The Garden History Blog

Benington Lordship wears its long history with a welcoming smile.  Lived in by the same family for well over a hundred years it has actually been inhabited since Saxon times.  It still boasts the remains of a mediaeval castle  as well  large chunks of a mock one, a Queen Anne house with Edwardian extensions, extensive rural views, beautiful wildlife friendly gardens and what it’s particularly famous for, vast carpets of snowdrops.

Sadly this year the rain had battered most of them before I got there, but even so it was well worth visiting to see the other spring flowers and the changes that have taken place since my last visit pre-pandemic.

Postcard designed by Luca Tagliafico and used here with his permission

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I’ve discovered I’m a snob. Not so much about people but about plants.  I suppose I’d always known that I had that tendency but my trip last week to the Orchid Festival at Kew bought it home in no uncertain terms.

This was the 28th annual festival and this year it drew its  inspiration from the unique flora and fauna of Madagascar, the world’s fourth largest island and home to Kew’s third research site.  It was, their website promised,  “an extravaganza of themed floral displays and living installations, created by Kew’s team of horticulturists to transform the Princess of Wales Conservatory into a colourful celebration which never fails to brighten up the winter months.”

That’s one way of putting it.  Read on to find out why I was glad to get outside again, even though it was raining.

Orchids After Hours from the Kew website

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The Gardens Trust is working towards  publishing a book on Unforgettable Gardens and together with a few colleagues I’ve recently spent ages trying to decide which ones to include and why.  Our debates reminded me of a similar dilemma which must have been faced by Vita Sackville-West when she was writing English Country Houses in the middle of the Second World War. Published in 1941 it had the aim   of boosting national pride and morale and reads a little like a love letter to the stately, and even more, the not-so-stately homes of England.

Read on to see which houses and gardens she eventually included – or omitted – and why.

Newstead Abbey, by Varley, 1825

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The Casa Del Rey Moro, Ronda before recent restoration

This could be  a fairy tale story. A dashing young American millionaire buys a Moorish castle in a breathtaking position, from an ancient aristocratic Spanish family promising to restore it.

Imagine the excitement when he announces he has found hidden treasures which will make it second only to the Alhambra Palace in historical importance.  He engages 70 workmen to begin  digging up under the floors and the courtyard garden and  discovers vaults he says date back to Roman times, containing not only mosaics but Roman, Moorish and Gothic gold coins and other precious objects, and believes he has discovered the untouched tombs of Moorish kings.

So why haven’t you heard of it? What happened to this potential second Alhambra?  Did something go wrong?

In part the story is enough to make you laugh – or maybe cry – but , despite that, I’m still writing about the house and garden he bought.

Read on to find out what happened and why its definitely worth visiting…

In the gardens of the Casa del Rey Moro in Ronda

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A Linnet on a Spray of Barberry, by Le Moyne,  Sothebys

This was supposed to be a really  easy post to write because there are lots of nice pictures and, I thought, a reasonably straightforward story to tell.  But it’s been anything but!    It follows  on from last week’s post and looks at an artist whose early work was thought to contain some of the earliest images of the New World seen through European eyes.

French by birth Jacques Le Moyne fled to London in one of waves of Huguenot refugees escaping from religious persecution in Europe  becoming a naturalised Englishman before dying in 1588.

Clove pinks and a small tortoiseshell butterfly, undated. Sothebys

Although little is known of his life it’s clear he was also an extremely talented botanical artist and a pioneering figure in the history of florilegia. In the words of a recent British Museum exhibition he “created remarkable watercolours of plants, flowers, fruit and vegetables which captivate the eye with their extraordinary naturalism and the striking simplicity of their presentation.”

In the end, however, Le Moyne proved much more elusive than expected  especially as earlier this week when  I was finishing this post   I discovered completely new research, published just a few weeks ago, which made me  rewrite a large part of it!

From a florilegium in the British Museum, c1585

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