This stone plaque is fixed to a great ash tree which was the only tree originally in the garden. Mare Nostrum, our sea, was the name given to the Mediterranean by the Romans, a concept that can be read as dominating or as fondly adopting. The sound of the wind in the branches of the ash recalled to IHF the sound of the sea in his inland garden. The use of Latin and the classically lettered plaque dignify the tree and the territorial claim established over the garden.

Tree plaque, Portland stone, Nicholas Sloan, 1978