My own name, Veronica — an ugly enough thing I had always thought, it sounded like either the ointment or the disease — was one her great favourites. St Veronica wiped the face of…

There are also (placed there by man or nature?) quite a lot of skinny fuchsias and dense veronicas, all in flower, and some kind of rather attractive grey-leaved sage.

meadows full of wildflowers that seemed to Kit enormous, violets as big as your hand, yellow lilies and blue veronica you could shelter from the rain under