Friday, June 08, 2012

Pubs & Gardens: England 2012

We have just arrived back from a very chilly and rainy England - just like you saw on television Sunday for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.  The American correspondents reported on the news, “How can the Queen stand there smiling, out in that boat in the middle of the Thames in such bad weather?  And all those millions of people standing out there and cheering!”

They don't understand that it's not just professionalism, stiff upper lip, etc. - the Brits actually love their weather!  Of course, sunny is nice but rain and fog doesn’t stop them from going out and walking.  That's how we travelled all around the pubs and gardens in England.  It was cold and rainy, but we wore our Barbour jackets, and Gerry was happy - he walks better in the cold.  One chilly, drizzly day in Devon, that I remember well, after a mile and a half (a smile and a laugh, GRAK called it) walking in the hedgerows, we stopped at a pub around lunchtime to get warm and to sup a very welcome pint of local ale, to find that they were offering fresh, local scallops – just delicious! 
Well, we finally did it!  It’s been ten years since we last crossed the pond so that Gerry could imbibe his beloved English ale and we could both peruse the wonderful English gardens and woodlands once again.  As always, we organized the tour by first me choosing the gardens for almost four weeks of meandering around the south-west, and then Gerry picking the most interesting pubs/inns nearby the gardens for us to stay in.  It took some weeks (months?) to put the whole thing together, booking the flights and lodgings, and then, holding our noses at the horrible exchange rate (US crisis, Greek crisis, Euro crisis – just no UK currency crisis, only sky high Diesel prices and recession) we went!   This year, the UK is celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, with events all over the country, and also the Olympics.  They actually began the Olympic torch relay while we were there, carrying it all over the country, ending in London at the start of the Games, after it arrived in Cornwall from Greece.  In typical English fashion, the newscasters described the Olympic planning with particular detail on the gardens being planted for the Olympic grounds (just an example:  “London’s Olympic Village will feature mass plantings of wildflowers in full bloom”).
 I’ll list all the gardens and pubs/inns at the end of this blog, in case you’re tempted to give it a go too!  Highly recommended to all gardeners and beer drinkers…
On this trip (in prior years we also visited the south-east, the Lake District – so inspirational, the Yorkshire moors, and even the highlands of Scotland) we began at Heathrow and headed south-west through Surrey, Wiltshire and Somerset; spent a few days in and around Bath; then through Exmoor and down to Cornwall; then back through Devon, Dartmoor, Dorset and Hampshire’s New Forest; and finally back to London to visit The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and the Chelsea Flower Show.  Along the way, we stopped often, visiting some of England’s finest landscape gardens, drinking many pints of locally brewed ale, dining splendidly on fresh local produce, as well as lodging at a variety of interesting and ancient pubs and inns.

We expected the May weather to be wet and cool, so we packed our Barbour jackets and warm clothes and it’s a good thing we did.  It was cold (significantly below the average – the coldest day being our visit to Stourhead), blustery and drizzly every day during our stay (except for one weekend) and only finally started to warm up when we got back to London for the final days; when the sun finally emerged and we could peel off the jackets.  Then it was suddenly hot. 
However, the chilly rainy weather suited Gerry just fine!  He relishes the cold and walks much better and longer than in warm weather - as long as there’s a pub at the end of it!  In fact, we often both needed to warm up and refuel before heading off to the next garden.  I bundled up in multi-layered garments, wrapped a scarf around my face to keep out the biting wind and trudged along, hands buried deeply in my pockets, except when I took pictures.  You can see a few of our favorite pictures as you read this.  I was really shivering at Stourhead, especially when the very energetic guide wanted us to go squelching across the lawn to recreate the walk one would have taken with guests 200 years ago.  Boy was that cold!  But Stourhead is so beautiful – that’s the only reason I would go out in such weather!  The guide explained, as we shivered, the difference between Geraniums and Pelargoniums:  they are different Genera; Pelargoniums are originally from South Africa, bred for large, showy flowers (called, commonly but wrongly, geraniums) and Geraniums are much smaller wild flowers found all over (we actually have them growing in the mountains of Costa Rica - Geranium costaricense).  However, I still couldn’t understand the botanical difference between them enough to explain to Georgina when we saw both of them again at Kew.  They all look like Geraniums to me! 
We saw the ubiquitous English Bluebells blooming everywhere in the meadows, parklands and woodlands.  The daffodils had already finished, unfortunately, but mouth-dropping varieties of tulip flowers - some of them lovely, some of them gaudy - sprang out at every corner, some massed and others tucked into the gardens.  Remember the great Tulip bubble in Holland back in history?  It’s definitely food for thought during this latest real estate bubble and subsequent financial meltdown in the States and now in Europe.  One can learn much from history - and the tulip. They look much better in a mixed border, to my eye, rather than massed but I am for massing other things - I couldn’t fail to gasp in awe at the mass plantings of Rhododendron, Azalea and Camellia shrubberies, all in full, colorful bloom.  Viburnums and lilacs also added to the color.  What a riot of color and textures.  I also saw how the gardeners have pruned back hard selected Rhodis to control sometimes rampant growth.  Magnolias were also in full bloom, and the entire effect was color and texture around every bend in the trail.  However, not too much was blooming yet in the herbaceous borders – the cold weather had put most of the plants back into dormancy. 

The wisteria blooms, abundant everywhere climbing houses and trellises, were mostly a pale violet color, rather than the stunning purple that England will see when they bloom again in July.  I remember the guide at Killerton explaining how they will bloom again just in time for the herbaceous summer display.  Lucky all you gardeners traveling to England in the summer! 
For our trip, most of the trees had also leafed out, and the fresh, green, new leaves contrasted beautifully with the flowering shrubberies.  And always, everywhere, there were Bluebells.  The big landscape gardens look beautiful year-round but, in springtime, they are especially colorful and multi-textured.

The woodlands and hedgerows also gave a colorful show, with early blooming wildflowers beneath the canopy of trees and, once again, delightful bluebells turning the meadows blue.  After living in a forest for several years, I’ve become convinced that you can’t improve on nature – no garden can compete with the splendor of natural woodland.  However, the brilliant English landscape designers created magnificent gardens starting hundreds of years ago, and then modifying them with new trends through the ages – Victorian, Italian, Edwardian, native and more.  And now, fully mature, the gardens leave you gasping with amazement.  There is nothing like a huge copper beech tree counterpointing a massive rhododendron shrubbery in full bloom.  Landscape designers are true artists, and the huge English country estates gave them canvases on which to produce works of breathtaking tapestry and beauty.  The typical landscape design features a mansion house overlooking a massive serpentine lawn, dotted with mature trees and shrubberies on either side.  The larger gardens continue on winding trails through natural woodlands – improved with a collection of plantings from all over the world, all planted with an eye for proportion and texture.  Each bend in the trail brings you fresh visions of beauty.  Birds flock all over, and their twittering songs add to the senses – breathtaking!
The 18th century Capability Brown-style gardeners liked to ‘improve’ gardens with assorted temples and structures – ‘follies’ – a roman temple here, a palladium bridge there - to add architectural structure and places for contemplation to the natural world.  Nowadays, however, we view such useless buildings as follies indeed!  What an expense, building a massive, stone, roman temple that served no other purpose other than as a viewpoint – and perhaps an impulse to philosophize within the garden.  Yet they do impress.  And gardeners still like to include man-made structures even today – usually sculptures (or gnomes…).

The formal gardens were beautifully laid out in all the gardens we visited but they will produce much more color later in the summer.  Formal gardens are usually located near the house and/or Orangery (yes, the Brits love their oranges too!).  However, even though the herbaceous borders were just beginning to bud, we still enjoyed wandering the tidy gravel pathways, often stopping to sit on a bench near a fountain, just to admire the layout and design.   We admired the manicured gardens very much, even though not a single rose was yet in bloom, (the rosebuds remained firmly closed during our chilly visit, as if to say:  “It’s too frickin’ cold out there for me to open up”).   But the foliage was fresh, green and vigorous – not a spot of mold anywhere.  That’s English weather and English gardeners!
Quite a different spectacle awaited us at the Chelsea Flower Show, however, where you see all flowering plants in full bloom, all together - Daffodils, Lilies, Lupines, Foxglove, Roses, Fuchsias, exquisite red strawberries just ready to pop in your mouth, and on and on - all presented in a stunning display that could never happen naturally out in the herbaceous border.  That’s why the Chelsea Flower Show is such an amazing event.  Where else can you see a huge display of colorful lupines all in stunning bloom.  Others obviously agree - the Show always sells out well in advance - and when you walk from the Sloane Square Underground Station to the Chelsea Royal Hospital (an old Soldiers’ Home) which hosts the Show, you encounter many scalpers buying and selling Flower Show tickets – it’s a big market that goes on for blocks, just like walking into a Super Bowl Stadium back in the States.  Of course, no serious gardener would ever think of relinquishing his or her ticket for the greatest flower show on earth, but I digress from the countryside tour…

You need to retreat to the woodlands to find true nature – unimproved by man – to see how it really cannot be improved.  Other gardeners clearly understand this.  In fact, the most beautiful landscaped gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show this year were creations of natural meadows – sometimes with an old metal wheel or even rusted-out cans, placed amongst the wildflowers, as if somebody years ago had simply tossed the can out into the brush. How ironic, given that nobody ever throws trash away indiscriminately any more, even in the huge crowds at the Show.  Lots of recycling bins gave us Show-goers a place to pitch the empty plastic glasses we used to drink our pints of Pimms…  Yes, with the crowds and the heat, there is nothing like sipping a large Pimm’s while sitting on a grassy hillside to refresh a thirsty gardener.  Soon we were ready again to head into the Pavilion to see more displays.  With the drought and hose ban currently still in place in many parts of England (Drought?  What drought?  It rained almost every day in April and May!), the Chelsea Show featured water and its use – rainwater collected from roofs was recycled brilliantly throughout the gardens.  In fact, throughout this trip, we noticed much more interest in collecting rainwater and reusing laundry water for watering gardens. Pleasingly, everybody seems to be recycling, you see the containers everywhere.

We live ‘off the grid’ in Costa Rica, using solar power, and advocate it for any sunny climate.  So we were also thrilled to see so many solar panels on roofs everywhere out in the country – even on old farmhouses.  But we were also surprised; England is not precisely a sunny island, yet they capture what light they can – even on historic houses.  I would love to see solar panels on the rooftops of buildings in New Orleans – they could angle the panels to cover the rooftop AC units and easily retrofit the piping in the entire building for FREE hot water, just to get started - but I dream on…

Edible gardens are also becoming an important trend we noticed, both at the Show and out in the country gardens.  We saw huge, walled vegetable gardens, as well as many edibles blended with ornamentals, tucked in among the flowers. 

I was also pleased this trip to see many gardens removing/corralling many exotic invasive species, especially the rhizome-running species of bamboo.  The native movement is fully alive and active in the UK but the exotic collections from earlier periods – when gardeners brought seeds back from all over the world – remain cherished.  Only the most talented of propagators could coax a tender Rhododendron shrub from a seed brought back from Burma, but they did!  And the Rhododendrons flourished in the mild, sheltered climate of Cornwall and South Devon, and grew and spread, until a third generation of gardeners had to do battle and prune, select and sometimes remove! 
Nowadays, the exotic formal gardens we visited remain beautifully maintained and controlled, and you see a lovely blend of garden styles through the ages.  Gardeners now understand that there is a lag-time between introducing an invasive plant and when it actually becomes invasive and overwhelms the native species.  The period from introduction to rampant growth can sometimes take decades, depending on the species.  But it’s like fire; better to control a small fire before it burns out of control.  It’s the same with invasive plants.

No trip to England is complete without making a pilgrimage to The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, near Heathrow.  Here you will find the largest collection of plants in one place in the world.  It’s quite impossible to see everything in one visit – don’t even try it.  Just focus on the things that most interest you.  We’ve been to Kew several times over the years and rarely repeat or overlap.  Years ago, I was interested in collections and identification.  This time, I was more interested in the massive rock garden, tropical glasshouses and mature trees.  You can spend the entire day just visiting one of the huge glasshouses, and there are quite a number at Kew.  Since we live in the tropical world, we were drawn to the Tropical Houses to see the foliage with which I have become more familiar these past several years.  Tropical plants grow bigger leaves in the glasshouses at Kew, compared to out in the forest in Costa Rica.  I scarcely recognized some of them for their huge leaves – perhaps because the plant seeks more sun through the glass in England rather than under direct tropical sun, but also perhaps because each plant is so meticulously cared for.  The tropical world in the Kew glasshouses hardly seemed real - like a dream - with such perfectly formed plants.  In the forest, plants compete with each other and confront assaults from other wildlife – leaves chomped by insects, broken off by monkeys, carted off by all the ants.  In the glasshouses you miss the complexity of life circling around between the living and the dead.  But for anyone who cannot get to a tropical forest, Kew can give you a stunning glimpse of this enchanting world – without the insects!  Some would prefer that I think…
I love Kew!  And when they published ThePlantList.org, I couldn’t resist sending the Krewe from Kew a little ditty I wrote about the difference between Americans and Brits.  They thought it was hilarious.  I’m married to a Brit and know how to set the scene.

So to set the scene, imagine Fred Astaire singing and dancing to the little tune:
You say tomato, and I say tomaato…
You say potato, and I say potaato,
Potato, Potaato, tomato, tomaato,
Let’s call the whole thing off…

Okay here goes:
You say Compositae, I say Asteraceae!
You say Guttiferae, I say Clusiaceae!
Compositae – Asteraceae; Guttiferae – Clusiaceae,
Let’s call the whole thing off!
You say Labiatae, I say Lamiaceae!
You say Malvaceae, I say Tiliaceae!
Labiatae – Lamiaceae; Malvaceae – Tiliaceae,
Let’s call the whole thing off!
But, Oooooooh, if we call the whole thing off, then we must part,
And, Oooooooh, if we have to part, then that would break my heart.
So you say Palmae, and I say Arecaceae
And you say Leguminosae, and I say Fabaceae,
‘Cause they’re all just asters, mints, beans and daisies,
So let’s call the calling off off, let’s call the whole thing off!

Now, Kathryn would remind me that Tiliaceaes are now rolled into the Malvaceae Family.  So, yes, I am keeping up with the times…mas o menos…
Kew Gardens were also the highlight of our trip because our friend, Georgina Butler, joined us for the visit and then invited us back to her home in Richmond for dinner.   What a wonderful chef!   She became a riding friend while she served as Ambassador to Costa Rica and we were thrilled to catch up after so many years.  And, yes Georgina, this blog is my best way to correspond.

Gerry found us some truly fascinating pubs and inns during our journey – many ancient, dating from medieval times, with huge beams, cobblestone carriageways, quirky rooms, slate floors and massive hearths – usually lit with a fire to warm us after a day of rambling in the drizzly cold.  Visitors will be delighted to know that all the ancient pubs (at least those we chose) have now upgraded the bathrooms to include showers!  No longer do you have to deal with separate hot and cold faucets in a bathtub.  Yes, the bathtub is still there, with the old fixtures, but we mostly chose to use the shower.  Also, the food in pubs has become truly excellent – fine cuisine can now be found in virtually every pub in the English countryside – no longer must you choose between a ploughman’s lunch and steak & kidney pie…  We feasted on truly wonderful scallops, mussels, lamb, country ham and fresh, exquisitely prepared fish – Dover sole, skate, salmon – it was all so very good.  And, yes, we did have the odd kipper for breakfast, or smoked haddock with poached eggs, and the finest scrambled eggs anywhere.  And, at teatime, we occasionally splashed out for a cream tea – scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream.  There is nothing like it anywhere in the world! 
And every pub had a different collection of locally brewed beers on hand pump, or direct from the barrel.  What do especially I like about pubs?  The dogs – everybody brings in their dogs, and they add such atmosphere, lying under the table as the patrons sip a pint or three.  You have to go to England to drink the beer because it doesn’t travel well – or far.   Normally we would each try a pint of something different and choose our favorite.  Fuller’s London Pride or ESB, Bishop’s Tipple, 6x, Skinner’s Betty Stogs, Sharp’s Doom Bar,  Dartmoor’s Jail Ale or Moor Beer, Austell’s Legend Ale, Otter’s Otter Ale, Hunter’s Pheasant Plucker Ale (I am a Pheasant Plucker and a Pheasant Plucker’s son; I’m busy plucking pheasants till the pheasant plucking’s done…).  We drank many more ales along our journey and I began to relish a pint almost as much as Gerry.

I also loved the ancient pubs for the tapestry carpeting made from real sheep’s wool, as well as for the village gossip heard as you sit with locals sipping a pint or two;  sometimes you even end up at the Church across the square listening to local talent perform concerts.  Then musicians and patrons alike return to the pub for another pint and a bite…
During the trip, we rambled around Exmoor and Dartmoor.  Dartmoor is less green and more massive, stark, and desolate – huge natural rock formations (tors) attracting hikers scrambling to the top.  The day we hiked Hound’s Tor, it was very cold, rainy and blustery.  I wrapped the scarf all around my head and face and pushed into the wind and up the hill.  We tried to find a medieval ruin but never found it.   But, we did reach the top of the tor and could see for miles around.  We recommend that hikers on the moor take along an Ordnance Survey Map and compass.  Also, Jeremy Butler, Georgina’s brother, published two volumes on Dartmoor, including great detail on archaeological finds, as well as the tors and other natural phenomena – an excellent resource for serious Dartmoor hikers.   And dress warmly.  You will see sheep and Dartmoor ponies with their shaggy manes.

The surprise garden of the trip was Edgcumbe gardens in South-east Cornwall, overlooking Plymouth Sound.  Laid out by the Edgcumbe family in the 18th Century, these include large, well-maintained formal gardens, temples, follies, an Orangery, Italian garden with classical statues, English Garden with irregular lawns round a pretty English Garden House, American garden, New Zealand garden with a geyser, and extensive parkland overlooking the River Tamar.  Edgcumbe houses the National Camellia Collection and the South West Coast Path runs through the park for ten miles along the coastline – and the amazing thing is that all this is open and FREE to the public.  Most gardens charge between 8 and 14 pounds sterling per person to visit, but not Mount Edgcumbe! 
You do have to pay to visit the beautiful house there, built by Sir Richard Edgcumbe of Cotehele in 1547-50.  Originally a wilderness garden and deer park, the Edgcumbe family preferred living permanently at this more comfortable house, than their medieval mansion at Cotehele.  We couldn’t understand that until we visited Cotehele.  Medieval mansions are grand but austere and forbidding – even with the walls covered in glorious tapestries.  Gerry likes the Tudor period and the medieval houses with their great halls with towering, barrel-shaped, timbered ceilings – you can just imagine the great hall with long tables filled with all the king’s men feasting and making merry.  But I prefer the much more comfortable Regency houses, with stylish, spacious, well-proportioned rooms, which Edgcumbe House eventually became after many remodelings.  You just feel more comfortable!   I can easily understand why the family preferred residing at Edgecumbe to Cotehele.   They left Cotehele House just for storing old-fashioned, medieval furniture and belongings, which, due to this benign neglect, gives us visitors today a vivid look at life during medieval times.   

Of course, nowadays you need the wealth of a rock star to buy any of these places!  We usually don’t bother looking at the houses, preferring to head straight out to the gardens, but this trip was so cold and rainy that we took refuge in some of them just to get warm – great opulent places with huge libraries, ornate drawing rooms and spectacular dining rooms with tables for 30 or more guests.  We toured many that had been donated to the National Trust.  At a certain point, the lucky (?) heir to an estate finds the inheritance tax too much…
We recommend that you join the National Trust before embarking on a Pubs & Gardens tour, as the fee pays for itself by the third garden.  Parking is also free for NT members, though they don’t always let you in with just the NT parking sticker - apparently, you can pick those up too easily on E-Bay!  So you also have to show the Membership card.  If you want to attend the Chelsea Flower Show, join the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) which allows you entry on RHS-only days (less crowded, but the crowds still surge) and you can also gain entrance to the RHS gardens at Wisley, Rosemoor and others.  There are also other gardening groups you can find on the internet and many, many private gardens that open to the public.  They are all beautiful!  Just choose an area and go on the internet to find your gardens.  

Here’s our list of Pubs & Gardens, England, May2012:
Pubs/Inns at which we stayed:

The Running Horses, Mickleham, Surrey:  Recently restored 16th Century inn (Young’s, Fuller’s) in a tiny village, across from a Norman church (attended wonderful, Sunday evening violin concert – donations for restoration of the organ).  Very good food.
The George Inn, Odiham, Hampshire:  15th Century coaching inn on the picturesque high street, with ancient beams, crooked walls and floors, oak-panelled public rooms.  There is a separate bistro restaurant next door, as well as the main restaurant in the inn.  Good food, well-kept beers (Young’s, I think).

The George, Norton St. Phillip, Somerset:  Reputedly the earliest, continuously occupied inn in Britain (said to be from end of 13th Century, but documented from 1397!).  Amazing, Grade 1 listed stone building, with huge, open fireplaces in the tavern rooms, a 16th Century dining room, and even a dungeon!  Incredibly old bedrooms (ours reached by a castle-like, spiral staircase, with a recently discovered, medieval wall painting on display, as well as a gate-leg table supposedly used by the Duke of Monmouth when he headquartered here during his retreat after the failed rebellion against King James II in 1685).  Stone-slated roofs, cobblestone courtyard, wattle & daub interior walls.  Owned and restored by Wadsworth Brewery (6X, Bishop’s Tipple, et al).  Food was OK but not brilliant, although fresh and local.

The Compasses, Lower Chicksgrove, Wiltshire:  Charming, thatched cottage pub in the middle of a farming community, with nice, small, modern bedrooms in a separate building at the side.  Hidden (un-signposted) down a one-lane road to seemingly nowhere!  Good, well-kept beers (Butcombe, et al) but disappointingly average dinner, although breakfast was excellent (scrambled eggs and kippers!).
The Royal Oak, Winsford, Somerset:  Fabulous, old, thatched Exmoor inn in a lovely little village with a ford.  Friendly staff added to the inviting feeling of the place, our bedroom was very comfortable, and the food was fresh and very good indeed (wonderful fish from the Exmoor coast, and superb breakfasts).

Hoops Inn, Horns Cross, Devon:  Ancient (but modernized) coaching inn on main road to Cornwall, with low ceilings and many small rooms.  Our bedroom was comfortable and the food really quite good, but the gestalt was a little too commercial for my taste.
Old Coast Guard Hotel, Mousehole, Cornwall:  Very recently refurbished/renovated, bright, spacious hotel.  The young, informal, friendly staff and truly excellent local food (exquisitely fresh hake, dressed crab, mussels, whole lemon sole, etc.) ensured that our stay was very enjoyable.  Superb Skinner’s Ales (Betty Stogs was particularly delicious).  The comfortable bedrooms were very traditional, located in a connected building next door.

Lugger, Portloe, Cornwall:  Delightful little hotel, spectacularly positioned just steps from the sea in a tiny fishing village.  The superb, but pricey, haut cuisine (small portions) was faultlessly prepared, using local produce (including breakfast); however, there is a village pub (Ship Inn) that offers excellent fresh local fish (plaice, hake, mussels, etc.), steak & ale pie, and other fine tavern food at half the price – and you can drink great ales too!  Our bedroom was very comfortable, with high quality amenities, a stunning view of the tiny natural harbor and farther out to the untamed sea, and its own terrace (sadly, unused by us because it was cold and rainy) but it was by far the most expensive hostelry in our itinerary – well, everyone deserves a splurge occasionally…
The Halfway House, Kingsand, Cornwall:  Old pub in very small, charming village a few yards from a shingle beach (village connected to twin small village, Cawsand – following the geography of the beach).  The area, the Rame Peninsula (at the extreme south-east of Cornwall, just across the water from Plymouth) is known locally as, “The Forgotten Corner”.  Bedrooms are functional, but the food in the pub was very good indeed (fresh prawns, scallops and whitebait; farm chicken with stilton sauce; spicy noodles and stir-fry, etc.) and very reasonably priced.  Well-kept St Austell ales went down with the food splendidly.

The Rock Inn, Haytor Vale, Devon:  Wonderful, ancient, thatched inn in a tiny village on the edge of Dartmoor.  It is very well-appointed, stylish and inviting, with a lovely old residents’ lounge, and a splendid, elegant, oak-panelled bar/restaurant.  Our bedroom was very comfortable and spacious, with a sitting area overlooking the garden.  The food was truly excellent, fresh and local; and the Dartmoor Ales Jail Ale, Legend and Moor Beer were delicious.
Just an extra note to mention a fabulous, tiny pub just outside Widecombe-in-the-Moor, the Rugglestone Inn, which still serves superb beer straight from the barrel, and offers a large selection of wonderful, traditional pub food
The New Inn, Coleford, Devon:  Delightful, thatched inn lost down the narrowest of lanes in very rural Devon.  The hamlet is tiny, with all thatched dwellings, and could not be more picturesque.  Our bedroom, which was in a side annex of the inn, was very comfortable, with wicker chairs and a bright, modern bathroom, and was the least expensive room of the trip.  The food was excellent (we had local lamb and duck, and a great breakfast) and the ales were very good indeed (Otter Brewery’s Otter Ale and Hunter Brewery’s Pheasant Plucker Ale…).  We were also greeted when entering and leaving the bar by Captain, the house parrot! 

The Manor, West Bexington, Dorset:  An old manor house converted into a hotel, which had seen better days until the current owners began a renovation a year or so ago.  It is located a few minutes’ walk uphill from Chesil Beach (a strange geographic phenomenon recognized by the World Heritage people – an extremely long, thin strip of beach running parallel to the mainland and connected to it at one end).  Our bedroom was pleasant and traditional, and the food was really quite good.
East End Arms, East End, Hampshire:  Seems like a nothing-special, country pub in a small New Forest village.  However, it is quite special.  It is owned by the ex-bass player of Dire Straits, and he has very cleverly kept a real village pub on one side (full of real local yokels) and converted the other side to an excellent, simply but very stylishly furnished restaurant serving well-prepared, fresh food to their room guests and a more discerning dining clientele (rock music playing softly in the background).  Our bedroom was newly decorated and furnished, with a lovely, bright bathroom with amenities.  And how could a lad from ‘the east end’ not enjoy a stay at the East End Arms?!

Gardens:
You can research all of the gardens we visited, listed below, on the internet and receive much more information – I’ll just jot down a few salient facts and impressions.  We only had time to choose a few gardens among the many possible options available:

Polesden Lacy, Surrey; NT:  If only Mrs. Greville had been on hand to greet us at her lovely, stylish, country cottage after driving straight over from Heathrow, jetlagged and tired.   What an enchanting place!  Mrs. Greville entertained the cream of Edwardian society in her beautiful, well-proportioned house and grounds.  You can just imagine the houseguests moving from the sumptuous dining room to the billiards and games room, to the fine library, to the tea room or music room.  All the furniture recreates a moment in time that makes you live the best of Edwardian hospitality.  She often gave big weekend parties.  The house gives lovely views from every window to the gardens, and then out over the terraces and lawns to the woodland.   In 1942, Mrs. Greville bequeathed to the NT the thirty acres of gardens and 1,385 acres of downs and woodland. 
Wisley, Surrey; RHS:  Donated in 1904 to the Royal Horticultural Society, Wisley is a garden par excellence – it goes on and on – the garden is laid out like a series of outdoor rooms with different designs and collections.  RHS gardens are so good about labeling all of the plants, allowing you to take notes as well as enjoy them.   Wisley was originally created by George Ferguson Wilson – a businessman and keen gardener – who bought 24 acres in 1878 and created the Oakwood Experimental Garden – basically to make difficult plants grow successfully.  And his garden quickly became renowned for collections of lilies, gentians, irises, primulas and others planted in an informal, woodland setting.  The present garden – now 240 acres – is a direct descendant of Oakwood but much enriched.  Where do I start?  You will see conifers, mixed borders, summer gardens, model gardens, glasshouses with tropical plants, alpine displays, a rock garden, an arboretum, roses, a wild garden, a walled garden, ponds, a lake and a riverside woodland walk.  You need most of a day to do Wisley justice.

Painshill Park, Surrey:  Landscape garden created by Charles Hamilton in the 18th Century as his ornamental pleasure grounds, with serpentine paths along a river, woodlands and lovely views.  It was, sadly, neglected until recently and restoration is still in progress.  All the follies remain - a ruined abbey, grotto, gothic tower, Turkish tent – except for a temple to Bacchus, which is no more (however, the Bacchus Krewe lives on in New Orleans).  A nice lake walk takes about two hours and extends beyond the park out to natural woodlands.
Stourhead, Wiltshire; NT:  Grand and majestic – one great work of art.  In the 1740’s, Henry Hoare, a banker, built the house in the Palladian Revival style and created the ‘beau ideal’ of landscape gardens.  This garden is so enchanting, you will be left gasping in amazement at every bend in the trail – there are few straight lines. This is truly the best landscape garden we have seen, in terms of form, texture and jaw-dropping beauty.  Framed by the foliage, you will glimpse views of the landscape beyond, and spot very impressive follies, mostly built by the architect Henry Flitcroft during the mid 18th Century:   Alfred’s Tower, 160 feet high; Temple of Flora; Pantheon; Temple of Apollo; and a magnificent grotto.  These are massive structures!   In 1785, Sir Richard Colt Hoare added color and variety with many flowering shrubs, Rhododendrons, many exotics and also conifers. However, in 1894, Sir Henry Hoare inherited the property and decided to wage war on the Rhododendrons.  This is a garden for sheer joy and enchantment.

 Chiffchaffs, near Gillingham, Dorset:  This is a small, picturesque, cottage garden – utterly charming – with views to Blackmoor Vale.  There is also a lovely enriched woodland garden, with Azaleas, Rhododendrons, Japanese Cherries and many unusual trees and shrubs.  Only takes an hour or two to see but you can stay for tea in the cottage garden in fine weather.  It was rainy and soggy the day we visited.
Hestercombe, just north of Taunton, Somerset:  Began as a Georgian landscape garden created in 1750-1786 by Coplestone Warre Bampfylde.  The parkland is a kind of rustic version of Stourhead, with smaller follies.  There is a nice woodland walk with cascades, an Orangery and Victorian terrace laid out on the south side of the house.  The Edwardian formal garden was designed and laid out by a famous partnership:   Sir Edwin Lutyens, famous architect, teamed with Gertrude Jekyll.  Jekyll’s influence on graduated color and planting drifts has dominated garden design for over 100 years and epitomizes the English Garden style – but best seen in the summer.

Rosemoor, Torridge Valley, North Devon; RHS:  Beautiful garden set in a wooded valley, with a lovely cottage garden, mature plantings, extensive herbaceous borders, bamboo, bog plantings, ferns overlooking an enchanting lake, shrubbery and arboretum across the road.  Gifted by Lady Anne Berry in 1988, this is a beautiful garden of national importance and utterly enchanting.  As is always the case with the RHS, plants are carefully labeled and meticulously cared for.
Trengwainton, Penzance, Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall; NT:  Trengwainton in Cornish means ‘farm of the spring’ – many tender plants thrive here in the mostly frost-free climate.  This is a lovely, secluded garden with many tender exotics – ferns, palms, Fuchsias, Camellias, Magnolias, Azaleas and Rhododendrons blooming in every color of the rainbow, from creamy yellow to deep purple to beet red!  A shrubbery planted with a very nice design leads to a woodland walk.  Sir Edward Bolitho transformed this garden along with head gardener, Alfred Creek, who was a first class propagator.  Edward was offered a share in Kingdon-Ward’s 1927-28 expedition to N.E. Assam and Mishmi Hill, Upper Burma.  The rhododendron collection comes from seeds brought back from that expedition, and many tender rhododendrons bloomed at Trengwainton for the first time in the British Isles.   In 1961 Sir Edward gave the garden to the National Trust; his heir still lives in the house.   

Trebah, Cornwall:  Magical, sheltered, sub-tropical, Cornish garden set in a twenty-five acre ravine dropping down to the Helford estuary.  Trebah is Cornish for, “House on the Bay”.  The garden was laid out by the Fox family, devout Quakers and prosperous Falmouth ship agents, who used their foreign contacts to collect exotics from all over the world, which flourished in the moist, sub-tropical, Cornish climate.  The Fox family also laid out Gendurgan Garden next door.  Like most Cornish coastal gardens, Trebah is most colorful when we visited in spring, when the shrubbery is in full bloom.  Trebah suffered neglect when the estate was broken up and sold in 1939 but it was finally rescued when the Hibbert family bought it in 1981 and opened the magical paradise to the public in 1987.  The garden design gives views and surprises around every corner – like a magical dream – ancient, huge fern trees, Trebah Chusan Palms, Gunnera manicata and a large collection of rare and exotics planted with an eye to design and beauty.  There is a private beach on the Helford Estuary and it was here, in 1944, that American tanks and lorries lurched onto waiting landing craft for the D-Day invasion of Normandy.
Glendurgan, Cornwall; NT:  Like Trebah Garden next door, Glendurgan was laid out by the Fox family, who truly knew how to create heaven-on-earth in their gardens.  Hidden in sheltered woodland, with views to the fishing village of Durgan, many rare and exotic plants continue to flourish in this lovely sub-tropical garden.  Beautifully flowering Rhododendrons, Camellias, primroses, lilies and violets are bordered by many ancient trees – Sycamore, Beech, Oak and Ash, Conifers.  There is a huge maze of Cherry Laurel that Alfred Fox planted in 1833, using an old guide to the maze of Sydney Garden in Bath.  You can view the maze clearly from the hillside, woodland trail.  Fox heirs donated the garden to the National Trust in 1962 and the family still lives in the house.

 Trelissick, Truro, Cornwall; NT:  One of Cornwall’s finest woodland gardens, Trelissick sits on its own Peninsula overlooking the Fal Estuary.  It is set amidst 500 acres of park and farmland with views to Falmouth and the open sea, and there is a five-mile, circular, woodland walk of old oak and beech.  Mrs. Ida Copeland developed the 25 acre garden and planted one of the largest hydrangea collections in the country.  She also planted many camellias, rhododendrons and rare, tender, exotic plants.  In 1955, she donated the garden and 376 acres of park and woodland to the National Trust.
Trewithen, Cornwall:  Trewithen means, “House of the Trees” in Cornish, which nicely describes the fine, early Georgian house, with a sweeping lawn and curving shrubbery borders on both sides.  This is a beautiful, woodland garden with many rare and curious shrubs and trees.

 Antony, Torpoint, Cornwall; NT (Garden only when House open):  Enchanting, woodland garden overlooking the Lynher estuary with fine views to a lovely well-proportioned Georgian mansion.  The grounds were designed by Repton, with an outstanding collection of Rhododendrons, Camellias and Magnolias; the formal gardens feature the National Collection of Day Lilies; and there are many meadows with bluebells and other spring wildflowers.  The magic of Antony can be seen in Tim Burton’s film, “Alice in Wonderland” - a fantastic spot for a magical film.
Cotehele, Saltash, Cornwall; NT:  Medieval, perfectly intact mansion owned by the Edgcumbe family, who preferred living in Edgcumbe Mount and, thus, left this estate in benign neglect, which explains why the house is so perfectly furnished with medieval period pieces - the family just left it all here for centuries!  You need the entire day to visit the extensive gardens, woodlands and parkland.  Cotehele mills still operates, grinding flour, which they use in the teahouse to make delicious scones for cream teas.

Edgcumbe Mount, Cornwall:  Originally Tudor house (remodeled to Georgian) and Earl’s Garden are very lovely and recommended.  The gardens, parkland and extensive coastal walk are free and open to the public.  You need a full day just to explore the extensive formal gardens and parkland overlooking Plymouth Sound.  It houses the National Camellia Collection; you will get lost meandering from one manicured garden to another.  Save another day for the coastal walk.  It is truly a spectacular place to visit – and FREE!
Killerton, Devon, NT:  The garden was created by the Aclands, owners of Killerton, and the Veitch family, nurserymen and landscapers, beginning in the 18th Century, whose plant introductions changed the English countryside.  Much of their earliest experiments with exotic seeds took place at Killerton.  The garden was developed in a style coined as “Gardenesque”, with winding paths, shrubberies, flower beds and specimen trees, enriched with Veitch’s exotics.  Still today, the garden retains the character of a Regency Pleasure Ground.  The house was built by the Aclands in 1778 as a temporary house but I suspect they just decided to continue living in the cozy, welcoming house.  They have a nice costume display.  In 1944, Sir Richard Acland gave the house, garden and 10 square-mile estate to the National Trust. 

 Forde Abbey, Chard, Somerset:  Originally built in the middle ages and served for centuries as a Cistercian monastery, which remains intact, even with renovations and extensions made to the house.  Edmund Prideaux, Attorney General to Oliver Cromwell, bought the Abbey in 1649 and transformed it into a ‘palazzo’ in the Italian style, for which the monastic layout was well suited.  This is a very grand, ornate and fascinating house to visit as you travel through the centuries from room to room.  The garden was created by Sir Francis Gwyn in the 18th Century, with lawns laid out, ponds reshaped and yew hedges planted around elaborate gardens.  The Roper family has created a garden worthy of the House, which meanders around lovely ponds.  Don’t miss the Beech house at the Great Pond, fashioned out of an ancient, living Beech tree. 
Abbotsbury, Dorset:  Elizabeth, first Countess of Ilchester, built a large mansion overlooking the sea called Abbotsbury castle in the last half of the 18th Century.  The castle is no more, but the walled garden laid out at the top of a nearby sheltered valley is the surviving part of the famous gardens today.  This is truly a captivating, enchanting, sub-tropical garden with a treasure trove of rare and exotic plants.  Magical, immaculate, yet semi-wild, woodland with towering Himalayan rhododendrons and tall Chusan Palm trees are just a few recognizable features of this lovely place.  You need at least two hours to relax properly and totally enjoy this spectacularly beautiful garden.  It’s a design that simultaneously calms, thrills and surprises you, feasting your eyes in every direction and around every bend – a magnificent garden.

 Exbury, New Forest, Hampshire:  Enchanting, parkland garden with extensive grounds, miles of meandering paths with colorful shrubs and plantings, woodlands and a river walk overlooking the estuary.  There are lovely ponds with fine plantings and enchanting designs, and much of the garden is located under towering oaks, beeches, maples and cedars.  There is also a fine, well- proportioned mansion where the owners still live.  It far exceeded expectations in terms of scale and beauty.
And last, but not least, Kew and the Chelsea Flower Show in London.

Make sure to allocate time for rambling on Exmoor and Dartmoor, strolling along Chesil Beach (a geographical oddity), and exploring some of the ancient fishing villages or rural hamlets lost in the countryside.  Also you just have to spend a day in beautiful Bath.  And, of course, you can’t drive by Stonehenge without stopping and marveling…

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