0:00:02 > 0:00:04Nigel! Go on. Go on. Come on.
0:00:04 > 0:00:09'In the 21st century, we now embrace wildlife
0:00:09 > 0:00:11'and encourage it into our garden.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14'But 300 years ago, everything was very, very different.'
0:00:14 > 0:00:18Gardens were a sanctuary to keep nature at bay,
0:00:18 > 0:00:22and they were ordered and controlled.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26And then came perhaps the greatest revolution in the whole
0:00:26 > 0:00:27of gardening history.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32The landscape at large was embraced
0:00:32 > 0:00:38and included on a scale that is almost unimaginable.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43'On my journey through the past 400 years of garden history,
0:00:43 > 0:00:47'I've so far looked at the 17th century
0:00:47 > 0:00:50'and discovered the secrets behind the tightly controlled
0:00:50 > 0:00:55'formal gardens created as a display of their owners' wealth and power
0:00:55 > 0:01:00'as well as some hidden messages that revealed their true beliefs.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03'I'm now moving into the 18th century,
0:01:03 > 0:01:07'which saw a radical transformation of these grand, formal gardens,
0:01:07 > 0:01:08'and I'll be discovering how
0:01:08 > 0:01:13'and why these new landscapes were created and who was behind them.'
0:01:13 > 0:01:15- He's an artist, I guess.- Yeah.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18Although I bet he never saw himself like that.
0:01:18 > 0:01:20'I'll be getting some hands-on knowledge of
0:01:20 > 0:01:24'the techniques of the century's most famous gardener, Capability Brown.'
0:01:24 > 0:01:25Go!
0:01:27 > 0:01:30'I'll celebrate the work of the maverick William Kent,
0:01:30 > 0:01:33'who preceded Brown at the beginning of the century...'
0:01:33 > 0:01:36This really doesn't feel like the entrance to one of the greatest
0:01:36 > 0:01:39gardens in the world, does it?
0:01:39 > 0:01:42'..and the marketing genius of Humphry Repton,
0:01:42 > 0:01:45'who followed in Brown's footsteps at the end of the period.'
0:01:45 > 0:01:48He's pitching it absolutely right.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52Everybody always wants a certain degree of magnificence.
0:01:54 > 0:01:56'I believe that gardens are every
0:01:56 > 0:02:00'bit as important as the buildings that we live and work in.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06'And if we can unearth their secrets and listen to their stories,
0:02:06 > 0:02:10'we get a unique insight into our history...
0:02:10 > 0:02:14'..and what makes us the people that we are today.'
0:02:35 > 0:02:38At the beginning of the 18th century,
0:02:38 > 0:02:43British gardens were still locked in a mind-set, exemplified by Dutch
0:02:43 > 0:02:45formality, of controlling nature.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49Everything was straight lines - canals, clipped trees,
0:02:49 > 0:02:53avenues - just to show that man was in charge,
0:02:53 > 0:02:57and all the natural world was seen as potentially wild and unruly.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00And then, in a generation, all this was transformed
0:03:00 > 0:03:03and the landscape was allowed in.
0:03:03 > 0:03:09And the first garden to show this in its entirety was Croome Court,
0:03:09 > 0:03:15the very first commission made by Lancelot "Capability" Brown.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23And what is extraordinary, looking from above, is you can see how Brown,
0:03:23 > 0:03:28with only the resources of 1750, was able to see
0:03:28 > 0:03:30the landscape as it would become.
0:03:31 > 0:03:36He diverted water, created a river - or at least it's a lake that looks
0:03:36 > 0:03:41like a river - planted these rings of trees that would become clumps
0:03:41 > 0:03:45beyond his lifetime, beyond the lifetime of his children,
0:03:45 > 0:03:49and then these eye-catchers, the church over there
0:03:49 > 0:03:51and the marvellous orangery...
0:03:52 > 0:03:58..all this incredibly skilfully co-ordinated from the ground
0:03:58 > 0:04:03so it appeared completely natural, but actually it took as much skill
0:04:03 > 0:04:08and as much artifice as the most tightly controlled formal garden.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14'In the mid-18th century, Croome Court, set within a 17,000-acre
0:04:14 > 0:04:19'estate in Worcestershire, was the seat of the sixth Earl of Coventry.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22'He was a young man who wanted a house and garden that would be
0:04:22 > 0:04:27'in the most modern design as well as displaying his wealth and status.'
0:04:27 > 0:04:30Now, this is the way to go and see gardens!
0:04:32 > 0:04:36'To create the earl's new garden meant undertaking radical changes,
0:04:36 > 0:04:38'and to learn about some of this
0:04:38 > 0:04:41'I'm meeting the local archaeologist Dennis Williams,
0:04:41 > 0:04:45'who's making a geophysical survey to get a detailed picture of these
0:04:45 > 0:04:48'changes made to Croome in the second half of the 18th century.'
0:04:50 > 0:04:55We've chosen this particular spot because we have some map-based
0:04:55 > 0:04:56and documentary evidence
0:04:56 > 0:04:59that the parish church for Croome D'Abitot
0:04:59 > 0:05:00was once situated here.
0:05:00 > 0:05:05And then, in the late 1750s, as the Earl of Coventry was having
0:05:05 > 0:05:08the house and the landscape part-remodelled,
0:05:08 > 0:05:13the church was demolished and the new church up on the hill was built.
0:05:15 > 0:05:17What date is this picture?
0:05:17 > 0:05:20That one, erm, the date is unclear,
0:05:20 > 0:05:22but it's thought to have been about 1750.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26- That's the gatehouse.- That is the gatehouse.- With the church...
0:05:26 > 0:05:28And there's the church.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31So Brown demolished all this to make his park.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35As well as the church foundations,
0:05:35 > 0:05:38presumably there was a graveyard here.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42We believe that the tombs of the earls were moved to the new
0:05:42 > 0:05:46church when that was consecrated in 1763.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49The Coventry family were all taken, lock, stock and barrel, up there.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52Certainly the earls. We don't know whether the countesses were moved.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55That's something we're very uncertain about.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57- They wouldn't have moved the countesses?- Not necessarily.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00One would have thought so, but the documentary evidence is not
0:06:00 > 0:06:03clearly there to state that that were the case.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09You realise there was a kind of ruthlessness about making
0:06:09 > 0:06:15this garden and other landscape gardens, because a parish church -
0:06:15 > 0:06:18you know, this is something that had been there for hundreds of years -
0:06:18 > 0:06:22razed to the ground to make way for grass.
0:06:23 > 0:06:28To the modern sensibility, that's appalling vandalism.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31But it was the brave new world, it was the way ahead.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34Out with the old, in with the landscape.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47'Croome echoes the growing confidence of Georgian Britain.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50'The country had moved away from the politics of its European
0:06:50 > 0:06:53'neighbours with a settled constitutional monarchy
0:06:53 > 0:06:55'and a more liberal philosophy.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59'And this was expressed in a style of garden that dispensed with
0:06:59 > 0:07:03'formality and created a romanticised image of the rural idyll.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12'So what we see in these landscapes are a series of carefully
0:07:12 > 0:07:17'manipulated, idealised views of the countryside as a wealthy,
0:07:17 > 0:07:20'educated 18th-century nobility wished to portray it.
0:07:22 > 0:07:24'I want to find out how Lord Coventry and Brown,
0:07:24 > 0:07:27'although from very different backgrounds, both young,
0:07:27 > 0:07:31'energetic men, created this new vision here at Croome.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35'So I'm meeting the estate manager, Michael Forster-Smith,
0:07:35 > 0:07:38'to look at Brown's original plans.'
0:07:38 > 0:07:39A-ha!
0:07:40 > 0:07:44- Look at this!- It's fantastic, isn't it?- What date is this?
0:07:44 > 0:07:48Well, the plan was originally drawn up in 1763,
0:07:48 > 0:07:51and it charts the position of every single one of Brown's
0:07:51 > 0:07:55newly planted trees set out across this new landscape at Croome.
0:07:55 > 0:07:57And the thing which is very clear
0:07:57 > 0:08:00- is, you know, thick planting. - That's right.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03So this distant belt of trees almost gives the appearance that
0:08:03 > 0:08:06there's a vast native woodland that stretches out beyond.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10Of course, that's an illusion, but the shelterbelt makes it seems so.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14- So, this obviously is the famous picture of Brown.- Yeah.
0:08:14 > 0:08:20My reading of Brown is that it's just practicality, a very English thing.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24- "How do we make this work?" - Yeah. An engineer.- Yeah. Completely.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26Completely so.
0:08:26 > 0:08:31- An engineer, and, in the process, an artist, I guess.- Yeah.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33Although I bet he never saw himself like that.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35No. Brown was the great landscape improver.
0:08:35 > 0:08:37Not only did he make your land more beautiful,
0:08:37 > 0:08:39it was much more economic to run.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41Gone were the fussy and tightly clipped
0:08:41 > 0:08:44box and yew hedges that required intensive labour.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47And the sheep did the work for you. It was more productive.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50And in fact, in the 18th century, great beauty
0:08:50 > 0:08:53and productivity were seen as being the same thing.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56And there's one letter from Lord Coventry, and he talks of creating
0:08:56 > 0:08:58a utopia, and he doesn't just mean
0:08:58 > 0:09:01in terms of how this is going to look.
0:09:01 > 0:09:03These are grand ambitions.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08'Brown and Coventry's vision for Croome was extraordinary
0:09:08 > 0:09:12'and radical, but it wasn't wholly original.
0:09:12 > 0:09:14'There's much more to see and discover about Croome
0:09:14 > 0:09:19'and about how Brown and hence the whole landscape movement worked.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22'But to explore its origins, I want to visit a garden designed by a man
0:09:22 > 0:09:26'who Brown had previously worked under at Stowe and who really
0:09:26 > 0:09:31'pioneered the revolutionary new concept of the landscape garden.'
0:09:32 > 0:09:36The garden I want to take you to is Rousham.
0:09:36 > 0:09:41It was made only about a dozen years before Croome started...
0:09:42 > 0:09:46..but really is the door through which
0:09:46 > 0:09:50Croome and, I believe, all Lancelot Brown's work passed.
0:09:57 > 0:10:02'Rousham in Oxfordshire is the work of William Kent, whom I consider the
0:10:02 > 0:10:07'great genius of 18th-century garden design, and this is his masterpiece.
0:10:08 > 0:10:12'It's still owned by the same family who employed Kent in 1738
0:10:12 > 0:10:14'to reshape the garden,
0:10:14 > 0:10:19'and despite nearly 300 years of changing fashions and styles, Rousham
0:10:19 > 0:10:23'has remained practically unaltered since the day it was completed.'
0:10:26 > 0:10:29This is one of the great garden views.
0:10:29 > 0:10:35It's about a kind of gentle embracing of this soft, very British landscape.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40But it's manipulated, because there's a folly up there
0:10:40 > 0:10:45on the hillside that looks like an old medieval ruin.
0:10:45 > 0:10:46In fact, it's just a wall,
0:10:46 > 0:10:50a facade designed solely to be seen from this viewpoint.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55And another way that landscape was manipulated
0:10:55 > 0:10:58was a new piece of garden architecture.
0:11:06 > 0:11:10The ha-ha is a beautifully simple and effective device.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13It's a wall designed to keep stock out,
0:11:13 > 0:11:16but it's a wall sunken down in a ditch,
0:11:16 > 0:11:20so from inside the garden it was an unbroken view.
0:11:20 > 0:11:24You didn't see the barrier, you didn't see the ditch or the wall.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26All you saw was what you wanted to see,
0:11:26 > 0:11:27which was your prize animals,
0:11:27 > 0:11:29your wonderful trees you were planting
0:11:29 > 0:11:32rolling out into the landscape.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36And it was incredibly liberating. It opened gardens out.
0:11:43 > 0:11:45From the road, you look up to the house
0:11:45 > 0:11:49and there's this enormous, impressive great avenue of grass.
0:11:49 > 0:11:54In fact, most of it is just a steep slope made to look
0:11:54 > 0:11:57as though it's much bigger than it is.
0:11:59 > 0:12:04But once the scene is set, then to go into the garden proper,
0:12:04 > 0:12:07there are a number of different routes. And this is very typical.
0:12:07 > 0:12:09None of them are grand.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12It almost doesn't quite look like you're in the right place,
0:12:12 > 0:12:16and there's said to be something like 1,000 different routes round it.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18So...let's go this way.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24You see, this really doesn't feel like the entrance
0:12:24 > 0:12:27to one of the greatest gardens in the world, does it?
0:12:38 > 0:12:40This garden is green.
0:12:41 > 0:12:46Every shade of green is played with.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48The light is green.
0:12:49 > 0:12:51You have this underlayer of laurel,
0:12:51 > 0:12:57and then you have yews and you rise up and have the deciduous
0:12:57 > 0:13:00trees with the light just shifting and falling through.
0:13:07 > 0:13:12'Then, everywhere at Rousham there are scenes that are revealed.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15'You come out and you find yourself in a setting.
0:13:21 > 0:13:23'And of course, that's Kent's great genius.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25'He was a stage designer, really.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30'And you become the actor, you perform on it.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33'And of course, what that does is make the garden work
0:13:33 > 0:13:39'entirely in a personal way for you. Every time is a fresh performance.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41'So instead of looking on and admiring it,
0:13:41 > 0:13:44'like you do in so many gardens...
0:13:44 > 0:13:47'you breathe life into it.
0:13:47 > 0:13:49'And that's magic. That really is special.'
0:13:59 > 0:14:03I've got a picture of William Kent.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08And if Brown was someone that everybody admired -
0:14:08 > 0:14:13he was professional, he turned up on time, amazingly efficient,
0:14:13 > 0:14:16knew what he was talking about -
0:14:16 > 0:14:19Kent was all over the shop.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22He never turned up on time, he didn't answer letters,
0:14:22 > 0:14:26he didn't send in invoices, he drank too much.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29They always said that Kent would come and stay with you, drink all your
0:14:29 > 0:14:34wine, probably sleep with your wife and your daughters and charm you.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38And you can't help but love William Kent.
0:14:38 > 0:14:43He's one of the great, brilliant rogues of history.
0:14:43 > 0:14:45The accusations against Kent -
0:14:45 > 0:14:49and he's not universally admired - are that
0:14:49 > 0:14:54he really just added embellishment to good work that was already in place.
0:14:54 > 0:15:00'But the touches that he added transformed everything that he
0:15:00 > 0:15:03'touched, and all his work, I think,
0:15:03 > 0:15:09'stands peerless above the more sober contributions of his contemporaries.
0:15:18 > 0:15:23'William Kent was heavily influenced by a stay of ten years in Italy,
0:15:23 > 0:15:26'where he studied and trained as a painter
0:15:26 > 0:15:31'and absorbed every facet of art, architecture and decoration.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34'And although he was the son of a humble joiner from Bridlington,
0:15:34 > 0:15:36'this was the heyday of the Grand Tour,
0:15:36 > 0:15:40'when aristocratic young men would set off on a kind of glorified
0:15:40 > 0:15:44'gap year to absorb European art and culture.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48'So from about 1730, as these aristocrats returned home
0:15:48 > 0:15:50'and took over their country seats,
0:15:50 > 0:15:54'British gardens gradually began to reject the existing Dutch
0:15:54 > 0:15:59'formality and replace it with these classical influences.'
0:15:59 > 0:16:04But Kent, a maverick to the end, also added a quirky element to it.
0:16:04 > 0:16:06I love the way that,
0:16:06 > 0:16:08in this temple of Echo called the Townsend Building,
0:16:08 > 0:16:12you have the temple and the pillars, and in the front, not on the side,
0:16:12 > 0:16:15a sash window.
0:16:15 > 0:16:17So what you end up with is Rome,
0:16:17 > 0:16:21but Rome with its feet firmly in Oxfordshire.
0:16:30 > 0:16:34'And Kent was more, much more than just a garden designer.'
0:16:36 > 0:16:40- Hello!- Monty, how nice to see you. - Nice to see you.- Come in.- Come in.
0:16:40 > 0:16:42Thank you very much.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45'No aspect of design was beyond him, and the home of
0:16:45 > 0:16:46'Charles and Angela Cottrell-Dormer
0:16:46 > 0:16:49'is testament to his extraordinary range.'
0:16:49 > 0:16:54- Through here, the dining room. - Right.- But if we turn this way...
0:16:57 > 0:17:01- Oh, this is an extraordinary room. - Kentissimo!
0:17:01 > 0:17:03'Every detail of this room,
0:17:03 > 0:17:08'from elaborate marble mantelpieces to ornate gilt picture frames,
0:17:08 > 0:17:12'decorative swans and intricate cornicing,
0:17:12 > 0:17:14'was all designed by Kent.'
0:17:17 > 0:17:20And Kent did this ceiling? Did he paint that?
0:17:20 > 0:17:22Yes, he painted it on canvas,
0:17:22 > 0:17:26and it was trundled down, rolled up on a wagon.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28It is a wonderful decorative design.
0:17:28 > 0:17:33Oh, look at the colour, the blues and reds. Absolutely wonderful.
0:17:33 > 0:17:35- Come on, Monty.- OK.
0:17:38 > 0:17:43- A-ha!- The general's very grand library.
0:17:43 > 0:17:48- Now, that is General Dormer, is it? - Yes.- Who commissioned the garden.
0:17:48 > 0:17:50And what relation is he to you?
0:17:50 > 0:17:52Great-great-great-great...
0:17:52 > 0:17:54Not sure how many greats!
0:17:54 > 0:17:59- So that the line has stayed in the family.- Oh, absolutely, yes.
0:18:00 > 0:18:05I wonder if there are any other examples of rooms looking out
0:18:05 > 0:18:10on to a garden design where the building has been designed,
0:18:10 > 0:18:14the plasterwork, the furniture, all designed by the same man.
0:18:14 > 0:18:19- It is extraordinary.- Did you know, if you come... Oh!
0:18:19 > 0:18:21You can just see it through there.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25The visitors' doorway. That was built by Kent especially
0:18:25 > 0:18:29so that passers-by in the 18th century could visit the gardens.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33A great tradition in this country of places being visited.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37And MacClaray, the head gardener, he got £60 a year in tips,
0:18:37 > 0:18:39- which was a great deal of money. - That's a lot of money. It is.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42And he was a wonderful chap. And she sacked him.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46- Jane Caesar.- Right. Why?
0:18:46 > 0:18:49Because she didn't like him getting the tips.
0:18:49 > 0:18:54- So people have been visiting Rousham from the beginning.- Yes.- Yeah.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57- The gardens, not the house.- Yeah.
0:18:57 > 0:19:02- Are you under any pressure to modernise?- Oh, no!- No?- What for?
0:19:02 > 0:19:06You can't hurt it if you respect its spirit.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09- It tells you what it likes and what it doesn't.- Mm.
0:19:12 > 0:19:17'Rousham brilliantly displays how Kent included the landscape
0:19:17 > 0:19:20'to make an idealised image of the English countryside.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26'Brown was a pupil of Kent's, and as I return to Croome, I can see
0:19:26 > 0:19:29'just how much he was influenced by him.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32'But he took Kent's ideas a step further to create gardens that
0:19:32 > 0:19:36'didn't just use the natural landscape as part of the design
0:19:36 > 0:19:40'but embraced it for as far as the eye could see.'
0:19:40 > 0:19:45Of course, Brown was a genius at manipulating the landscape
0:19:45 > 0:19:48and creating this harmonious whole.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52But his real contribution that was unique
0:19:52 > 0:19:54was the park.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57Until Brown, the park was still really
0:19:57 > 0:20:01the remnants of a medieval deer park, an area that was fenced off
0:20:01 > 0:20:04that deer were kept in that you hunted.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08But Brown took that idea and brought it to the walls of the house.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13Now, Kent had included it, but it was at a distance, it was a view,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16and Brown brings it without halt
0:20:16 > 0:20:20and then filled it with elegant trees
0:20:20 > 0:20:25so that the space became managed and gardened.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29This is a garden as much as anything else.
0:20:29 > 0:20:34But of course, it appears completely relaxed and natural
0:20:34 > 0:20:37and, critically, grand.
0:20:40 > 0:20:44'Of course, Brown knew that as well as being beautiful,
0:20:44 > 0:20:48'the wild-flower meadow also provided valuable hay.
0:20:48 > 0:20:53'But cutting this great sea of grass had to be all done by hand,
0:20:53 > 0:20:57'using a scythe, and this was hard and extremely skilful work.
0:20:57 > 0:20:59'And although I've often used a scythe over the years,
0:20:59 > 0:21:01'I've never really mastered it.
0:21:01 > 0:21:03'So I'm hoping that Martin Kibblewhite, still scything
0:21:03 > 0:21:07'regularly at 87 years old, will be able to share its secrets.'
0:21:09 > 0:21:10It's like a saw.
0:21:10 > 0:21:15You're actually swinging, swinging the blade in an arc.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19- It's actually following the arc. - Right.- You're not actually...
0:21:19 > 0:21:23You take very little. Let's see if I can find a bit to do here.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31You don't take more than two or three inches at a time.
0:21:31 > 0:21:32I love the sound.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34SWISHING
0:21:34 > 0:21:37'The saw action takes less effort, so you can keep going for longer.'
0:21:39 > 0:21:40Where did you learn to scythe?
0:21:40 > 0:21:45Well, I first learnt when I was 14 or 15, big enough to hold a scythe,
0:21:45 > 0:21:49and then, later, in my twenties, an old man who
0:21:49 > 0:21:51was in his seventies in the '50s -
0:21:51 > 0:21:54he must have been a grown man in 1900 -
0:21:54 > 0:21:56he showed me the finer points.
0:21:56 > 0:21:58He must have learnt in the 19th century.
0:21:58 > 0:22:01There are records of mowers here at Croome
0:22:01 > 0:22:07being paid one shilling and tenpence a day for their mowing
0:22:07 > 0:22:11plus 28 pints of small beer.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13- Wow! - MARTIN LAUGHS
0:22:13 > 0:22:1528 pints! So, thirsty work.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18They were probably mowing half-cut most of the day.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20But they were doing long, long hours.
0:22:25 > 0:22:27Keep the heel down.
0:22:27 > 0:22:29That's a lot better.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38'Now, we know from the records here at Croome that this meadow was
0:22:38 > 0:22:45'cut by 28 mowers, so to maintain Brown's landscape took an army
0:22:45 > 0:22:47'of skilled men and women
0:22:47 > 0:22:51'working long hours for days and days.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57'We tend to romanticise the work
0:22:57 > 0:23:00'that was done by the whole landscape movement
0:23:00 > 0:23:03'and the parks that were created.'
0:23:03 > 0:23:05But behind a lot of them lay enclosures.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09Now, enclosures were Acts of Parliament which enabled
0:23:09 > 0:23:13a landowner to take land that had otherwise been common
0:23:13 > 0:23:18and literally enclose it, hedge it off, and use it for themselves.
0:23:18 > 0:23:23And common land had been a really important resource for villagers,
0:23:23 > 0:23:27people who might have just one cow or half a dozen sheep or just
0:23:27 > 0:23:29grow a little bit of corn,
0:23:29 > 0:23:33a really important part of their survival, in many cases.
0:23:34 > 0:23:41So behind these scenes often lies a story of people dispossessed, moved,
0:23:41 > 0:23:45and land that had been used in a certain way for centuries
0:23:45 > 0:23:49suddenly becoming the property of just one individual.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54'Given the great human and financial cost
0:23:54 > 0:23:57'attached to making these 18th-century landscapes, I want
0:23:57 > 0:24:00'to find out more about the Earl of Coventry, who commissioned
0:24:00 > 0:24:02'and funded the garden at Croome.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12'The earl has been described as a proud,
0:24:12 > 0:24:15'argumentative and not altogether attractive figure.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18'Yet he was clearly a great patron and collector.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21'So I've come to the orangery to meet the Coventry family archivist,
0:24:21 > 0:24:24'Jill Tovey, to see what the real man was like.'
0:24:26 > 0:24:31So, what have you got here? Because this is a lot of stuff!
0:24:31 > 0:24:36This is a very, very small part of the Croome archive, which is huge.
0:24:36 > 0:24:38But we've got some plant bills.
0:24:38 > 0:24:4125 white raspberries.
0:24:41 > 0:24:4312 pineapples.
0:24:43 > 0:24:45Cantaloupe melon.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48- This is a huge plant list...- Yeah.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51- ..which would have all been quite rare and interesting.- Indeed.
0:24:51 > 0:24:53How much did he spend on his garden?
0:24:53 > 0:24:57Well, on the garden alone I'm not really sure, but on the whole
0:24:57 > 0:25:01project it's been estimated it's equivalent to 28 million these days.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04- So a lot of money. - And where did the money come from?
0:25:04 > 0:25:06- Where did the money come from? - SHE LAUGHS
0:25:06 > 0:25:08Everyone asks, but it's not apparent.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12But you'd think for such an obsessive collector and recorder of events,
0:25:12 > 0:25:14he would have recorded it.
0:25:14 > 0:25:15But this is the other thing -
0:25:15 > 0:25:19he doesn't keep any of his private letters.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22- But he kept every receipt.- Exactly.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25But there's no clue as to his private life.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31'What little we do know is full of tragedy.'
0:25:31 > 0:25:35He was 28 when he inherited the title, a single man,
0:25:35 > 0:25:38so the first thing he needed was a wife, of course.
0:25:38 > 0:25:43So he chose the most beautiful woman in London, Maria Gunning.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48'The new Lady Coventry was already famous for her extraordinary
0:25:48 > 0:25:52'beauty, which was said to make grown men faint before her.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54'But in keeping with the fashion of the day,
0:25:54 > 0:25:58'she wore a heavy layer of lead- and mercury-based make-up,
0:25:58 > 0:26:02'which caused blood poisoning and began to eat away her skin.'
0:26:04 > 0:26:08It's reported that she would only have the light of a tea kettle
0:26:08 > 0:26:13in her room because she was so devastated by the sight of her face,
0:26:13 > 0:26:18this little woman, who'd been the most beautiful woman in London.
0:26:18 > 0:26:20So sad.
0:26:20 > 0:26:25'Maria died at the age of 29, leaving the earl with four children.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28'But his relationships with them was at best fractious.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32'He disinherited his eldest daughter for her choice of husband.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35'And his son and heir, George, was banished from Croome
0:26:35 > 0:26:37'when he also married against his father's wishes,
0:26:37 > 0:26:39'Coventry even refusing to speak to him
0:26:39 > 0:26:41'when he was blinded in a hunting accident.'
0:26:41 > 0:26:46That says something about this man that we glorify,
0:26:46 > 0:26:49because he did a wonderful thing at Croome,
0:26:49 > 0:26:51but at the same time there was a dark side to him.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54- He was rigid.- Mm.- Cruel.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57Yeah. Yeah, you could say that.
0:26:57 > 0:27:02'It seems that Coventry had a closer bond with his garden designer than
0:27:02 > 0:27:03'his own kith and kin,
0:27:03 > 0:27:08'giving Brown the friendship he was unable to offer his children.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12'And it was his work at Croome that paved the way for Brown's
0:27:12 > 0:27:15'spectacular career and saw him subsequently
0:27:15 > 0:27:20'work on over 170 different projects across the country.
0:27:20 > 0:27:27The success of Croome meant that Brown's fame quickly spread,
0:27:27 > 0:27:31and one of the grandest places that he came to...
0:27:31 > 0:27:34was here, at Chatsworth.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45'Chatsworth in Derbyshire has been the seat of the Devonshire family
0:27:45 > 0:27:49'for six centuries and for nearly all that period at the forefront
0:27:49 > 0:27:55'of style and fashion, displaying wealth, power and grandeur.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59'By 1759, seven years after his work at Croome,
0:27:59 > 0:28:02'it was already one of the great gardens of Britain
0:28:02 > 0:28:06'and the perfect setting for Brown to add his own distinctive stamp.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10'And in true Brownian style, he swept away much of the formality,
0:28:10 > 0:28:14'widened a river and moved an entire village.
0:28:14 > 0:28:18'He did, however, preserve one of the country's finest garden features,
0:28:18 > 0:28:21'created 50 years earlier, at the beginning of the century.'
0:28:23 > 0:28:28The Cascade was part of the extensive formal garden that
0:28:28 > 0:28:30surrounded the house here.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33But when Capability Brown came here
0:28:33 > 0:28:37in the middle of the 18th century, much of it was swept away.
0:28:37 > 0:28:40And if you look beyond the house,
0:28:40 > 0:28:46you can see a typical Brownian landscape, and you have that flow
0:28:46 > 0:28:53from house to park to countryside beyond in one unbroken movement.
0:28:55 > 0:29:00'Like his mentor, William Kent, the key to all Brown's landscape
0:29:00 > 0:29:04'designs is the creation of spectacular views and vistas.
0:29:04 > 0:29:06'And I've met up with the current Duke of Devonshire,
0:29:06 > 0:29:10'who's attempting to restore many of the views that Brown
0:29:10 > 0:29:13'originally intended at Chatsworth.'
0:29:13 > 0:29:16I've come to learn that the house and the garden and the park
0:29:16 > 0:29:20are really one work of art and they're all part of the same thing.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23It's not a house with a garden round it which happens to have a park.
0:29:23 > 0:29:26And actually, the park was getting a bit cluttered up.
0:29:26 > 0:29:29People had planted, understandably, lovely trees,
0:29:29 > 0:29:31because they felt there was an empty space
0:29:31 > 0:29:33and it's a natural thing to do.
0:29:33 > 0:29:37And we decided, the manager and I decided to take it back to the
0:29:37 > 0:29:40middle of the 18th century as best we could.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49'Today, the duke is having an oak tree cut down to reveal
0:29:49 > 0:29:51'a long-lost view.'
0:29:53 > 0:29:56It's a lovely tree in the wrong place. The view is into the house
0:29:56 > 0:30:00and out from the house. It needed to be opened up.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03The house was built purely to show off.
0:30:03 > 0:30:05The owners wanted to be seen to have a great big house.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08They didn't want it surrounded by trees and for nobody to see.
0:30:08 > 0:30:10That's why it's always been open to visitors.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14They welcomed people to come and look at this wonderful thing
0:30:14 > 0:30:16- they created, as you would.- Yes.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19So, you're freeing up the views from the house and to the house.
0:30:19 > 0:30:20Absolutely.
0:30:31 > 0:30:33There you go.
0:30:33 > 0:30:37- Do you see what I mean?- Absolutely. It completely transforms it.- Yes.
0:30:37 > 0:30:40I think this is so important, this landscape,
0:30:40 > 0:30:44and the house and garden being one, land art really.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47- It's dramatic.- It is dramatic. It is dramatic.- Yeah.
0:30:52 > 0:30:57Financed by growing colonial trade and industrial development,
0:30:57 > 0:31:00by the 1760s, any self-respecting landed gentry
0:31:00 > 0:31:02were creating their own landscape garden,
0:31:05 > 0:31:09complete with classically inspired buildings,
0:31:09 > 0:31:11statues and eye-catchers,
0:31:11 > 0:31:14often set miles from the house.
0:31:16 > 0:31:19Perhaps the most extraordinary of these follies
0:31:19 > 0:31:22is at Painshill in Surrey, the brainchild of the painter,
0:31:22 > 0:31:25designer and politician Charles Hamilton.
0:31:27 > 0:31:33He had a grotto built, using hundreds of thousands of crystals,
0:31:33 > 0:31:36including gypsum from the Atlas Mountains.
0:31:41 > 0:31:44Hamilton had been inspired by his own grand tour to Italy where the
0:31:44 > 0:31:49ornate grottos were a key feature of ever renaissance garden.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58But for all its ornate and intricate craftsmanship,
0:31:58 > 0:32:04the grotto was just one element of the 158-acre garden,
0:32:04 > 0:32:06which took over 30 years to construct.
0:32:10 > 0:32:14But in the end, Hamilton was forced to sell his estate.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17One of the many wealthy aristocrats to have bankrupted
0:32:17 > 0:32:21themselves in their endeavour to create landscape art.
0:32:27 > 0:32:31The sheer scale of maintaining these vast gardens
0:32:31 > 0:32:35meant that in time, many were turned back to farmland
0:32:35 > 0:32:38and this is what happened to Brown's garden at Croome Court,
0:32:38 > 0:32:43until the National Trust came to the rescue in 1997.
0:32:43 > 0:32:48And overseeing its restoration is the head gardener, Katherine Alker.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52I guess running a garden like this is a very different matter to
0:32:52 > 0:32:55running a more conventionally formal garden.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58Well, there's probably some similarities
0:32:58 > 0:33:00but also quite a few differences.
0:33:00 > 0:33:04So, this naturalistic style of gardening, you could argue,
0:33:04 > 0:33:06is even harder to attain...
0:33:06 > 0:33:08Why is that?
0:33:08 > 0:33:12Because you're battling against nature constantly.
0:33:12 > 0:33:18Croome was originally called Seggy Mere and it was a marsh.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21And that marsh is constantly trying to return
0:33:21 > 0:33:25and on a day like today, it's probably partly achieving that.
0:33:27 > 0:33:31The Earl of Coventry once described his estate as the most
0:33:31 > 0:33:33hopeless spot in all the land.
0:33:33 > 0:33:36Brown's answer was to create a network of underground
0:33:36 > 0:33:40drainage culverts that channelled water from the sodden ground into a
0:33:40 > 0:33:44mile-and-a-half-long lake he designed to look like a curving river.
0:33:44 > 0:33:48However, this meant massive earthworks,
0:33:48 > 0:33:50all of course dug by hand.
0:33:50 > 0:33:53But Brown did have a clever way of easing the workload.
0:33:53 > 0:33:56So when you're looking down the river from the house,
0:33:56 > 0:33:59the bits that you see are deliberately wide
0:33:59 > 0:34:02and the bits which cross in front of you,
0:34:02 > 0:34:05which are not in the views from the house, are much narrower.
0:34:05 > 0:34:09- So he was obviously thinking of the work...- That's where Brown...
0:34:09 > 0:34:12- He is just this very practical man, isn't he?- Yes.
0:34:12 > 0:34:17So far, I've admired this huge undertaking from the distance
0:34:17 > 0:34:18of history.
0:34:18 > 0:34:22But I want to get inside the practical reality of creating
0:34:22 > 0:34:24an artificial landscape like this.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28So Katherine is taking me to a site where she's planning to plant
0:34:28 > 0:34:30a tree that was in Brown's original plans.
0:34:32 > 0:34:34- It's a nice spot, isn't it? - It's not bad.
0:34:34 > 0:34:36It's not bad.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42How do we know that there were trees up on this rise?
0:34:42 > 0:34:47We've got a watercolour by Burney, 1784.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51He was doing watercolours of Worcestershire for a guide book.
0:34:51 > 0:34:53And this whopper here...
0:34:53 > 0:34:56Yes, using this watercolour and the other documents, we know that there
0:34:56 > 0:35:00was a clump of trees at the top here, located quite near the church.
0:35:00 > 0:35:01Right.
0:35:01 > 0:35:05If this is the site, that's great and we can get at it, that's good,
0:35:05 > 0:35:07now we have to find the tree. Where's the tree?
0:35:07 > 0:35:10OK. Out in the parkland, I think we've got an option.
0:35:10 > 0:35:13- Come on, let's go and have a look.- OK.
0:35:16 > 0:35:19Most of the trees here would have been planted from seed
0:35:19 > 0:35:21or as saplings.
0:35:21 > 0:35:25But Brown was well known for planting mature trees for a spectacular
0:35:25 > 0:35:27instant effect.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36It's a nice little oak, isn't it?
0:35:36 > 0:35:39- Yeah.- It's little until you have to move it!- Yes!
0:35:39 > 0:35:42I think it's quite an exciting challenge.
0:35:42 > 0:35:44- I think that is a challenge. It is a real challenge.- Yeah.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47It's one thing to move it and another to keep it alive,
0:35:47 > 0:35:51so I think that's a big challenge and I cannot believe that Capability
0:35:51 > 0:35:56Brown would have tried things much bigger with the equipment he had.
0:35:56 > 0:35:58No.
0:35:58 > 0:36:01We can't move the tree until autumn when the growth stops
0:36:01 > 0:36:04and it goes into winter dormancy.
0:36:04 > 0:36:06And this gives us a little time to prepare the equipment
0:36:06 > 0:36:09that we'll need.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12So, I'm meeting up with Russell Stringer, whose students at
0:36:12 > 0:36:15the Worcester Design and Technology College are going to build me
0:36:15 > 0:36:17a horse-drawn cart,
0:36:17 > 0:36:21based on images of the equipment that Brown himself would have used.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26This one here, moving really quite a large tree,
0:36:26 > 0:36:30and we can see from the figures and the horses, the size.
0:36:30 > 0:36:35I actually think it's quite fanciful because those roots...
0:36:35 > 0:36:39- If you had that much bare root, the tree would die.- Yeah.
0:36:39 > 0:36:42- I think they've exaggerated that. - Exactly.
0:36:42 > 0:36:44And I think this is much more the type of thing
0:36:44 > 0:36:47- and much more the scale.- Yeah.
0:36:47 > 0:36:51It tips up and is held and there it is being moved.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54It's not a complicated piece of machinery.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57The wheels are going to be the sort of...
0:36:57 > 0:37:00the main problem, but you've got to bear in mind the weight of the tree.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03- Two-inch wheels would take two ton.- Will they?
0:37:03 > 0:37:06- Three-inch wheels, three ton. - Really? That's interesting.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09So that's the sort of thing we need to sort of bear in mind,
0:37:09 > 0:37:13- the size of the wheels to take the tree.- OK.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18For all the manpower and ingenuity involved,
0:37:18 > 0:37:22transforming the landscape at Croome took a generation. Brown never lived
0:37:22 > 0:37:24to see his vision completed.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28He died in a Mayfair street in 1783,
0:37:28 > 0:37:31apparently having just met his old friend the Earl of Coventry.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38By then, the Industrial Revolution was rapidly gaining ground,
0:37:38 > 0:37:41bringing with it new wealth right across Britain,
0:37:41 > 0:37:44which in turn was invariably expressed
0:37:44 > 0:37:47in new grand houses and gardens.
0:37:50 > 0:37:54The Earl of Coventry lived on at Croome well into the 19th century and
0:37:54 > 0:37:59even in his old age, commissioned new sculpture for the house and garden,
0:37:59 > 0:38:03using a technique that had become all the rage in Georgian high society
0:38:03 > 0:38:07and they included these statues, guarding the entrance to the house,
0:38:07 > 0:38:12designed by one of my own ancestors, the architect James Wyatt.
0:38:12 > 0:38:17One of Wyatt's contributions to Croome was this pair of sphinxes
0:38:17 > 0:38:19and they were very fashionable.
0:38:19 > 0:38:24They're made out of Coade stone, which became hugely popular amongst
0:38:24 > 0:38:27landowners at the end of the 18th century.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32And the whole point about Coade stone is it's not stone at all.
0:38:32 > 0:38:36It's clay mixed in with various ingredients to make it
0:38:36 > 0:38:38exceptionally durable.
0:38:38 > 0:38:44So this hasn't been carved, it's been modelled and cast.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47Coade stone added a new dimension
0:38:47 > 0:38:50and sophistication to garden sculpture and architecture
0:38:50 > 0:38:53and left its stamp on a surprising number
0:38:53 > 0:38:55of our finest buildings and landscapes.
0:39:02 > 0:39:06I'm fascinated by this Coade production,
0:39:06 > 0:39:08so I'm off to Wiltshire,
0:39:08 > 0:39:14where the recipe for Coade stone has been rediscovered.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17'The original workshops ceased production in 1837.'
0:39:20 > 0:39:22Hello.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26'And it took years of trial and error for the sculptor Steven Pettifor...'
0:39:26 > 0:39:28- Hello, I'm Steve. - Steve, very nice to meet you.
0:39:28 > 0:39:32'..to uncover the secret of the Coade formula and technique.'
0:39:33 > 0:39:37Is this all repairing stuff that was made in the heyday of Coade?
0:39:37 > 0:39:42No, it's a mixture of some repair work and some new pieces.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45So this is a restoration job here.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47Hannah's making new pieces.
0:39:47 > 0:39:52- And then this is a bracket off a building in London.- Which building?
0:39:52 > 0:39:54Buckingham Palace.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57- Right. Is there a lot of Coade at Buckingham Palace?- A huge amount.
0:39:57 > 0:39:59Ooh... That's written on there...
0:39:59 > 0:40:03That's an original piece of graffiti from the people who made it.
0:40:03 > 0:40:05- It says foolish or...- Foolish Barnet.
0:40:05 > 0:40:08- And Barnet was the bloke who made it?- Presumably.
0:40:08 > 0:40:11- Maybe there were two people working on it, or...- Foolish Barnet.
0:40:11 > 0:40:13How fantastic!
0:40:13 > 0:40:14So that must have been hidden
0:40:14 > 0:40:17from when it was done to when you took it off.
0:40:17 > 0:40:19- Yeah.- First people to see that.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27Coade sculpture was made using moulds, which is
0:40:27 > 0:40:30both much faster than carving a block of stone
0:40:30 > 0:40:33and also meant that the mould could be reused many times.
0:40:34 > 0:40:37However, the main advantage of Coade over carved stone
0:40:37 > 0:40:39lay in the extreme fine detail
0:40:39 > 0:40:44and the quality of craftsmanship that could be applied to the clay.
0:40:44 > 0:40:49If I wanted to order a pair of tigers, what would it cost me?
0:40:49 > 0:40:5016,000 for the pair.
0:40:52 > 0:40:53- 8,000 each.- Mm.
0:40:53 > 0:40:54Wow.
0:40:55 > 0:40:58- This is not a poor man's stone.- No.
0:40:58 > 0:41:03They were held in high regard by the architects of that time.
0:41:03 > 0:41:08Actually, in clay, we can really push the detail and the undercuts
0:41:08 > 0:41:13and be really extravagant with it, whereas in stone, it's harder.
0:41:13 > 0:41:16- So presumably... Take this here... - This keystone.- Yeah.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19That would be really difficult...
0:41:19 > 0:41:22If you look at the detail in here, it would be very tricky in stone,
0:41:22 > 0:41:25- wouldn't it?- Exactly.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28- Yeah. - You wouldn't do that in limestone.
0:41:28 > 0:41:31'Steven explained to me some of the secrets of this extraordinary
0:41:31 > 0:41:34'versatile and durable material.'
0:41:34 > 0:41:41- This is the clay. We have lots of different blends.- OK.- This is...
0:41:41 > 0:41:45Is this a secret, by the way? Do you want to give away the blend?
0:41:45 > 0:41:48I'm not that secretive about it.
0:41:48 > 0:41:52Cos ultimately, it's the sculpting that's difficult.
0:41:52 > 0:41:54Makes it hard to produce.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57So let me have a look at that.
0:41:57 > 0:41:59So I can see the little bits in it, little white bits.
0:41:59 > 0:42:04And what you're looking at there is this, which is called grog.
0:42:04 > 0:42:10'Coade is a mixture of fired- up ceramic grit, powdered glass,
0:42:10 > 0:42:13'sand and ground flint.'
0:42:13 > 0:42:15- But then you treat it like clay.- Yes.
0:42:15 > 0:42:19You model it like clay, you fire it like clay and it goes through,
0:42:19 > 0:42:24but it will weather and last much better than normal terracotta.
0:42:25 > 0:42:27- Yes.- And some stone.
0:42:27 > 0:42:32Oh... Yeah. I mean, last a lot longer than any limestones.
0:42:32 > 0:42:33- Right.- And marble.
0:42:33 > 0:42:37- Really? Longer than marble?- Yeah. - See, to a layperson...- A lot longer.
0:42:37 > 0:42:40- ..that is an incredible fact. - It's incredibly hard material.
0:42:40 > 0:42:44'Producing these finished works is highly skilled, but to get
0:42:44 > 0:42:48'a feel for the process, I'm going to help make a Georgian keystone.'
0:42:50 > 0:42:52So this is... Are these all part of the same mould?
0:42:52 > 0:42:58- Yeah, this completes one mould.- So that's ready to receive...- The clay.
0:42:58 > 0:42:59..the Coade clay.
0:42:59 > 0:43:03- So we just take handfuls and push it in?- Yeah, but we... Yeah, basically.
0:43:03 > 0:43:06- What I would do... - Basically means, politely, no!
0:43:06 > 0:43:08Well, yeah, we need to be careful,
0:43:08 > 0:43:11so I've identified the fact that the nose is quite deep and undercut,
0:43:11 > 0:43:14so you can make sure initially that we get clay into there.
0:43:14 > 0:43:16OK, so that's the first bit.
0:43:16 > 0:43:20Push it in with your thumb. Make sure it gets right into the bottom.
0:43:20 > 0:43:24You can maybe just use two fingers to go into that forehead.
0:43:24 > 0:43:26You've got to get it into the corners.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29They're sometimes quite difficult. You need to make real attention...
0:43:29 > 0:43:32- OK.- ..to that corner.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35Of course, it's absolute joy working clay.
0:43:35 > 0:43:39- You know, it's a lovely material. - You're doing very well, Monty.
0:43:39 > 0:43:41I'd definitely give you a job!
0:43:43 > 0:43:47'The success of Coade is remarkable for the fact that in an age
0:43:47 > 0:43:49'dominated by men, it was the brainchild of a woman,
0:43:49 > 0:43:53'Eleanor Coade, who was a brilliant businesswoman
0:43:53 > 0:43:55'and quickly made her company a household name.'
0:44:03 > 0:44:04Right.
0:44:04 > 0:44:07Well, we'll wait and then hopefully, I'll be able to take it to bits.
0:44:07 > 0:44:09Yeah.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19Mrs Coade was obviously a business genius,
0:44:19 > 0:44:24but she was lucky because by 1770, there was a lot of new money
0:44:24 > 0:44:27and this money was generated by industry.
0:44:27 > 0:44:32Until about 1750, most of the money being spent on houses and gardens was
0:44:32 > 0:44:37essentially old landed gentry, but by the end of the 18th century,
0:44:37 > 0:44:42all this new wealth developed from the Industrial Revolution
0:44:42 > 0:44:45expressed itself in new houses,
0:44:45 > 0:44:48new gardens, new ornaments,
0:44:48 > 0:44:51and Coade supplied it superbly
0:44:51 > 0:44:55because it was a little bit cheaper, a little bit more accessible,
0:44:55 > 0:45:00and could be produced at home in a very efficient manner.
0:45:00 > 0:45:03So she got everything right
0:45:03 > 0:45:06and the thing that was most right of all was her timing.
0:45:19 > 0:45:21- It's time.- Yeah.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24- Can I just pull it out? - Yeah, take one half off and then...
0:45:24 > 0:45:28- I won't damage it? - You might drag a bit, but no.
0:45:28 > 0:45:29OK.
0:45:32 > 0:45:36'In its heyday, Coade's work could be found in almost all the stately homes
0:45:36 > 0:45:42'and gardens of Georgian Britain, but its success was short-lived.'
0:45:42 > 0:45:44There's an eye looking at me.
0:45:44 > 0:45:49'Eleanor Coade died in 1821, leaving no natural successor, and poor
0:45:49 > 0:45:54'management and changing fashions led to the company's swift demise.
0:45:54 > 0:45:57'However, there is still no better material
0:45:57 > 0:46:01'for producing high-quality durable outdoor sculpture.'
0:46:01 > 0:46:03Right.
0:46:03 > 0:46:05We're now faced with tidying this up
0:46:05 > 0:46:08and adding all the detail, generally.
0:46:08 > 0:46:11Because ultimately, what we're trying to get to is this.
0:46:14 > 0:46:16- That is much more detailed...- Mm.
0:46:16 > 0:46:19..almost every aspect of it, than that.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22Mm. The reason people really like Coade and why it's
0:46:22 > 0:46:24so revered is it is this stage now,
0:46:24 > 0:46:28the addition of all this detail will really lift it and bring it to life.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31And that's what Coade was so good at.
0:46:31 > 0:46:35Great. Well, that's beyond my skill any more. I can't work on that.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47Just as Coade profited from the building boom of the late 1700s,
0:46:47 > 0:46:50the next generation of designers tailored the English landscape
0:46:50 > 0:46:54garden to the broader tastes of the industrialists
0:46:54 > 0:46:58and the businessmen who were pouring their new money into country estates.
0:47:03 > 0:47:05By the end of the 18th century,
0:47:05 > 0:47:09the whole landscape movement was evolving and changing and from these
0:47:09 > 0:47:13changes, one dominant figure emerged
0:47:13 > 0:47:18and his name was Humphry Repton.
0:47:20 > 0:47:23'Repton had tried his hand at many ventures before he spotted
0:47:23 > 0:47:27'a gap in the landscape industry and adroitly filled it.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31'So I've come to Powys in Wales to visit one of the surviving
0:47:31 > 0:47:34'examples of his work, the privately owned Stanage Park.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37'And although Repton didn't have the sublime
0:47:37 > 0:47:39'artistry of William Kent or the
0:47:39 > 0:47:41'innate practicality of Capability Brown,
0:47:41 > 0:47:46'his great talent was recognising the demands of a new clientele
0:47:46 > 0:47:49'and brilliantly marketing his designs to them.'
0:47:49 > 0:47:53- Hello. Good morning, Monty. How are you?- I'm very well.
0:47:53 > 0:47:56'Jonathan Coltman-Rogers' ancestor, Charles Rogers,
0:47:56 > 0:48:00'was among the hundreds of wealthy aristocrats who commissioned
0:48:00 > 0:48:04'Repton and each was presented with what became his famous trademark,
0:48:04 > 0:48:06'a red book.'
0:48:06 > 0:48:09There it is, in pride of place.
0:48:09 > 0:48:11Bright red.
0:48:11 > 0:48:14It's brilliantly written, considering he was supposed
0:48:14 > 0:48:17to have written these in a carriage on the way home.
0:48:17 > 0:48:19Beautiful.
0:48:19 > 0:48:22'It's very rare to find one of these books still in the house
0:48:22 > 0:48:25'and garden that Repton designed.'
0:48:29 > 0:48:33Humphry Repton, and there's a picture of him here,
0:48:33 > 0:48:36was a self-made landscape designer,
0:48:36 > 0:48:38which was a term he coined.
0:48:38 > 0:48:42He had tried and not done very well in trade and in his 30s, applied
0:48:42 > 0:48:47himself to the study of plants and of design and set up in business.
0:48:47 > 0:48:53And quite systematically marketed his services.
0:48:53 > 0:48:57Unlike Brown, who would oversee the creation of almost every
0:48:57 > 0:48:58aspect of his designs,
0:48:58 > 0:49:03Repton simply offered his clients clear instructions and plans in their
0:49:03 > 0:49:07red book and then they could execute them when and how they pleased.
0:49:07 > 0:49:12He also devised a clever trick to show what his plans would look like.
0:49:12 > 0:49:16He did these pretty little drawings of the site as it was,
0:49:16 > 0:49:19but you lift up a flap
0:49:19 > 0:49:22and that is what he is proposing,
0:49:22 > 0:49:26so immediately you could see the change.
0:49:26 > 0:49:32And here, the house, across, lift that up,
0:49:32 > 0:49:34and there's a lake and the new house.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38And the cattle and the deer grazing.
0:49:38 > 0:49:42The other aspect of these red books, which was new and fascinating,
0:49:42 > 0:49:47was that it was geared as much to the women of the household as to the men.
0:49:47 > 0:49:49The men would still be paying for it,
0:49:49 > 0:49:52but the women would play a very important part of it,
0:49:52 > 0:49:56so there's an awful lot of reference to domesticity, to flowers,
0:49:56 > 0:49:59to convenience. The watercolours are pretty.
0:49:59 > 0:50:02And the changes are delightful.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05And that's a much more feminine approach.
0:50:05 > 0:50:10And what I love is the three following principles - economy,
0:50:10 > 0:50:14convenience, and a certain degree of magnificence.
0:50:15 > 0:50:19He is perfectly pitching it absolutely right.
0:50:19 > 0:50:21Everybody wants to save money.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24Increasingly, people wanted to be able to live with a degree of
0:50:24 > 0:50:29comfort, but everybody always wants a certain degree of magnificence.
0:50:31 > 0:50:36Repton's success lay in his ability to appeal to a growing landed gentry
0:50:36 > 0:50:40who, by the late 18th century, wanted a little less of the landscape
0:50:40 > 0:50:42and a little more of the garden.
0:50:46 > 0:50:49Capability Brown had parkland
0:50:49 > 0:50:52coming right up to the house,
0:50:52 > 0:50:56almost like a sea lapping at the door.
0:50:56 > 0:50:59What Repton did was hold the park at bay
0:50:59 > 0:51:03and established a kind of base relating to the house,
0:51:03 > 0:51:08so the house sat on a level area of gardens with straight lines,
0:51:08 > 0:51:12lawns, paths, and then the park would be approached
0:51:12 > 0:51:17and you can see here that the wall is visible. It's not a ha-ha.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20There are markers, there's mown grass,
0:51:20 > 0:51:25there's a real delineation between garden and park.
0:51:25 > 0:51:26Repton was the last
0:51:26 > 0:51:30of the great landscape designers of the 18th century.
0:51:30 > 0:51:33It was an age that had witnessed garden building on a scale
0:51:33 > 0:51:36that exceeded anything before it in this country
0:51:36 > 0:51:38and has never been equalled since.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41But before I leave this century,
0:51:41 > 0:51:44I'm returning to Croome Court for one last visit.
0:51:44 > 0:51:48It's now autumn and helped by a small team,
0:51:48 > 0:51:50we're attempting to replant an oak tree to complete
0:51:50 > 0:51:55Capability Brown's original designs, using only the methods
0:51:55 > 0:51:58and technology that were available to him in the 1750s.
0:52:05 > 0:52:07Gently, dear. Gently.
0:52:07 > 0:52:09Gently, gently.
0:52:09 > 0:52:13- Steady.- 'Randy Hiscock is supplying the horsepower.'
0:52:13 > 0:52:18- Wonderful. What are their names? - This is Minnesota and Anastasia.
0:52:18 > 0:52:23- And this is fantastic!- Yeah.
0:52:23 > 0:52:25Specifically built for the purpose.
0:52:25 > 0:52:28And these wheels are really substantial,
0:52:28 > 0:52:31but I guess it is quite a weight it's got to take.
0:52:31 > 0:52:34- Will they be up to it, do you think? - Well, hopefully they'll do the job.
0:52:34 > 0:52:36- Well, we'll find out. - Or I'm in trouble.
0:52:36 > 0:52:38- We'll find out!- OK, dears. Walk on, dear.
0:52:38 > 0:52:40Walk on. Good girl.
0:52:40 > 0:52:41Walk on.
0:52:41 > 0:52:44Walk on, dear. Gently. Gently. Steady.
0:52:44 > 0:52:48Before the horses can be put to work, we need to dig out the tree,
0:52:48 > 0:52:52whilst preserving as much of the root balls we can.
0:52:52 > 0:52:54But the soil is heavy and compacted
0:52:54 > 0:52:57and it's proving to be a really difficult job.
0:53:00 > 0:53:04You can see we're using pickaxes, there's lots of people, the roots
0:53:04 > 0:53:09have been slashed and broken and now, left like this, it would die,
0:53:09 > 0:53:11without any question.
0:53:11 > 0:53:16So speed and minimum damage is really what we're after.
0:53:19 > 0:53:23'Before removing any more soil and damaging the roots further, we decide
0:53:23 > 0:53:28'to try and use the cart as a lever to prise the tree from the ground.'
0:53:28 > 0:53:31Very nice. Beautiful job. OK, start lowering it.
0:53:31 > 0:53:33Hold the rope.
0:53:33 > 0:53:34That's it.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37Someone else go on the rope. Pull it back a bit.
0:53:37 > 0:53:41- Get your wheel back that side a bit. - That's it. Now push, push, push.
0:53:41 > 0:53:42OK, let's go.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52'Using the horses at this stage would be too risky because
0:53:52 > 0:53:56'if the tree suddenly comes away, it could scare them and make them bolt.
0:53:56 > 0:54:00- 'So we have to resort to manpower.' - The moment of truth.
0:54:00 > 0:54:05- That shouldn't go anywhere really, should it?- Let's give it a go.
0:54:05 > 0:54:06One, two, go!
0:54:10 > 0:54:12CREAKING AND SNAP
0:54:12 > 0:54:14Oh!
0:54:19 > 0:54:22LAUGHTER
0:54:22 > 0:54:26That's exactly why we would not do it with the horses cos that's
0:54:26 > 0:54:29what happens. Something like that might happen.
0:54:33 > 0:54:35Right.
0:54:35 > 0:54:39The bottom's pulling the top. The bottom's going in.
0:54:39 > 0:54:44What's happened here is that you can see a branch has gone through
0:54:44 > 0:54:47there, you've got a fault and it's split.
0:54:48 > 0:54:52At that point. And in fact, it's split right the way down,
0:54:52 > 0:54:55back down to another big knot there.
0:54:55 > 0:54:59So this is a useless piece of wood and that actually illustrates a point
0:54:59 > 0:55:02because what they would have done is they would have known,
0:55:02 > 0:55:04they would have valued the importance,
0:55:04 > 0:55:08so they would have chosen a really fine bit of wood. However...
0:55:08 > 0:55:10We learn.
0:55:10 > 0:55:13'We really need to get this tree out of the ground before the roots
0:55:13 > 0:55:17'dry out completely, so having lashed the shaft together,
0:55:17 > 0:55:21'we're giving it one last try with just rope and brute force.'
0:55:24 > 0:55:26There is movement.
0:55:26 > 0:55:27- Yes!- Now he's coming!
0:55:27 > 0:55:29- Yes!- Yay!
0:55:32 > 0:55:34There we are.
0:55:34 > 0:55:37To be honest, I genuinely thought we were going to have to give up
0:55:37 > 0:55:39and put a vehicle on it.
0:55:40 > 0:55:44OK, so if we now get it back upright, get the machine on,
0:55:44 > 0:55:46strap it on and pull it out.
0:55:48 > 0:55:50Let's have some manpower.
0:55:50 > 0:55:52This way, this way, this way.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57'Obviously, the roots exposed like this is not good.
0:55:57 > 0:56:02'I mean, this goes against all good advice, but on the other hand,
0:56:02 > 0:56:08'moving a tree like this is sort of emergency treatment.
0:56:08 > 0:56:12'Now, all these problems, you can only learn how to do it by doing it.
0:56:12 > 0:56:14'And by doing it badly.
0:56:14 > 0:56:16'And my guess is that to learn how to do this,
0:56:16 > 0:56:19'they probably failed on 10, 15 trees'
0:56:19 > 0:56:21before they really got the knack.
0:56:21 > 0:56:25And we're just having to make it up as we go along.
0:56:28 > 0:56:31Gently. Come on, dear. Walk on. Good girl. Walk on.
0:56:31 > 0:56:33Steady there. Gently.
0:56:33 > 0:56:35Good girl. Walk on.
0:56:38 > 0:56:43If nothing else, today has increased my respect for the amount
0:56:43 > 0:56:47of work in making these landscapes. This is a modest tree.
0:56:47 > 0:56:50Moving it has taken about a dozen of us all day,
0:56:50 > 0:56:53with lots of trials and tribulations.
0:56:53 > 0:56:57And the chances of success are fairly slim.
0:56:57 > 0:57:02Yet, this was a tiny aspect of making these landscapes.
0:57:03 > 0:57:09Lakes were dug, rivers dammed and moved, land was reshaped
0:57:09 > 0:57:13and formed and the fact they dotted around a few mature trees
0:57:13 > 0:57:15really didn't amount to much
0:57:15 > 0:57:18when you'd had to do all that massive amount of work.
0:57:21 > 0:57:25It really does go beyond anything that we experience today,
0:57:25 > 0:57:28let alone without any machinery.
0:57:31 > 0:57:33A little bit more.
0:57:33 > 0:57:35Very good.
0:57:47 > 0:57:49There.
0:57:49 > 0:57:50Done.
0:57:55 > 0:57:59The landscape movement was based upon
0:57:59 > 0:58:03the fashion for an idealised countryside,
0:58:03 > 0:58:06but by the end of the 18th century,
0:58:06 > 0:58:10it was going out of fashion because the world had changed.
0:58:10 > 0:58:14Big new technological developments, big new cities,
0:58:14 > 0:58:20new ideas demanded new styles of gardening.
0:58:20 > 0:58:22But that is another story.