Gravetye Manor. The Wild Gardener.

William Robinson was a pioneer in gardening and introduced so much that we now take for allot . For some cause , he is not remembered in the same way as innovator such as Gertrude Jekyll , but he was just as influential . He was a blatant counsel for the overthrow of the bedding out organization and the adoption of a naturalistic method of planting . He was not singular in his views , in fact he jumped on a bandwagon that had alreay been going for several years . But he popularised them through the spiritualist of his books and his gardening diary . He started several journals , includingThe GardenandGardens Illustrated . In the latter , he included an advice column and must have startled his readers , when his prompting for dealing with cats in the garden was to trap them and swim them

He was implausibly opinionated and he had a natural endowment for evoke up controversy and making enemies . At different times he aggress ‘ landscape painting architect ’ , ( his particular bugbear ) , botanists , topiarists as well as pleader of carpet bedding . He in particular hated plant scientist : ‘ The line of descent of forged Latin which we owe botanists leads to some hoi polloi to cut capers with that voice communication with fearful results- the term which issuing from the backtalk of botanists are bad enough , when descending into those of gardeners are grotesque indeed ’ . In fact , Robinson ’ s insistency on using English names causes muddiness in his book , not only did he use English names , but he made them up too . One of his last books was shout out : The Virgin ’ s Bower , which baffled me , come from a confirmed bachelor , who presumably had no interest in Virgo . The book is actually about clematis , one of his passions . Thetexensishybrid , ‘ Gravetye Beauty ’ is still democratic today , as isClematis montana ‘ ‘ Earnest Markham ’ discover after his head gardener .

When Canon Ellacombe , a noted nurseryman of the time , mildly paint a picture that gardens are a matter of taste and everyone should please himself , his outraged reply was:‘the old belief of tamely acquiescing in the feeling that all thing are ‘ a thing of perceptiveness ’ will not do . The future of our garden bet on calling ugly thing by their names … That it is amatter of gustatory modality is the expression of hopeless and blind weakness’ . That was telling him .

I get laid the verbal description of him by Edward Lutyens : ‘ Been for a long walk of life with W.R. I left him because he tire so . He starts for a walk , never says where he is going and then stops here and there and give out off at tangents- his conversation wayward and he contradicts himself every two instant until one feels fain to break loose . ’Despite his irritating direction , he had a wide circle of noted horticulture supporter , although they were primarily hold to letters and short visit .

His contradictory nature lead him to make uneven claims . He had steadfast idea about what he called ‘ wasted cause ’ and wrote scathingly about moving earthly concern as being a full waste of time . But on another occasion , he explained how to make a beautiful lawn by remove the’top foot of the soil , enfeeble 12 - 18 inches with the addition of burnt ballast , digging to a further foot depth , then append a foot of good grunge … on this the greensward to be laid and top - dressed with fine ballast , wood ash tree and the top 2 column inch of stain from the woods , all sift and fuse up well ’ . Right , now I know where I was conk wrong , I ’ll give that a endeavor tomorrow .

One of his other bugbear was what he called ‘ book learning ’ . He hated it , which is odd as he save so many books himself . He also hated glasshouse and the whole business of growing know plant life . Robinson grew up in Ireland where he progressed from being a garden boy to the attitude of foreman . There is a story , belike apocryphal , that he argued with his genus Bos and walked out , but not without damping down the flame and leave all the windows assailable in the greenhouse and so killing all the plant . If true , how not bad that with one fell slide he could assail greenhouses , bedding plant and someone who had the temerity to discord with him .

His two most well - known books areThe Wild GardenandThe English Gardenwhich was extremely popular and went into many edition . Later edition had example by Alfred Parsons . Several contributors indite article on various subjects for the Quran and in previous editions , when the author were handily dead , he claimed the article for his own . There is a long list of desirable works in the Word of God ( the name are in alphabetical order , in the disdain Latin . ) I live he loved dramatic foliation , but I was surprised to see him recommending Japanese Knotweed , Fallopia japonica . He probably helped to popularise this nemesis of the countryside . He also look up to the savagely serious Giant Hogweed , Heracleum mantegazzianumfor its stature . He called it Giant Parsnip , which makes it sound rather endearing and mayhap edible . I hope nobody tried it . Another decorative plant life I was surprised to see him mention isCannabis sativa , as being a hunky-dory , graceful plant for the back of the delimitation . It would for sure have to be right-hand at the back of the border these days .

For a former garden boy from Ireland he did very well for himself . From his writing and some clever investment he was able to buy the beautiful Tudor Gravetye Manor when he was 46 . He devote the remainder of his life to restoring the house and make the most beautiful land .

Today , Gravetye Manor in Surrey is a sybaritic hotel with a Michelin star eating place . The head gardener , Tom Coward used to work at Great Dixter with Fergus Garrett . The gardens have been brought back to their former glory and are staggeringly beautiful . A great feature is Robinson ’s walled kitchen garden . This is elliptic and I believe this shape for a walled garden is unequaled . It means that there are no frost corners . The sandstone for the 12 foot walls was all quarried from the landed estate . Here vegetable and prime for the hotel are grow . It is attractively maintained . A visit to Gravetye manor has been on my bucket leaning for year . On our recent junket to Brighton , we hold back here on the way home . We enjoyed Sunday tiffin in the beautiful woodwind - panel dining elbow room and spent the afternoon strolling round the mythic garden . I now require to come back here for good afternoon tea , the tables are dotted around the garden and bet very inviting . Spending time here is like start back in sentence and being on an Edwardian weekend house party . I felt as if I had abuse into a P.G. Wodehouse tale and quite anticipate to see Gussie Fink - Nottle looking for newts in the the pool . Actually , never mind good afternoon tea , I want to expend a weekend here . In fact I require to live here .

The title for this blog mail service hail from a dandy account book about William Robinson . It is written by Richard Bisgrove and is called : William Robinson : The Wild Gardener . The Quran is sumptuously illustrated . It was write in 2008 and is out of photographic print now . It is sometimes put up for featherbrained prices , but if you look around you could still find it for quite reasonable prices . William Robinson still remains an enigmatic figure because not much seems to be known about his private living . I fuck that has nothing to do with his horticulture piece of work , but I am snoopy and sexual love life history about writer and gardeners that reveal all . You do n’t get that here , but it is still an interesting script .

57 Responses toGravetye Manor. The Wild Gardener.

I bask the garden Robinson make – much more than I await I ’d have enjoyed the nurseryman himself had I encountered him , but it was still fun to read his back - story .

Gravetye Manor. The Wild Gardener.