Feb 13, 2021
I often wonder what people mean when they talk about the “English garden.” From the private estates of the gentry to the pleasure pavilions of 18th-century London, open to all and sundry, the serpentine path down the quintessential English garden is a long one, passing rock grottoes, espaliered trees, manicured lawns and herbaceous borders, spilling into green pastures and meads. For others, it suggests the exacting geometry of a Jacobian knot garden, maze of trimmed box hedge, gravel parterres or just a simple Victorian rose garden.
The thread that connects all these visions of the English garden is that they are places of repose and beauty. Mention of the topic is unlikely to conjure images of the late filmmaker Derek Jarman’s garden in Dungeness, stricken among rental allotments on the withering salt flats and shingle of the Thames Estuary. Jarman’s choice of recycled or requisitioned objects for his creation were locally sourced and included flint,
Jo Whitaker
Frosty cattle at Panshanger Park.
- Credit: Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust
It may be grey, it may be cold and you may feel like you’ve not left the house in months, but going outside for a walk is the best way to blow those cobwebs away and keep spirits up.
After focussing more on our local green spaces, you may well have gotten to know a very special local wildlife gem a lot better over the last year – Panshanger Park.
If not, now is a great time to discover the 1,000-acre ex-quarry parkland which includes a nature reserve and historic landscape created by Capability Brown and Humphrey Repton.
Anne De La Warr and Julia Cradwick
William Sackville, 11th Earl De La Warr, wants the designation ‘sausage-maker’ added to his entry in Debrett’s. It is perhaps a surprising ambition for an old Etonian nobleman whose family seat, Buckhurst Park in East Sussex, is one of the most historically significant in the country. ‘He’s obsessed with his sausage company,’ laughs his wife, Anne, Countess De La Warr. ‘His interests are flat racing, pedigree Sussex cattle, his sausage company and his pub, The Dorset Arms.’ And Anne’s interests? Gardens and Shetland ponies, both of which she nurtures beautifully.
Houses for sale with exceptional fireplaces
From an 1870s property with open fireplaces with Arts & Crafts detailing in Buckinghamshire, to a Palladian country house in Bath, eight of the best houses for sale with exceptional fireplaces.
24 Dec 2020
Seafield House, Kilcrea, Donabate, Co. Dublin, Ireland. A 1730s Palladian mansion in landscaped gardens overlooking an estuary. It has Adam fireplaces and a magnificent fireplace rescued from a castle in Lough Lomond. 8 beds, 9 baths, 5 receps, 3-bed gate lodge, 79.07 acres. £8.8m Christie’s International Real Estate +353 1 237 6402.
High Trees, Chalfont St. Peter, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. A Grade II-listed, 1870s house with gardens believed to have been designed by Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll. It has open fireplaces with Arts & Crafts detailing. 9 beds, 5 baths, 5 receps, gym, indoor pool, orangery, 20 acres.