Arguably one of the best events of this year's Corsham Festival, the Mary Hampton Cotillion brought back to life traditional English folk with the eccentric twist that Hampton embodies.

I was bowled over by the humour in the work. "The old folks cut their toe nails by the light of a cartoon" was one of my particular favourites.

Hampton's fragile and chilling voice needs no accompaniment but nevertheless the music from guitar, fiddle, corner, percussion, cello and double bass is simply delicious. The use of hands as an instrument was particularly colourful.

The clue is in the title as to what really made this an extra special evening. Ethelred House enjoys the stunning backdrop of a folly and Hampton herself admitted that it was one of her preferred venues on the six-stop tour of enchanting locations.

The music was framed by the garden walls, a flock of swifts swooping and swirling above and the sound of nearby Corsham Court peacocks squawking. The group's new CD, Folly, is going to be a winner but it is hard to encapsulate that atmosphere in any other format than actually being there to soak it up.