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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