Newby Hall, near Ripon in North Yorkshire, has been described as ‘one of the most elegant houses in the country’ and that is a suitably fitting description. Attributed to Sir Christopher Wren and enlarged and improved by the prolific 18th … Continue reading
A few years ago, on a visit to Versailles, I was shocked by the restoration of the Courtyard façade on the approach from the town. Built in the late 17th century for Louis XIV, the over-use of gold screamed wealth … Continue reading
When I first saw the Howardian Hills, that area of outstanding natural beauty with its distant views of the blue horizon and big skies I thought this was landscape perfection. Not for me the scraggy mountains of the Lake District … Continue reading
It should all be so easy. Much of the attraction of places like Hidcote is that visitors can relate to the scale and planting of the Arts and Crafts ‘rooms’ and copy and transpose them into their own smaller gardens. … Continue reading
I have always thought that there was something curiously contemporary about the Water Garden at Studley Royal. It seems to have more in common with modern British landscapes than with Le Notre’s work at Versailles or Chantilly built just a … Continue reading
From time to time a new garden opens to the public that grabs the headlines, and back in 2003 Scampston Walled Garden certainly did that. It is a garden that I should have been to a long time ago, but … Continue reading