Our England is a garden that is full of stately views.
So wrote Rudyard Kipling, and this is one of my favourite stately views, that of Chatsworth
House in Derbyshire.
It nestles alongside the River Derwent in the Peak District National Park.
It's one of ten great gardens of the treasure houses of England we'll be visiting over the
next hour.
Many of them, like Hayward House in West Yorkshire, are superb examples of the genius of the 18th
century landscape artist, Lancelot Capability Brown.
There's Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, with its stunning setting alongside one of the
most magnificent private lakes to be found anywhere in Europe.
Wilton House near Salisbury, with 21 acres of beautifully landscaped parkland, and its
centrepiece, the majestic Palladian Bridge.
And at Castle Howard in North Yorkshire, we'll see a breathtaking example of a home and its
landscape designed in perfect harmony.
Leeds Castle in Kent, with its watery setting and traditional English gardens that have
earned it a reputation as the loveliest castle in the world.
We'll also be visiting the banks of the beautiful Beulie River in Hampshire, where the grounds
of Palace House have grown up around the ruins of a 13th century abbey.
Warwick Castle on Shakespeare's Avon, a favourite among royalty since the days of Elizabeth
I.
The famous Longleat in Wiltshire, the first stately home in Britain to open its doors
to the public, and home to one of the country's best established wildlife parks.
And the 3,000 acres of glorious rolling deerstudied parkland of Woburn Abbey, home of the Dukes
of Bedford for 300 years.
So where better to begin than in the grounds of what's often been called the grandest
country house in England.
Chatsworth boasts the most dramatic rock garden I've ever seen, and yet every single stone
and boulder was brought here by hand under the instructions of the man who was to become
the most famous gardener of his day, Joseph Paxton, who was appointed head gardener here
in 1826 at the age of only 23.
Taking pride of place is the Wellington Rock, 45 feet high, with each of its stones, some
weighing several tonnes, cemented together.
The idea was to create the kind of idyll so many of the Victorians fondly imagined to
be paradise.
At Chatsworth there are surprises round every corner.
The Willow Tree Fountain dates from 1692, and it's made of copper and lead.
Another of Chatsworth's treasures is its great maze.
Here the site of a huge conservatory that Paxton built here in 1840, and today one of
the most colourful areas of the gardens.
In June, bordered by what's left of the old conservatory's foundation wall, that stately
relative of the Garden Pea, the Lupin, is the undisputed star of the show.
Not keen on chalky soil, the Lupin thrives in the acid loam and the sheltered position
it gets at Chatsworth.
On the other side of the old perimeter wall, peonies give a superb show year in, year out.
This really is a garden for all seasons.
While the double hollyhocks attract the Comma Butterfly and the Mickelmus Daisy, the Red
Admiral, the dahlias extend the glorious autumnal colour until the frosts.
And then the berries arrive.
On a windless day in May, the southern end of the gardens is filled with the unforgettable
sweet scents that drift up from Chatsworth's huge azalea dell.
Here there's a solid mass of deciduous Gentazaleas in single and double forms, which do double
duty as they colour brilliantly in the autumn.
Another of Paxton's creations is the south-facing conservative wall, an extraordinary structure
which runs more than 330 feet up the hillside in a series of steps.
It contains shrubs and fruit such as figs, peaches and nectarines.
Paxton went on to design the Crystal Palace in London, an inspiration based on his imaginative
experiments with glass in these gardens.
The tradition of innovative greenhouse construction has continued to the present day.
This is the elaborately engineered Display Greenhouse, built in 1970.
It has three carefully controlled climates, temperate, Mediterranean and tropical.
The pawpaw thrives here.
So does Parrot's bill.
And citrus fruit.
So of course all depends on the maintenance of a very high level of humidity.
The oldest surviving greenhouse was built in 1698, the first duke's greenhouse.
Today the present 11th Duke can often be seen keeping a very close eye on his award-winning
chameleons.
But we've built up the collection very well already, haven't we?
Oh, we've got a splendid collection now, a splendid collection indeed.
The Devonshires have always had a very close interest in the development and improvement
of their gardens.
The famous Serpentine Hedge, made of beech, planted in 1953, was very much the inspiration
of the present duchies.
The most dominant feature of the garden is the Canal of 1702.
The Great Emperor Fountain at its centre was installed by Joseph Paxton in anticipation
of a visit of Tsar Nicholas of Russia in 1843.
But he never came.
In its day, this was the highest naturally powered fountain in Europe.
As so often around great country houses, water at Chatsworth is everywhere used to its maximum
effect.
Drained from a series of reservoirs made high up on the misty moors above, water is piped
to almost every part of the garden.
The Cascade was built for the first duke nearly 300 years ago.
From its summit, a brilliant view of the surrounding parkland and its skyline, modelled by the
famous 18th century landscape artist, Lancelot Capability Brown.
Brown, like Paxton, was a man of dramatic gestures.
In order to achieve this famous aspect of Chatsworth from the west, Brown simply ordered
the course of the River Derwent to be rerouted.
Together, the work of Brown and Paxton has combined to leave us, in Chatsworth, a legacy
that would be hard to rival anywhere in the world.
In 1772, Capability Brown travelled to an estate that even before his celebrated arrival
was one of the most famous in the land.
The part of the garden which first attracts your attention when you step out of the house
is the magnificent terrace on the south side.
The terrace wasn't created until the 1840s, when the then Countess of Harwood engaged
the services of Sir Charles Barry.
He was the architect of the Houses of Parliament in London, and he transformed what had been
the front of a straightforward Georgian house into something more like an Italian palazzo.
It comes alive in early summer with the flowering of that most English of garden features, the
Eubatius border.
Both the house and gardens at Harwood are constantly being brought into the 20th century.
Since 1984, the centrepiece of the terrace has been Astrid Zeidauer's statue of Orpheus
holding a leopard.
To me, it fits the scene perfectly.
And it's from the terrace that you can best enjoy Brown's landscape, a lake surrounded
by plantations and beautifully undulating parkland.
In charge of the maintenance of the great swathe of grass which runs down to the lake,
a small army of the rare black St Kilda sheep.
And in recent years, Harwood has also become home to rare species of birds, many of which
are facing extinction.
Their presence among Brown's splendid woodland lakeside setting providing constant animation.
The lakeside walk is one of Harwood's greatest achievements.
The lake had already been dammed by the time Brown had arrived, providing a superb waterfall
and a damp sunken garden which explodes with colour in spring and early summer.
Among the unusual plants to be seen, the water loving Gunnara, a kind of prickly rhubarb which
grows to eight or nine feet each summer before subsiding with the first frosts to provide
a dingy mulch for next year's growth.
And everywhere, Harwood's famous Rhododendrons, a phenomenon new to English gardens in the
19th century.
They were introduced to Harwood by the present Earl's father, the Sixth Earl, and his wife,
Princess Mary the Princess Royal, who helped finance pre-war expeditions to the Himalaya
in search of rare species.
Today there are over a hundred different species, many of them still unnamed.
According to Geoffrey Hall, who joined the gardening staff here aged 14 in 1928 and later
became head gardener like his father before him, the reason the Rhododendron has flourished
in recent years here is simple.
It came about because of the great storm of 1962 when in just two days Harwood lost 10,000
of its mature trees and 20,000 younger ones.
I thought well now is the chance to open up some of these what we call dark places where
my father couldn't plant a thing underneath it so dark.
Open them up and plant something that's a little bit more bright.
Capability Brown was a man of great design and landscape work, but he had no colour in
his mind at all.
Trees and beaches was all Capability Brown could think about.
And what did he do?
He just covered everything up and you couldn't plant anything within the vicinity.
The Gales was a blessing for me.
It opened up this for someone to put my Rhododendrons.
It's very unusual that most of the Rhododendrons here were raised from seed by me and they're
all hybrids.
I've named seven which the Rhododendron Society accepted, one was named after Patricia Harwood,
that's Lord Harwood's wife.
Lord Harwood himself.
Geoffrey Hall, that's after myself and my son.
The most important one of all is one Irene Hall, because Irene Hall is my wife, which
I think is the best of all Rhododendrons.
It's a bit different in its presentation, it's a Fortuni type which always produces
a bit of sand.
With a landscape like this on offer, it comes as no surprise to learn that over the years
Harwood has gained a reputation as one of the finest settings for concerts and recitals
to be found in the north of England.
And she's historically shot in the Castles for her great, famous resort.
The lakeside scenes look beautiful at any time of year, but some argue they're at their
best in autumn.
Little wonder that with a setting like this, so many great artists of the last two centuries,
painters like Turner would fight for an invitation to stay at Harwood House.
The original garden at Blenheim was begun in 1705 and was designed by Henry Wise, Queen
's gardener, to provide a suitable setting to an estate that was to become one of the
wonders of the age.
Blenheim really looks the part, a palace of truly stunning proportions.
It was designed by the same John Van Bra, who'd made such a remarkable debut with his
plans for Castle Howard six years earlier.
It was created as a home fit for one of the 18th century's greatest military heroes,
John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough, who defeated the French at the Battle of Blenheim
in 1704.
It's been home to the Dukes of Marlborough ever since.
The Column of Victory with the first Duke at its summit was completed in 1730 and stands
halfway down the Grand Avenue which leads north from the house, planted by Wise and
replanted by the 9th and 11th Dukes.
And once again, the hand of Capability Brown is everywhere in evidence.
Originally the river that runs through the estate, the Glyme, was a small and rather
marshy affair.
Brown used the device that was to be employed so successfully at Harwood and dammed it,
creating a stunning cascade.
The effect was to produce a vast and magnificent sheet of water, Brown's single greatest creation
and the culmination of his career.
The base of the magnificent Grand Bridge, built 50 years earlier by Vanbrough and which
originally boasted 33 rooms within its structure, was flooded.
The rooms had never been occupied, although some contained fireplaces and chimneys.
It's a design that was always intended to be admired from every angle.
Looking at it from just one point of view is a waste.
The view from the Woodstock entrance, with the lake and its poplared island lying like
some great sailing ship at anchor, and Brown's beechwoods beyond, prompted George III to
exclaim, we have nothing to equal this.
In the late 1920s and early 30s, efforts were made to restore some of the formality of Wise's
gardens that Brown had swept away.
This is the Italian garden on the east side, and to the west there's the great water terraces
designed by a French master of the old formal school, Achille Duchenne in 1925, and which
inspired the 9th Duke to create an appropriate setting for both formal gardens.
It gives us a very good idea of the original setting of the palace, when Blenheim came
nearest of all English gardens to the grandeur of Versailles.
The second terrace is dominated by the Bernini River Gods Fountain, which was the model for
the famous fountain in Rome's Piazza Navona, but was never intended to spray water.
Close by is the Temple of Diana, where one summer's day in 1908, Winston Churchill,
who was born at Blenheim, proposed to the girl who was to become his wife.
And beyond, the Rose Garden, which over the last five years has been completely replanted
to add a dash of colour to what was always intended to be a predominantly green landscape.
There's also been extensive replanting of trees in an effort to recreate Brown's original
vision.
More than half a million trees were planted by the 9th Duke alone, with the 11th and present
Duke laying down a management plan for the park, which stretches well into the 21st century.
The effect is as memorable now as it must have been in Brown's day.
The writer Sir Sir Chevrolet Sitwell said of the lake at Blenheim, this is the one great
argument of the landscaped gardener.
There is nothing finer in Europe.
This statue of fame overlooks a garden which has welcomed George III and Queen Charlotte,
witnessed centuries of change in landscape design, and if tradition can be believed,
provided the setting for Shakespeare's first performances of Twelfth Night and As You Like
It.
Like most of the great estates, Wilton's grounds have been adapted throughout its rich history.
This magnificent cedar was planted as part of the formal gardens designed by Isaac de
Caux 360 years ago.
One of the few lasting features of the formal gardens which, over the years, have been simplified
and at the end of the 18th century finally turned over to the picturesque open parkland
landscape inspired by Capability Brown.
Remnants of the garden's previous designs remain.
An eclectic mixture of garden features is to be found around the parkland, combining
to make a garden even greater than the sum of its parts.
The famous Palladian Bridge is the work of Henry IX Earl.
Although Lieutenant General in the army, like so many of his ancestors, his real interests
lay in the arts.
He became an architect and with the help of his clerk of works completed this lovely bridge
in 1737.
Over 260 years later, it's still the centrepiece of the grounds.
To the east of the house, a thousand foot pathway follows the line of one of the old
canals, part of the 17th century formal gardens, up to a planting of hundreds of white roses
set within a 19th century yew hedge.
This is the view of the house commanded by the Whispering Seat, a 19th century novelty
which was no doubt as great a source of entertainment to Victorian children as to those of today.
The present 17th Earl of Pembroke is continuing the tradition of improvements to the grounds
and has created four new gardens since 1970.
Surrounding a sparkling central fountain is the formal rectangle of clipped box hedges
and pleached limes which make up the forecourt gardens of 1971.
It was designed by David Vissery and is dedicated to the late 16th Earl.
The second of the present Earl's gardens is reached through a tunnel of sweet smelling
roses.
But even this welcoming approach is only a taster of what's to come in the shape of
the old English rose garden.
It's a secluded walled garden that each summer fills the senses with a collage of the scent
and colour of thousands of the nation's favourite flowers.
There's the tiny single rose ballerina.
The semi-double Alba semiplina.
And the curiously striped petals of Rosa Mundi.
Probably the most peaceful and idyllic space in the recently created gardens is the Tranquil
Water Garden.
A series of linking ponds with aquatic and marginal plants complements the oriental bridges
which invite the visitor to wander from island to island.
The soothing sound of running water can also be heard in the courtyard at the centre of
the house.
This is the Cloister Garden, the most recent of Wilton's developments and a return to
a formal style inspired by the designs on the 9th century wellhead in the centre.
Clipped box marks out the design which is surrounded by cotton lavender, Santa Lina.
A bay tree marks the centre of each quadrant, all ensuring that there's a pleasant view
from every window overlooking the courtyard.
But one of the most glorious views of Wilton is seen at springtime when the daffodils that
line the riverbank and south lawns frame a view of the house that many a visiting artist
would feel compelled to paint.
You know when you're getting near to Castle Howard, it's approached by a magnificent avenue
of beech and lime trees which runs in a dead straight line for five miles.
An obelisk raised in 1714 to celebrate the victories of the Duke of Marlborough marks
the start of the drive to a house that's amongst the grandest to be found anywhere in Europe.
The lawn at Castle Howard was described by the 18th century Man of Letters Horace Walpole
as the noblest in all the world.
At the centre of the south lawn stands the great Atlas Fountain.
The five figures surrounding it were carved in Portland stone and transported by steam
train to Castle Howard's own railway station.
It was designed by the famous landscape architect of the Italian school, William Nesfield, as
part of the new pleasure grounds in the 1850s.
The fountains are fed by a half million gallon reservoir hidden in the middle of Raywood
to the east.
From the south lake, the water tumbles down Nesfield's cascade into Temple Hole and then
meanders down onto the new river bridge of 1742 which draws the eye inevitably to Hawksmoor's
famous family mausoleum of which Walpole wrote that it would tempt one to be buried alive.
Work on the grounds though had originally started at the same time as the house in the
early 1700s and both the house and landscape were always intended to be one creation under
the design of the architect and dramatist Sir John Vanbrough and his colleague Nicholas
Hawksmoor.
It was really the first great landscape garden in the British Isles and is designed on much
more of a heroic scale than any landscape of Browns with temples and bridges designed
to create the classic Arcadian idyll.
This is the Temple of the Four Winds, Vanbrough's last work before his death in 1726.
The view through its Palladian porticoes with the new river bridge in the distance is acknowledged
to be as beautiful a sight as anything to be found in Europe.
The Great Lake wasn't added to the north front until 1795.
To the west of the house stands the walled garden.
The Satyr Gate was carved in 1705 by Carpenter with ironwork by Gardham, yet it wasn't until
1976 that the rose gardens were laid out in memory of Lady Cecilia Howard, the wife of
the late Lord George Howard, who'd done so much to restore the Castle Howard estate from
virtual dereliction after the Second World War.
It's now become one of the largest collections of old roses in the country.
There are between 300 and 400 varieties here, some of them up to 200 years old.
You can see they normally have more petals than modern roses, they need less pruning,
although more support, and I reckon the scent is unsurpassed in modern varieties.
Among them, Madame Isaac Pereyre, Zephyrin Druin and Guilaine de Feligonde.
Under the old roses, which have a short flowering season, species such as Dianthus, Hostas,
Sienes and Lavender are underplanted to provide more colour.
There's a prolific collection of English roses here too.
This one's Graham Thomas.
And of course, plenty of modern ones.
The Venus Garden contains a sea of hybrid perpetuals.
And this old apple tree has provided the ideal support for treasure trove and rambling rector.
Another of the treasures of Castle Howard is Ray Wood, which was already mature by the
time the castle was being built by the Third Earl nearly 300 years ago.
Since the 1970s, Ray Wood has been transformed into a woodland garden, accessible by dozens
of meandering walkways.
This Ray Wood is approximately about 54 acres.
And when I first came here, you know, I remember walking around and feeling after a while that
I was actually lost in it.
The rides, although they were old rides from centuries ago, they were lost because of the
new plantings which had taken place around about 1945.
And yes, there is quite a transformation.
There's certain plants in this particular setting that like much more brighter sunlight
than others.
While we tend to sort of think in the depth of winter, I wish the sun had shined and let
some light in everywhere, it seems rather ironic that when it gets to late spring and
summer time, we want to be shutting some of it out.
And this is where, you know, the canopy is very, very important to provide this dapple
shade for a lot of the plants that have survived and are surviving extremely well in the Ray
Wood.
The evergreen azaleas are fairly trouble free in that once you've got them established,
which is quite important because while they're not bog loving plants, they do need to be
moist.
They do need to be kept moist.
And this is where mulching and with the leaf fall in the woodland here, that provides that
quite naturally.
Very little pruning, if any, negligible really, not the sort of thing that the gardener really
ever needs to worry about unless they're getting out of hand.
But they do provide a massive color.
And you can even get to the stage when they're sort of so established that you cannot see
any foliage on the plant when it's actually in full bloom.
If you just catch it right, they can be such an absolute solid mass of color.
By autumn, Ray Wood has taken on a different but equally dramatic appearance when rather
more unusual forms of woodland life steal the show.
In the middle of a natural lake in Maidstone stands an 800 year old English castle.
Over the years, it's been a royal residence to six medieval queens, a playground and
palace to Henry VIII and a private home.
The appearance of Leeds Castle's 500 acre estate is a result of generations of ownership,
with each keeper adding their own personal style.
Many of the oaks planted for the formal landscape plans by the Culpepper family in the early
1700s can still be seen on the brow of the surrounding hills.
Close by, the Culpepper Garden, named after the family, was planted in 1980 and is now
a well established traditional English country garden.
Within the warm brick walls of the old estate buildings, a world of English country gardening
is contained.
A mixture of English and exotic blooms is pollinated by an army of appreciative insects.
From hollyhocks to globe thistles, it's a selection of flowers as attractive to an insect
's eyes as to our own.
The Culpepper Garden is a curiously shaped sloping plot, which for hundreds of years
had served as the castle's kitchen garden.
From this, the garden's designer, Russell Page, used a combination of box hedges and
beds to achieve his vision of a walk through a field of flowers.
And in recognition of the garden's earlier purpose, a herb border, something which might
have pleased the famous 19th century herbalist, Nicholas Culpepper, a distant kinsman of
the family who lived here 200 years ago.
Closer to the river, the prized national collection of Monarda.
The plant was brought to England in the 16th century from its native America, where it
was used for its medicinal properties.
The collection's purpose is to maintain a gene bank of all 30 known varieties of this
aromatic and health-giving flower.
Probably the most important owner to lavish enthusiasm on the castle and grounds was Olive,
Lady Bailey, who bought Leeds Castle in 1926.
Her flag is flown from the Gloriette to mark her place in the castle's history.
Having spent a lifetime renovating Leeds Castle to its current glory, Lady Bailey finally
left the estate for the nation's enjoyment forever.
One of her great loves was birds, a fact of which visitors to the park are constantly
reminded.
And fowl are free to roam around the moat and lakes of the 500-acre estate.
The otherwise rare black swan is one of Leeds Castle's most familiar sights.
Next to the lake is the eye-catching aviary, designed by architect Vernon Gibbard.
It houses a collection of rare and endangered birds, started by Lady Bailey in the 1950s.
The intention is to raise awareness of wildlife conservation and, through a breeding programme,
to eventually reintroduce some of these species into their original habitats.
But it doesn't come naturally.
The birds born at the aviary will have to be trained to look for food and recognise
predators before they return to the wild.
The west prospect of the castle is framed by the willows, rhododendrons and azaleas
of the Pavilion Garden.
It's easy to see why the colourful blooms of azaleas and rhododendrons are such a popular
sight across the great stately homes of England.
This planting has been thriving on Leeds Castle's acidic soil for over 125 years.
In the east grounds, yew trees, 2,400 of them, make up a recently planted maze which, when
mature, will have the appearance of a topiary castle.
The maze is a triumph of baffling design.
Even those with an impeccable sense of direction might have great difficulty in reaching the
centre.
When you eventually get there, you're rewarded with a glimpse of the grotto, itself an elaborate
journey into a place of mythical beasts, unworldly creatures and Greek legend.
At the centre of the exotic mineral encrusted walls sits the giant Typhius, banished by
Zeus to beneath Mount Etna for trying to overpower the gods.
As you walk around the gardens of Leeds Castle, one thing becomes apparent.
That no matter where you stand, there's another stunning view of this ancient and romantic
castle, and the more you look, the more you find yourself inclined to agree with Lord
Conway, who described Leeds Castle as the loveliest castle in the world.
Leeds Castle
Bell rings
Palace House, at the heart of Lord Montague's Beulah estate in the New Forest.
The estate, which has been in Lord Montague's family since 1538,
grew up around the beautiful tidal estuary of the Beulah River.
It includes Bucklar's Hard, which the second Duke of Montague hoped to develop into a major port,
to be called Montague Town in the early 18th century.
Instead, it became an important, though small, shipbuilding place for Nelson's fleet.
Originally, the gardens around Palace House were large,
employing, like most stately homes, huge numbers of staff to keep things in order,
although the invention of the lawnmower by Edwin Budding in 1832
made life easier for the gardeners than it had been for some time.
Today, the views of the house and immediate gardens have virtually unchanged.
A large area of the park, though, has been given over to the National Motor Museum,
founded by Lord Montague in 1952.
More than half a million people visit Beulah each year,
and the sheer volume of visitors presents the present-day gardening staff
with the kind of challenge which would send a shiver down the spine of most of us.
This is Beulah's main rally field, and in less than 24 hours,
the durability of its rich green grass is going to be put to the test.
The grass has to be very hard-wearing in the rally fields at Beulah
because of the foot traffic we get and the amount of vehicles, as you can see, on the field.
And what we've done over the years is we've overseeded it with a prostrate ryegrass.
You can get it in most garden centres, and what it does,
it creeps through all the other grass species and makes a really thick sward,
which makes it very hard-wearing.
You can see how the grass thickens up, and afterwards, it's harrowed,
which snaps and tears the stems to make it tiller and become thicker still
by sending out side shoots.
The Beulah estate was founded by a group of Cistercian monks in the early 13th century,
and even on a busy summer's day, you can find peace and tranquillity
in the ruins of what was once one of the grandest Cistercian abbeys in England.
And even here, there's plenty to surprise the gardener.
For centuries, the monks here used herbs as a way of flavouring food
and for healing the sick, and today, there's a herb garden here still.
There's feverfew, Tannacetum parthenium, still used in the treatment of migraine,
catmint or nepeta, which has hallucinogenic properties,
and the licorice plant.
This is a house leak, Sempervarum tectorum.
It's quite interesting that Sempervarum means long-living,
and it was used formally on roofs of houses and walls to ward off lightning.
And today, it's still used for treating wasp stings and hornet stings.
This is wall gemanda, Tecrem shamidryus.
It's nowadays used for hanging baskets, because this plant can withstand
the dry conditions which hanging baskets sometimes get.
The monks formally used to use it for healing wounds that were getting very slow to heal.
And it's the tranquil setting of the Abbey ruins that long ago became
the final resting place of the Montague family, who'd first come here over 450 years ago.
It's in winter and early spring that the great medieval ramparts of Warwick Castle look most bleak.
The walls have withstood attack and siege for the best part of a thousand years
and still dominate the town of Warwick.
They can be seen for miles around.
But by summer, the gaunt turrets have been softened by foliage.
It was when Warwick Castle became less of a fortress and more of a stately home
that the grounds began to be turned into gardens.
On the banks of the River Avon, a Queen's Garden was made
for the visit of Queen Elizabeth I in 1572.
But when the castle fell into the hands of the first Baron Brooke in 1604,
he added to the grounds what he called the most pleasant gardens, walks and thickets,
such as this part of England can hardly parallel.
Words which are as true today as they were then, nearly 400 years ago.
Once again, the influence of Capability Brown is never far away.
He created a memorable view along his curving drive down to the castle park
by constructing new earthworks to the right,
which echo the mound which was the original Norman keep of the castle
and which Brooke had already incorporated into the pleasure grounds.
And like so many other stately homeowners who by the middle of the last century
were beginning to add flower gardens to their beautifully landscaped and manicured grounds,
the fourth Earl introduced a rose garden in 1869.
The garden which exists today was laid out on the original site
and according to the plans of the early 1880s,
with new soil being brought in for the rose beds
and old-fashioned types of roses planted.
The entrance arches are covered with the creamy pink flowering rambler
Adelaide d'Orléans,
along with the clear rose pink debutante.
The 24 tripods in the grass area are all planted with the garland rambler,
which has masses of small cream flowers with yellow stamens,
which give it a daisy-like appearance.
It has a rich orange blossom perfume and flowers from the end of June to the middle of July,
when the garden is at its most sumptuous.
The centre arbour is covered with the old climbing rose Amy Vibare,
which is rarely without its fragrant double white flowers throughout the summer and early autumn.
The rock garden, with its cascade and pond,
has also been restored in line with the original drawings of 1900.
Another formal area lies above the great green lawn of Pageant Field,
in front of the conservatory.
The conservatory was built in 1784 with a glass roof added later.
It was designed to house the famous Roman Warwick vase,
found in a lake in Hadrian's Villa in Italy.
This is an exact replica,
with plenty of bougainvillea to give it an appropriately Mediterranean setting.
The four main circular beds of the Peacock Gardens in front
were designed like the original rose gardens
by the leading garden designer of his day, Robert Marnock, in the 1860s.
They've been replanted with standard Lily Marlena rose, herbaceous plants and dahlias.
The Lily pond has been rebuilt with a new fountain,
and the famous topiary peacocks reshaped.
In its Victorian heyday, the gardenist's chronicle in 1892
described the view from the conservatory terrace down over Pageant Field to the Avon
as one that is not easily surpassed in loveliness.
And it's down by the river that a third restoration project is under way,
the Woodland Garden, where dozens of walkways lead from newly created glades
and where scrub has been cleared to allow wildflowers to thrive.
And just a stone's throw from Shakespeare's glorious Avon.
This rich and fertile stretch of Wiltshire countryside was purchased in the 16th century by John Thin,
an entrepreneurial clerk of the Tudor Court for the sum of £54.
On it, he set about building England's first Renaissance palace.
Over 400 years later, in 1948, Longleat opened its gates to the public,
giving them the chance to see for themselves this splendid house and grounds.
Having established a thriving business from visiting tourists,
in 1966 Longleat opened the first safari park outside Africa.
The estate grounds, originally landscaped by the ubiquitous Lancelot Capability Brown,
were the luxurious new home to a stunning variety of creatures from all continents of the world.
If other stately homes dazzle with their array of fine flora,
then Longleat's collection of fauna is on a scale to rival any botanical garden.
And its most popular breed are, of course, the lions of Longleat.
So successful is the breeding programme at Longleat
that lions and lionesses are sent to zoological collections all over the world.
Longleat's adage is to preserve the past and protect the future.
Many of the breeds kept here are endangered or even extinct in the wild.
These white tigers, not albinos, incidentally,
are a few of less than a hundred maintained in captivity in the world.
Animals of every species roam Longleat's unspoilt land as if it were their native environment.
These Pear-David's deer originate from swamplands in northern China.
There are Canadian timber wolves.
Even zebras seem as at home in the green pastures of the park
as they would be in their natural habitat in the arid savanna desert.
The fact that you can drive up relatively close to these animals
is the source of much amusement to visitors at the safari park.
It's not every day that you come face to face with a camel.
But of course the stars of every family visit to the safari park are the monkeys.
These rhesus monkeys are a particularly intelligent breed.
They give their name to the blood group which they share with a small percentage of humans.
Within a troop, about 70 monkeys, every monkey has a rank or position.
Much like humans, they use both facial expressions and noises to communicate.
But surely the most incongruous of creatures to be found roaming around an English country estate is the giraffe.
In the big game park, an impressive herd of southern white rhino keep the lawns in perfect condition.
In fact, everywhere you look there's another species going about its daily routine,
quite unaware of the attention it's receiving.
Among its many attractions, Longleat boasts the longest hedge maze in the world.
Nearly three kilometres of immaculately trimmed English yew designed to elude even the most intrepid visitor.
Another of Longleat's more unusual garden features is this cemetery.
Buried here are generations of the onus pets,
a suitably grand resting place at a home where animals are held in such high esteem.
The approach to the house and gardens is lined with a rich 19th century planting of rhododendrons and azaleas.
The range of colour across the many varieties has to be seen to be believed.
Abuja
Capability Brown's half-mile lake serves a rather different purpose than may have originally
been intended. Now populated by Californian sea lions and the school of hippopotamus,
the lake provides the setting for Longleat's aquatic safari. Surprisingly, the hippo is
said to be Africa's most dangerous animal, a fact the tour guide is keen to point out.
They are just extremely territorial. Their favourite trick in the wild is actually turning
over small boats and canoes and drowning the occupants. And if the hippo is stalled on land,
it will bolt straight for the water regardless of what's in its way. In the middle of the lake
is a half acre island, the exclusive domain of the gorillas. Every night they're fed and watered
in their centrally heated quarters. Elsewhere in the lake, the African and Asian elephants
are fed and watered on a somewhat larger scale. You might wonder if the animals of Longleat
appreciate their rather select surroundings. It's a unique place, a wonderful mixture of formal and
informal, man-made and natural, and one of the few estates which is being developed with the
celebration and flair which existed at the time it was first built. Capability Brown's successor
as the leading landscape architect of his day was Humphrey Repton, who in 1804 was called to
Woburn by the sixth Duke of Bedford and asked to improve the park and pleasure gardens which by
then had already been open to visitors for over 20 years. Repton launched his career in 1788,
five years after Brown's death. He too believed in the philosophy that nature was imperfect and
needed to be corrected by man, but he was much more pragmatic. The approach drive properly must
pass through the most picturesque parts of the park, but must also be the shortest route to the
nearest town. And he reintroduced graveled courtyards and drives to ensure dry feet when
alighting from carriages or inspecting the pleasure gardens, all strictly echoing the architectural
lines of the buildings they led from. Repton also constructed a series of ponds leading from the
house down graded slopes linked by underground pipes. Rare varieties of water lily abound.
Nearby are fine specimens of yucca. At feeding time huge stocks of varying species of
carp including koi fight it out with the ducks. The opening up of China to horticultural expeditions
from the West in the late 18th century meant that oriental designs were soon in fashion.
The Chinese dairy, a glorious folly, was the work of the Prince of Wales' architect Henry
Holland in 1790 and is currently being restored. The stained glass windows are exquisite.
The dairy has been repainted according to the colours of the original design.
The Chinese theme was continued with the creation of a maze. Unusually,
this is Hornbeam and was planted in 1831. At its centre, an eight-sided Chinese pavilion added
two years later. Two of the nine species of deer at Wuban originate from China too. These are some
of the 600 Père de Vides which had become extinct in China by the end of the 19th century and were
brought to England by the monk Père de Vides for the 11th Duke. In 1985, Wuban donated 22 Père de
Vides to the Chinese government to be reintroduced into the park of the Royal Palace in Beijing from
where they'd originated. The deer are kept away from the garden area by a ha-ha, a French invention
of the early 18th century which keeps animals at bay while allowing an uninterrupted view of the
surrounding landscape. Set well back from the house, a huge rhododendron ride has grown up
amongst the ancient woodland. Here are some of the biggest, most magnificent rhododendron plants
I've ever seen. Improvements and new ideas are being introduced to the gardens at Wuban all the
time. A range of primulas has been planted to bring life to springtime scenes. Here you'll find the
common single types beside the rarer doubles, side by side with a wide range of daffodils.
As a backdrop to the meticulous diamond cut lawns which look immaculate throughout the year,
a completely new rose garden designed by Madame Anita Pereira.
Elegant weeping standard roses take centre stage.
Beside a mass of lavender, Phigelius the Cape Figwort.
And a growing collection of rare shrubs such as unusual varieties of viburnum and this variegated
Strannvesia pallet. Palisades have been built to support a rich collection of climbing roses.
Beside them, the beds of highly fragrant Southampton Floribonda roses.
And lilies are part of several mixed shrub and abatious beds which have been added to provide a colourful backdrop.
But ultimately, it's Repton's Park at Woburn which remains in the mind.
With hundreds of roaming deer bringing the sweeping 3000 acre landscape to life.
Without animation, said Repton, no scene however beautiful will long delight us.
Thank you for watching.
Thank you.