Silver birch grove Focal feature

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Week ten: wonders Arabella Lennox-Boyd and Jonathan Self focus on , , tree houses, and other garden wonders at our fantasy estate

‘Caves, Grotts, Mounts, and had, in its grounds, possibly the irregular ornaments of ,’ country’s last working hermitage. stated no less an authority on The hermit there conformed to garden design than John Evelyn, the 18th-century ideal. He wrote ‘do contribute to contemplative philosophical works, grew a long and philosophicall Enthusiasme.’ beard and slept on the floor. Whether you indulge yourself An unexpected element in your in a cave, , mount or other grounds can serve several func- ornament, there is no doubt that ‘Consult the tions. It could, for instance, pro- an estate can be much improved genius of the vide a visual focus point, as the by the addition of an element place, in all’ Steeple Aston Eyecatcher does a little out of the ordinary. Alexander Pope on the Rousham estate in But how out of the ordinary? Oxfordshire. It may amuse and For centuries, British landowners have delight visitors, as the Garden of Cosmic indulged themselves with all sorts of wild Speculation does at Dumfries. It could offer and wonderful fantasies. Viscount Cobham philosophical messages, as does Ronnie installed 40 temples at Stowe, the Earl Duncan’s sculpture garden in North Yorkshire. of Donegal reputedly spent £10,000 in 1788 Or it could mask some practical function, (close to £1 million at today’s prices) on as it does at Dream Acres, by incorporating shells for his grotto, and, more recently, the the swimming pool’s changing room into Duke of Marlborough built the world’s a (see June 24). If nothing else, it’s second-largest at Blenheim. a well-established, discreet and relatively I spent much of my youth in a house that inexpensive way of displaying one’s taste. ➢

My wonder: Jessica Douglas-Home, Gloucestershire Stepping into ‘Inspiration for the design of my House in the the Shell House at Trees came from the Czech Secret Police towers Ballymaloe Cookery I saw in the 1980s—rather squat boxes on stilts, School, Ireland, placed to spy on the dissident, subsequently built in 1995 by Blott president, Václav Havel in his country farm- Kerr-Wilson from house near Prague. But I wanted mine to be the shells of seafood more elegant and much, much taller, so as to used in the school, sit among the highest branches. In the end, I raised my tower to is like wandering 25ft, so as to be among the birds and nests of neighbouring trees. into a mermaid’s I installed a cylindrical steel stove, once owned by gypsies and parlour bought years ago at Stow Fair, in a corner of the oblong room, and added a narrow chimney. Outside, I fixed a hook and pulley with basket attached to lift provisions too cumbersome to take up

www.myles-lea.com; Marianne Majerus/MMGI the ladder. Now, I could live and work in my hut for days on end.’

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www.countrylife.co.uk/dreamacres Country Life, July 8, 2009 65

Follies ‘The great point of the tower,’ claimed Arabella’s advice Lord Berners of the Faringdon Folly, Oxford- for a striking folly shire, which was completed in 1935, ‘is that Scale is vital. If you it is entirely useless.’ There are two theories ‘have a relatively about the origins of the word ‘folly’. The more enclosed and limited generally held belief is that it refers to the setting, then your builder’s folly for creating something that has folly should not be too large. Major no real role. I prefer the alternative hypo- structures should be thesis, however, that it comes from the French saved for majestic folie, which means madness or whimsy. open spaces. In the 400 or 500 years since the idea of Where you site the follies first gripped the British imagination, folly is also crucial. thousands have been constructed all over The best examples the country, and their popularity has, by no often have an element means, waned. A quick search online reveals of surprise: one comes plenty of recent examples, such as the around a corner and there it is in the dis- thatched Millennium Tower at Cadmore tance, at the end of Lodge, Worcestershire, which sits in the an avenue or on the middle of a lake and has a drawbridge; the other side of a lake. Hermitage, Elton Hall, Herefordshire, home Commission an to a human skeleton; the wooden Samphire architect to produce Tower on the Kent coast near Dover; and the the plans. Whether Stumpery, a driftwood cave exhibited at you want something Chelsea and now owned by Ringo Starr. traditional or con- temporary, follies sit The Dream Acres folly, a changing room better in the land- for the swimming pool, was designed by scape if they are built Adam Richards. It was featured in Week with local materials. eight (June 24) of the Dream Acres series. Follies can prove to be surprisingly inexpen- sive to build. ’

If you want to be Tree houses alone, the centre If you want to add something romantic, of your own maze fantastic, yet practical to your estate, why can be a perfect not build a tree house? Not the common- place to hide. The or-garden tree house of my youth—which Glendurgan Laurel was a simple platform precariously perched Maze, Cornwall, in an old oak—but something more elabor- dates from 1833. ate with a roof, walls, windows, a terrace, Or head up to power and, perhaps, even plumbing. It could a secluded tree be designed simply as an outdoor playroom house, such as for your children or grandchildren, or it this one shown could serve as a place for you to entertain, at the Chelsea relax, work or accommodate guests. Flower Show Juliette Wade/Photolibrary; Stephen Robson/Britainonview/NTPL

66 Country Life July 8, 2009 www.countrylife.co.uk/dreamacres

Shell houses Mazes next to ancient religious monuments such There is a wide, 300ft-long grass path One of the happiest moments of my life as burial grounds; that in Christianity, they in the garden of some friends of ours, was in 1965, when it became clear that my can symbolise the path of an errant soul flanked by herbaceous borders and culmi- four-year-old younger brother, Will, had man- towards salvation; or that in Eastern reli- nating in a modest Gothic building that, aged to get himself lost in the great maze gions, the equivalent patterns, known as when you step inside, turns out to be a mag- at Hampton Court. One of the most bitterly mandalas, are used in meditation. nificent shell house, complete with hidden disappointing moments came soon after, At Dream Acres, we imagine building a maze lights, a pool and running water. It was when a man in a brown uniform successfully on one of the flat areas away from the house. created in four months by Blott Kerr-Wilson, retrieved him. Nevertheless, the experience It will be multicursal (have multiple routes) and my wife claims that, after horses, it’s one left me with a great respect for mazes. It isn’t as opposed to unicursal (with only one route), of the few things in the world she covets. only that they entertain and confound us, and will be constructed from hornbeam, She’s in surprisingly good company, as it they possess the magical power of being grown to 6ft. In other words, tall enough turns out that the essentially 16th-, 17th- able to make people disappear. for me to lose my brother in, even now. and 18th-century passion for shell houses Perhaps it isn’t surprising, therefore, that What shape would your maze be? Email is still alive and well today. the earliest British mazes were cut in turf [email protected] www.countrylife.co.uk/dreamacres Country Life, July 8, 2009 67 Co u n t r y Li f e recommends accessories for garden wonders

Cheeky Monkey Tree Houses designs bespoke, Swiss-style log cabins with decking, all fully insulated and furnished to your own requirements (01403 732452; www. cheekymonkeytreehouses.co.uk)

Arabella Lennox- Boyd’s Gresgarth Bespoke willow Finials were first made tree houses made by for the Chinoiserie family firm Brampton bridge at Gresgarth. Willows in East Anglia They have elegant (01502 575891; www. onion domes and bramptonwillows.co.uk) tapered collars, and come unpainted or in Gresgarth Red. Price on application (020– 7931 9995; www. arabellalennoxboyd.com)

Recommendation Maggy Howarth’s cobblestones come in a variety of materials. Design time: £200 per day; fabrication costs: £1,100 per square metre. (01524 274264; www. Cedar Tower and Ireland tree houses (07968 maggyhowarth.co.uk) 207310; www.heartwoodtreehouses.co.uk)

Our favourite follies Recommended suppliers Follies by Jeffrey W. Whitelaw (1) The ruined abbey, Painshill Park, Surrey For shell houses and grottoes: Belinda Eade (Shire Publications, 2005) (2) The sham castle, Stowe, Buckinghamshire (01823 401383; www.belindaeade.com) Tree Houses You Can Actually Build (3) The eye-catcher, Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire Blott Kerr-Wilson (www.blottshellhouses.com) by David Stiles (Houghton Mifflin, 1999) (4) The pagoda at Kew Gardens, London For tree houses: Tree House Life Designing Gardens by Arabella Lennox-Boyd (5) McCaig’s Colosseum, Oban, Scotland (07956 225500; www.treehouselife.co.uk) (Frances Lincoln, 2002) Our favourite mazes Useful websites Helpful books (1) Great Maze, Hampton Court, Middlesex List of British follies (www.follytowers.com) Mazes & Follies by Adrian Fisher (2) Water Maze and Yew Maze, Hever The Folly Fellowship (www.follies.org.uk) (Pitkin Unichrome, 2004) Castle, Kent (3) Laurel Maze, Glendurgan House, Cornwall Shell Houses and Grottoes by Hazelle Next week The pleasure ground (4) Yew Maze, Somerleyton Hall, Suffolk Jackson (Shire Publications, 2001) The full-sized plan and drawing of Dream Acres appeared in the April 29 issue of Co u n t r y Li f e . (5) Foot-shaped maze, Conholt Park, Wiltshire For back numbers, telephone 01733 385170 For the Dream Acres directory, see page 94; www.countrylife.co.uk/dreamacres; www.arabellalennoxboyd.com

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