Rousdon: a Victorian Garden Nicky Campbell
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Rousdon: A Victorian Garden Nicky Campbell Henry William Peek (1825–1898) became senior partner in Peek Brothers and Co., tea and coffee merchants, of East Cheap, London from 1847 to 1895. His income was said to be in the region of a guinea a minute. Active in politics he was elected as the senior Tory MP for the Wimbledon constituency from 1868 to 1884. He founded the Movement for the Preservation of Open Spaces and in 1871 helped save Wimbledon Common from building development, ensuring its enjoyment by local people. On 13 May 1874 Henry Peek was knighted for services to science. In 1869 Peek purchased the Rousdon estate of 350 acres for Grounds c. 1905 £22,500. Rousdon was a tiny cliff top parish on the Devon/ Dorset border just west of Lyme Regis where a population of was his last garden design and he was still working on it eighteen lived in the ‘three habitable houses’.1 when he died in 1889. Peek and his wife Margaret were keen gardeners. Wimbledon Marnock’s designs were similar to those of Humphry Repton: House, their London home, had superb gardens which ‘he produced ingeniously contrived landscapes, with informal extended to over 100 acres. Head gardener John Ollerhead flower gardens near the domestic quarters. He eschewed wrote that: terraces, vases and stonework entirely’.4 Marnock disliked It is estimated that from 1886 to 1888 he [Peek] spent bedding schemes, ‘the dotting of trees and shrubs on lawns upwards of £30,000 in the improvement of the estate. like sentinels … or placing anything on a lawn at all which He built a large range of glasshouses – the most in any way interrupted the view or defaced the space’.5 This extensive in any private garden in the neighbourhood style of garden design became known as ‘The Gardenesque’ of London. It is interesting to note that the heaviest and included great sweeps of well kept lawns with well placed bunch of bananas ever exhibited was grown in these clumps of trees and shrubs as well as individual specimen gardens. It weighed 97 lbs and was shown at the Royal trees. The gardens were designed to be run effectively and Horticultural Society Exhibition in 1877, where it economically avoiding labour intensive effects such as wall- gained a gold medal.2 trained shrubs. Marnock’s plans for Rousdon were prepared in the summer of 1873 and the planting of the major tree It was natural that the same care would be lavished on the groups began shortly after. His design drawings were garden at Rousdon and Sir Henry Peek employed a leading meticulous and the ones he made of the proposed drainage landscape designer of the day, Robert Marnock (1800–1889), scheme for the walled garden were incredibly detailed.6 who had previously worked on the grounds at Wimbledon House.3 Marnock’s first major design work had been in 1833, Marnock was responsible for planting the parkland. The when he won a competition to design the Sheffield Botanical whole garden was sheltered by plantation belts comprising Gardens. He later designed the Royal Botanic Society’s pines, thuja, cypress, copper beech, maple and other garden at Regent’s Park in 1839 becoming its curator from ornamental trees. Hydrangeas were planted in great numbers: 1841 to 1863. Other gardens he was associated with included trees were under-planted with spring bulbs. The carriageway Cliveden, Ragley Hall, Victoria Embankment gardens, had an avenue of cypress trees planted the entire length. Warwick Castle and Studley Royal Water Gardens. Rousdon When the avenue matured, Mrs Critchard, whose family View from the terrace 1905 6 Inside the Walled Garden The Walled Garden 1937 lived on the estate, thought it was very gloomy. The tree belts also screened the access route for the labourers to get to their places of work. Planting of shrubs to act as windbreaks and spacious reading room well stocked in books of literature, to beautify the grounds was carried on for several years. together with newspapers’.9 There was also a small two roomed bothy cottage. Another row of cottages by the glass In 1881 the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette described the gardens houses near the walled garden included the head gardener’s and park on the south side of the mansion: house. Away to the left, and a few feet from the mansion, you By the track down into the cliffs were the children’s gardens. come to the archery and croquet grounds, bordered A circle of yews was planted close together which would by a carriage-drive and shrubberies. In front of these, eventually grow to join up and form a playhouse. There were stretching towards the south, are the terraces and small ponds with bridges over them. Palms, hydrangeas and pleasure grounds, the latter studded with groups of snowdrops were planted and small, winding paths edged by choice shrubs, while here and there are a few stunted stones and shells were laid out. Below the children’s gardens trees, with gnarled moss-clad trunks. The south front an elaborate summerhouse was built looking out down the looks directly over the sea, and commands a wide view steep valley to the sea. Here the family could sit and take of it … The grounds on the south front adjoining the tea – there was a room in the summerhouse from which the mansion are laid out in terraces and walks, ornamental butler and maids could serve them. The valley had a flight shrubberies and rockeries. At the western end there is of descending pools linked by waterfalls. It was planted also a prettily-designed artificial lake with islands.7 with exotic plants including pampas grasses, Lobelia tupa and The gardens and grounds were laid out for both pleasure Strawberry trees (arbutus), as the microclimate there was so and exercise as well as being a source of fruit, flowers and mild. At the bottom of that ‘steep sided valley’ was a small vegetables. Along the south front the lawn was edged by harbour which Sir Wilfred had had blasted out from the a ha-ha, so that the view to the sea was uninterrupted. To rock. The path down to it was planted with rhododendrons, the west of the terrace was a mound where a bandstand was arbutus and other ornamental shrubs. The trees with ‘moss built. On the slopes below the terrace lawn Robert Marnock covered trunks’ included two ash trees that had grown beside planted a fine selection of trees, with walks winding through the original farmhouse. Various walks and rides were also them. laid out including the Ladies Walk, which ran from the West Lodge drive and curved around into the Undercliff. The walled garden was entered by either the east or west covered gateways. On the two south corners gazebos were A postcard of about 1900 shows a very elaborate bedding built from which panoramic views of the bay could be seen.8 scheme on the lawn just below the terrace, with gardeners The north side was closed by grape houses with an orangery in the centre and hot houses for melons and cucumbers. To the north of the walled garden there was a courtyard with a terrace and around this were sheds, storerooms, and greenhouses. In the frame yard early plants were raised on hot beds made from dung, leaf mould and soil. Trucks ran down a set of rails directly from the stables. Soil for the walled garden had to be imported, as the natural soil was too chalky. There was a palm house to rear plants for display in the mansion and another where rare flowers were grown. In 1876 Peek exhibited ‘rare orchids’ at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Spring Show. Here also was the head gardener’s office, the furnace room for heating the range of glass houses and accommodation for the garden men, which included a bothy laid out for up to five men with separate cubicles for sleeping, plus ‘a dining room kitchen, and a room set apart as a hospital; also a good lofty and Bedding below the terrace 1902 7 laying out the plants in beds cut into a shape reminiscent of Sir Cuthbert with ‘roses, dahlias, chrysanthemums, moss the shapes on Paisley shawls. Robert Marnock would not and ivy’.15 The gardens would also provide flowers and have approved – stonework, urns and bedding all on one greenery to decorate other occasions. In 1879, ‘The brilliant photograph of Rousdon. By 1920 the parkland to the north scarlet bracts of Poinsettias were sent by Sir Henry Peek to of the mansion was maturing, the grounds described as decorate the RHS show’ in London. In 1926 the ballroom ‘beautifully timbered’.10 for the Devon County Ball was decorated with flowers and evergreens given by his grandson, Sir Wilfred Peek. Cuthbert Peek, the son of Sir Henry and Lady Margaret, showed an early interest in gardening. At prep school he Surplus vegetables were loaded into the pony cart and taken wrote home to his mother about the different varieties of to be sold to two different shops in Seaton. Any not sent Parma violets and wondered if hyacinth bulbs would grow for sale would be put by the frames for the staff to help in water in his room. He asked that she send him some themselves. Apart from their own cottage gardens, the flowering pot plants, and, on another occasion, he asked for workers also grew their own vegetables in plots that were ‘some of the cucumber seeds which Ollerhead is growing made available to them to the west of the walled garden.