Hampton Court 2000
The Gardens, St. Paul's Walden Bury

Now this is a garden you either like or don't! It is a very formal
woodland garden, with temples, statues and ponds that have not changed since the 18th century. As you will see by the pictures, it could be called boring by some as there is no colour! A bit of history on this ... Since 1725 it has been the home of the same family. In the early 18th century it belonged to Edward Gilbert. He died in his 80's in 1762 and his only child, Mary Eleanor Bowes married John Lyon, the 9th Earl of Strathmore.
Mary had five children, and was widowed young. The eldest son of the Earl of Strathmore has the title Lord Glamis. He was married to Lady Charlotte Glamis. In 1881 Charlotte's grandson, then Lord Claude Glamis, inherited the property. He had married Cecilia Cavendish Bentinck and produced ten children, of whom the 9th was Elizabeth (the Queen Mum)!
The youngest, David, came to live here in 1932 with his wife Rachel
and David became President of the RHS. David died in 1961 and now
Simon, David's son, lives here with his wife Caroline and family.
The garden has not changed it's quiet look ... it blends in with nature accenting its allees and avenues with statues at each end, or features of the countryside. It all radiates from a focal point, that being the house and flows back out to the countryside.
There was an addition made to the west side of the house in 1992, by Geoffrey Jellicoe. He created a small garden for them in his 92nd year!
I walked through the entire garden and loved the solitude and lack of colour to take my mind off what was there.
The first picture is that of the house, and the second a picture of
the main allee looking back at the house.
The urn that you see is a memorial to Mary Eleanor's dog Tirsi, who
died in 1768. The rest are of statues or temples at each of the ends
of the avenues or allees.