Birthplace of the English garden landscape

Andrew Bascott visits Rousham House in Oxfordshire to explain its seminal place in horticultural history 18 the countryman

xfordshire is a county with a rich 1685 in Bridlington on the Yorkshire Oheritage: it’s home to the world’s coast. The son of a joiner, he became a oldest university; the River Thames, Eng - man with many creative talents. His land’s most iconic river, flows through working life began as a sign and coach much of it; and Britain’s most admired painter, but over time he worked as an Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, architect, interior designer and illus - was born and also buried here. But less trator, before finally embarking upon known is its part in the birth of English perhaps his most influential career, garden landscape design. that of garden designer. A dozen miles north of Oxford’s Like many in the early eighteenth ‘dreaming spires’, tucked away beside century he was drawn to Italy, one of the meandering banks of another the Grand Tour highlights. His time river, the Cherwell, there is a country- spent exploring and working there, house garden that has changed little amongst its Classical art and architec - over almost 300 years. Rousham ture, was to have a great influence on House dates from 1635 and, although his work both as an architect and gar - Left, William Kent’s Praenest is the largest of his architectural features within the grounds architecturally interesting in its own den designer. of Rousham House. Above a view of the house across extensive parkland. right, it is the gardens that are of his - His pioneering vision was one of torical importance. Sir Robert Dormer blending gardens with Nature; to cre - complete with a steep slope down to with a Gothic stone arch, the Eye - built the house, but it was William ate a natural landscape with the look the banks of the Cherwell, upon which catcher, perched across the valley, act - Kent who really left his mark. and feel of a classical painting. Horace he could create his ‘painting’. ing as a distant focal point. Kent is thought to have been born in Walpole, the great writer with a pas - Bridgeman’s designs at Rousham Today, all is much as Kent left it. The sion for gardens, wrote of Kent that were largely formal and symmetrical, statues dotted throughout, range from “he had leaped the fence, and saw that and so Kent’s vision for the gardens the romantic such as Apollo and all nature was a garden”; while Kent were to be almost revolutionary. How - Venus, to the macabre and gruesome himself remarked that “all gardening ever, one feature Bridgeman had of Scheemaker’s the Dying Gladiator is landscape painting”. started, and which Kent completed, and the Lion and Horse. He contributed to the designs of was the ha-ha. The sunken stone wall Water features are found in Venus’ some of England’s great country- allowed open views of the tree-planted Vale, a grass amphitheatre edged by house gardens, including those at parkland from within the gardens and, woodland, with a large octagonal Chatsworth and Stowe; but it was only unusually, at Rousham snakes its way pond linked to two stone-arched cas - at Rousham where he conceived the to within a few feet of the house. cades. Just beyond the vale is the whole garden. It is his lasting legacy. While trees, ornamental ponds and Watery Walk, a woodland path with a Kent was hired in 1738, carrying on wooded glades were all important ele - stone-lined rill running down its mid - from the work of renowned royal gar - ments within Kent’s vision for dle. Spring water flows along the rill, dener Charles Bridgeman. His first Rousham, so too were the strategically meandering beneath tall trees, into the task was to build the impressive stable placed pieces of statuary and Classical Cold Bath, a smaller octagonal pool block and add wings to the south front architecture, designed to intrigue and intended for bathing. of the house. The grounds presented delight. These features also extended Kent’s most impressive piece of Kent with an irregular-shaped canvas, well beyond the garden boundary, Classical architecture is his seven- 20 the countryman february 2015 21

Left, the ornate iron gate and arch of Cotswold stone at the entrance to the walled garden. Above, the statue of Apollo stands at the end of the tree-lined walk.

arched arcade, sitting atop a steep espalier apple orchard; but its real gem grassy bank overlooking the Cherwell. is perhaps the Pigeon House garden. The Praeneste, as it is known, was Here a stylish dovecote (circa 1685), inspired by the Temple of Fortune in provides the backdrop to the rose the ancient Italian city of Preaneste, parterre, with its geometric-shaped and was built as a place to rest and box-hedged borders. admire the riverside views. A small team of dedicated gardeners Pre-dating Kent’s work, however, keep the gardens in the style that Kent and screened by a thick hedge of holly, created. They don’t undertake dra - yew and box, is the walled garden. Set matic makeovers but strive to preserve within a high seventeenth-century his vision and maintain the tricky bal - brick wall, it provides a colourful ance he sought between Nature and respite from the greener, Classical design. The result is a unique and landscape beyond. This ‘secret garden’ unspoilt piece of garden history. n is entered through an ornate wrought- iron gate and is best visited in sum - Rousham Gardens are open every day. mer. Contained within its red-brick Admission fee. Telephone 01869 347 walls are deep herbaceous borders, a 110; email [email protected]; website large vegetable garden and an ancient www.rousham.org