The Hortus Conclusus is the final work conceived by the Scottish poet-gardener, Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925–2006), and it has been realised posthumously. The opening in June 2009 was featured in the Scottish broadsheets, which also reported the £1.2m appeal by the Little Sparta Trust to sustain the garden. Needless to say, the Trust is most appreciative of the generosity that has enabled the garden to flourish so far. Writing in The Scotsman, Richard DeMarco urged the Scottish Parliament to remember that Little Sparta ‘is not a simple garden, it is a Gesamtkunstwerk, a ‘total art work’, rivalling Constantin Brancusi’s sculptural homage to First World War heroes at Targu-Jiu in Romania, or Claude Monet’s garden at Giverny in France. It also brings the same responsibility. He [Finlay] left us a legacy with a double edge: a masterpiece and a terrifying responsibility. Are we up to it?’

The Hortus Conclusus is a version of the mediaeval enclosed garden. As a contemplative haven secluded from the profane world, the Hortus is a fitting culmination of the poetic gardening developed at Little Sparta over forty years. Situated 300 metres up in the Pentland Hills twenty-five miles south-west of Edinburgh, the Finlays had moved there in 1966 when the farmstead was gifted to Sue Finlay by her parents, Simon and Caitriona Macdonald Lockhart. Dedicated gardening prevailed despite the inauspicious terrain at the edge of field and moor. Since 1990 Ralph Irving has assisted Finlay with the gardening, and now continues this herculean task on behalf of the Little Sparta Trust.

The Hortus was created by transforming the derelict barn whose crumbling state had long been a source of concern. Cordoned off with orange tape to ensure the safety of visitors, this part of the garden had resembled a police incident scene rather than a corner of Arcadia. Finlay had initially proposed that the barn should be allowed to decay into a ruin, thus becoming a domestic version of those larger eyecatchers so favoured by 18th-century landscape gardeners. Then in 2005 he announced the Hortus Conclusus at the Trust meeting that, sadly, proved to be the last he was able to attend.

The now consolidated exterior of an old barn at Little Sparta forms the frame for Ian Hamilton Finlay's Hortus Conclusus (photo by Patrick Eyres)

One part of the 'interior' has been planted as a garden evoking medieval precedent (photo by Patrick Eyres)

Work began during 2006, shortly after his death. The barn’s roof was removed and the walls lowered and consolidated. The westerly wall is lower to allow the evening sunlight to fill the enclosed garden, and a small wooden seat is optimistically inscribed: The Westering Sun Will Sometimes Reach This Bench. Defined by the interior wall, the two parts of the Hortus embrace earth and sky. One has been planted to evoke mediaeval predecessors; the other contains a circular pool, and the Latin words inscribed around the edge leave no doubt that it is intended to reflect the clouds above: Cirrus • Astrocumulus • Cirrostratus • Cirrocumulus • Stratus • Cumulonimbus • Altostratus • Nimbostratus • Cumulus • Stratocumulus. However, on my recent visit, the clouds watered the garden with torrential rainfall.

The other contains a circular pool (photo by Patrick Eyres)

Sue Finlay’s only account of the hard graft that created the garden can be found in Ian Hamilton Finlay: Selected Landscapes (2007, New Arcadian Journal 61/62). This NAJ also includes a checklist of Finlay’s 78 public works across Europe, the UK and the USA. One of these is at Stockwood Park, Luton, which was opened by Sir Roy Strong in 1991 and from which the bronze head of Aphrodite was stolen in 2000. I’m delighted to report that Luton Museums installed a replica head in 2008, thus restoring one of Finlay’s largest and finest public gardens in Britain.

The replacement head of Aphrodite newly installed in Finlay's 'Improvement garden' at Stockwood Park, Luton (photo by Patrick Eyres)

Another site listed is at Bonnington House to the west of Edinburgh. There, in woodland, three of Finlay’s last works were installed during 2007, including the small Temple of Apollo originally set up at Little Sparta, but ultimately considered inappropriate for the garden there, and so moved to Bonnington, where it sits on Gala Hill, ovelooked by Finlay’s The Xth Muse. Within this modest sculpture park, which intends to encompass both the frivolous and the profound, the Finlays are in the company of contemporaries such as Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Marc Quinn and Cornelia Parker.

Ian Hamilton Finlay's Xth Muse looks towards the Temple of Apollo at Bonnington House (photo by Patrick Eyres)

This year the Little Sparta Trust published a small handbook as An Introduction to the garden. Written by Jessie Sheeler, this complements her authoritative and accessible book Little Sparta (Frances Lincoln, 2003) which, resplendent with photographs by Andrew Lawson, remains the most thorough record of the garden. John Dixon Hunt has also made a welcome contribution to Finlay’s bibliography with Nature Over Again: The Garden Art of Ian Hamilton Finlay (Reaktion Books, 2008).

In 1777 R. Baldwin of Pater-Noster Row, London published a guide book to the three great West Midland gardens of the mid-18th century entitled Letters on the Beauties of Hagley, Envil and The Leasowes with critical remarks and Observations on the Modern Taste in Gardening by Joseph Heely. In an Advertisement in the front of the book he writes that he had published some time ago a concise description of the three gardens ‘merely as a companion to those celebrated recesses’, but then complains that although his writings have been well received many others have plagiarised them and that the time has come for ‘an edition on a more extensive plan.’

In 1982 a facsimile was made from a copy of Heely’s book in the Yale University Library and published by Garland, New York. In the Preface, the editor John Dixon Hunt writes that ‘Nothing is known of Heely. I suspect that he may have been a local clergyman or small landowner, intimate with these three gardens to write with knowledge and affection of them.’ On the second statement he appears to be correct.

The Doric Portico at Enville, designed by Sanderson Miller (1748–50). ‘This building is well adapted to the place, standing on the verge of a wood that expands itself over the hills behind, and forming as it sweeps on each side down the valley, a deep concave of an open sloping lawn, shut in at a considerable distance by a detached airy grove, over which the distant country forms a busy, entertaining prospect.’ — Heely 1777 (photo by Sandy Haynes)

Joseph Heely’s Will is in the Public Record Office at Kew ref. PROB 11/1327 file ref 424 and together with other documents relating to him are in the Birmingham City Archives give a glimpse into the life of this man. The Will was written on 19th March 1798 and was proved on 1st July 1799.

It is possible that he was the son of Richard Heely of Birmingham, then in the County of Warwick who was a gunsmith and was one of at least seven children left with an annuity of twenty pounds a year when his father died in 1770. A few years previously he, and Thomas Russell an ironmonger of Birmingham, had taken a lease on Moseley Hall in Kings Norton to the south of Birmingham just off the Alcester Road. When Heely leased it in 1766 from the Greaves family it was an elegant, quite grand property in the neo-classical style, built in 1632. The house was later rebuilt after a fire started in the Birmingham riots of 1791 and is today part of Moseley Hospital. In the lease Heely is referred to as Joseph Heely Esq. of Kingsnorton.

Kings Norton is only about 8 miles from The Leasowes, and Hagley is about three miles further on, which would have made them easily accessible by horse or carriage for a day trip. The fact that he banked in Bewdley and asked to be buried in Areley Kings suggests that in later life he may have moved west, nearer to Enville.

Joseph seems to have been close to his brother Samuel whose children were to be the chief beneficiaries of his Will. He chose his ‘beloved niece’ Harriet Justice as the executrix and left her ‘all my goods whatsoever with all plate jewells &c &c’ and to her husband Richard ‘all my fishing tackle.’

Joseph appears to have remained a bachelor all his life and was looked after by a housekeeper named Mary Gilbert. She is described in his Will as being ‘so good and so honest in the service she gave me.’ His bequest to her was certainly in excess of what most servants could expect from their masters. Mary was left £100 in lieu of any outstanding wages due at the time of his death ‘to be paid from out of the cash I have now lying at the Bank of Roberts, Skey & Co at Bewdley’ or if that was insufficient from the rent of some houses in Birmingham. He asks Mary Gilbert to accept all his clothes, two pairs of blankets and sheets, the ‘old leather chairs and common table with most sort of kitchen furniture’ and anything else that his niece Harriet did not want.

Heely owned houses in Park Street and Freeman Street in Birmingham which were just to the north east of what is now Birmingham Moor Street Station and are now a car park. The properties were left to his brother Samuel for the rest of his life and then he asked that they be sold and the money from them was to be divided between Samuel’s three children, Harriet, Thomas and Elizabeth.

Joseph’s final request was that he should be buried at the east end of Areley Church. The parish register for Areley Kings in Worcestershire states that ‘Joseph Heeley of Stourport of Kidderminster was buried 31st March 1798 by me Geo. Hulme.’ The Church was largely rebuilt in 1885 and although the Rector made a record of the tombstones some had been so worn down that they were illegible. Maybe one of those belonged to Joseph, for despite an extensive search with the church archivist there is nothing to find today.

Shenstone’s Chapel, Enville, built c.1753 and dedicated to William Shenstone after his death in 1763 ‘… it is what agreeably co-operates with the nature of its situation, sequestered, and surrounded by declivities, closely embraced by a gloomy impenetrable wilderness of thicket and wood, accompanied by a solemn silence, that naturally sinks the mind to serious meditation.’ — Heely 1777 (photo by Sandy Haynes)

Charles Jenk's 'Life Mounds" from the drive at Jupiter Artland, on the approach to Bonnington House (photo by Christopher Dingwall)

The first encounter with Jupiter Artland is dramatic: soon after passing through the front gates, the driveway winds through the Charles Jencks landform ‘Life Mounds’. On arrival at the house we were welcomed by Robert Wilson, who with his wife, Nicky, have been responsible in recent years for the restoration of the house and garden, and the vision driving the Jupiter Artland project.

The view back through the 'Life Mounds' (photo by Christopher Dingwall)

Christopher Dingwall’s research has yielded fascinating information on the designed landscape here and he provided a helpful summary and copies of relevant maps. The doocot and sundial are C17th and significant traces remain of the compact formal landscape from the early C18th. The owners have restored several elements of the landscape, including the ha-ha and the easterly axial vista. It is hoped that in future such information will be made available to all visitors.

We started in the partly walled east garden, which is not normally open to the public, and primed with this introduction, we had the afternoon to explore the landscape at leisure. The artworks by Ian Hamilton Finlay, Andy Goldworthy, Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, and others are set in woodland.

Ian Hamilton Finlay's Temple of Apollo sits on Gala Hill near his Xth Muse (photo by Christopher Dingwall)

My favourite was certainly the wonderful ‘Stone House’ by Andy Goldsworthy, set in a clearing of Gala Hill Wood, its floor the exposed underlying bedrock, all soil removed, lit (at a low level) by the small square openings in each gable.

The unassuming exterior of Andy Goldsworthy's 'Stone House' (photo by Christopher Dingwall).

Its interior, low lit by two square opeings in the gables, contains nothing but the exposed underlying bedrock (photo bt Christopher Dingwall)

We took breaks for lunch at the café in the Steadings and also to visit the Gallery and excellent bookshop. Another aspect of this exciting project is that the Trust is committed to using the landscape and art as an educational resource for schoolchildren. Altogether a very successful visit and special thanks to Robert Wilson, Christopher Dingwall and Sue Hewer.

For more information

The dome of the central chamber in Sapierdarena's grotto showing the transformations from Ovid (photo by Charles Boot)

The GHS tour to ‘The Two Rivieras’ organized by Robert Peel and Charles Boot, visited an amazing grotto created by Galeazzo Alessi (1512–72), in a garden belonging to nuns in Sampierdarena, west of Genoa. Professor Lauro Magnani, our guide to Genoese gardens, has written that the animals represent ‘wild nature’, and the whole design is an ‘interpretation of nature along scientific, magical and literary lines’. Some of the ‘literary lines’ are to be found in scenes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which emphasize the ‘transforming power of water’. It struck me that these ‘literary lines’ could be further extended into the overall design of the grotto. It is an island, surrounded by caverns, inhabited by smiling animals, which makes one think of Circe’s island, visited by Odysseus. Here, after a little bother, when Circe turned some of his sailors into pigs, but soon restored them to human form, Odysseus and his shipmates were feasted for a year in palatial surroundings ‘On sides of meat and drafts of heady wine’.

This cheerful lion sits just below the dome (photo by Tess Canfield).

Circe’s animals were cheerful creatures  The sailors found:

‘Mountain wolves and lions were roaming round the grounds, …
But they wouldn’t attack my men; they just came pawing
Up around them fawning, swishing their long tails, …
Nuzzling around my men — lions, wolves, with big powerful claws.’

When Circe discovered her magic did not work against the protection provided Odysseus by the god, Mercury/Hermes, she became Odysseus’ lover, and bore him a son, Telegonus. After this romantic interlude, she agreed to let him leave her, and told him how to avoid the whirlpool of Scylla and Charybdis, and get past the Sirens, without being lured by their songs onto rocks. So, she qualifies as a friend to sailors.

Odysseus was something of an inspiration for merchants, who built their palaces in Genoa. Some decorated their homes with frescoes representing scenes from the Odyssey. ‘The ‘Return of Ulysses’ was painted in the Palazzo Grimaldi (now Meridiana), and there was a Ulysses cycle in the Villa della Peschiere. Polyphemus, who was blinded by Ulysses (Odysseus), features in the decoration of the Fonte Doria.

The interpretation, of the design of the grotto Pavese suggested here, depends on the expression on the faces of the animals, and on the island inside the grotto, for Circe’s palace was on an island. Alessi made an island, with a rustic grotto, in Adamo Centurione’s park at Pegli, but the island was free-standing in a lake. He made another freestanding island outside the grotto at the Fonte Doria. The grotto Pavese was probably constructed to celebrate the marriage of Camillo Pavese with Maria Doria in 1594. On that occasion there may have been a banquet for the couple. The grotto was a marvel, and could lend itself to many interpretations, teasing the guests who were invited to see it.

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This is a personal account of the tour and reflects her experiences and reactions as one member of a party fortunate enough to travel to Brazil, not a learned article on the career and works of Roberto Burle Marx.

On the 15 March 1982 a farsighted horticultural lecturer took an enthusiastic group of horticultural students to hear Roberto Burle Marx talk at the Royal College of Art in London; I was fortunate enough to be one of those students. What a character was revealed at that lecture, a man with a passion for his subjects; humanity’s need for plants in an urban setting, the role of the endangered Brazilian flora and the value of artistic and design skills to produce stunning landscapes or, as my notes from the lecture records, his statement ‘indiscriminate planting makes a salad’. His lecture awakened me to the role Burle Marx had played in creating a landscape design style for Brazil, prior to this my knowledge of South America had resulted from a study of Brasilia at school; how strange it had seemed, this need to create a capital city in the middle of a continental sized country. Though considerable time had passed since these events it only took a glance at the GHS NEWS to know that the ‘Brazilian Odyssey’ offered the opportunity of a lifetime. My cheque was in the post!

Modern air travel whisks one around the world so fast, one minute drinking tea to pass the time in the departure lounge at Heathrow the next minute viewing Rio de Janeiro from the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain. The city of Rio is one of contrasts, vertical sky scrappers jostle for space between the rounded mountains and the sweeping golden beaches with their adornments of Burle Marx’s black and white mosaic pavements. It took me a day or two to come to an accommodation with this vast sprawling city, the luxury of the hotel district that faces the blue sea and the poverty of the sprawling favellas that climb up the encircling mountains.

Jeff Sainsbury had devised a programme that would reveal the Burle Marx’s work in a structured way; the sites visited, his own considerable expertise, along with the skills of a local tour guide to help with cultural and language issues, and an expert associated either with the Burle Marx Office or with the management of the gardens and landscapes being viewed. There was no shortage of people to question when one wished to know more, or discuss a specific issue.

The roof garden of the Ministry of Education and Health in Rio was created to integrate with Rio’s new Modernist architecture of the late 1930s, with advice from Le Corbusier. The garden showed Brazil a new way to landscape, far removed from the formal constraints and plant preferences of the colonial style. It seemed like a dream to be walking in this space under the watchful eyes of the security men (such staff were our constant companions at most sites and formed a visible reminder of the dangers faced by both the properties and the visitors).

Our visit to Copacabana beach allowed me to begin to appreciate the boldness and extent of the Burle Marx vision for public landscape; the mosaic work of abstract art laid out under the feet of pedestrians. Burle Marx considered it an artwork for the city but sadly that intension seems only partly recognised, and one wonders if a conservation management plan is in place to carry that vision forward into the future? Repairs to damaged areas seem poorly executed and drain covers were not refitted to the correct orientation for the design. Visits to other public landscapes in Rio with failing fountains, poorly maintained planting and new additions such as poorly sited litters bins all demonstrated that the integrity of these landscapes are being lost. However, at sites such as Pampulha, in Belo Horizonte, there were signs that the public landscapes of Burle Marx had champions, and were receiving recognition and some restoration.

Stairway and planting at Sitio, Burle Marx’x own garden (photo by Malcolm Raggett).

Sitio provided a chance to place the designer in the context of his home; the complex of his house, studios, garden and plant nursery. This was further enhanced by the company of Roberio Dias, the Director of the Sitio and former colleague of Burle Marx. Roberio remained with us during our time in Rio and provided both valuable insights into the pressures the various landscapes faced and personal reflections on the character of the designer. Burle Marx considered his garden as a laboratory where ideas could be explored, especially a place for experimentation with plants he had found on his expeditions to collect specimens from the various habitats in Brazil. He was constantly changing his garden as he experimented with new plant species to create a range of plant associations, a challenge for those who now have responsibility for this special place.

At the Sitio large trees gave dramatic performances, with vast trunks and buttress flairs, whilst providing shade for the lower storey. Beneath the trees’ canopies, abstract patterns were created in groundcover plants with tiers of foliage of other species rising through them; these plantings show the need for skilled gardeners with an appreciation of the required aesthetic. Being the tropics there is no specific season for leaf fall, sweeping takes place on a daily basis, a time consuming activity. Though the Sitio is owned by the State, the funding for ongoing repairs and maintenance have become mired in bureaucracy and there was none of the commercial enterprise seen in gardens open in Britain; the opening of a small book counter to sell publications to eager GHS members was a major undertaking, as it was lunch time!

Red foliaged Iresine ‘flows’ under the Edmundo Cavanellas Residence (1954), Petropolis (photo by Jill Raggett).

Private gardens made for the wealthy elite of Brazil allowed Burle Marx to create small gems of design often flanked by the tropical forest he wished to retain or reinstate. The gardens he created were at the same time artworks, places of relaxation, statements of prestige and a negotiation with the surrounding landscape and tropical vegetation. Many of these places were very much appreciated by their owners and were examples of meticulous maintenance that a public landscape would struggle to attain. At the Edmundo Cavanellas Residence (1954) now the Gilbert Strunk Residence, a river of red foliaged Iresine appeared to flow under a ‘suspension bridge’ created by an Oscar Niemeyer house placed in the bottom of a valley. At this property a dedicated gardener cares for the grid pattern of plain and variegated grasses, once a week using the equivalent of a billhook to separate their root systems as the grasses try to merge into each other. These gardens demand rigorous maintenance to ensure the designer’s vision is retained. A scene that often appears so natural, as at the Mangrove Fazenda, a dream of a garden, is full of detailed care, such as the removal of foliage obscuring the low level flowering of a ginger. In many of the gardens the atmosphere was enhanced by a welcome glass of freshly prepared fruit juice served by a butler, and at the wonderful Vargem Grande Fazenda GHS members participated fully in experiencing the garden by using the Burle Marx swimming pools created as the finale to a series of water gardens; one of my favourites in both its location in the rolling countryside and the interesting range of viewpoints created within a relatively small design.

Garden for the Ministry of the Army (1970), Brasilia (photo by Malcolm Raggett).

Our tour ended in Brasilia, a city in thrall to Modernist architecture, where Oscar Niemeyer wishes his amazing buildings to rise unadorned from the ground. Aided by an exceptionally knowledgeable local guide we explored the city’s planning, architecture, politics and culture. Visits were made to a number of Burle Marx landscapes but some of the final ones seen gave an excellent summary to the possible survival of the works of Burle Marx. At the Belgian Ambassador’s house the party was made welcome and saw the remnants of the designer’s work that are slowly being lost under new layers, while the following morning we saw restoration work underway at the garden created for the Ministry of the Army.

Haruyoshi Ono, a senior partner of the Burle Marx Design Office, in the Garden for the Ministry of the Army, Brasilia, discussing its restoration with the military (photo by Jill Raggett).

I was trying to decide how accurate the Brazilian Army would be in such an undertaking when a team from the Burle Marx Design Office accompanied by a number of people in uniforms appeared clutching plans and walking through the landscape. It occurred to me that if ever humanity comes to its senses and declares ‘World Peace’ there will be no shortage of gardens for the military to restore.

Roberto Burle Marx was a man who liberated landscape design in Brazil. Of the remarkable designed landscapes I saw it was quickly apparent that, as with so many gardens, the legacy of the designer lies with the aesthetic appreciation and practical skills of subsequent gardeners as well as the vision and budgets of landscape managers.

The tour proved to be all that it promised and much more, which was due to the incredible planning and skills of Jeff Sainsbury, excellent local guides and the landscape professionals who joined us. My fellow travellers all had much to add to the experience and my understanding of the gardens.

See more of the remarkable designs of Burle Marx

‘… the rectangular design echoes the ingenious motif of the wall behind in colour and shape. At the same time the delicate growth of the bamboos, so soothing to the eye, is enhanced by the contrast with the vigourous wall pattern.’ View of the gardens alongside the Homes & Gardens pavilion looking towards the Festival Hall and Shot Tower (photo by Peter Shepheard).

The naturalistic approach to Landscape Design is probably England’s most important contribution to the visual arts, and the informal tree planting, the use of water, and of natural walling and paving throughout the South Bank illustrate this preoccupation. The 17th- and18th-century pleasure gardens of London such as Vauxhall and Ranelagh with their mechanical devices and contrived novelties, were also a strong infiuence, together with the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, which has maintained the tradition of the pleasure garden. The modern movement, with its strong emphasis on function, had not been adopted with enthusiasm in Britain; it is understandable therefore that Scandinavia was a significant influence, where the siting of buildings in a natural setting among rocks and woodlands, fitted happily with the picturesque tradition.

The landscape of the South Bank was conceived as being part and parcel of the architecture. Architects and Landscape Architects worked as a team under Sir Hugh Casson, Director of Architecture to the Exhibition to create a consciously designed townscape in the informal English tradition. H.F. Clark, assisted by Maria Shephard, was landscape consultant to the Festival Office for the whole site. Peter Shepheard was landscape architect for the area downstream of Hungerford Bridge; upstream, the Concourse area, was by H.F. Clark and Maria Shephard, and the rest by Peter Youngman.

The majority of space between buildings was paved to accommodate crowds of up to 75,000 in a day. Backwater spaces, off the major circulation areas, were provided for sitting and resting, and there were only a limited number of enclosed gardens. Yorkstone was the main paving material with cobbles and loose pebbles as a textural contrast and gentle deterrent. Hexagonal concrete paving was frequently used and became an iconic element.

'It is only when plants are grown individually, rather than in groups, that their full beauty of shape can be seen. The rough pebbles not only greatly enhance the design, but also serve a horticultural purpose by conserving the moisture and keeping the roots of the plant cool, as well as discouraging weeds' (photo by Peter Shepheard).

The Moat Garden by Peter Shepheard, next to the Homes and Gardens Pavilion, with a tented tea restaurant stood on a terrace surrounded by a moat planted with water lilies and other aquatic plants. Across the moat, a picturesque shore combined Westmorland boulders and pebbles with richly textured trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants. Plants included Betula, Rhus typhina, Catalpa bignoniodes as a background to herbaceous plants such as Polygonum sacholinense (?), Crambe orientalis (?), Macleaya cordata and Rheum palmatum; strong architectural plants of the type so well illustrated by the famous architectural draughtsman Gordon Cullen. A wide stone edge separates the diners from the moat, providing a smooth contrast to the multi-textured backcloth of planting and boulders.

The garden of the Regatta Restaurant by H.F. Clark and Maria Shephard was in a well, surrounded on alI four sides by the building and its stairs and roof decks, and overlooked by an open-air bar at ground level. The boundary was formed by a low balustrade, in the top of which was a row of slate water basins with little fountains. The planting area was curvilinear in outline, the planting being predominantly shrubs and herbaceous, such as Senecio greyi (now Brachyglottis ‘Sunshine’), Ligularia clivorum (now L. dentata), Azaleas & Iris, with some bedding. Much of the ground was covered with water worn pebbles and boulders. A sculpture by Lynn Chadwick formed a focal point, and the fluid form of the planting was emphasised by the surrounding water. The garden by Peter Youngman surrounding the Royal Pavilion is more formal in character than the two previously described. Though small in area it was contained by a belt of Rhododendron and other shrubs. An ingenious disposition of circular beds, edged by paving, makes the lawn area appear to be larger than it actually is. H.F. Clark and Maria Sheppard created the illusion of a primeval forest in a narrow space, between the back of the People of Britain Pavilion, and the vast brick wall of the railway bridge. Betula, Dicksoniana and Arundinaria formed the canopy planting with astilbe, grasses, ferns, and ivy as ground cover.

The use of York stone, and of natural stone on the flanks of buildings throughout the site, created an overall sense of continuity and identity. The mushroom lamps, the circular concrete planters by Maria Shephard, and the ubiquitous Antelope chair by Ernest Race, with its elegant steel rod frame, painted plywood seat and ball feet, animate and enliven the spaces. Sculpture made an enormous contribution to the landscape, and the cigar shaped Skylon by Powell and Moya dominating the site became a symbol of the Festival with its light elegant design. Murals were also extensively used, and the Ceramic mural by Victor Pasmore on the Regatta Restaurant, and Ben Nicholson’s at the entrance of the South Bank were especially striking. Artists benefitted enormously from the Festival and as a result of the exposure they achieved, many New Towns and Town Centres featured works of art.

‘The restful green of the planting, the simple shapes of the boulders & the smooth waters make no demands on temporarily exhausted sightseers.’ The moat outside the Unicorn restaurant (photo by Peter Shepheard).

The Landscape of the South Bank demonstrated the significant contribution landscape architects could make to public spaces. New Towns such as Basildon Stevenage, and Harlow employed teams of landscape architects, that took on board many of the ideas for paving planting and water. Rayner Banham, the archictural correspondent, who was somewhat critical of the architecture of the Festival of Britain, calling the style flimsy and effeminate, was enthusiastic about the landscape and wrote, ‘Of all that was designed and done, it was one of the great triumphs of imaginative professional skill at the Festival. It was probably more truly English, and more genuinely innovative than much else that was more loudly praised at the time, and more thoroughly forgotten since.’

Before the Festival of Britain Landscape Architects were mainly influenced by the Arts & Crafts Tradition, and the horticultural approach advocated by Gertrude Jekyll was dominant. After the Festival, Landscape Design veered away from gardening, and concerned itself more with connecting to the natural landscape, and ecology. The lesson of the South Bank was the value of a multidisciplinary approach working together as a team. Architects, Engineers, Landscape Architects, and Artists, pooled ideas, and shared a common vision. The success of the Festival Landscape was the result of the extremely high quality of the Landscape Architects that contributed, under the enlightened guidance of Sir Hugh Casson.

Photos and captions are taken from The Things We See 7: Gardens, Hurtwood & Jellicoe, Penguin, 1953

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To be held Saturday 24 April 2010, Clifton Hill House, University of Bristol

Greenwich Park proposed as Olympics Equestrian Venue

Plan of Greenwich Park, c.1675–80, showing much of the structure still visible in today’s park (Pepys Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge)

It has come to our notice that the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG), the body charged by the Government to ‘deliver’ the 2012 London Olympics, has plans to use four Grade I designed landscapes in the capital as sporting venues during the Games. Cycling will be held in Regent’s Park, the pentathlon in Hyde Park, and beach volleyball will take place on Horse Guards’ Parade, part of the Grade I St James’ Park. Each of these events will have a significant impact on the respective designed landscapes, while the longer term effects of accommodating the projected numbers of visitors may be considerable.
However, the most controversial Olympic proposal is to hold the equestrian event in Greenwich Park, a Grade I landscape and part of the Greenwich World Heritage Site. The Park also serves as the setting for several Grade I listed buildings, including Inigo Jones’ masterpiece, The Queen’s House.

The Park assumed its present form under Charles II when a formal landscape, partly inspired by a design provided by Louis XIV’s Gardener, Andre le Notre, was created. Important elements of this landscape survive, making Greenwich of the highest national, indeed international, importance. The Park also contains archaeological remains spanning the centuries from the Roman occupation to the Second World War; these include elements relating to the important Tudor royal palace which stood here. All these highly important elements, as well as features created in the 19th century, when the Park became much more frequented by the public, will be at serious risk of damage if the equestrian event goes ahead.

The problem with using Greenwich for the three-day equestrian event is that it appears the Park is far too small to accommodate a cross-country course and an eventing arena, let alone the crowds expected to be attracted to this most popular Olympic sport. The Badminton Horse Trials, which takes place on a site comprising some 1,500 acres attracts 250,000 spectators; by contrast, Greenwich Park covers 180 acres and would apparently struggle to accommodate 20,000 visitors. The steeply sloping site will have to be engineered to provide a sufficiently large level area for the arena and other facilities, and creating the cross country course will require further physical intervention. All this work will take time, and it appears that this important public Park is likely to be closed to tourists and locals alike, in whole or in part, for a period of about fifteen months.

This Society has already protested about the unacceptable impact of holding the Olympics at Greenwich, and we will continue to join forces with other bodies to urge Locog and the Government to consider a more appropriate venue; such as Badminton, Burleigh or Blenheim. We consider that the Government’s record on the historic environment is very poor: remember the scandal of the proposed de-listing of the Commonwealth Institute in 2006. It should not allow itself to sink any lower by vandalising Greenwich Park.

Update: February 2010

see our recent newsletter

Extracted from planning application 09/2598/F (Greenwich Park)

You may also want to check the latest from LOCOG on the Save Greenwich Park website

Dr Neil’s Garden, which some GHS members visited after the AGM & Summer Conference in 2007, has been called Edinburgh’s Secret Garden. Lying beside a twelfth-century Kirk, where the lower slopes of Arthur’s Seat meet Duddingston Loch, this beautiful place of artistic, literary, and spiritual inspiration is the result of the imagination, and sheer physical effort, of the late Drs Andrew and Nancy Neil, who both died in 2005. The Dr Neil’s Garden Trust, a registered charity founded in 1997 with grant-aid from the National Trust for Scotland (NTS), employ a full-time gardener, Claudia Pottier, who worked closely with the doctors in their later years, and open the garden to the public.

In 1963 the doctors (husband and wife general practitioners, with a house-cum-surgery half a mile away), began the project, on what was then waste glebe land rented from the Church of Scotland, when their allotment was redeveloped as a car park. The site was daunting, being steep with rocky outcrops, no vehicular access, and no services. Hedges and changes of level keep each part of the garden distinct, and largely secluded, from the next. The planting highlights are conifers, heathers, alpines, primulae, magnolias, rhododendrons, and azaleas.

View of the Loch from the garden (photo by Nigel Neil)

The garden has featured on BBC Scotland’s Beechgrove Garden and Channel 4’s Garden Club, and has won several awards. In 1991, the doctors were jointly awarded the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Medal by the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society, the first amateur gardeners to receive the medal.

A historically important attraction for visitors is the elegant, octagonal, Thomson’s Tower, designed by famous Edinburgh architect William Henry Playfair in 1825 for the Duddingston Curling Society. In 2008–09, The Dr Neil’s Garden Trust restored the Tower from dereliction, with grant aid from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Historic Scotland, and NTS, totalling over £250,000. It now contains fascinating exhibitions about curling past and present, Playfair and his contemporaries, and the garden.

The Tower from the Loch before restoration (photo by Nigel Neil)

The restored Tower from the garden (photo by Nigel Neil)

In the very cold Georgian and Victorian winters, the loch was Edinburgh’s favourite place for skating and curling. Duddingston Curling Society had an elite membership including peers, baronets, judges, advocates (Scottish barristers), Writers to the Signet (solicitors), and churchmen. The Society is famed for being the first to publish rules for the sport, which were subsequently adopted nationally and internationally. Curling stones and other equipment were stored on the lower floor of the Tower, and the cosy upper room doubled as a meeting-place, and as a studio for amateur artist the Rev. John Thomson, minister of Duddingston 1805–40. Though now sadly neglected, Thomson was once dubbed ‘the father of Scottish landscape painting’. He entertained his wide circle of friends in the manse, including Sir Walter Scott, J. M. W. Turner, and Henry Raeburn (whose iconic The Rev. Walker skating on Duddingston Loch is in the National Gallery of Scotland). Turner, Thomson, and others collaborated to illustrate Scott’s The Provincial Antiquities and Picturesque Scenery of Scotland, serialised in 1819–26.

Dr Neil’s Garden is open to the public (donations box), and it and Thomson’s Tower can be hired as venues. The Dr Neil’s Garden Trust welcome pre-arranged visits from schools, horticultural societies, wedding and other photographers, artists, and other groups. An accessible route for visitors with reduced mobility has been created, with funding from the WREN (Landfill Tax Credits) scheme.

Dr Neil’s Garden is open every day including weekends from 10am till Dusk. Entry is free of charge (except during advertised events) but a donation of at least £1 per person would be greatly appreciated.

Thomson’s Tower will be open to the public every Saturday & Sunday during July & August from 1 to 4pm. Entry: Adults £2

In a period perhaps best characterized by social and economic pandemonium, one must not only prepare for the impending havoc, but also take a moment to savor that delightful quiet preceding any storm worth a salt. With this in mind, there is no time like the present to dip one’s toes in the pond of conjecture…

This dabble with visualization begins in the early-20th century. Imagine you’re a shrewd magnate looking to spruce up your yard. Colonel George and Nelle Fabyan deemed a Japanese Garden the idyllic compliment to their Riverbank estate, in Geneva, near Chicago, which was already nothing less sumptuous. The couple hired landscape designer Taro Otsuka to construct the site sometime between 1910 and 1913 and upon completion, Susumu Kobayashi for maintenance and periodic cultivation. As an emotive result of personal expression applied to one’s environment, gardens serve as tribute to the natural world and the human condition. An internationally celebrated art, gardens are cultural reflections of the individual gardener and their community. Spectacular personal touches, paired with the landscape’s precision, make the Fabyan’s Japanese Garden marvelously captivating.

An early overview of the garden with Moon Bridge (courtesy of PPFV)

After centuries of evolution, Japanese Gardens are an amalgamation of social and religious ideologies. The influence of Zen theory transformed flowers into signs of frivolity. Subsequently, Japanese Garden flora is now typified by a quixotic interplay amongst immeasurable shades of green. Conifers, symbolizing self-discipline and eternity, have since reined champion as the choicest specimens. The contemplative journey is intended to inspire serenity and humility through a heady fusion of natural and man-made elements. The symbolic significance of any given feature is cumulative and thus, not disparate from that of the garden as a whole. Thoughtful compositional intricacies make Japanese Gardens an ideal setting to seek intellectual and spiritual sanctuary.

One must pass through the Gateway to Heaven or Torii gate, traditionally used to demarcate a Shinto shrine, to enter the Fabyans’ garden. An appreciation of the landscape is realized by the garden path composed of various mediums to strategically moderate one’s gaze and pace. Since the garden is not passively experienced, interpretation occurs on a personal level. Upon embarking, one meets the Waiting Bench Chamber. A sanctum of calm acceptance and understanding of oneself and nature, the Chamber employs both a circular and a square window to restrict vistas and manipulate one’s perspective.

The expedition continues on to the Buddhist center of the universe, Mount Sumeru. Its summit and the wooden bridge crowning it are dauntingly steep, an effort taxing to mind and body that dramatically slows one’s passage. These ingredients emphasize the panorama granted upon surmounting the peak. Moreover, mountains, among other natural structures, were traditionally viewed as the residence of celestials.

One must forge a meandering stream, an existential nod to the stages of life, to reach the next destination. For just as human existence can be categorized by birth, maturity and death; water, too, transforms from torrential waves to placid silence. Once across, one has reached the Tea House situated in the most hallowed area of the garden, whose layout is intended to represent a piece of (Japanese) calligraphy. Launched in Japan during the 9th century, by Chinese Buddhist monks, the custom of drinking tea was a celebration of spiritual and social tradition. This rite animated standards of decorum, occurring in the chashitsu, a room utilized for the service alone.

The ‘Moon Viewing Area’ of the Tea House (courtesy of PPFV)

The Fabyans’ Tea House is ornamented with a droll little porch with a big name; the ‘Moon Viewing Area’ forms a perch from which to note phases of the moon. Because it does not contain a tea-preparation kitchen or separate entrances for visitors and the Tea Master, the building is not entirely accurate in terms of conventional guidelines. However, the structural discrepancies could be a result of how the space was used, as accounts from the era indicate that the Fabyans’ Tea House was primarily used for entertaining.

From here, one next encounters the Moon Bridge, known as such due to its reflection in the water below creating a ‘full moon’. Representing eternity through its intrinsically globular shape, navigating the incline requires a steely discipline. The proverbial path to enlightenment is not all roses and this venture symbolizes the arduous route between mortal and divine worlds. The bridge also draws attention to the elixir of existence: water.

Historic postcard showing the Moon Bridge and lantern like 'Mount Fuji' (courtesy of PPFV)

Given that Japan is an island, water is an essential garden element and the Fabyans’ garden is home to a relatively large crescent shaped pond. Portraying the surroundings is a central mandate to Japanese Gardens and thus, the Moon Bridge is accessorized with a lantern-like version of Mount Fuji. The peak’s eloquent formation denotes halcyon days and is, therefore, an allegorical badge of prosperity.

Emerging from this foray, one is a token wiser, and infinitely more aware of nature’s genius. Having survived a fling down the gauntlet of consciousness with one of the 19th-century’s most bewitching couples, one can now unequivocally state that the Fabyan Japanese Garden is an intoxicating study of basic truths. The quintessence of elegance, this is a space where imagination can flourish.

Fabyan’s Moon Bridge after recent snowfall (photo by Kelly Nowak)

Fabyan Japanese Gardens are open 3 May  to 15 October, on Sunday 1 to 4:30pm, And Wednesday 1 to 4pm (from June), at other times by appointment. Admission by donation: $1! The Fabyan Villa Museum and Japanese Garden are located 42 miles west of Chicago, in Geneva part of the Fabyan Forest Preserve, on Route 31 (1511 Batavia Avenue), 1¼ miles south of downtown Geneva. IL 60134. The main entrance is on the east side of Route 31, just north of Fabyan Parkway.

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Hardwick Park just outside Sedgefield, County Durham is rising from its dereliction towards its former splendour and has many parallels with Painshill in Surrey, from the fate of its owner to the meticulous archival and archaeological research undertaken before restoration was even attempted. The progress over the last four or five years has been remarkable and this unsung gem is well worth visiting.

The grounds were laid out in the 1750s by John Burdon who inherited money from his father’s saltpan business and increased it by all sorts of schemes. He wanted a landscape with a circuit walk and that is what he laid out, with a meandering walk from gothic feature to classical then back to gothic, nine in all. Each feature was laid out so that the sight-lines from any one feature to any 2 others were exactly 22½? but the only place to see it all at once was from the top of the tower of the Gothic Ruin. The buildings were designed by James Paine and workmen such as the stuccatore, Guiseppe Cortese, John Bell, a local builder, Francis Hayman & Samuel Wale for frescoes and paintings, were brought in to produce a sumptuous feast. All these are commemorated on the banqueting table, one of the quirky seating areas dotted around the landscape.

Not-for-sitting ‘seat’; artist’s easel and stool (photo by Kate Harwood)

In truly Hamiltonian style Burdon also ran out of money before he could build his grand house and had to sell up. By the late 19th century the estate fell on hard times and the banqueting house, gothic seat, bathhouse all disappeared, the rest of the buildings were barely there, the lake silted up and the views long gone.

The knight in shining armour who rode to the rescue was Durham County Council who ran part of the site as a Country Park. In 1999 they commissioned research into the history of the park, supported by the HLF, leading to the upgrade of the Park to II* and to DCC acquiring the 108 acre East Park and more of the gardens. More HLF money has restored the gardens; trees have been cleared, the gothic seat and splendid Temple of Minerva (although without the statues and frescoes as yet) rebuilt and the planting of formal hedges and eighteenth century ‘shrubberies’ is underway.

The restored Temple of Minerva, Hardwick Park (photo by Kate Harwood)

The view along the grand terrace between the bathhouse and Sedgefield church is restored and the cascades are running again. The Serpentine River is now presided over once again by Neptune and the lake is a mirror of tranquillity. The not-for-sitting ‘seats’ dotted around the landscape are all painted white and range from the banqueting table and chairs, to a pair of library steps, to a chaise longue, to an artist’s easel and stool. And they all have aphorisms painted on them such as ‘Lady Hamilton. She sent a servant to enquire whether it was convenient to view the park —’ and,‘My brother has just returned from the Grand Tour and tells me that the views at Hardwick are just as good as Italy, so I come here twice a week, as Mama always says, a true Lady sketches on Mondays and Thursdays’.

There is more still to do; the grotto, a forlorn pile of stones cries out for some archaeologist to dig into the hillock and find the subterranean chamber which other masonry on the site hints at. Not all is to be restored, the façade of the Bono Retiro is to be consolidated. A shame as it must have been the perfect place for the library which was there in Burdon’s day. Others, such as the magnificent neo-classical bathhouse with Doric columns will remain just as foundations.
More heartening is the involvement of the Hotel which occupies the house Burdon never got round to replacing. The grounds between the two are marked by a simple estate railing, with a small gate for weary tourists (of whatever era) to wend their way to the house and sip tea, or something stronger, looking over the lake to the Temple as John Burdon must have done.

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Anthony du Gard Pasley at his 80th birthday party in August last year (photo by Tom Mabbott)

Anthony du Gard Pasley, who died on 2 October 2009, was above all a garden designer, but he was also a landscape architect, lecturer, teacher, author, garden judge, restorer of old houses and a confirmed Scotsman. Indeed he died in what he had come to think of as his real home, Moffat in the Scottish Borders near to the roots of his beloved Paisley clan, though a considerable distance from his other home near Tunbridge Wells.

Anthony was an instantly recognisable figure, whether in thorn-proof plus-fours, cape & deerstalker complete with monocle, or in the smartest kilt and jacket, his signature upward pointing moustache ‘giving a pleasant countenance’; always immaculate, but never aloof. A twinkle in his eye revealed his mischievous sense of humour, which always outshone his military bearing; presumably refined during his period in the Royal Army Service Corps.

To pursue a career in garden design, he initially served as a paying pupil under Brenda Colvin, first at her Baker Street office and then at 182 Gloucester Place, the office she shared with Sylvia Crowe. He then left to work for a period with landscapers Wallace & Barr of Tunbridge Wells, as he related in his recent GHS talk. He then returned to London to resume working for Miss Crowe, who had a mixed clientele combining very grand gardens but also new-towns, forestry, reservoirs and power stations, in the period when landscape architecture began to break away from its horticultural roots. This work is recorded in the books he helped see to press, Miss Crowe’s Garden Design, Landscape of Power and Landscape of Roads (all 1958). It was in this period that John Brookes came to work in the office, forming a friendship that was to last for fifty years.

Anthony’s garden design work was characterised by an understanding of space, a control of plant texture and form (decisions on colour came last) and a willingness to remain involved with a garden for many years, perhaps most notably at Pashley Manor in East Sussex. He seems to have been as happy working in gardens in need of restoration as new gardens, and was unafraid of modern materials. Other gardens he designed that are often open include Old Place Farm, in Kent and Parsonage Farm, in West Sussex.

Anthony’s design for his then front garden appears in Modern Private Gardens, Susan and Geoffrey Jellicoe’s 1968 survey of contemporary gardens, and it was Susan Jellicoe who encouraged him to write more. Many of his gardens in the UK, France, Switzerland and elsewhere, were later written up in the pages of Country Life, always in the third person, often discreetly critical of the designer, himself. He specialised in articles about particular aspects of gardens, reflecting his teaching role. He also wrote for the Observer and the Architectural Review amongst others, and he wrote two books, Summer Flowers in 1977, and The English Gardening School (1987), with Rosemary Alexander.

Anthony lectured on gardens at various of London’s polytechnics, the School of Architecture in Canterbury, and later at the AA and the Inchbald School of Design in London for John Brookes, and internationally. In 1983 Rosemary Alexander set up the English Gardening School, based at the Chelsea Physic Garden, where Anthony encouraged another generation of garden designers. Visits to gardens where he had been involved were an important part of the teaching process; perhaps most stimulating was his own garden in Tunbridge Wells where he was unbound by the restraints imposed by clients. That same front garden, now mature, showed his particular talent for using foliage. The more expansive main garden was a vision in pale mauve, pink and violet poppies, at least in my memory. The interior was as carefully thought out as the garden; curtains opening on to the garden formed part of the overall colour scheme for both indoors and out.

He became a principal judge of garden design at the Chelsea Flower Show, and was an active member of the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society. Members of the GHS will remember his presence on many study tours and at the AGM and Annual Conference, where he formed a genial double act with John Rotheroe of Shire Books on a stall trading as ‘Pasley & Rotheroe; Booksellers to the Horticultural Gentry’. They sold not only those ubiquitous slim volumes, but also acted as agent to other members who relied on them to sell their own titles, which certainly added to the bookkeeping side of the undertaking.

An Anthony Pasley ‘white garden’, near Henley (photo by Letitia Yetman)

He spoke to the GHS as part of our Winter Lecture Series in March 2007, without notes, or slides, for over an hour, and then at the GHS Study Day in November 2007 on Sylvia Crowe as part of the day’s programme on post-war landscape designers. He led several Society visits to gardens in which he was involved, notably to Pashley Manor and more recently to gardens in the Hambleden Valley and near Henley.

Anthony celebrated his eightieth birthday last August, in Moffat surrounded by friends. Although recently unwell, he died not too long after of short, unexpected, illness. CB

The Trust’s next major project is the restoration and adaptive re-use of the derelict, seventeenth century, grade II Watermill and Barn, including the restoration of the original waterwheel and mill equipment. These heritage buildings will become an education space for visitors, local schools and colleges providing a focus for learning and interpretation for the whole site, with a particular emphasis on sustainability.

For more information contact Hestercombe via their website

New research findings include revised estimates of potential tidal surges (lower than previously thought), flood flows originating from rainfall, and a reduced estimate of likely rise in sea level. This means that the present Thames Barrier (operated by the Environment Agency and critical for flood protection in London) will have a longer useful life than previously thought. The outcome of this effort will affect both the appearance and flood security of the historic Thames landscape.

Issues such as balancing periodic flooding against the impacts of raising the height of flood defences, and the use or abandonment of low lying riverside lands as flood water retention areas have the potential to alter the landscape of the tidal Thames.

On 22 December 2008, a second study was released for public comment. The Environment Agency’s Thames River Basin District Water Framework Directive is open for comment 22 until June. This study involves all aspects of planning for the Thames basin, and like the Thames Estuary 2100 plan, has the potential to alter the landscape character of the Thames landscape.

Tess Canfield

More information is available from:
www.environment-agency.gov.uk/wfd

Over a period of about ten years The Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club of Hereford (founded in 1851) kept a detailed record of varieties of apples and pears then being grown in Herefordshire, and had an annual exhibition to which were invited experienced pomologists to judge the fruits and try to identify them. One such was Dr Robert Hogg, Vice President of the Royal Horticultural Society, editor of the RHS Journal, writer of The Fruit Manual, who, together with Dr Henry Graves Bull, Physician to Hereford Infirmary, a past president and enthusiastic member of the Woolhope Club, produced The Herefordshire Pomona.

Two fine artists, Alice Blanche Ellis and Bull’s daughter, Edith Elizabeth, painted ‘from Nature’ the apples and pears shown at the autumn exhibitions. The details are exquisite, mouth-watering and honest, nothing excluded, not even blemishes afflicting some varieties. Hogg meticulously describes them, including the possible origin, history and, in the case of cider apples, a chemical analysis of the juice. Bull, who also acted as the coordinator and editor, drew cross-sections of each fruit.

Nobility and local gentry paid for the book by subscription. It was published in seven parts starting in 1878, fifteen shillings for the first part, twentyone shillings for each of the rest. On completion, in 1885, it was bound together to form The Herefordshire Pomona, six hundred copies in all.

Still today it is a valuable resource, often referred to by members of The Marcher Apple Network (MAN), who are concerned with promoting awareness of biodiversity and identifying and propagating locally grown old varieties of apples and pears.

To purchase an original copy would cost many thousands of pounds, but it is now possible for anyone to see the whole book, beautifully reproduced on CD Rom, all 77 coloured plates, as well as the cross sections and text descriptions of 432 varieties of fruit. This is available from The MAN, price £16, by sending a cheque (payable to The Marcher Apple Network) to Mr D Kempton, Brook House, Hopesay, Craven Arms, Shropshire, SY7 8HD. Further information is on the MAN website: www.marcherapple.net.

Ruth Brownlow