When George Staunton led his guests out of his house to visit the gardens, they followed a route that was carefully planned and laid out. Each area and moment was a chapter in the experiece that Staunton wanted them to have, from the intimate setting of the Walled Garden to the picture-perfect views of the valley and its miniature temples and monuments.
Designed as an Experience
Walking in Staunton's Footsteps
The chapters of the landscape
Make sure your volume is on: "They would pounce out on the dinner guests"
You could argue that each folly, each area in nature, could be read like a book, referencing the painting analogy. So it was episoidal.
So Staunton would come out of the house, which was, as we just said, by the Gothic Library. He would parade down the centre of the Walled Garden, and this was essentially floral and scented because of its proximity to his mansion.
And then just behind us here as it is now, he’d wander and spout lyrical about the giant Amazonian water lily which he’d obtained from the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. He’d go through the fernery, in which he’d employ I think we’d have to say ‘vertically challenged people’ now but those days it was ‘dwarfs’, dressed in green velvet in a grotto, and they’d pounce out on the dinner guests.
He’d go through the west garden, he’d go through his rosery, created from very famous roses purchased from northern France.
Then there’s all his benches with views across High Lawn, the cattle grazing…this sort of perfect country feel, with the vistas and the Elysian Fields, almost, referencing ancient Greece in many terms.
- So it was designed as an experience as much as a landscape?
It was, yes. And each area was essentially a chapter in a story.
In this interview section, Head of Horticulture Chris Bailey talks us through the route and Staunton's intent to delight and surprise his dinner guests at every turn.
You can visit the Walled Garden and the hothouses as part of a trip to Staunton Farm, which is located on the other side of the park.