Sherborne Castle

SHERBORNE CASTLE In the early twelfth century, Roger of Caen, Bishop of Salisbury built a castle at Sherborne with a deer park and hunting lodge. When Dorset came under the diocese of Bristol in 1592, Sherborne was leased to Queen Elizabeth who then gave the estate to Sir Walter Raleigh. Unsuccessful in modernising the old castle, Raleigh built a new house across the river in 1594 and laid out a garden between the two buildings. In 1603, Raleigh was arrested on charges of treason and the estate reverted to the Crown. In 1617, Sherborne was sold to Sir John Digby, Ambassador to Spain who enlarged the house; he was created Baron Digby of Sherborne in 1618 and Earl of Bristol in 1622. During the Civil War, the Norman castle was slighted and left in ruins. In 1698, the barony and earldom of Bristol became extinct and Sherborne was inherited by the 1st Earl’s nephew, Robert Digby, 1st Baron Digby of Geashill. It wasn’t until the eighteenth century that 5th Lord Digby’s third son Robert remodelled the garden to the Tudor house. The beginning of the eighteenth century was a time of change. There was a movement away from the formal gardens of William and Mary with their straight canals and topiary towards the appreciation of irregularity within Nature. The 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury wrote in 1699: ‘I shall no longer resist the Passion growing in me for things of a natural kind…Even the rude Rocks, the mossy Caverns, the irregular unwrought Grottos, and broken Falls of Waters, with all the horrid Graces of the Wilderness it-self, as representing Nature more, will be the more engaging, and appear with a Magnificence beyond the formal Mockery of princely Gardens.’ By 1724, George I was on the throne, Alexander Pope had translated the Iliad and Robert Walpole was Prime Minister. In late June of that year, Pope visited his friend Robert Digby at Sherborne and wrote enthusiastically to Martha Blount: I promised you an account of Sherborne, before I had seen it, or knew what I undertook. I imagind it to be one of those fine old Seats of which there are Numbers scatterd over England. But this is so peculiar and its situation of so uncommon a kind, that it merits a more particular description…The Gardens are so Irregular, that ‘tis hard to give an eaxt idea of ‘em but by a Plan. Their beauty rises from this Irregularity, for not only the Several parts of the Garden itself make the better Contraste by these sudden Rises, Falls, and Turns of ground; but the Views about it are lett in, & hang over the Walls, in very different figures and aspects. For Pope, it was the acceptance of Nature combined with the irregular features of the waterfall on the River Yeo, the layout of the land and the ruins of the original Sherborne castle that filled him with delight. He felt that a ‘little Temple’ would complete the scene; a Claudian classical paradise. VISIT GARDENS 07940 877568 www.visitgardens.com An undated letter from Edward (Robert’s nephew) to Lord Ilchester confirms that William Kent visited Sherborne. Critical of Kent’s visit, Edward wrote: ‘Mr Kent has been here ever since last Tuesday and does not talk of going away. He does nothing but advise me to pull down all the Ruins Old and New and says they are so ugly he hates to look at them’. However, confusion arises as Edward did not inherit Sherborne until 1753, Kent died in 1748 and the ‘new’ ruin was not built until 1755/6. Kent produced a design of a Gothick Seat but it was never built. The extent of Lancelot Brown’s work at Sherborne is not known. He made several visits in 1754 by which time work on the lake had begun but as Janet Waymark in her article on Sherborne [Garden History, Vol. 29, No. 1] points out, Brown was paid £322.9s.0d for ‘making the piece of water’ at Sherborne while at Longleat he charged £1450. Brown did arrange for the formal gardens to be removed and for the view between the new Castle and the ruins north of the Lake to be opened up. Daniel Penny, a local builder built the ‘new’ ruined tower to make the view more ‘Picturesque’. Edward died young and was succeeded in 1757 by his brother Henry who like his uncle Robert, was an ardent gardener. Henry had the idea of creating the model farm or farm ornee at Pinford Farm at the far eastern end of the lake. In 1765 the terraces and twin pavilions on the East Garden were removed to allow uninterrupted views to the thatched farm buildings, the pigeon house and fruit trees. Capt Robert Digby designed a three-arched bridge based on a 1767 design by Robert Adam. The bridge was built by William Privett. In 1774, Brown was recalled by the Digbys to continue his work at Sherborne. Brown moved the stables to the west, constructed a ha-ha and built two contrasting buildings - a Gothick Dairy and a neo-classical greenhouse. The ‘alcove in the grove’, later re-named Pope’s Seat was designed by Henry Holland, Brown’s son-on- law. Brown also advised on a massive tree planting campaign which included holly, birch, alder, beech, chestnut lime, Scots Fir, oak, cedar, mountain ash, cherry and apple trees, weeping willow, red dogwood and laburnum. Brown colour graded the different clumps of trees in order to create an ‘ideal parkscape’. Brown became a family friend and usually visited Sherborne twice a year to advise on plantings until his death in 1783. Driving up to Sherborne, the Stable Blocks built by Benjamin Bastard in 1759 are on your left. Leaving the car near the house there are two clearly marked routes; the longer route is well worth taking. Around the house are the East Lawn, Orangery, Old Dairy (now the tea-room), Sunken Garden (1994), the Victorian Game Larder and Ice House and the Circular Seat Bed and Stumpery (2012). Walking to the west around the lake is the Maple Garden, the Cascade (which has been widened since created by Brown), Pope’s Seat (this underwent extensive restoration 2003/4 and was probably the site of the ‘rustic seat of stone’ mentioned by Pope), the Folly, the Clairevoire from where you can see over the lake to the New VISIT GARDENS 07940 877568 www.visitgardens.com Castle with the Old Castle behind you and Earl Henry’s Bridge which was built c.1789 so the family could take visitors on a tour of the Old Castle ruins. Marking the end of the circular walk is the Fossil House, a novel addition to an historic landscape. VISIT GARDENS 07940 877568 www.visitgardens.com .

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