The English garden (or English landscape park)

The English garden (or English landscape park) is a type of informal garden that began to develop during the 18th century under the philosophical and artistic influence primarily of Romanticism, but not only that. Both the neoclassical aestheticism of Winckelmann and the naturalism stemming from Rousseau‘s theories have left significant marks on its development. Emotion, surprise, a taste for untouched nature replace the geometric and formal rigor, giving rise to a type of landscape and picturesque garden, only seemingly uncultivated and wild, yet carefully designed to achieve this effect.

1. Birth, history and evolution
2. Characteristics of the English garden
3. The most notable English gardens abroad

Birth, history and evolution

The first proper gardens in England emerged in the 1st century AD with the Roman conquest. There is no information about any kind of gardening activity in the British Isles before that time. In the Middle Ages, apart from the horti conclusi of monasteries, castle gardens consisted of large grassy areas around them, primarily for strategic purposes to maintain clear visibility in the immediate vicinity.

Subsequently, during the Reformation, there arose the need to enclose green spaces in more modest manor houses or expansive lands on country estates, mainly to maintain deer, wildlife, or livestock. During the Tudor dynasty, the garden in England followed the formal Italian style. The Stuarts, on the other hand, favored the French garden style.

By the end of the 17th century, the dissemination of information related to the life, art, and customs of exotic countries, particularly China, was already abundant in England. Under this influence, Sir William Temple, in his renowned work “Upon the Gardens of Epicurus and of Gardening in the Year 1685“, employs a so-called “Chinese” word: “sharawadgi” to describe a graceful and picturesque asymmetry that he found extremely pleasing and characteristic of Chinese gardens.

The aesthetics of sharawadgi spread, and Joseph Addison (essayist, playwright, writer, politician, and one of the earliest proponents of informal gardens) in a series of articles published in 1712 in The Spectator illustrates the concept that there is an intrinsic beauty in nature outside of any order or forced perspective, stating that “Nature and not art is the beauty of gardens.” In gardens, landscapes and picturesque views were desired, but this apparent simplicity and naturalness were, in fact, still artificial.

The extreme pursuit of the ideal viewpoint, the desired effect, translated into the design of clearings, winding paths, structures, often intentionally in ruins. Chinese, classical, neogothic elements were arbitrarily or fancifully integrated, concealing everything in a disjointed, asymmetric, and particularistic composition aimed at achieving “the effect.”

The oldest garden of this type is undoubtedly that of Alexander Pope, poet and garden designer, in Twickenham, started in 1718. The focal point of the entire garden is the underground gallery, midway between a mineralogical museum and an enchanted grotto, which perfectly embodies the dual taste of the time. It effectively combines the Enlightenment’s scientific impetus with the ideal of untouched, wild, sublime, and melancholic nature celebrated by the Romantics and later extensively theorized by Burke in his work “A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful” (1756).

Pope exercised considerable influence over Charles Bridgeman and William Kent. The latter was invited in 1719 to collaborate on the creation of the gardens at Chiswick House, where Lord Burlington wished to gather memories of his first journey to Italy. The Stowe Park, cared for by both, was renowned for its scattered and diverse architectures (a Temple of Victory, a Chinese House, a shepherd’s hut, a Palladian-style bridge, even an Egyptian pyramid), and for the “ha-ha” hedges purposely low to seamlessly blend the garden with the surrounding countryside.

Subsequently, in 1730, Kent designed the Rousham Garden, where the main villa takes the center stage, with views from various angles sloping down to the river, adorned with scattered trees and expansive lawns. This distinct tendency towards freedom and the prevalence of romantic-style natural spaces continued with two famous gardeners, Lancelot Brown, a restorer of ancient parks in the new style, and his student Humphry Repton.

Lancelot Brown, in particular, is remembered as the most influential landscape designer of the Georgian era. He worked after Kent on the Stowe Park garden, a veritable style laboratory throughout the century, creating a new section called the Grecian Valley under the commission of Lord Cobham. He subsequently worked for many aristocrats and politicians in Cobham’s circle, eventually becoming the royal gardener of George III. Brown’s style favored extensive green spaces and clusters of tall scattered trees, providing the ideal setting for all the pastimes of English society such as hunting and carriage rides. He often created artificial lakes, dams, and canals to simulate the illusion of a natural river.

On the other hand, Humphry Repton is considered the most celebrated representative of the picturesque tendency, which preferred the wilder side of the natural environment, and which developed in the second half of the century. His most emblematic project in this sense is the Wembley Park estate.

A special mention goes to William Chambers. Between 1756 and 1762, he created the gardens of Kew, which represent the pinnacle of the Anglo-Chinese garden type, an artificial exoticism that is more imaginative than literal.

With the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763, borders reopened, and the English garden was admired and exported, first to France and Italy, and then to the rest of Europe.

A final current of evolution in the English garden developed during the Victorian era and is referred to as the Gardenesque style. It combined romantic and rural characteristics with intensely vibrant floral spaces and exotic plants acclimatized or born in greenhouses. During the industrial period, many green areas were dedicated to cultural dissemination or integrated into urban fabric.

Gertrude Jekyll was one of the most influential gardeners of the 20th century in this regard. By considering the garden as an integral part of the home, she essentially initiated the modern conception of the English garden, characterized by an abundance of colors, trellises, and walls, based on the theoretical foundation of the Cottage garden.

Characteristics of English garden

The English garden, also known as the “English landscape park,” with its rich background that has given rise to it and shaped it, imbues the landscape with a moral and philosophical message that goes far beyond mere aesthetics. It is not detached from politics either. In its origins, a variety of movements and opinions about the value of local agricultural, botanical, and woodland products, simplicity, and resource conservation were prevalent. The characteristic and essential features of an English garden can be summarized as follows:

• Carefully designed to appear natural and spontaneous, sometimes even wild in certain variations of the canon. Nature takes the center stage and becomes a source of emotion and wonder.
• Absence of geometric and formal elements (such as tree-lined avenues, topiary sculptures, tree-lined paths), in favor of an apparently random succession of natural and artificial elements in free but never disorganized form.
• Fundamental spaces composed of lawns, undulating and occasionally hilly terrain, contrasted with wooded areas, clusters of tall trees, or individual trees of distinct proportions. Deciduous leaves are preferred to broaden the range of scenes, with the changing seasons enhancing the perception of untouched nature.
• Curving pathways that unveil picturesque views in succession, as if the observer is indeed walking through a corner of the world barely touched by human hands.
• Presence of romantic elements like caves, waterfalls, lakes, ponds, rivers, brooks, docks, quays, or bridges placed prominently for scenic effect and meticulously sized according to the available space, maximizing the sense of natural harmony.
• Intermittent presence of architectural features known as “Eye-Catchers” such as classical and neoclassical statues and temples, Gothic ruins, Chinese pavilions, pagodas, and belvederes, recreating a pastoral, idyllic, or romantic landscape.
• Mixed borders of seasonal plants, perennials, and shrubs arranged in cascading layers, mimicking the untamed nature.
• Distinctive fencing known as a “ha-ha,” consisting of a low wall with a ditch and fence, allowing an uninterrupted view between the garden and the surrounding countryside while simultaneously providing protection from most wild animals.

The most notable English gardens abroad

In France, splendid examples of English gardens include the Jean-Jacques Rousseau Park in Ermenonville (the philosopher’s initial burial place), the Park of the Fontainebleau Castle, renovated by Napoleon, and the garden in the Hameau de la Reine, a reconstruction of a rural village near the Petit Trianon in Versailles, created for Marie Antoinette within the park surrounding the royal palace.

In Italy, the English garden was introduced by Ercole Silva, who, after creating one for his own villa, promoted its spread by contributing to the construction of numerous others, including the Royal Gardens of Monza and the Garden of Villa Belgiojoso Bonaparte. Other beautiful examples include the English Garden in Palermo, the Sigurtà Park Garden in Verona, and the Treves de Bonfili Garden in Padova. Of particular historical and botanical significance are the English Garden of the Royal Palace of Caserta and the Hanbury Botanical Gardens in Ventimiglia.

In Germany, the Englischer Garten in Munich, Bavaria, is famous. It was created in the popular and widely imitated Gardenesque style, which remained fashionable outside of England throughout the 19th century.