Why English Gardens Are the Best in the World

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the manners castles and stately homes I

visit across Britain are brimming with

magnificent history and inspiration but

the gardens and Landscapes which

surround these beautiful buildings have

their own Rich Heritage and stories to

tell this bit of the garden actually was

designed like this by the victorians

okay um the six

Duchess when she was a widow and her

companion who was a cousin they they

were very influential in this right and

they moved that um north wall back about

3 m creating this flat Terrace like this

see and creating the herbaceous borders

which I think were a much more Victorian

and then Edwardian

tradition this is one of my favorite

areas of the garden it's we call it the

sundal garden one of the only areas of

what we would call formal planting that

we have in the garden and this is the

original template of the garden

essentially you would have looked out

from in this sort of this bay window

right and so you would look down over

this Garden where you know you'd see the

children

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play when I married into the British

aristocracy it was the start of a

wonderfully exciting Journey but it was

also a little daunting I became a VI

Countess and for an American girl from a

small town outside Chicago that was

quite a shock I live with my husband

Luke heir to the Earl of Sandwich and

our family at mapperton house in

Dorset living in a place like this is a

joy but also a challenge and every day

we're aware that we're preserving a very

special part of Britain's heritage

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mton has opened up an extraordinary new

world for me and I can't wait to share

it with you

all so if you love castles and manners

and stately homes as much as I do please

join this American VI Countess as I

journey into the British Countryside in

search of some of Britain's Finest

historic houses

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here at mton the italianate gardens are

absolutely at the heart of this place

they are both formal and wild the beauty

and power of nature is literally all

around

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the gardens took on their current life

in the 1920s when the owner of maon at

the time Mrs eth laaser designed a

sunken italianate garden in the natural

valley

here the gates to the gardens were open

to the public in the 1930s with

thousands of visitors enjoying their

peace Beauty and Tranquility ever since

for nearly 70 years since the mue family

moved here in the 1950s these Gardens

have been treasured and lovingly cared

for and developed most recently by my

mother-in-law the 11th CEST of Sandwich

who has devoted ours to preserving and

nurturing these historic award-winning

grade two listed Gardens

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well what's good about the orange tree

is it's got some rather wonderful plants

in it and it smells amazing in here it

does smell and then these are lovely too

these these are beautiful um but what is

really good is this rose up here do you

see it with the lovely white FL I put

that in curiously enough it's an old

Victorian t- Rose called nfos and it

doesn't really live outside it's an

indoor Conservatory Rose and funnily

enough when my parents went to live in

Sussex in the conservatory there was

nfos it was the sort of rose that people

had in their

conservatories so when you arrived here

at Matton this

had been built by by hinch yeah yeah let

nobody think that this is an old

Conservatory it was built in 196 well 68

it was opened in 1968 and it leaked from

the day it was opened and it still is

right uh even though it's been re roofed

and heaven knows what my father-in-law

who was used to a larger Garden even

than this well this Garden is only 15

Acres which in the great scheme of

things is not that much but there are 15

Acres of gardened Garden as opposed to

Rolling Acres of

Parkland um but he was used to a bigger

Gardener and he always had very Grand

ideas my father-in-law in so he built an

orangery one of the few orangeries built

in the

1960s and it's given him it gave him a

lot of Joy a lot of Joy it's given all

of us a lot of dry we've sort of changed

the pl yeah did you then change it

change it a bit thing we didn't change

is the vine over there which you can't

really see which is that Italian vine

the strawberry grape U froga it's so

high that what I try to do is create a

full ceiling across you see yes there

because that proportion is so much

better than this Higher One yes no no I

do I do see so I've been trying to do

that and it's done there with the vine

and the rose so coming out here I

remember one of the things that you've

always told me is that a manor house

having this size of Garden in these

formal Gardens isn't common no no no I

mean what has happened to mapon is that

it was a sort of reason I mean it's a

very beautiful manor house and

astonishingly beautiful manor house but

it would never have had the aristocratic

Furniture that's in it my father- andlaw

brought from hinching Brook nor would it

ever have had a garden this big and in

fact my father- andlaw double the size

of the garden but in fact what happened

to this Garden or rather if I start from

where the garden starts that we can see

here yes um it was put in by Mrs labush

who owned the house from 1919 to

19504 five when my father-in-law bought

it right and she put in the topy garden

which we'll see in a minute or two down

there and it was and it was a an

italianate Garden totally symmetrical

right and the the pergola which we'll

see down there half of it was up here oh

my goodness so that it was symmetrical

my father-in-law or having put in the

orang Tre realized he needed a sweep of

steps and put in also a s where he could

address the

nation and uh it all changed so it was

no longer symmetrical and this the

orangery was completely detached from

the okay from the topon so I put in this

row of crab apples to try to weld the

orangery to the topy okay okay yes and

these big beautiful yeah they're

stunning at the

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moment what's special about the Gardens

at maon is that they even look glorious

on a rainy and wet spring

day so you've been looking after really

these Gardens that are award-winning

italianate Gardens they've won lots of

Wars they've been in lots of lovely

books lots of articles

um yeah they're even an absolutely

brilliant Garden in the winter CU

they've got so much form design to them

and but this is an enormous task and

what have you but it's never been my

primary task I know that I mean I'm

afraid it really hasn't I we have

improved them

enormously uh when I say that I mean

both the gardening staff and me I mean

when we first came here they were still

sort of quite correctly hinches Gardens

and had AB absolutely hideous bedding

out plants like asers and pelagonians

and right sweet Williams and things in

awful little beds all over the place

okay so you had to do quite a bit huge

amount and we created that whole run and

those beds we double the size not these

beds these beds are the same size but

they were full of just boring white

roses or something I think you ought

just to know actually jul us as we walk

past that that's where the deer have

eaten every single leaf oh my goodness I

can see yeah of course I can see and so

yes of course what John and I have done

is we've enriched the planting hugely

enriched it doubled the number of

species if not tripled and given it a

sort of warmth and excitement that it

didn't have so yes huge amount of

planting huge amount of selection of

species I made some hideous mistakes

obviously no I'm sure you didn't of

course I did yeah I have to um but so

what is your I can't do J no I know got

to get through and oops Yeah

wow you see for instance that my

father-in-law put in he was rather good

on clementis he was good on shrubs he

put in this thing kakia I mean the

arborium which he created um has got

excellent trees in it I've actually

added some more interesting trees which

one of these days let's go around and

I'll show them definitely definitely can

you tell me just a little bit though

about the grto yes I can tell you I can

tell you a little bit about this I think

the most important thing about this is

it is a very very handsome very very

elegant um topy garden and you created

that no no this is all Mrs labush oh

this is all Mrs La all Mrs La everything

here is Mrs lab now these little Grotto

there are two Grotto there there's the

POI Pavilion up there there's a little

um p uh summer house there she had fires

in all of them Mrs lavisha because she

liked to do water colors yes and so she

sat in them with a F and no doubt

somebody bringing logs had to I know

it's amazing that they just have you

ever lit one of the fires in there yes

we did and it smoked appallingly we did

the one I've done there right if you if

I were to ask you what's your favorite I

know people ask me that I have the pest

idea I

don't I have to say that I'm not one of

those great gardeners who really you

know is obsessed either by Gardens or by

plants very interested in Plants I'm

very interested in seeing that we have

good plants and also that we have

contrasts of green and flowers and leaf

forms so we have contrast of color and

form y these are not bad the holes at

the moment are where we plant things

which had this year been little less

unpleasant than it has been that would

already be planted can't do it but

everything's just a bit delayed yes

everything including the wiia these

things like these tree panners I put in

all these CU I like the shap

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yes and when does the Japanese Mysteria

over there oh is that the Japanese one

well the two white ones here one is

chinensis and the other is fand which is

Japanese and I well they should be

coming out quite soon they're always a

tiny bit later than the ones in the F in

the front Courtyard and they should be

coming out not in this one no sensible

plant is going to come out in this way

weather no they're all waiting for the

sun like we are so tell me just a little

bit about the pools because they're

quite a feature yeah oh they are

wonderful

well this first run of U bushes was here

when my father-in-law arrived okay he

put in the second lot ah so there was

only one y okay and Mrs labush put in

that um semicircular Garden there okay

okay yes and I don't know who put in the

Irish use and this would have been a

cart Pond for people to eat the fish in

the winter yes the second one I have

once seen a map where it didn't exist

okay but I that was about 30 years ago

and I've never found the map again which

is really important okay do you think

Mrs Lasher possibly put that in quite

quite Lely okay they are beautiful of

course we like to swim in there yeah as

well I like to wave at the frogs as I go

by hi yeah it's just it's brilant it is

lovely the best time to swim at 6:00 in

the evening when the sun's out and you

get these wonderful Shadows of the use

falling onto the pool if we ever do see

the sun again again I can't see myself

ever swimming in there again I will if

it's really warm but I think you will

not in this not in this weather anyway

Caroline thank you this was um um a real

true every time I come to the gardens

with you I learn something new

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when I visited the Glorious Georgian

Masterpiece Constable Burton Hall in

North Yorkshire home to the wyal family

it was so lovely to take a walk with

imagin in the beautiful formal and

Woodland

Gardens so this is a really beautiful

time of year in the gardens everything

suddenly just exploded in color um and

actually this is one of my favorite

areas of the garden it's we call it the

sundal garden one of the only areas of

what we would call formal planting that

we have in the garden and this is the

original template of the garden

essentially you would have looked out

from in this sort of this bay window

right and so you would look down over

this Garden where you know you'd see the

children playing or yes whatever and

then then this Garden extends out into a

a s of teered Terrace Garden which would

have been more formal at the outset but

over time has become sort of slightly

more of a Woodland terracing yes the

most wonderful thing which you'll see is

that these trees you know really envelop

the house got these beautiful cedar

trees here and the house is really

nestled in amongst this area you know we

dip down to the Lakes behind the house

here but you feel kind of nestled and

cozy in this sort of in the spot and

those are the lakes that again I saw

when I entered into the outer Hall from

that

exactly and I think you know we don't

have so many Maps or drawings um that

have kind of made the test of time but

it alludes the few that we do have

allude to there being pleasure walks in

in that area so we've think that we

found um some sort of big um you Stone

areas essentially where we think there

might have been you know little Villas

or folies you know none of it there

today but there's a beautiful padian

bridge by that down by that Lake which

wouldn't have been there had it just

been you know Rural right exactly

exactly so you know that's another

that's a project for you know years to

come but we would love to sort of

reinstate that route through those

Gardens as well but at the moment you

know this is our this is our sort of

circuit as such it's so beautiful you

know there's always projects going on at

these houses absolutely it's very

different in one sense to how they had

been lived in in the past because

we as custodians homeowners we doing

yeah much of the work ourselves totally

you know we we do you know whatever is

actually within our within our realm of

you know capacity exactly and you know

there were obviously you know hundreds

of of staff and gardeners and you know

people tending you know now we're very a

very uh Boutique team so you know we do

we do I love that term I'm going to

steal that from you a boutique team

Boutique team

um so you know and actually this is this

is what brings us pleasure um and you

know you get beautiful Vistas through

the garden so you can get a little

glimpse of the Lakes as you walk through

you can see the river running through

this is actually called the dean um it's

like a jungle out there at the moment it

is but it's lovely I mean listen it's

all about rewilding the worlda so you

are right we were Trail

Blazers exact we were the Trail Blazers

so true and you know it's not something

that I know you the garden is coming to

me over the course of time I think you

get your head around the house yes and

then you start sort of you know broaden

out um and it's wonderful you know it's

a beautiful beautiful garden but you

know there are little Corners you know

each year we take a little a little

chunk and I think you know then I know

you know what's going on in that little

corner of the garden and um you know

step by step you know you create your

your journey with the garden same with

the house yeah um

there was a little area just Ben beneath

the dining room window there which you

know I sort of looked at it we had the

formal planting here and I thought do

you know what that's something we could

make more of that so actually we dug out

two new beds there which a great friend

of mine designed for my 40th birthday

and we've planted that up now which is

so beautiful because now I feel you know

a sense of my own story in the garden

which is so lovely yeah and now I know

you know if I pull a weed out of there I

know it's a weed rather than something

that shouldn't be tou

exactly you have these extraordinary

Gardens we've just sort of wandered and

meandered through them with of course

the backdrop of the house and then

looking down here onto um the lovely

water but visitors can they they can

come here yeah so essentially the

gardens used to be open to the public

all the way through from March to

September but you know when we moved in

we've got young children and we thought

that we would shift into you know

something which is a little bit more

manageable for us right because you know

the kids need to have a sense of freedom

and to be able to ride their bikes and

you know of course but at the same time

we wanted to be able to share the

gardens so essentially now we we just

run more events and we Kickstart this

events in the spring season with our

Tulip Festival which is really the sort

of you know the grand opening of cons

Burton Gardens for the season and that

is a long-standing relationship with a

nursery called blums bulbs okay who just

won their 70th gold at Chelsea oh my

goodness so they are they are really

exceptional and I think I think the

relationship started over 25 years ago

so we're there Northern show Garden you

know we're incredibly fortunate to have

this amazing relationship with them and

we plant 7,000 of their tulips around

the gardens fantastic absolutely

gorgeous I mean I love tulips anyway so

yeah yeah you know to have these

beautiful displays throughout the garden

is really amazing amazing so the Tulip

Festival happens when so it's the first

May bank holiday weekend so sort of you

know first of May or thereabouts right

um and then really throughout the entire

month of May the Tulips are in the

gardens and it looks absolutely amazing

so you often get the blossom coming at

the same time and you the Magnolias and

everything is just full of life you know

and the the winters are long and cold

and so for me that's my you know it's

such exciting time of year to spring is

here it's here new life is everywhere

right um here you get another glimpse of

the river running through it's fantastic

which is so

lovely so this is the Beautiful You Know

Aces grow

well here so you know the aces draw your

eye over across the gardens it's just

the light coming in right now is really

really lovely yeah so yeah it's pretty

it's pretty gorgeous is it is really

gorgeous so really the peak though is of

course the Tulip Festival how many in

total do you know how many t i well we

have I think we have over 7,000 and

about 100 different varieties so we

plant them in a sort of specimen fashion

and right each year we know we remove

them and replant yeah 7,000 it's a real

labor of love and we also because you

know you can imagine the deer and the

this thing is absolutely wonderful so

you go to painstaking lengths with

covering them with cages until it's sort

of showtime and then all the cages come

off but um it is amazing you know it's

really an amazing site and actually then

we get left with this you know we have

obviously take them out and then we have

these huge beds that we you know have

empty so we've now removed the Tulips

and we replace those beds with daers

with a view to having a sort of late

summer show for daas what's amazing is

when you you know if you go up the

Parkland and you approach conable

version as you would have done you know

in the original House you know you would

have snaked through the Parkland and

then suddenly you know happened upon con

Burt you get little sort of you know

little glimpses of it and then suddenly

it's presented to you but what you do

see is you know the foresight that they

had to plant this incredible landscape

around the house to frame it you know

it's it's it's just genius the thought

that went into it in sort of

Designing this space and again back then

it was it was this community of people

that lived either around the house or of

course on the estate and this is how I

think historic houses in particular have

evolved that whereas before it was sort

of like okay everybody just sort of

stays within the community now we as

homeowners we're opening it up so that

people can come and stay and enjoy the

history of your house and they can walk

through the gardens and so it's opening

it up to a wider Community absolutely um

but look at this view I know there it is

it's so it's gorgeous at this time of

day because the stone really starts to

have that Golden Glow reflect

it it it changed dramatically in the

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sunlight from North Yorkshire we head to

the highlands of Scotland where the

drama of the landscape Cascades down to

the mature Gardens which envelop Blair

Castle

itself I met up with Sarah Tron half

sister of the 10th Duke of athal to

explore the historic Walled Garden

this is stunning this sort of visual

right here with the castle behind but

now where we entering into well we're

entering up Hercules walk walking

towards the statue of

Hercules and this was all designed and

created by the second Duke and his head

Gardener John Wilson okay and what time

give me time frame there um it was

174 okay onwards he died in

1764 so over that sort of 30e span and

he from the front door of the castle he

devised various Vistas one was up to

Hercules slightly overgrown

now one was down the front drive and

another was up towards the statue of

Diana in Diana's Grove which is where we

have these fantastic big high conival

trees right but the one to Hercules was

the main one and he first of all created

leveled out this path because I think it

was quite like that okay just with Mana

there was no machines in those those

days of course not and he planted it up

with some nice trees shrubberies but a

lot of what we're seeing now was planted

in about

1900 okay because there was a terrible

storm at the end of the 19th century

okay the lot was blown down and then

when he got to Hercules he thought the

view wasn't quite nice enough to the

left it was a bit boggy and didn't look

too hot so he decided to dig a lake the

whole length right which you call the

canal Pond and then a square pond at the

far end so it all drained into that oh

my goodness and then he thought um he'd

like to plant some things but there were

too many animals around so he built a

wall all around it and so it is now the

it's nearly 10 acres um oh wow wall

Garden fantastic and it was it was

developed by the second Duke as what in

those days was known as a f or an

ornamental productive Garden okay so

there were roses and a lot of scent from

the archives I picked this up but also

lots of fruit lots of vegetables herbs

so it's served as both where somewhere

where you take a very pleasant walk

right but also very productive for

everybody I mean the amount of produce

must have covered most of the estate I

think abely the castle the sad thing

about this Garden was after the second

world war it was in very poor condition

somebody tried to run it as a Market

Garden but it just didn't work and so in

the early 60s it was planted with

Christmas

trees from one end to the other so all

my childhood memory really is of full of

Christmas trees no so what happened to

the Christmas trees then well they were

cut down when the decision was taken to

try and restore the garden ah not

totally to its former glory but with all

the paths and some of the beds in

position

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okay taking inspiration from the

archives Sarah has revived the historic

Gardens at

Blair we had a whole project um somebody

did a plan they'd resear we had a

historian who came and researched all

the archives and Drew up the plan of how

the garden would have been and most of

it we could see the the pond was still

intacted right okay um we had to build

up the sides and we had to build up the

retaining wall and all that but the

paths weren't here but it was easy to

work out where they'd been and we

reestablished them look at the oh my

goodness and all these fruit trees are

planted they're not the same species

okay but they are planted in exactly the

same positions as the original ones

would have been because that's how

detailed the information in the archives

was incredible so all these bear

different fruit yes they're rows I mean

this is a row of MLL cherries yes and

then there's a row ples apples plums and

then you start again with cherries how

brilliant and these are a mixture of

those three fruits four fruits

okay how wonderful and then this is the

North Terrace this bit of the garden

actually was designed like this by the

victorians okay um the sixth

Duchess when she was a widow and her

companion who was a

cousin they they were very influential

in this bit right and they moved that um

north wall back about 3 m oh because the

old road um the old driveway from the

road to in vanesse used to be back there

and it had changed and gone down to the

modern Village okay leaving that as an

unimportant roadway okay so they

moved literally about 3 m back so then

you moved creating this flat Terrace I

see I see okay and creating the

herbaceous borders which I think were

much more Victorian and then Edwardian

tradition than they would have been uh

earlier georan 18th century tradition

and actually we've designed it to be at

its best in July August because that's

when we get most visitors and for

Scottish habous Garden that actually is

a good time it's it's that much later

than England so this is something you've

really had a hand in and making sure

that this carries on for for future

Generations it's beautiful and just the

scent as well yes I mean I hope so but

Gardens are ball all the time you know

there's no way you can say that's how

it's going to be for

right of course it's not yeah no but

it's also um hello it's um it's also in

my view at least you know you can houses

evolve as well of course of course but I

think Gardens much more than a house and

a garden is something that you can visit

really four times a year in the seasons

cuz they're Chang in the seasons and a

house you know maybe once a year um

seeing what the next project is but

that's what's so wonderful about the

garden is because you can see how each

season how it changes no it is very SE

very seasonal this Garden because I mean

in in May the fruit Blossom is lovely

and you get these very geometric lines

of Blossom and then the herbaceous comes

on led by the roses and it's quite a

good Garden for

roses and then there's the the high

summer is I the most colorful period

with all the habous but then the Autumn

is beautiful here we have very and the

trees you know around the outside that

have wonderful color as well as what's

in the garden so it I I love the Autumn

actually well I'm very pleased I came

you know at the height of the herbaceous

borders looking so absolutely stunning

in their in their color and scent can

you smell the lies because scent has

been a great tradition in this Garden

all it all mentioned in the um archives

it's always saying scented scented

honeysuckle scented roses scented

everything so when we were planting we

always had in mind that we wanted to

have good wafts of scent yeah well i'

I've had plenty from the point that we

started I mean it's just constant I feel

like it's absolutely con and this is a

spectacular view here as well this well

that's there's Hercules Hercules there

he is there is very odd geometry in this

Garden nothing is actually 90°

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it's so nice now the garden is I mean a

Garden's never done but it's kind of

complete and now we just redo things or

rejig things a little bit add a bit of

more color when something's not looking

quite right change it it's just

lovely thank you so much for joining me

and I hope you've enjoyed this

Horticultural Feast as much as I have I

look forward to seeing you soon for more

historic house Adventures

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