Surrounded by 3,000 acres of spectacular rolling Kentish parkland, the gardens
cover 14 acres. Visitors can promenade along the Walnut Walk, past the pets’
graveyard, to a small flint folly: Prospect Tower, which the Lord Harris of
the time called his “whim”. Available to rent through the Landmark Trust, it
was originally used as a summerhouse for family teas, and later as a
pavilion by the fourth baron, George Harris, who captained England in 1878
and laid a cricket pitch here to rival Lord’s and the Oval. Now available
to wandering teams, I note from the fixtures list that the Shepway
Stragglers recently played the Grannies.
The rolling park layout was influenced by Repton’s natural landscape movement,
which swept away previous formal gardens, and the later picturesque school
of design led by John Claudius Loudon, awash with romantic follies and
dripping shell grottoes. The travels of intrepid 18th-century plant hunters
like Sir Joseph Banks, David Douglas (of Douglas fir fame) and Francis
Masson, who, like Sir Joseph Banks, also travelled with the explorer Captain
James Cook, had widened the variety of species available to gardeners .
Venerable trees populate the estate including a 100- year-old tulip tree
(Liriodendron tulipifera), ginkgo bilobas and handkerchief trees (Davidia
involucrata). The gardens are separated from the parkland by a ha-ha, a
surprising concealed ditch to exclude animals from cultivated areas, devised
by Queen Anne’s gardener Charles Bridgeman so views were uninterrupted by
fences.
The pinetum holds specimens planted by the family to record important events
and features a large blue atlas cedar, a Mexican white pine and coast
redwood, and follows the fashion for arboreta popularised by Loudon. Nearby
Bedgebury National Pinetum has one of the world’s most complete collections
of more than 1,000 species of conifers.
The intimate walled pleasure gardens behind the house and clock tower are
bordered by formal perennial beds on three sides, full of sweet-smelling
flowering plants, a decorative pond, rockery and rose garden. The old walls
shelter climbers: venerable wisteria, spreading climbing Hydrangea
petiolaris and Actinidia kolomikta. A perfect central lawn completes this
typical English garden, probably laid out originally as a result of the
invention of the lawnmower in 1830.
Meander through the nuttery planted with Kentish cobnuts and you reach the
kitchen garden, set up in the mid-19th century between high walls to keep
out the winds on this elevated site. Originally it was packed with all the
fashionable vegetables and fruit of the era (melons, grapes, pineapples and
peaches grown in heated pits, sunken greenhouses and lean-to glasshouses)
necessary to trumpet the status of a wealthy country gentleman. The kitchen
garden was restored from a derelict state to a design by Arabella
Lennox-Boyd in 2001, and sports an equally desirable modern productive
garden based on historic plans, including hop arbours, fruit arches and a
reflecting pool.
We all need a little history to anchor our own plots, and this garden is full
of inspiration. I now hanker after a small shell grotto with a fernery to
cheer up an unlovely corridor along the side of my house.
The gardens at Belmont Park, Throwley, Faversham, Kent, ME13 0HH, are open
to the public daily, 10am-6pm (or dusk if earlier). For details, see belmont-house.org
or call 01795 890202
Speak Your Mind