Mount Stewart – Circe’s Garden Italian Garden © Georges Levique All gardens are to a greater or lesser extent, an outpouring of artistic expression. In this regard, Mount Stewart excels. The Formal Gardens at Mount Stewart combine a number of idiosyncratic strands which are not easy to read at first glance, but when they are pointed out, combine deliciously into an overarching theme. Lady Londonderry imbued Mount Stewart with her not inconsiderable intellect, her notable achievements and her passions. By means of a sequential tour of the principal divisions of the gardens of Mount Stewart, this text provides a means to ‘read’ this wonderfully unique creation. Background A garden born of the ‘golden Edwardian afternoon’, places Mount Stewart into the early Twentieth Century, but beyond this statement, all attempts to categorise the garden founder. Edith, 7th Marchioness of Londonderry was the sole designer, architect and client at Mount Stewart. She was ably assisted in the practicalities by a local builder, Thomas Beattie, a fine mason, Joe Girvan and a very able Head Gardener, Thomas Bolas. Thomas Bolas (left) © Margaret Taylor. Thomas Bolas was originally from Derbyshire and trained at Chatsworth. Certainly by 1911 he was a gardener at Mount Stewart for Theresa, wife of the 6th Marquess of Londonderry, who used the house for only a few weeks a year. Bolas understood the favourable micro- climate at Mount Stewart. Situated on the narrow Ards Peninsular in a south westerly facing natural amphitheatre on the east shore of Strangford Lough, there are few persistent frosts. This part of Ireland is the sunniest and has a near idyllic rainfall, some 35”/900mm per annum. Eucalyptus globulus Tasmanian Blue Gum © National Trust Lady Londonderry’s husband Charles had inherited Mount Stewart while he was fighting in France in 1915. The family’s principal seat was Wynyard in Co. Durham, where the family owned collieries. The government paid a premium for coal during World War I and so, money was no object. Theresa, Lady Londonderry died in 1919, leaving Edith to order Mount Stewart along with several other residences and on a visit, she must have met with Thomas Bolas and their ideas began to coalesce. The gardens already had strong growing Eucalyptus globulus from Tasmania planted around 1895 and Edith became aware, that the sun and relatively low rainfall would make the growing of inland southern hemisphere plants from the interior of South America, South Africa and Australia in addition to the coastal species, a possibility at Mount Stewart. Mount Stewart ƚŝĐŬĞĚŽǀĞƌĚƵƌŝŶŐƚŚĞůŽŶŐLJĞĂƌƐŽĨ WWI͘dŚĞŶin 1921, with the help of 21 demobilized men, The South Terrace and Italian Garden were laid out by Thomas Bolas under Edith Londonderry’s direction. It is inconceivable that Lady Londonderry did not have a master plan for the various gardens because they relate, in terms of level and proportion so perfectly, but to date, no overarching plan has come to light. That Edith was a scholar of garden history is evident throughout her designs, with many features adapted from the more famous gardens of Italy. The Sunk Garden © National Trust / Peter Muhly Fig 5. Sunk Garden 1930 © Lady Rose Lauritzen The Sunk Garden and the West Terrace were excavated after the South Terrace and Italian Garden in 1921 and ostensibly completed by 1922. Centred on the ‘Little Dining Room’ or ‘Breakfast Room’, the Sunk and in some ways the Shamrock Garden beyond are the only parts of the garden visible from the ground floor of the house. Lord Londonderry’s bedroom immediately above this has a panoramic view over the Sunk Garden and reveals the Red Hand of the Shamrock Garden and in times past, a long view to Scrabo Tower, built by the tenants of thĞϯƌĚMarquess. The pergola surrounding three sides of the Sunk Garden is clothed with a mixture of exotic climbers and wall shrubs mixed with more common subjects. This is the hallmark of Lady Londonderry’s planting style, the latest rare discoveries with the best of the horticultural mainstream. The southern walk of the Pergola is known as the Polemarch Terrace, one of Lord Londonderry’s race horses, who won the Thousand Guineas, St. Ledger in 1921 coming in at 50:1 and is commemorated by an inscribed stone. On the inner edge of the intermediary terrace is a planting of Rhododendron coccineum Speciosum and a series of lilies, L. pardilinum, L. leitchlinii and L. henryi. Lady Edith’s long-time horticultural mentor, Sir Herbert Maxwell commented to her in 1926 – ‘The lust for lilies is a contagious disease as deadly as Rhododendronitis, from which you suffer incurably already’. A further © Ken Cox key to understanding Lady Londonderry’s planting style is her love of fragrance. She famously would not have a Rose in the garden if it did not have a decent scent. Conversely she would not have Box in the garden because she found its smell offensive. Edith made her own potpourri and mixed essential perfume oils. So, it is not surprising her taste in both Rhododendrons and Lilies favoured those with fragrance. The four identical beds on the lowest plat are displayed just the way Edith recorded them in one of her nine surviving Garden Notebooks, 1922-55. The colour scheme is predominately blue and orange with a little red and yellow thrown in. ‘White Truimphator’ Tulips, Myosotis and orange Crown Imperials start the display, then Anchusa and ‘Major Crombie’s Strain’ of Delphinium grown in the 1920s at Pitmuies House near Forfar, Angus come next. Then blue Onions and a succession of orange Lilies hold the display before the borders peak in August with Summer Hyacinths, Dahlia ‘Bishop of Oxford’, Salvia patens, orange Gladioli and Aconitum. As these fade, two fine blue Asters come to the fore. The Shamrock Garden Over the steps, the Shamrock Garden beckons. Here are complex allusions to Irish mythology and folklore. The large Irish harp in Common Yew commands the scene. Originally, one of three 14’ high topiary pieces. The surviving Fomorian, a half human, half demon has now become an abstract, but was originally more menacing, blowing a trumpet, with wings folded on his back and a dragons tail, this figure is made from Irish Yew grafted on to a double round plinth of Common Yew. Its brother, now departed, was of similar composition, but the figure depicted a giant Anteater rearing up on its back legs, possibly an allusion to her nephew, Anthony the Anteater, director of Regent’s Park Zoo. A new Fomorian is now being formed from Irish Yew. Balor’s daughter Ethlinn holding her son, Lugh the Sun God in her arms. An adaption from a design of a tarot card by Maude Gonne. In Irish mythology, the Fomorians were descended from Noah’s son Ham, who migrated to North Africa, where, it said, his people bred with a race of demons. They washed up in Ireland after the Great Flood and their king was the redoubtable Balor of the Evil Eye, a monstrous creature with a central third eye, which when opened by some minions by way of a pulley system, caused the poor unfortunate in his line of vision to fall dead. Balor’s daughter was Ethlinn who is depicted in the family burial ground, Tir n’an Og. When the Tuatha de Danaan, the magical race of gods, goddesses, heroes and heroines came to Ireland, they fought five successive battles and Ethlinn’s son Lugh, slew Balor and the Fomorians were defeated to live a twilight existence in places like the shores of Strangford Lough, or Lough Cuan in Irish. Fomorian Topiary 1950s © Lady Rose Lauritzen The Red Hand of Ulster © Lady Rose Lauritzen The Red Hand of Ulster, here represented as a left hand, brings to mind the MacDonnell legend of the two Viking brothers who would have a race in their long ships from the Mull of Kintyre to the Antrim coast, a matter of some twenty miles or so. Whoever’s hand touched the beach first would be the King of all Ireland. The younger brother Labraid was losing, so he cut off his left hand and threw it on the beach, thus winning the race. The Red Hand was adopted by the O’Neill chieftains and one of Charles ancestors was Frances Anne Vane Tempest, the Countess of Antrim in her own right and descendent of the last King of Ulster, Hugh O’Neill. Fig 11. Topiary figures Shamrock hedge 1950s. The collaboration with Edmund Brock – a whimsical children’s story. © Lady Rose Lauritzen The Shamrock hedge used to be 4’ taller than it is today and hosted some twenty four topiary pieces, telling a whimsical children’s story, a collaboration between Edith and the artist, Edmund Brock. Edith had previously published the ‘Magic Ink Pot’ in 1928 with illustrations by Edmund Brock. The inspiration for the design of the figures came from Queen Mary’s Psalter or to be more precise, the marginalia, the doodles of the monks when they were bored with transcription. The story begins with the Stewart family coming to Northern Ireland in a curragh, Edith at the stern blowing a horn, the three younger children, Helen, Margaret and Mairi under the rigging and Edmund Brock at the bow with a bottle of whisky and the blue and yellow Macaw, Edward on his shoulder. Flamingos – Edith, Lady Londonderry at the lake © Lady Rose Lauritzen Following a long visit to India in 1904, Edith was very taken with the way in which the Maharaja’s palaces were animated by birds and animals and she determined to do the same at Mount Stewart.