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THE LATEST PROGRAMME |
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Jonathan Freedland looks for the past behind the present. Each week, The Long View, recorded on location throughout the British Isles, takes an issue from the current affairs agenda and finds a parallel in our past.
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Painshill Park and a garden makeover carried out by the BBC's
Home Front.
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"Pray follow me to Mr. Hamilton's. I must tell you it beggars all description. Art hiding art is here in such sweet profusion, Mr. Hamilton cheats himself of praise. You thank nature for all you have seen but I am informed all is here reformed by art."
Elizabeth Montagu, 1755, The Early Landscape Gardens
Turnips:
"At Painshill near Cobham in Surrey, is the Seat of the Hon. Charles Hamilton, where is a great Improvement making by inclosing a large Tract of Land designed for a Park, which was most of it so poor as not to produce any thing but Heath and Broom; but by burning of the Heath, and spreading of the Ashes on the Ground, a Crop of Turneps was obtained; and by feeding Sheep on the Turneps, their Dung became a good Manure to the Land, so that a good Sward of Grass is now upon the Land, where it was judged by most People impossible to get any Herbage. And when the Plantations, which are already made, are grown up, it will be a delightful Place."
Daniel Defoe, A Tour Through the Whole of Great Britain, 1724
Hermitage - reading 1
"He must remain for seven years with a Bible, optical glasses, a mat for his fee, a hassock for his pillow, an hourglass for his timepiece, water for his beverage, and food from the house. He must wear a camel robe, and never, under any circumstances, must he cut his hair, beard, or nails, stray beyond the limits of Mr. Hamilton's grounds, or exchange one word with the servants."
Hermitage - rerading 2
" The Hon. Charles Hamilton, not content with artificial ruins and temples disposed after the pleasures of Poussin and Claude, added a hermitage and engaged a hermit at £700 a year. But as the hermit had all the hardship and Hamilton all the sentiment, the arrangement broke down."
J.T. Smith, A Book for a Rainy Day, 1845.
Grotto
"One of the islands is a completely wild island on which there is not a single building and nothing but trees planted without any geometric order. At one end of it we saw rocks piled up to represent a mountain, which for the sake of attractiveness had been planted with trees and flowers.
We found a cleft in the mountain and on going in, we found to our amazement a large cave, done from top to bottom in different crystals, attached to the walls and vaults like icicles. At the far end the cave forms a very large grotto, also done in a natural way with crystal spar.
The sun, penetrating through specially contrived cracks, was so blinding that our eyes could scarce bear it. All the walls are covered or rather, are composed of, precious crystals and fossils, such as all types of coral, amethyst, topaz and amber which had been assembled so cleverly that nature itself would have been deceived."
Princess Katerina Dashkova, 1770
The Overall Effect and the Turkish Tent
"It is inconceivable how beautiful Mr. Hamilton's grounds appear, all spotted with pavilions, clumps of evergreens or forest trees, while the rough heath withoutside shows what Industry and the Power of Cultivation can do, as most of Mr. Hamilton's was once as rough as it.
After a little wilderness work you come to the Turkish tent, placed in the finest point for prospect in the whole improvement. It fronts the rock work cascade, commands the Gothic temple, Chinese bridges, the Grecian ruin etc., all surrounding a vale with a fine piece of water: while I sat in it three or four companies of strangers to see the improvements passed by in the vale and adorned and enlivened the scene very much. Here Mr. Hamilton is to build his house, which he wisely delayed doing till he had brought his improvements to perfection, as then he can have a better opportunity of judging where to place it.
The tent is elegantly finished, the back is built and plastered, the top leaded and painted blue, joining a sailcloth marquee that covers all and is painted white with a blue finge drawn up before in festoons, like Darius's Tent. From this you pass through many clumps of forest trees, acacia etc. and large lawns between them filled with sheep till you arrive at the gate where you entered, tired."
Sir John Parnell, 1763
Vineyard description by Charles Hamilton
"The vineyard at Painshill is situated on the south-side of a gentle hill, the soil gravelly sand. The first year, I attempted to make red Wine, in the usual way, by treading the grapes, then letting them ferment in a vat, till all the husks and impurities formed a thick crust at the top, the boiling ceased, and the clear Wine was drawn off from the bottom.
It was so very harsh and austere, that I despaired of ever making red Wine fit to drink; but through that harshness I perceived a flavour something like that of some small French white Wines, which made me hope I should succeed better with white Wine. That experiment succeeded far beyond my most sanguine expectations; for the very first year I made white Wine, it nearly resembled the flavour of Champaign; and in two or three years more, as the Vines grew stronger, to my great amazement, my Wine had a finer flavour than the best Champaign I ever tasted; but such is the prejudice of most people against any thing of English growth, I generally found it most prudent not to declare where it grew, till after they had passed their verdict upon it.
The surest proof I can give of its excellence is, that I have sold it to Wine-merchants for fifty guineas a hogshead; and one Wine-merchant, to whom I sold five hundred pounds worth at one time, assured me, he sold some of the best of it from 7s. 6d to 10s. 6d per bottle."
Letter to a friend from Charles Hamilton, 1775
Contributors
Sir Roy Strong - historian
Diarmuid Gavin - garden designer and broadcaster
Teige O'Brien - historian of Painshill
Sian Thomas - actress
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RELATED LINKS
www.painshill.co.uk
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