HG TRAVEL
Historical gardens
ON CLOSE
REFLECTION
D
ownton Abbey has faded from our T V screens,
but the images of the property are difficult to
forget, having become as familiar as the White
Cliffs of Dover. The real ‘Downton Abbey’ is Highclere
Castle (right), a 90-minute drive from central London.
Its 400ha of parklands were designed by landscape
garden great Lancelot, or ‘Capability’ Brown, in 1770.
Now, three centuries after his birth in 1716, the UK
is paying homage to the man who reshaped rural
Britain, creating about 170 parkland estates across
the country in the process.
As is typical of a Brown creation, rolling grass laps
up to Highclere. While clumps of trees, grazing sheepOn the 300
th
anniversary of landscaper Capability Brown’s birth,
a visit to his influential gardens is in order, writes Chris Pearson.Photography from Alamy (Highclere Castle, Biddulph Grange, Castle Howard, Harewood House). Chris travelled courtesy of VisitBritain; http://www.visitbritain.com.and Greek-style temples direct the eye to the horizon,
lakes create reflections and ha-has (sunken walls)
provide barriers to deer without interrupting vistas.
“He transformed formal English gardens and parks
into an A rcadian world of expansive lawns and lakes
framed by artfully grouped trees,” says Highclere’s
current occupant and Brown fan, Lady Carnarvon.
On green expanses, these features are visual
punctuation; commas, colons, parentheses and full
stops. Brown would move hills, even a village, to
achieve his vision. And while many of his parklands
have been carved up by motorways and golf courses,
some special ones remain.Chatsworth House One of
Brown’s iconic gardens, Chatsworth House
(this image) in Derbyshire, will become
an outpost for the Chelsea Flower Show
in 2017. On Brown’s arrival in 1760,
Chatsworth was formal, intricate and
symmetrical but as an autocratic monarchy
was giving way to a freer style of governing,
the gentry – in this case the 4th Duke of
Devonshire – wanted a more ‘natural’
landscape. Brown widened a river and
introduced weirs to create a reflective lake.
On a flat plain, he added hills; introducing
clumps of beech and oak to guide the
view and make the eye pause. But he
didn’t stop there – hapless Edensor blocked
the view, so he moved the entire village
and clumped trees in front of it.