A Garden Begins
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Fri 9 May 2014 22:37
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An Awesome Garden is Born at
Castle Howard
 The famous
birds-eye view of Castle Howard that appeared in Vitruvius
Britannicus in 1725. This is an idealised view, showing the house with
symmetrical wings, when in fact the West Wing was constructed in the 1750’s to a
different style. The area behind the house did include the wilderness and the
bastion walls and some version of the pavilions.
The three pictures above are
conjectural views based on early estate maps and drawings. The first shows the view south
at the end of the 17th century on the site of the village of Henderskelfe, which
comprised a handful of houses, a church and a medieval castle, all of which were
swept away when Castle Howard was built. The grassed area is the bowling green
inside the walls of Henderskelfe Castle. The second is the
view south in 1727. In just over a quarter of a century the 3rd Earl had
transformed an empty landscape, and with the help of Vanbrugh had laid out a
parterre filled with obelisks, vases, statues and a tall column; beyond is the
wilderness. The third is the view south in 1773 when
Vanbrugh’s parterre had been simplified, the terraces levelled and the
wilderness beyond removed. A few pieces of lead sculpture remain, as does the
Ionic column with the gilded vase at the top.
 A watercolour
view of Castle Howard by William Marlow dating from the last quarter of
the 18th century. This shows the wide expanse of lawn with a few shrubs planted
at the edges.
 A photograph c.1870 after William
Andrews Nesfield had been commissioned by the 7th Earl to lay out an elaborate
parterre of box hedging, coloured gravel pathways and planting. The centrepiece
to the design was the huge Atlas Fountain, this alone survived when the parterre
was erased by the 9th Countess at the end of the 19th century.
    Today. The grounds cover ten thousand acres, with almost one thousand
acres being Grade I listed parkland. There are nearly two hundred listed
buildings and monuments.
 ALL IN ALL JUST
BEAUTIFUL |
