Best in show

Just as embroiderers working in the late 11th century will not have appreciated the achievement that was the Bayeux Tapestry until they stood well back at the finish, so garden writers are usually too caught up with describing the details of individual gardens to consider the overall magnificence of ‘the English garden’. It was not until I really considered the matter, when writing a book on the subject, that I began fully to appreciate what a tremendous collective achievement it is.

English domestic gardens (i.e., those connected to a house, however big) are as much a product of society and culture as of the individual taste and inclinations of their creators; influenced, to a very high degree, by patterns of thought and fashions at the time of creation. But that, as I have discovered, is only part of the story. Not only are there fine and important gardens where trends have either been bucked or ignored, but it is plain that some pretty remarkable and original individuals have decided to give much of their life and energy to their gardens, and have influenced garden style as a result. In the case of Chatsworth, to take just one of many examples, so many generations of the family have been involved in garden-making since the late 17th century that it is surely possible to talk of a gardening gene.

Political and economic forces have often also been important, even crucial. In recent years, garden owners have been helped by politicians, believe it or not. I know this won’t appeal much to the bien-pensants, but the owners of large gardens have much for which to thank Margaret Thatcher and John Major: Margaret Thatcher because her government cut tax rates, and John Major for instituting the National Lottery.