{"id":231,"date":"2010-11-15T05:28:39","date_gmt":"2010-11-15T13:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=231"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:32:57","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:32:57","slug":"a-study-in-garden-excess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/a-study-in-garden-excess\/","title":{"rendered":"A Study in Garden Excess"},"content":{"rendered":"

A STUDY IN GARDEN EXCESS<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 By all accounts, Englishman Charles Talbot had a winning ticket in the lottery of life.\u00a0 Upon the death of his childless uncle, George Talbot, in 1787, Charles inherited an impressive title–Earl of Shrewsbury–plus an even more impressive estate of about 600 acres and a large amount of money.\u00a0\u00a0 Between 1814 and 1827, he used that land and money to create one of the most unusual and eccentric gardens of his time.\u00a0 His contemporary, garden expert J.C. Loudon, went so far as to describe the landscape as “The work of a morbid imagination joined to the command of unlimited resources.”\u009d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I have been studying the lives and work of various eccentric gardeners in an effort to make my own garden more interesting.\u00a0 While I probably don’t have Charles Talbot’s “morbid imagination,”\u009d and I certainly don’t have his “unlimited resources,”\u009d I find it inspiring to read about his garden vision.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When Charles Talbot and his wife moved to Alton Towers, the family home, in 1814, they began creating a garden from acreage that had previously been farmland.\u00a0 The Earl had a lot to work with, as the property contained steep hills and a valley with the River Churnet running through it.\u00a0 Before getting started, he consulted a number of landscape designers, among them the same J.C. Loudon who later made rather severe criticisms of the end result.\u00a0 “Though he consulted almost every artist, ourselves among the number,”\u009d noted Loudon, “he seems only have done so for the purpose of avoiding whatever an artist might recommend.”\u009d\u00a0\u00a0 It is not hard to detect the faint odor of sour grapes in that characterization.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Garden historians describe the Earl’s creation as “gardenesque,”\u009d which means it was a mixed bag of smaller gardens and buildings that represented a variety of different styles and historical periods.\u00a0 Modern gardeners, who separate their landscapes into themed “rooms,”\u009d are direct horticultural descendents of Earl Charles.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Earl’s favorite garden feature was a tall, tiered “Prospect Tower”\u009d made of stone and cast iron, with the prominent features picked out in gold leaf.\u00a0 Architecturally it looked like a Gothic rendition of a Chinese pagoda and commanded an excellent view of the river valley.\u00a0 The Earl was so fond of this structure that he commissioned the creation of a miniature version for the front hall of his house.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The three-storey “Pagoda Fountain”\u009d was another structure in the Asian mode.\u00a0 It was also made of cast iron and set in a small pond.\u00a0 Ornamental bells were reportedly suspended from its roofs.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There were plants in abundance.\u00a0 The Earl installed at least 3,000 trees on the property and built large conservatories for tender plants.\u00a0 Not content with the simple grandeur of his conservatories, the Earl also built a Greek temple near them.\u00a0 Separate gardens in the Dutch and Italian styles, as well as a rock garden, were laid out and planted.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In his living compendium of national garden styles and buildings, the Earl did not ignore features that were native to the British Isles.\u00a0 One of his garden accents was reportedly “a two-tiered megalithic structure inspired by Stonehenge.”\u009d\u00a0 Another was a replica of a rustic cottage, which was home to a blind Welsh harp player.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The estate was crowded with wonders, with Loudon described, as follows:
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “The remainder of the valley, “\u00a6displays such a labyrinth of terraces, curious architectural walls, trellis-work, arbours, vases, statues, stone stairs, wooden stairs, turf stairs, pavements, gravel and grass walks, ornamental buildings, bridges, fountains, caves, flower-baskets, waterfalls, rocks, cottages, shrubs, beds of flowers, trees, etc., that it is utterly impossible for words to give any idea of the effect.”\u009d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is very fitting that after the Earl’s death, his nephew and heir, the sixteenth Earl Shrewsbury, constructed the Choragic Monument to honor him.\u00a0 It is a replica of the Greek Choragic Monument by Lysicrates, which was built in 334 B.C. in Athens.\u00a0 The original monument honors the god Bacchus, patron of fun and pleasure.\u00a0 The Alton monument honors the spirit of pleasure and theatricality that is abundant in Earl Charles’ creation.\u00a0 The monument originally stood in front of the Prospect Tower, but was later moved closer to the estate’s entrance so that the view from the tower would not be obscured.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is perhaps fitting that since 1980, Britain’s largest amusement park has developed around the ruins of the Alton Tower house and gardens.\u00a0 Giant roller coasters and other attractions have replaced the peace and quiet that the fifteenth Earl and his descendents cherished.\u00a0 Much of the gardens survive, though some of the buildings have been adapted for modern use.\u00a0 It is highly likely that the revenue from the theme park is footing the bills for the garden’s maintenance and upkeep.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What is the lesson of the Alton Towers garden?\u00a0 I think it is about injecting something singular–plant, ornament or structure–into your garden, no matter how big or small it is.\u00a0 You don’t have to be as rich as the Earl of Shrewsbury to create a highly personal landscape.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A STUDY IN GARDEN EXCESS \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 By all accounts, Englishman Charles Talbot had a winning ticket in the lottery of life.\u00a0 Upon the death of his childless uncle, George Talbot, in 1787, Charles inherited an impressive title–Earl of Shrewsbury–plus an even more impressive estate of about 600 acres and a large amount of money.\u00a0\u00a0 Between … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1559,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions\/1559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}