A perfect weekend in the Darent valley, Kent: a ‘demi-paradise’ of art, lavender fields and great pubs

Just an hour from London, this idyllic area, beloved by painters and poets, is brimming with history, beautiful walks and fab places to eat and drinkIn the 1820s, a young painter left London to live in Shoreham in the west of Kent. In his waterside cottage, Samuel Palmer – remembered now as a key figure of British Romanticism – depicted…