the seasoned traveler with george bauer

Program 208:

English Gardens


Grimsthorpe Castle ...

Lots of us love to dabble in the dirt. In fact, 70 million American households engage in gardening or landscaping projects. Many are seasoned gardeners. When those who profess to have a green thumb contemplate the quintessential green space, the English garden often comes to mind. So, The Seasoned Traveler paid a visit to some of the largest, and smallest, flower-filled spaces in England. The United Kingdom is a relatively small country, about the size of Oregon. Yet it has 100 gardens open for public viewing and there are five botanical gardens across the country: one each in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales and two in England.

The country's earliest gardens were likely planted by the Romans in the First Century A.D. after the centurions had conquered this land. Gardens became fallow for a long time after the Romans but in the Middle Ages the monks in the monasteries took on the task of gardening, both for food and for medicinal purposes. Castles had courtyard plots of blooms. Later, Manor houses converted gardens into large green lawns surrounded by hedges. Parklands were created during the Reformation. The Tudors rediscovered gardens, copying the grandeur of Italian gardens and the Stuarts followed the French lead and created imposing formal gardens. These have survived, more or less, until today.

I began my trip down the garden path in Lincolnshire, northeast of London. Grimsthorpe Castle and Gardens is set in a large park. The building goes back to Tudor times and has been owned by the De Eresby family since 1516, when it was granted to them by King Henry VIII (don't you love how these royals could just hand over a huge castle and adjoining land to their friends?)

There's a compact but beautiful rose garden, a fruit orchard beyond it, and a relatively new vegetable patch. That's because Lady Jane Willoughby De Eresby, the current lady of the manor, wanted fresh produce while she's in residence. She spends much of the year at Grimsthorpe and the remainder at the other family castle --in Scotland. Lady Willoughby also loves lavender and there are such plants all over the estate. My two favorite places here are the topiary garden, manicured by Head Gardener Eddie Peeling; and the herbaceous border garden, which combines all of the most popular varieties into one dazzling display along one border of the property. The gardens are part of Grimsthorpe's 3,000-acre estate in the rolling hills of Lincolnshire. It's a special place and apparently a well-kept secret because I met a man from Peterborough, just a 45-minute drive away. Bill Wilson was paying his first-ever visit to Grimsthorpe because he never knew it existed. His son and daughter-in-law had brought him to see the splendor of the place and he loved it.


Easton Walled Garden in full bloom ...

A few miles away there's a Renaissance garden, a type of Phoenix rising from the ashes. Easton Walled Gardens is near Grantham and has a sad and remarkable history. It was once a magnificent house, with gardens that had been tended for four centuries. But when World War II began, British troops were billeted there. The Second Parachute Regiment and the Artillery Regiment were housed at Easton mansion and practiced on the extensive grounds. The soldiers were called "brave but reckless", so reckless that they trashed the house and gardens. The mansion was torn down and the gardens were left in disrepair from 1945 until 2001 when Fred and Ursula Cholmeley, the 14 th in the family tree to hold the estate, decided to restore the gardens. It's a work in progress, to re-create the lush Italian gardens that once graced the "back yard". A new poppy patch grows along the bank of the narrow River Witham, adjacent to an ancient Yew tunnel, where the well-heeled once walked on Summer days. My favorite spot here: the Pickery, where plants and blossoms to be picked are grown.

There's an American connection at Easton. James and Sara Roosevelt of Hyde Park, New York, were friends with Hugh and Edith Cholmeley and they brought their son Franklin here to visit. The future U.S. President explored the grounds more than once, often taking notes and measurements. He used some of what he gleaned from his trips here on his own property overlooking the Hudson River.


Chatsworth House is a delight...

Driving west from here, I went to Chesterfield in Derbyshire and one of the most extensive and beautiful gardens you're ever likely to see. Chatsworth House is actually a Baroque palace, which has been sitting imperially in the countryside since 1707. Its gardens extend for some 100 acres. They were first landscaped in the 1760s by Capability Brown, Britain's most-famous landscape designer. He was a leader in the movement away from formal gardens and toward more pastoral settings of lakes, groupings of trees, and a lack of boundaries. While he was "developing" the outer reaches of Chatsworth, gardener Joseph Paxton was creating amazing bucolic spaces: everything from a massive rock garden, to a kitchen garden, a sensory garden, a maze (made from 1,200 yew bushes), a serpentine hedge, and an indoor conservative wall (a glorified greenhouse). Paxton oversaw construction of a giant Conservatory in the center of the green space but it fell into disrepair and was demolished in 1920. The sensory garden is relatively new, built in 2003. It's the pet project of Head Gardener Ian Webster and it gives visitors an opportunity to see, feel, smell, perhaps even eat a wide variety of plants and shrubs. And be sure to visit the garden that replicates an English cottage, oddly enough called the Cottage Garden. It's quite clever.

My favorite place at Chatsworth: the Cascades, first built in 1696, and rebuilt on a grander scale in 1702. It's a terraced waterfall, with some two-dozen levels. It's beautiful to look at, cooling and comforting to stand in on a warm day. If you were to visit only a few great gardens in England, Chatsworth should likely be one of them.


Take a look at Crook Hall and Gardens ...

Finally, I drive to Northeast England and Durham, in County Durham. This beautiful small city situated on a wooded peninsula is also home to a garden that few people have ever heard about. Up on a hill, overlooking the city and its venerable Cathedral you'll find Crook Hall and Gardens. It's been described as a "marvelous jumble of buildings and gardens in an unexpectedly rural setting close to the center of Durham". The original Medieval structure was built in 1200, a Jacobean wing came in the 17 th Century, and a Georgian addition followed later. Gardens have existed for years, even centuries. They were enlarged in 1930, later fell into disrepair, and reclaimed in 1979.

The charming pair of secret walled gardens is the highlight of this small parcel. The current "lady of the manor" is Maggie Bell and she says she is happy that garden-lovers are finally discovering Crook Hall. Beyond the walls, there are other gardens too. The Cathedral garden gets its inspiration from the big church down in the city center. In fact, it overlooks the real thing. An enchanting Shakespeare garden is filled with plants and flowers from the Bard's time-lovage, borage, lemon balm, marigold, meadowsweet.

The Silver and White garden was created to celebrate the silver wedding anniversary of Crook Hall's previous owners. You can guess the color of the blooms. And after passing through the orchard of apples, cherries, and plums visitors reach the restored moat. The original moat was constructed to keep invaders of the North from coming into Durham with evil intentions.

As I made this trip on The Seasoned Traveler, I was guided by Dorothy Gurney's poem "God's Garden":

"The kiss of the sun for pardon,

The song of the birds for mirth.

One is nearer God's heart in a garden,

Than anywhere else on Earth."