Comments on: Romantic new garden for the cafe in Chiswick Park?

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Tue, 24 May 2011 18:16:07 +0000

The distinction between park and garden is usually clear in England: parks are for animals and gardens are for ornamental plants. This is also the historic relationship. Things were however not so clear in the eighteenth century when parkland often swept up to the windows of the main rooms.

By: Christine

Christine — Tue, 24 May 2011 06:09:38 +0000

The ‘professional’ relationships of this era seem to be quite complicated, as is illustrated by the discussion of the design and construction of Holkham Hall.
[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holkham_Hall ]

It is interesting to note that the grounds of Holkham Hall are not described as a garden, but rather a park. The inscription says:

“THIS SEAT, on an open barren Estate
Was planned, planted, built, decorated.
And inhabited the middle of the XVIIIth Century
By THO’s COKE EARL of LEICESTER.”

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Sat, 21 May 2011 06:39:00 +0000

William Kent lived in Rome for about 10 years and must have seen the Villa Aldobrandini, if only from outside its gates (there is a very good view of the Aldobrandini garden from the town square). Visiting the great houses of Italy was not difficult, if one tipped the servants, so he probably went round the back and saw the cascade too. One can't be so confident of his having known about the Sacro Bosco at Bomarzo but he might have - and I would love to know! As a designer, Kent was not trying to go 'back to the renaissance'. This had been done a thousand times. He wanted to go 'back to Rome' and 'back to Greece': to their landscapes, not to their gardens.

By: Christine

Christine — Sat, 21 May 2011 05:31:04 +0000

Teverone is certainly very inspiring, but the landscape is very dramatic, unlike the pastoral scene of Chiswick. Do you think he would have been aware from his Grand Tour [ http://www.villa-aldobrandini.it/ ] of the cascade at Villa Aldobrandini? [ http://www.countrylifeimages.co.uk/ResizedImages/VeryLarge/682199.jpg ] and [ http://www.flickr.com/photos/rei_in_forest/5285831532/ ] It is quite dramatic also, but perhaps has more structure to the garden? [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gad0VoONdYI&NR=1 ]

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Thu, 19 May 2011 07:17:06 +0000

Your criticism is fair. William Kent is a really puzzling figure and his landscape design drawings are embarassing. One of his main ideas, for gardens, was to re-create the type of scenery he knew from his decade in Italy. Ridiculous though it may seem, the cascade at Chiswick may have been conceived as a homage to the falls of Teverone, Tivoli http://www.settemuse.it/pittori_opere_D/dughet_gaspard/dughet_gaspard_506_a_view_of_tivoli_with_the_teverone.jpg

By: Christine

Christine — Thu, 19 May 2011 06:28:05 +0000

The canal and cascade, in this context, seems a rather strange design. If I am correct in my interpretation, the source of the brook is spring located in Action (Anglo-saxon village named for an oak farm), whereas the cascade (designed to represent the source of the water) is located downstream as the waters flow to the Thames?

I am wondering (if this is the true interpretation) if this strategy would have been considered ‘good’ landscape design practice at the time or rather extending the bounds of artifice beyond propriety?

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Wed, 18 May 2011 06:43:39 +0000

Yes, see: http://www.chgt.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=14
The website explains: “The lake was originally a stream called the Bollo Brook which formed the boundary of Lord Burlington’s estate. After the estate was extended by the purchase of land the other side of the water in 1726-7, the Brook was widened and canalised and, in 1737, ‘naturalised’ by landscaping its edges to give the illusion of a river. The Bollo Brook itself is carried in a pipe underneath the lake.”

By: Christine

Christine — Wed, 18 May 2011 05:20:09 +0000

Tom, is the canal at Chiswick House another underground river?

By: Christine

Christine — Mon, 09 May 2011 06:03:45 +0000

Chances are the Anglo Norman’s ate venison (from deer parks) and beef and veal (possibly from Anglo Saxon cows). [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_with_dual_French_and_Anglo-Saxon_variations ] and [ http://www.encyclo.co.uk/define/Cowherd ].

Perhaps the Ha-Ha’s landscape origin’s date back to the gradual obsolescence of the Norman Castle as a means of defense? [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ha-ha ] And the establishment of Royal Forests as deer parks? [ http://medieval-deer-park.co.tv/ ]

By: Christine

Christine — Sat, 07 May 2011 05:43:58 +0000

ps. The career of the French Engineer and Garden Designer Salomon de Caus may be a good source for the influences on and evaluating of the Kenilworth Garden as well as the garden at Chiswick House (note his use of the cascade and an artificial water garden at Hatfield House). [ http://gardenin.ru/eng/renaissance_germany.html ]

Sources for Anglo-Norman food are probably not that common or easy to find. See ‘Two Anglo-Norman culinary collections Edited from the British Library Manuscripts by Hieatt and Jones, Speculum (1986)'[ http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2853971.pdf?acceptTC=true ]