Charles the First stayed at Boothroyd Hall the night before the Battle of Edgehill. Now the Boothroyd family anticipates the imminent arrival of Bertie Gray's bulldozer, due to bisect the historic grounds with a dual carriageway -unless the resolute Lady Boothroyd has anything to do with it. She announces her intention to do herself in at the precise moment that the bulldozers begin their shameful work. Will her family, or indeed the vicar, dissuade her from this extreme decision? As the Last Post sounds and Sir William Boothroyd enters in full regimental regalia, the bulldozers' roar is heard. William Douglas Home's drawing-room comedy depicts the British aristocracy at their most charmingly eccentric as they make a stand against the destruction of the English countryside.