sic)

A world that every body cares more about where no wars are

I dream for the world to be a better place with no pollution – Josie Age 8

I wish that everything was possible – from Matilda age 9 xxx

My dream is for the world to be raining (sic) sprinkles every day !!!!!!!!

My dream is to become a vet or an engineer or a penguin expert and for everyone to be HAPPY

I want the seas and oceans to be cleaner – Jayan

I wish dragons were alive

To live in a world where KINDNESS is valued above everything else

To be able to fly – by Charlotte

I want to be a swan – Fris age 5

My dream – for a world with no hate, no crime, no internet and everyone lives in peace – Jamila

One note simply included a heart shape drawn on it and a single word – ‘Peace’.

The installation closes on Sunday (1st September). Candidly, I don’t know what the next steps will be but if others, like me, were motivated to just stop, read and maybe consider the longing and intent behind the words of others who will come to inherit the world from our own generation in due course, it will have achieved something. I hope that something significant and of moment happens to them – it would do no harm and possibly much good if the Putins, Zelenskyys, Netanyahus, Trumps, Bidens, Starmers and Modis of this world were to be sat down - together - and obliged to read each paper cloud, one by one. And then discuss them, rationally. Proximity is a powerful tool in making a convincing argument – these contributions come from next door in the timeline of the world, and we are merely brief visitors ourselves.

I’m not too sure about a world raining sprinkles (can you imagine what it would do to your carpets when you stepped inside?!) or real living dragons (fire breathing too?), but there are obviously perceptive and thoughtful young people who see and hear what is going on, and don’t like it. The cynic in me recognises that some of the posts could have been the result of parental dictation, but not all of them exclusively – there were simply too many of them. I do hope that the young lady who wrote ‘I dream to be on stage again in a musical (preferably Les Mis, Moulin Rouge or Next to Normal)’ finds that her dream comes true for her. Likewise the young man who dreams to be the best basketball player in the world (how tall are you going to grow to be first?). Pauline’s sister wished for her to have a painless end of life and delivery from stomach cancer – I’m sure we would all wish that for her, and the obvious delivery from emotional pain inflicted on her family. Maybe that’s the power of initiatives like this.

It's not just Little People that have big dreams – and we can all do the same. The initiative in the Temple of Ancient Virtue has enabled contributors to leave their own, very personal text messages for anyone who wanted to read them and using the most ancient of methods – pencil on paper.

What virtues do we need to employ to make those dreams a reality for their dreamers?