The Garden History Blog

Vulnerability Brown

Posted on 02/12/2017 by The Garden History Blog

On Wednesday I was in Birmingham for the annual Historic Landscapes Assembly organised by The Gardens Trust. It marked the launch of a significant report they had commissioned about Capability Brown, so although I don’t normally cover current events here I thought I’d use my 200th post to spread the word.

I can hear the collective groan going up – yes we know the man was a genius but we’ve just had a whole year of him and are beginning to get a bit B… off. But the report wasn’t about him but the conservation challenges and opportunities facing many of his designed landscapes, which are currently being collectively considered for possible World Heritage Status.

First the good news: Langley Park in Bucks, restored with the aid of the Heritage Lottery Fund.

This report was written by Dr Sarah Rutherford and Sarah Couch , both experienced landscape historians with expertise in the conservation of historic landscapes and in the planning issues they face. Much of the text of this post is taken directly from their work, and you’ll find the link to the whole document at the end.

But why is the report necessary? Surely we know that Brown’s surviving sites are precious and need to be looked after like any other great work of art? If that’s the case why are there as many as 6 Brown parks, as well as a whole string of buildings in landscapes associated with him, on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register?.

And the not so good news: Clandon Park in Surrey, is on the Heritage at Risk Register Photo Historic England Archives

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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Blenheim, Capability Brown, Chatsworth, Clandon Park, Compton Verney, conservation, Croome Park, garden buildings, Gardens Trust, planning, sandleford priory, Temple Newsam, Wotton Underwood | 1 Comment

Belsay: “A self-contained Eden”

Posted on 25/11/2017 by The Garden History Blog

Belsay Hall, Historic England

Belsay is an extraordinary match made in heaven, or rather in the green rolling hills of Northumberland. The estate is most famous for its stunning but stark Grecian revival mansion finished just 200 years ago in 1817, but tucked away in the grounds there is also a once important but now semi-ruined mediaeval castle that was enlarged and ‘domesticated’ in the early 17th century.

Belsay Castle, Historic England

But best of all the two buildings are linked by an extraordinary garden created in the 19th within the the quarry from which the stone for the new hall was cut.

The Quarry Garden, English Heritage

Belsay was owned by the same family – the Middletons – from the 13thc up until ownership passed to English Heritage in 1984. Although its buildings are now empty and echoing Belsay still maintains the same special quality that led Christopher Hussey, the architectural and garden writer, to describe it in 1940 as “a self-contained Eden”. It is definitely one of the architectural and horticultural highlights of not just North East England but the whole country. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged English Heritage, ferme ornee, grecian revival, john dobson, quarry garden, rhododendrons, william hooker | Leave a comment

Ella and Florence Du Cane & their own gardens in Essex

Posted on 18/11/2017 by The Garden History Blog

“Spring in the Wild Garden” based on a painting by Ella Du Cane of her garden at Beacon Hill from J.Coutts, A Complete Book of Gardening, 1930

Last week’s post was about Ella and Florence du Cane two adventurous aristocratic young women who, in pre-war Edwardian England, wrote and illustrated garden-related travel books.

Despite their popularity before 1914, by 1918 the story was different. There were far fewer travel books published – and none at all for the sisters – but there may well have been other factors at work. The family estate, Braxted, had to be sold to pay their brother’s debts, so after her war service Florence returned to live with their mother at Mountains, the former dower house. She also took seriously to horticulture, not only taking over the running of Mountains but making a career of garden design. Meanwhile, although some of Ella’s paintings continued to be used to illustrate books she spent most of her time at nearby Beacon Hill House, painting and creating a new garden around what was once a small, but soon enlarged, cottage.

Extract from OS 25″ series: Essex n XLVI.13
showing both Mountains and Beacon Hill House Revised: 1920 Published: 1923. National Library of Scotland

Both gardens were soon being recognized as interesting and significant and were reported on by Christopher Hussey in Country Life, almost in tandem, in 1925. All the photos come from the articles on 14 March & 2nd May respectively and have the original captions unless otherwise stated.

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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Japanese Garden, Rockery | 1 Comment

Two Essex Girls & the exotic: Ella & Florence Du Cane

Posted on 11/11/2017 by The Garden History Blog

Azaleas from Flowers and Gardens of Japan by Ella and Florence du Cane, 1908

My title is a bit unfair. The Essex Girls I’m going to talk about are not those caricatured on TOWI or in popular comedy but two aristocratic young ladies from the county who not only created gardens there but also travelled the world and wrote and illustrated a series of travel books. These were mainly about gardens and introduced a touch of the exotic and colour, to their British readers.

Aristocratic women in the 19thc were conventionally taught to paint and draw but few made a living out of it. That would have been thought shocking. But one woman who did was Ella Du Cane. The daughter of a Tory MP and colonial governor, after the death of her father, she set off with her elder sister Florence to travel the world.

Braxted Park

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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Italian Garden, Japan, Japanese Garden, Josiah Conder, Queen Victoria | 5 Comments

The Picturesque Traveller discovers the Lakes

Posted on 04/11/2017 by The Garden History Blog

Lakeland Landscape, unknown artist, York Museums Trust

Last week’s post about Anthony Devis showed how our understanding and appreciation of the landscape has changed radically over the centuries. Until the beginning of the 18thc wilderness and untamed nature, was generally unappreciated with most art, literature and aesthetic taste focused on the tranquillity of pastoral scenes. However philosophers like the Earl of Shaftesbury then began to take more interest in wild nature.

Sir George Beaumont and Joseph Farington painting a waterfall,by Thomas Hearne, 1777, Wordsworth Trust

This developed as the century progressed and saw the emergence of a new aesthetic category which explained how wild and untamed scenery could evoke a response which was not the displeasure associated with ugliness, but pleasure mixed with fear.

Previously unregarded parts of the country such as the Lake District, the Peak District, Wales and Scotland began to attract visitors. As transport and roads improved so more and more travellers toured the country seeking “picturesque beauty” and “the sense of the sublime” in nature.

Who for instance, would previously have thought that Windermere, looking like an outpost of the North Atlantic coast in a force 9 gale, would be a suitable subject for a painting?