0:00:05 > 0:00:09Four iconic English gardens.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11Each is the product of one moment in history
0:00:11 > 0:00:14and each gives us a fascinating window into the century
0:00:14 > 0:00:18in which they were made and the people who created them.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24Much more than just a history of gardening, these are extraordinary
0:00:24 > 0:00:29tales of escape, social ambition, heartbreak,
0:00:29 > 0:00:31downfall and disaster.
0:00:32 > 0:00:36In unravelling these remarkable stories, we reach back over
0:00:36 > 0:00:40the centuries to see these four great gardens through fresh eyes
0:00:40 > 0:00:44and gain a greater understanding of their real significance.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01Looming over the village of Buckingham in the Southwest
0:01:01 > 0:01:03of England is one of the grandest
0:01:03 > 0:01:07and most dramatic gardens in this country, Stowe.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13Created in the 18th century at a time when England was emerging
0:01:13 > 0:01:18as a superpower, it's so vast that it can feel like a small country.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23Stowe for me has always been a sense of scale.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32This is Capability Brown's Grecian Valley and it's remarkable to
0:01:32 > 0:01:39think that there was 24,000 tonnes of topsoil removed from this valley.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44250 acres of majestic parkland
0:01:44 > 0:01:48envelop an extraordinary succession of neoclassical buildings,
0:01:48 > 0:01:51avenues, lakes and rivers.
0:01:56 > 0:02:02Stowe isn't a garden of flowers or shrubs - it's a garden of ideas.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06Shaped by the political ideals of a man called Richard Temple
0:02:06 > 0:02:10or Viscount Cobham, it fostered a rebellion that overthrew
0:02:10 > 0:02:13the first Prime Minister of England.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16What I love about Stowe is that it's a garden where politics
0:02:16 > 0:02:20and gardening are deeply interwoven.
0:02:20 > 0:02:26This is a canvas on which Cobham painted his political manifesto.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29So every bit here means something.
0:02:29 > 0:02:31We've just forgotten how to read it.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38But Stowe isn't just a bold political statement, it's
0:02:38 > 0:02:42the garden where nature was freed from the stranglehold of history.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47This is a really significant turning point, it is
0:02:47 > 0:02:52the catalyst for the most important change in British landscape design.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57Stowe is the starting point of what we know today as the English
0:02:57 > 0:02:58landscape school.
0:03:00 > 0:03:05Stowe was created almost 300 years ago by an extraordinary man.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09Richard Temple had a driving ambition to climb to the
0:03:09 > 0:03:13pinnacle of political power and create an immortal dynasty.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18But less than a century after his death, his family had
0:03:18 > 0:03:22fallen from the heights of aristocratic pomp to become
0:03:22 > 0:03:25the most scandalous bankrupts in the history of England.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31Cobham's great dream ended in ruin but the scale of his ambition is
0:03:31 > 0:03:34still written into the landscape today.
0:03:37 > 0:03:39Alan Power, head gardener at Stourhead
0:03:39 > 0:03:43and an expert on trees is trying to get a sense what it would
0:03:43 > 0:03:47have been like to approach this extraordinary garden in the 18th century.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50We're right on the edge of the village of Buckingham here
0:03:50 > 0:03:55but we're also right on the edge of the landscape garden at Stowe.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59And you can tell by the ornate nature of the gate lodges here
0:03:59 > 0:04:04and the enormity of that avenue that goes off into the distance that
0:04:04 > 0:04:07you're also on the edge of something really, really significant.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11Those privileged to visit Stowe wouldn't have walked down this
0:04:11 > 0:04:14avenue - they would have ridden it in carriages.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18Alan is using something more contemporary.
0:04:23 > 0:04:25There's one sure way to make an impression
0:04:25 > 0:04:30and that is to plant an avenue of trees, this size, this scale
0:04:30 > 0:04:32and invite you to come along it.
0:04:34 > 0:04:38Originally, it was planted with elms to give a sense of height.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41The trees are marshalling your way onto the property.
0:04:41 > 0:04:43You know, you can't wander off-piste, can you?
0:04:45 > 0:04:49The avenue focuses your eyes straight on the arch
0:04:49 > 0:04:50in the distance.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54You can see that the columns on the portico of the main house
0:04:54 > 0:04:55are beyond.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57So you're still not there yet.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02By keeping it so formal, it's really, really impressive,
0:05:02 > 0:05:04you know and quite intimidating at times.
0:05:15 > 0:05:19Today the garden at Stowe is run by the National Trust
0:05:19 > 0:05:22and the house where Viscount Cobham spent his childhood is now
0:05:22 > 0:05:24an elite public school.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44Cobham grew up here during a dramatic
0:05:44 > 0:05:47and revolutionary period in English history.
0:05:48 > 0:05:51Born just 24 years after the Civil War, he was
0:05:51 > 0:05:55just 12 at the time of the glorious revolution when the Catholic King
0:05:55 > 0:06:00James II was overthrown and replaced by the Protestant William of Orange.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06His family were staunch Parliamentarians who
0:06:06 > 0:06:10made their money in sheep farming and bought a title.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14By the time Richard was born, they were heavily in debt.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17So at just nine years old, he was sent into the Army.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24Strong-willed even as a child, at the age of ten Richard was
0:06:24 > 0:06:26court martialled for refusing to obey orders.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32Forced out of the Army, he was sent to Eton and then Cambridge
0:06:32 > 0:06:35but impatient to make his fortune, he abandoned his studies to
0:06:35 > 0:06:36rejoin the army.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43By the age of 20, Richard had gone abroad to Europe to
0:06:43 > 0:06:44fight the French.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48His victories on the battlefield earned him a reputation as a bold
0:06:48 > 0:06:52and brilliant soldier but left him with a lifelong enmity for France.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59By the time he inherited Stowe, a country house
0:06:59 > 0:07:02and formal garden, he was financially secure
0:07:02 > 0:07:06and established as one of the leading military men in the country.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11Historian Richard Wheeler, has spent his life studying Cobham
0:07:11 > 0:07:12and his garden.
0:07:15 > 0:07:17He's hugely ambitious in every respect.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21He's ambitious in the army and works his way up through the ranks
0:07:21 > 0:07:22and ends up as Field Marshall.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26He's ambitious socially and he's ambitious politically but in a
0:07:26 > 0:07:31very different way because he's the theorist of the Whig party and he's
0:07:31 > 0:07:37the one who sets the tone for Whig ideology for the next hundred years.
0:07:37 > 0:07:43So what he's doing here at Stowe is actually setting out a personal
0:07:43 > 0:07:47and political morality for young people to follow.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50So it's really influential stuff.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53Cobham's revolution began conventionally enough with
0:07:53 > 0:07:57a desire to create a garden that would enhance his house,
0:07:57 > 0:08:01impress his peers and raise his social status.
0:08:02 > 0:08:06Reflecting the fashion of the time, he began by creating
0:08:06 > 0:08:08a formal parterre.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12But over the next 50 years, a series of extraordinary
0:08:12 > 0:08:16circumstances would lead Cobham to ever more ambitious and radical
0:08:16 > 0:08:19developments that would transform his garden beyond recognition.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25Alan Power has come to try to get a bird's-eye view of Cobham's
0:08:25 > 0:08:28great creation and the huge footprint
0:08:28 > 0:08:32he left on the landscape from one of the oldest residents in the garden.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42Trees are the quietest but probably the most important
0:08:42 > 0:08:44element in a landscape garden like Stowe.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49You can look at it in simple terms about quite how majestic
0:08:49 > 0:08:51trees like this cedar get.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54They also, in a strange kind of way, help you orientate yourself
0:08:54 > 0:08:57because this cedar you can see from all over the landscape.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25It feels as if the tree starts welcoming you as you come up
0:09:25 > 0:09:27it into the canopy.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34Before that, it just feels like an awfully long way up.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54What I'm seeing at the moment is a whole new Stowe landscape garden.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59It is light coming up and opening the stage curtains
0:09:59 > 0:10:03on a fantastic performance, you know, because that's what it is.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05I can see the house and the axis
0:10:05 > 0:10:08and the view to the arch in the distance associated with
0:10:08 > 0:10:12the view to the Temple of the Worthies behind and suddenly there's
0:10:12 > 0:10:15two or three different elements to the landscape coming together.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18Seeing the trees in the distance, they actually look like shrubs.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21So when we're gardening nowadays, we're using shrubs to create
0:10:21 > 0:10:25the same effect that they were using full scale trees.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28Now that really is gardening on a very, very grand scale.
0:10:31 > 0:10:37Viscount Cobham, as he became known, spent a lifetime and a vast fortune
0:10:37 > 0:10:41creating one of the most radical and ambitious gardens in history.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47Cobham had a real eye for talent and he chose the brightest
0:10:47 > 0:10:50and most brilliant designers and architects in the history
0:10:50 > 0:10:55of landscape design, from Charles Bridgeman, who freed the garden
0:10:55 > 0:10:59from the tyranny of geometry and made the Serpentine famous,
0:10:59 > 0:11:01to William Kent, who leapt the fence
0:11:01 > 0:11:05and saw all nature as a garden, drawing inspiration from literature
0:11:05 > 0:11:10and the classical world to transform Stowe into an act of rebellion.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16And finally, a young gardener called Lancelot Brown who
0:11:16 > 0:11:19earned his nickname by seeing the capability of a landscape.
0:11:21 > 0:11:26Brown completed Cobham's great work before transforming
0:11:26 > 0:11:29the English landscape with ideas pioneered at Stowe.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33To understand the story of Stowe is to understand how
0:11:33 > 0:11:38one of England's greatest creations, the landscape garden, was born.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43One of the really nice things being up here is
0:11:43 > 0:11:45you start seeing garden designers
0:11:45 > 0:11:48and gardeners in the history of Stowe, almost meeting each other at
0:11:48 > 0:11:52this point and you've got different influences coming together.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55There's elements of Charles Bridgeman's formality,
0:11:55 > 0:11:57one of the great gardeners that worked at Stowe,
0:11:57 > 0:12:01laid out before us and over my other shoulder, William Kent,
0:12:01 > 0:12:04another great gardener from the eighteenth century who
0:12:04 > 0:12:06worked at Stowe, performing to my right-hand side.
0:12:07 > 0:12:11Being up here seeing the different elements, the Kent,
0:12:11 > 0:12:13the Bridgeman, the formal, the less formal.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17The distinction was being blurred between parklands and gardens
0:12:17 > 0:12:21and then it was really Brown that further naturalised the landscape.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24Kind of - they referred to it as "calling in the countryside",
0:12:24 > 0:12:27so you welcomed the countryside into the landscape garden.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34But what we see today is very different from Cobham's
0:12:34 > 0:12:38original vision for Stowe, which was surprisingly conventional.
0:12:39 > 0:12:43To try and discover how this rich and multi-layered garden began,
0:12:43 > 0:12:45designer and writer, Chris Beardshaw has come to
0:12:45 > 0:12:49look at the original designs of Charles Bridgeman.
0:12:52 > 0:12:58Bridgeman's plan from 1739, which is very traditional,
0:12:58 > 0:13:02indicates this massive imposition striking through the landscape.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05I mean, you could be looking at Versailles here.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08It is a highly classically inspired,
0:13:08 > 0:13:13great straight-line axes showing dominance and control
0:13:13 > 0:13:15and that's typical of the classical period.
0:13:15 > 0:13:22When we look at Bridgeman's drawings here, it looks like a hilltop fort.
0:13:22 > 0:13:27It's a very prominent shape, and clearly a defence.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29The landscape isn't sweeping in,
0:13:29 > 0:13:32nature isn't allowed to sweep in, it's still kept at bay.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36There's very careful use of hedges, and planting, and parterres,
0:13:36 > 0:13:41and the garden exists within this rather secure space.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44And when we come outside of the house, well, we're straight down
0:13:44 > 0:13:46onto a parterre with formal watercourse,
0:13:46 > 0:13:48flanked by gardens on either side.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52We go down a double line of trees with a paved access path,
0:13:52 > 0:13:55and then an octagonal lake at the base.
0:13:55 > 0:14:00So it's very composed, very geometric, and very orchestrated.
0:14:01 > 0:14:07If you came back here in 1713, you'd have seen parterre lawns,
0:14:07 > 0:14:11you'd have seen an avenue of poplar trees
0:14:11 > 0:14:16leading down to the octagonal lake - we call it the Octagon.
0:14:16 > 0:14:21In the middle of the Octagon Lake there would have been a juglio,
0:14:21 > 0:14:22a fountain.
0:14:22 > 0:14:27So, in front of you, you've got what we call a palimpsest.
0:14:27 > 0:14:33So, layer, upon layer of history evolving over time.
0:14:33 > 0:14:37It's difficult to imagine just how formal and geometric gardens
0:14:37 > 0:14:40were at the beginning of the 18th century but Bridgeman's designs
0:14:40 > 0:14:44for Stowe very much reflect the sensibilities of the time.
0:14:48 > 0:14:52The outside world and nature itself was seen as chaotic
0:14:52 > 0:14:55and threatening so gardens were enclosed,
0:14:55 > 0:14:59almost fortified spaces where nature was rigidly controlled by man.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05Historian and writer Andrea Wulf has come to another 17th century
0:15:05 > 0:15:10house and garden that has survived in its original state.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14This is Ham House in Richmond and its parterre garden is a vivid
0:15:14 > 0:15:18illustration of how the original gardens at Stowe would have looked.
0:15:34 > 0:15:39What you see is a garden that is entirely ruled by straight lines.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42It's a rigid design, it's clipped shapes,
0:15:42 > 0:15:44nothing is allowed to grow out of line.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51Even the trees, they're pleached so the branches grow together
0:15:51 > 0:15:54and they really create a green wall.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57What we have to bear in mind is that this is a time when Newton,
0:15:57 > 0:16:02for example, has just explained nature through mathematics.
0:16:02 > 0:16:07So the universe is this divine clockwork, this very complex
0:16:07 > 0:16:10clockwork, which was designed by the divine architect.
0:16:10 > 0:16:14So this is about comprehending nature through reason
0:16:14 > 0:16:16and this is expressed in the garden.
0:16:18 > 0:16:21Though this formal style of garden had dominated England
0:16:21 > 0:16:26for centuries, it had come from the country of Cobham's greatest foe.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29In the early part of the 18th century, England was battling
0:16:29 > 0:16:32France's supremacy in Europe, Asia and America.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38The model of this garden really comes from France
0:16:38 > 0:16:44and the supermodel of that garden is Versailles, which is the castle
0:16:44 > 0:16:48and the garden of the Sun King, Louis the XIV, the absolute ruler.
0:16:49 > 0:16:55He was an arch enemy to the English and he was Catholic.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58Though Cobham had begun by following the popular fashion,
0:16:58 > 0:17:02he never forgot his battles against the French.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06Dissatisfied with his earlier plans for the garden, Cobham began
0:17:06 > 0:17:08to search for something different.
0:17:09 > 0:17:14Gardeners like Cobham were desperately trying to find a design
0:17:14 > 0:17:18for an English garden that was truly English, and not associated
0:17:18 > 0:17:22with absolutism and not associated with the Catholic Louis XIV.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27To break free from French influence, Cobham decided to
0:17:27 > 0:17:31make his garden a crucible for new ideas.
0:17:31 > 0:17:35He looked for inspiration from the most brilliant Whig thinkers,
0:17:35 > 0:17:37writers and architects of the day.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42A select group of these met regularly at the Kit-Cat Club
0:17:42 > 0:17:45where Cobham rubbed shoulders with the playwright
0:17:45 > 0:17:49and architect Vanbrugh who designed many of Stowe's neoclassical
0:17:49 > 0:17:53buildings and the politician and writer Joseph Addison.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56Addison wrote a damning critique of English gardens
0:17:56 > 0:17:59arguing that the only way to break free from the influence
0:17:59 > 0:18:01of France was to look to the East.
0:18:05 > 0:18:10This oriental garden at Tatton Park in Cheshire is a late example
0:18:10 > 0:18:15of what emerged from increasing contact between East and West.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18Some of the first descriptions of Eastern gardens
0:18:18 > 0:18:21came from European missionaries in China who wrote home
0:18:21 > 0:18:25describing gardens utterly different from anything in the West.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31A Jesuit priest called Jean Denis Attiret who served as a
0:18:31 > 0:18:34court painter to the Chinese Emperor wrote about his first
0:18:34 > 0:18:36impressions of the royal gardens.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41"One comes out of a valley, not by a straight wide alley
0:18:41 > 0:18:46"as in Europe, but by zigzags, by roundabout paths,
0:18:46 > 0:18:50"each one ornamented with small pavilions and grottos, and when you
0:18:50 > 0:18:55"exit one valley, you find yourself in another, different from the
0:18:55 > 0:18:59"first in the form of the landscape or the style of the buildings.
0:18:59 > 0:19:04"Sometimes a canal is wide, sometimes narrow.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07"Here they twist, there they curve,
0:19:07 > 0:19:11"as if they were really created by the hills and rocks.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15"These paths also twist and turn,
0:19:15 > 0:19:19"sometimes coming close to the canals, sometimes far away."
0:19:22 > 0:19:26Inspired by these revolutionary ideas from the East, Cobham
0:19:26 > 0:19:29took the first step to break free from centuries of formality.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34At Stowe, Chris Beardshaw has found the seed of what would become
0:19:34 > 0:19:38a radical transformation, hidden among Charles Bridgeman's plans.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41So, the most exciting element,
0:19:41 > 0:19:45the most exciting single ingredient in this drawing is this
0:19:45 > 0:19:49watercourse in here and the way that it joins the Octagon at that
0:19:49 > 0:19:52point and this watercourse sweeping in from this side.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55It's this that started to get the chattering classes really
0:19:55 > 0:19:58excited - you start to see nature coming in.
0:19:58 > 0:20:03This is the hybrid, really, between high formality, classically inspired
0:20:03 > 0:20:08landscape, and the informality of the naturalistic approach.
0:20:52 > 0:20:56You know, it's hard to overstate the importance of this particular view.
0:20:56 > 0:21:02It's...to the untrained eye, and by today's measure, it is simply
0:21:02 > 0:21:07a sinuous watercourse, drifting off into a naturalistic landscape.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10But this is a really significant turning point - it is
0:21:10 > 0:21:16the catalyst for the most important change in British landscape design.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19It's about reintroducing nature into the garden.
0:21:19 > 0:21:24Suddenly through a formal landscape meanders a soft watercourse.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27Nature flows in and embraces the water, and what
0:21:27 > 0:21:33we have is a relaxation of our obsession with control of nature.
0:21:33 > 0:21:35It becomes a feature,
0:21:35 > 0:21:39which every gentleman of the period had to have - the Serpentine.
0:21:39 > 0:21:44This is the starting point of what we know today as the English
0:21:44 > 0:21:46landscape school.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55Thanks to his work at Stowe Charles Bridgeman's profile grew,
0:21:55 > 0:21:58bringing him to the attention of Queen Caroline
0:21:58 > 0:22:00who appointed him Royal Gardener.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04When she instructed him to redesign Hyde Park,
0:22:04 > 0:22:08Bridgeman drew inspiration from Stowe to create
0:22:08 > 0:22:11one of the most famous man-made lakes in the world.
0:22:16 > 0:22:17Called the Serpentine
0:22:17 > 0:22:21because of its curving shape, it quickly became one of the most
0:22:21 > 0:22:27fashionable and imitated features in aristocratic gardens.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31Though Bridgeman was working on a much bigger scale in Hyde Park,
0:22:31 > 0:22:33it all began at Stowe.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43Just look at that curve, it's that sinuous nature
0:22:43 > 0:22:45and it sweeps round and then flows out.
0:22:48 > 0:22:49It all starts here.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52For me, the origin of the revolution starts at the point where
0:22:52 > 0:22:53that water emerges.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02Shortly after Richard was made a viscount by King George,
0:23:02 > 0:23:04he married a wealthy young heiress.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08This allowed him to embark on a massive expansion plan of his gardens.
0:23:10 > 0:23:15In just over a decade, he extended them by 80 acres excavating
0:23:15 > 0:23:20a canal, damming a river to create an 11-acre lake and building
0:23:20 > 0:23:25a rotunda designed by his club mate Vanbrugh that housed a gilded Venus.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34As his garden flourished, so did his career.
0:23:34 > 0:23:38In just three years Cobham led a successful expedition against
0:23:38 > 0:23:42the Spanish, was appointed Colonel of the King's Own Horse Guard,
0:23:42 > 0:23:47Controller of Accounts for the Army, and a Governor of Jersey for life.
0:23:49 > 0:23:51Cobham's success came at a time
0:23:51 > 0:23:54when England was emerging as a great power.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57It was his direct experience at battle that inspired him
0:23:57 > 0:23:59to create one of the most deceptively simple
0:23:59 > 0:24:03but radical features in his great garden, the ha-ha.
0:24:14 > 0:24:16This construction here, known as a ha-ha,
0:24:16 > 0:24:19is a buried boundary, or fence,
0:24:19 > 0:24:22something that revolutionised gardens and landscape,
0:24:22 > 0:24:24and more specifically,
0:24:24 > 0:24:28revolutionised the link between building and broader landscape.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32The notion is said to come from the French trenches
0:24:32 > 0:24:35that were dug in the Anglo-French wars
0:24:35 > 0:24:40but in landscape terms, what ha-has were allowing a designer to do
0:24:40 > 0:24:42is to create division, but it's an invisible division.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46The boundaries become increasingly blurred
0:24:46 > 0:24:49and the view from the manor house is seamless.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01By opening up the garden to nature and the world outside,
0:25:01 > 0:25:03the ha-ha epitomised a new confidence
0:25:03 > 0:25:05in England and its gardens.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13But it was Charles Bridgeman's last contribution at Stowe.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16His failing health forced him to retire.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21His successor was a flamboyant and multi-talented artist,
0:25:21 > 0:25:24writer and designer called William Kent.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29Kent had spent a decade studying art in Italy
0:25:29 > 0:25:33and he drew on his experience to provide a new direction for Stowe.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39Looking to ancient Rome and Greece as the cradle of civilisation,
0:25:39 > 0:25:42Kent added a new layer of sophistication to Cobham's garden
0:25:42 > 0:25:45by recreating the classical world.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59The Palladium Bridge is an extraordinary piece of work,
0:25:59 > 0:26:03but probably the most incongruous in a landscape like this.
0:26:03 > 0:26:07A rather strange union of architecture from southern Europe
0:26:07 > 0:26:10but a landscape, which is uniquely British.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17But it's a celebration of intellect.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21It's a celebration of wealth, of power, of education,
0:26:21 > 0:26:26inspired largely by the Grand Tour.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28The wealthy and the learned would go on a grand tour
0:26:28 > 0:26:32and see all the classical sights of Greece and Rome
0:26:32 > 0:26:34and the Italian Renaissance.
0:26:35 > 0:26:39Cobham had won his reputation on the battlefields of Europe.
0:26:39 > 0:26:44And now he wanted to use his garden to lay siege to world of the mind.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48It's curious that Cobham has so many classical references,
0:26:48 > 0:26:50and architectural features
0:26:50 > 0:26:53and yet he didn't embark on a grand tour,
0:26:53 > 0:26:56he wasn't that well classically educated,
0:26:56 > 0:26:57although a bright man.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00And so monuments like this
0:27:00 > 0:27:02almost become about convincing a wider audience
0:27:02 > 0:27:04that you new what you were talking about
0:27:04 > 0:27:07and that you were to be taken seriously.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15Wealthy, well connected, and master of one of the grandest
0:27:15 > 0:27:17and most admired gardens in the country,
0:27:17 > 0:27:21Viscount Cobham appeared to be leading a charmed life.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24But despite all his success and riches,
0:27:24 > 0:27:27he was about to undergo a moral crisis
0:27:27 > 0:27:28that would lead him into conflict
0:27:28 > 0:27:31with the most powerful man in the world,
0:27:31 > 0:27:32transforming his garden
0:27:32 > 0:27:36into a radical political protest against King and party.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41For most of the first half of the 18th century
0:27:41 > 0:27:45English politics were dominated by one remarkable man.
0:27:45 > 0:27:46Sir Robert Walpole,
0:27:46 > 0:27:49the fifth child of a Norfolk Squire,
0:27:49 > 0:27:52was the first man to be called Prime Minister,
0:27:52 > 0:27:55a title he held longer than any one who followed him.
0:27:59 > 0:28:04During his 21 years in power Walpole accumulated vast wealth,
0:28:04 > 0:28:06which he used to turn his family estate,
0:28:06 > 0:28:08Houghton Hall in Norfolk,
0:28:08 > 0:28:11into one the grandest and most lavish homes in England.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21Brilliant, controversial and ultimately divisive
0:28:21 > 0:28:25he led his party, the Whigs, and Great Britain,
0:28:25 > 0:28:29through a period of enormous prosperity and power.
0:28:29 > 0:28:33Eloquent, pragmatic and according to some, corrupt,
0:28:33 > 0:28:35he was equally at home speaking in Parliament
0:28:35 > 0:28:37and whispering in the King's ear.
0:28:40 > 0:28:42Cobham's long support of Walpole's government
0:28:42 > 0:28:45had lifted him from the ranks.
0:28:45 > 0:28:47But the Prime Minister's overwhelming power
0:28:47 > 0:28:51and enormous wealth was causing increasing disquiet
0:28:51 > 0:28:54among the more idealistic Whigs.
0:28:54 > 0:28:56Many of them believed
0:28:56 > 0:28:58that Walpole's control of the King and Parliament
0:28:58 > 0:29:01undermined the very notion of democracy.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04People don't like that he becomes, for example,
0:29:04 > 0:29:07the conduit for royal favour.
0:29:07 > 0:29:10In order to rise at court under Walpole,
0:29:10 > 0:29:12you have to go through Walpole.
0:29:12 > 0:29:14If you want to get something through Parliament,
0:29:14 > 0:29:16you have to go through Walpole.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20So, he has one foot in St James's Palace
0:29:20 > 0:29:23and one foot in Parliament.
0:29:23 > 0:29:26Now that is something a lot of the people within his own party,
0:29:26 > 0:29:28within the Whig party, don't particularly like,
0:29:28 > 0:29:31because one of the reasons for the glorious revolution
0:29:31 > 0:29:34was that there is not going to be absolute power somewhere,
0:29:34 > 0:29:39and suddenly there is this politician who is holding far too much power.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42As Walpole's wealth and power grew even greater,
0:29:42 > 0:29:44accusations of corruption and intrigue grew.
0:29:44 > 0:29:50In 1733 Cobham decided to take a stand
0:29:50 > 0:29:54and risk the enmity of the most powerful man in Great Britain.
0:29:54 > 0:29:56At a crucial vote in the House of Commons
0:29:56 > 0:30:00he withdrew his support from Walpole's government.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04The opposition between Walpole and Cobham
0:30:04 > 0:30:08is really between the army man, the military man, and the diplomat.
0:30:08 > 0:30:11It's between vice versus virtue.
0:30:11 > 0:30:13And then they finally fall out
0:30:13 > 0:30:17over a very controversial tax on tobacco and wine.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20Cobham votes against it
0:30:20 > 0:30:22and Walpole is absolutely furious
0:30:22 > 0:30:27and what he does as revenge is he strips Cobham of his regiment.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31Filled with fury and righteous indignation,
0:30:31 > 0:30:35Cobham decided to strike back at Walpole and his regime,
0:30:35 > 0:30:38by turning his garden into a political protest.
0:30:39 > 0:30:42With the help of William Kent he transformed Stowe
0:30:42 > 0:30:46by dividing it into two dramatically opposed gardens,
0:30:46 > 0:30:49which he called Virtue and Vice.
0:30:49 > 0:30:52These would highlight everything good and bad
0:30:52 > 0:30:56about the country he lived in.
0:31:01 > 0:31:05Sitting on the top of the hill overlooking the Garden of Virtue
0:31:05 > 0:31:07is the Temple of Ancient Virtue.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13Sweeping down from this are the Elysian Fields,
0:31:13 > 0:31:16a classical paradise where the brave and virtuous went
0:31:16 > 0:31:18after they left this world.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24Flowing through this beautiful valley is the Styx,
0:31:24 > 0:31:27the river of the dead in Greek mythology.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31And on the other side of the water is the Temple of British Worthies.
0:31:31 > 0:31:33Highlighting both his knowledge of history
0:31:33 > 0:31:35and his political views
0:31:35 > 0:31:38Cobham celebrated an elite group of men and women
0:31:38 > 0:31:41whom he regarded as the most influential and important
0:31:41 > 0:31:44thinkers and leaders in British history.
0:31:58 > 0:32:00This is the Temple of British Worthies
0:32:00 > 0:32:05and this is at the heart of Cobham's political manifesto in this garden.
0:32:05 > 0:32:10You have names like Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh,
0:32:10 > 0:32:13King William III, very important for Cobham
0:32:13 > 0:32:16because he's the man associated with the Glorious Revolution,
0:32:16 > 0:32:19which is for Cobham, the changing moment,
0:32:19 > 0:32:21the political moment in his life.
0:32:21 > 0:32:23You have Queen Elizabeth for example,
0:32:23 > 0:32:26she squashes Spanish ambitions.
0:32:26 > 0:32:30So it says, "Inspired by every generous sentiment,
0:32:30 > 0:32:33"these gallon spirits founded constitutions,
0:32:33 > 0:32:35"shunned the torrent of corruption,
0:32:35 > 0:32:36"battled for the state,
0:32:36 > 0:32:38"ventured their lives in the defence of their country
0:32:38 > 0:32:41"and gloriously bled in the cause of liberty."
0:32:47 > 0:32:51I like this bit, the Elysian Fields, the most, in Stowe.
0:32:51 > 0:32:53I think, because it is such
0:32:53 > 0:32:57an unusual, obvious, political statement,
0:32:57 > 0:32:59and it's brave.
0:32:59 > 0:33:02And it kind of shows us, in a way,
0:33:02 > 0:33:05that gardens are not just about pretty flowers,
0:33:05 > 0:33:07it's about much, much more.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11And I think it's beautifully expressed in this garden.
0:33:15 > 0:33:19Cobham wasn't just looking to English history for inspiration.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22On the far side of the valley in the Temple of Ancient Virtue
0:33:22 > 0:33:27he chose four great figures from Ancient Greece as shining examples
0:33:27 > 0:33:30of what he believed his contemporaries should aspire to be.
0:33:37 > 0:33:43The poet, Homer, the General, Ipanimondos,
0:33:43 > 0:33:50the lawmaker, Lysurgess, and Socrates, the great philosopher.
0:33:57 > 0:34:00What I find really extraordinary about this
0:34:00 > 0:34:03is this is not just the odd, pretty, lovely temple,
0:34:03 > 0:34:05but what Cobham is doing here
0:34:05 > 0:34:09is he's putting everything together in one big narrative.
0:34:09 > 0:34:14So, as you walk through the garden, this narrative unfolds.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17Over there is the Temple of British Worthies.
0:34:17 > 0:34:19If you just look at the Temple of Ancient Virtue
0:34:19 > 0:34:22where we're standing, and the Temple of British Worthies,
0:34:22 > 0:34:24they are talking to each other.
0:34:24 > 0:34:29So it's almost as if the moderns are looking over,
0:34:29 > 0:34:32over the river to the ancients, their ancient forefathers.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36And they are in conversation with each other across the garden.
0:34:45 > 0:34:47These two temples with their coded political message
0:34:47 > 0:34:50are big enough ideas for any garden.
0:34:50 > 0:34:54But there's an even bigger one at the heart of William Kent's design.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58The gentle contours of the Elysian Fields
0:34:58 > 0:35:00would spark another revolution
0:35:00 > 0:35:03that would sweep through the English garden
0:35:03 > 0:35:05transforming it beyond recognition.
0:35:07 > 0:35:11When we look at this today, it doesn't look very revolutionary,
0:35:11 > 0:35:15I would say, but at the time when Cobham created this,
0:35:15 > 0:35:18in the 1730s, it was absolutely different to anything
0:35:18 > 0:35:20that had happened before.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24So, if you look around this, this is like a natural landscape,
0:35:24 > 0:35:28so this is a place where he eradicated all straight lines.
0:35:28 > 0:35:33You have a river here that's meandering, soft, gentle lines.
0:35:33 > 0:35:35You have the grass sloping down,
0:35:35 > 0:35:40so again this is not a kind of hard, geometric parterre.
0:35:40 > 0:35:45You have trees that are not clipped into topiary.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48He's bringing this idea of liberty into the garden.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52So, he's removing the corset that man has imposed on nature
0:35:52 > 0:35:56and he's letting the trees grow free.
0:36:07 > 0:36:09In stark contrast to the lofty ideals
0:36:09 > 0:36:12celebrated in the Garden of Virtue,
0:36:12 > 0:36:15Cobham and William Kent created another garden
0:36:15 > 0:36:17that told a very different story.
0:36:19 > 0:36:21Situated at the opposite end of Stowe,
0:36:21 > 0:36:26the Garden of Vice is presided over by the great temptress herself,
0:36:26 > 0:36:30Venus, the goddess of love.
0:36:32 > 0:36:35Her gilded statue had been created before Kent arrived
0:36:35 > 0:36:39but now he made her the central character in an erotic drama
0:36:39 > 0:36:42that was inspired by one of the most popular,
0:36:42 > 0:36:45and longest poems in English, Spencer's Faerie Queen.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53Across the lake from the rotunda he built a new temple to Venus
0:36:53 > 0:36:56where she could seduce the unwitting visitor
0:36:56 > 0:36:58before they discovered her darker side.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13William Kent decorated the interior of this temple
0:37:13 > 0:37:16with colourful murals.
0:37:16 > 0:37:18Sadly they haven't survived.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25Coming in from the garden, which is all green and serene,
0:37:25 > 0:37:27and you come in here and it was a riot of colours,
0:37:27 > 0:37:30because everything was painted here.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33So you had Venus presiding over the whole thing
0:37:33 > 0:37:34in the middle of the ceiling,
0:37:34 > 0:37:36and when you look outside the door
0:37:36 > 0:37:40you see the rotunda which has the miniature Venus in there,
0:37:40 > 0:37:42so that it's kind of the two Venus temples,
0:37:42 > 0:37:44kind of speaking to each other.
0:37:44 > 0:37:50And then on the walls you had murals of scenes
0:37:50 > 0:37:53painted after Edmund Spencer's Faerie Queen,
0:37:53 > 0:37:56which was a very popular book.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00This is all about love, it's about infidelity,
0:38:00 > 0:38:04it's about jealousy, it's about unrequited love.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07It's really the downfalls of what happens to you
0:38:07 > 0:38:10when you follow the pleasures of the flesh.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16The story it told here was about Malbecco,
0:38:16 > 0:38:23who was an 80-year-old man, who was married to Hellenore, who was 18.
0:38:23 > 0:38:26So she, quite understandably I think,
0:38:26 > 0:38:29gets fed up with her rather senile husband after awhile,
0:38:29 > 0:38:31and she wants to run off,
0:38:31 > 0:38:34what she does is she sets fire to his treasury
0:38:34 > 0:38:35and then sets off with her lover.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43In age when it was becoming fashionable
0:38:43 > 0:38:45for gardens to tell stories
0:38:45 > 0:38:48William Kent designed the Garden of Love
0:38:48 > 0:38:51as a stage where the visitors weren't just in the audience,
0:38:51 > 0:38:55they were right in the middle of the action, walking from scene to scene.
0:38:59 > 0:39:02Once Malbecco has sorted out his burnt treasury
0:39:02 > 0:39:04he decides that he better go and follow his wife,
0:39:04 > 0:39:09so he runs into the woods and he finds Hellenore,
0:39:09 > 0:39:13but Hellenore, who had run off with her lover,
0:39:13 > 0:39:15got raped by her lover in the woods,
0:39:15 > 0:39:18she then begins to frolic with the Satyrs.
0:39:18 > 0:39:23So, Malbecco realises that he's just lost his wife, so he goes mad.
0:39:23 > 0:39:25He goes mad with jealousy and he runs off,
0:39:25 > 0:39:31he runs off into a cave which is his temple of jealousy,
0:39:31 > 0:39:35the Hermitage that William Kent built here.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39So the whole path from the Temple of Venus to here
0:39:39 > 0:39:41is almost like a stage,
0:39:41 > 0:39:44it kind of leads the visitor along here,
0:39:44 > 0:39:48you can see the rotunda with the Medici Venus
0:39:48 > 0:39:50kind of glinting in the distance.
0:39:50 > 0:39:54So wherever you go Venus is presiding over this story
0:39:54 > 0:39:56and again it's Cobham telling us
0:39:56 > 0:40:01what happens to you if you follow the pleasures of the flesh.
0:40:01 > 0:40:02Cobham chose the Faerie Queen
0:40:02 > 0:40:05because it was written as a moral fable.
0:40:05 > 0:40:08But the story of Malbecco and his young wife
0:40:08 > 0:40:11allowed him to take another swipe at his arch-enemy.
0:40:11 > 0:40:15At that time Walpole has a mistress who is much, much younger.
0:40:15 > 0:40:20So what Cobham is doing is painting this portrait of Walpole
0:40:20 > 0:40:24as the senile, old mad husband.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30Despite Cobham's damning critique of Walpole's government,
0:40:30 > 0:40:34the Prime Minister remained very much in control of the country.
0:40:34 > 0:40:39Frustrated by his lack of progress Cobham decided to change tact
0:40:39 > 0:40:42and try a more direct assault on his enemy's powerbase.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52He began by gathering the most brilliant,
0:40:52 > 0:40:56ambitious and disaffected young Whigs around him at Stowe.
0:41:04 > 0:41:06This group, made up of family members
0:41:06 > 0:41:08and their closest friends,
0:41:08 > 0:41:10became known as Cobham's Cubs.
0:41:10 > 0:41:12They would lead the attack on Walpole
0:41:12 > 0:41:15right from the garden of Stowe itself
0:41:15 > 0:41:19in a specially built headquarters called the Temple of Friendship.
0:41:28 > 0:41:29What he's trying to do,
0:41:29 > 0:41:32is he's still trying to keep his hands in politics,
0:41:32 > 0:41:34and he's doing that by nurturing up
0:41:34 > 0:41:37a new generation of young politicians,
0:41:37 > 0:41:41so he's trying to create a new powerbase.
0:41:41 > 0:41:43You have William Pitt here,
0:41:43 > 0:41:47who is going to lead Britain through the Seven Years War.
0:41:47 > 0:41:51You have George Grenville, who will be come the Prime Minister
0:41:51 > 0:41:54who loses the American colony.
0:41:54 > 0:41:59So a lot of the future of Britain is almost born in this place.
0:41:59 > 0:42:04He's assembling this gaggle of bright, young men
0:42:04 > 0:42:07who are also incredibly ambitious.
0:42:07 > 0:42:09So this is not just,
0:42:09 > 0:42:11"Let's talk about little bit about literature and art."
0:42:11 > 0:42:16This is about, "How can we use this to get into power
0:42:16 > 0:42:18"and to change British politics?
0:42:18 > 0:42:23"How can we mould and shape the future of Britain?"
0:42:23 > 0:42:25It's quite a bold thing to do.
0:42:25 > 0:42:30He's creating his own, almost his own political party.
0:42:31 > 0:42:35Just five years after the Temple of Friendship was built
0:42:35 > 0:42:37Cobham and his Cubs helped to force
0:42:37 > 0:42:40a vote of no confidence in Sir Robert Walpole,
0:42:40 > 0:42:43ending his 20-year domination of English politics.
0:42:44 > 0:42:46Cobham was now approaching 70
0:42:46 > 0:42:49and though he helped to negotiate a new government
0:42:49 > 0:42:52he retired from politics shortly afterwards.
0:42:53 > 0:42:56His political career may have ended
0:42:56 > 0:42:59but his great ambitions for his garden continued.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02When William Kent, his head gardener, left,
0:43:02 > 0:43:06Cobham replaced him with a promising young 25 year old,
0:43:06 > 0:43:08called Lancelot Brown.
0:43:41 > 0:43:43This is Capability Brown's Grecian Valley
0:43:43 > 0:43:46and it really is a remarkable achievement.
0:43:46 > 0:43:49If you look to the left you can see some of the darker trees
0:43:49 > 0:43:52and you can see some of the Scots pine reaching out,
0:43:52 > 0:43:53the top of the canopy,
0:43:53 > 0:43:56you look to the right and you start seeing the old characters
0:43:56 > 0:43:58like that lovely chestnut over there.
0:43:58 > 0:44:01They're framing the valley, they're creating a stage
0:44:01 > 0:44:04for the magnificent temple in the distance,
0:44:04 > 0:44:06the Temple for Concord and Victory.
0:44:06 > 0:44:08Capability Brown's ambition was to flood it, you know,
0:44:08 > 0:44:12was to fill it with water and make it his great lake at Stowe,
0:44:12 > 0:44:17but they couldn't quite work out how to achieve that,
0:44:17 > 0:44:20so I suppose, in a way, in my opinion, thankfully,
0:44:20 > 0:44:25we're left with this beautiful, sweeping, dog-legged valley
0:44:25 > 0:44:30that almost connects the garden into the landscape in the distance
0:44:30 > 0:44:35and the temple on top of the hill remains, it remains the focal point.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00So you've been lead up the valley, the Grecian Valley,
0:45:00 > 0:45:02to the Temple of Concord and Victory
0:45:02 > 0:45:06and what you get at this point is a really precise view
0:45:06 > 0:45:09out through the trees to the Obelisk in the distance,
0:45:09 > 0:45:11so precise that the trees frame it,
0:45:11 > 0:45:13you have a really narrow frame through it.
0:45:13 > 0:45:16And then you sweep across the valley again,
0:45:16 > 0:45:21very open, up to another very precise view to Cobham's column.
0:45:21 > 0:45:26And again, framed, like a picture frame created with the trees.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29And Cobham's overlooking this great work that he had done.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32It's all put together in this area wonderfully, I think.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35When you look at the Grecian, it does look quite simple,
0:45:35 > 0:45:38it looks quite natural actually, which is perfect,
0:45:38 > 0:45:40which is what the ambition was.
0:45:40 > 0:45:42After serving his apprenticeship
0:45:42 > 0:45:44in the most radical garden in England
0:45:44 > 0:45:49Lancelot Capability Brown would use ideas pioneered at Stowe
0:45:49 > 0:45:51to transform the English landscape.
0:45:52 > 0:45:56Unlike his mentor Viscount Cobham, Brown was not political
0:45:56 > 0:45:59and neither were his gardens, which had no great message.
0:46:01 > 0:46:04Alan Power has come to see an example of Brown's work
0:46:04 > 0:46:07at Compton Verney in Warwickshire.
0:46:07 > 0:46:09Beautiful and deceptively simple,
0:46:09 > 0:46:12Brown's gift was to create a landscape
0:46:12 > 0:46:15that appeared natural even though it wasn't.
0:46:19 > 0:46:23These limes are really old characters here in the garden, aren't they?
0:46:23 > 0:46:25And they've just got the end of Autumn
0:46:25 > 0:46:27hanging on the end of their branches.
0:46:27 > 0:46:30It's just like a shadow of colour on the edge of them.
0:46:30 > 0:46:32There's a group of trees here to bring you
0:46:32 > 0:46:36from the house down to this viewing point.
0:46:36 > 0:46:38And we can see one of Capability Brown's features
0:46:38 > 0:46:41emerging in the distance.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45We can see the bridge just beyond the tree on the edge of the lake.
0:46:45 > 0:46:48I think this is what Brown did really well.
0:46:48 > 0:46:50He got you to a point
0:46:50 > 0:46:54where you were almost compelled to explore the garden
0:46:54 > 0:46:56and explore the landscape.
0:46:56 > 0:46:59Brown cleverly used an architectural feature
0:46:59 > 0:47:01like a bridge or a specimen tree
0:47:01 > 0:47:03to create a focal point in the landscape.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07That Cedar is magnificent, isn't it?
0:47:09 > 0:47:11It's a real, big strong feature.
0:47:11 > 0:47:14It's compelling, it draws you towards it.
0:47:14 > 0:47:17It completely dominates this part of the garden
0:47:17 > 0:47:19and was part of Brown's intention.
0:47:22 > 0:47:26And here he is. This is Capability Brown at his best.
0:47:27 > 0:47:30So it's all there, the whole story, his bridge, his lake.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35His loosely planted oak trees in the foreground.
0:47:35 > 0:47:36This is very typical.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39And then beyond in the distance you've got a much heavier,
0:47:39 > 0:47:44dense woodland that stops your eye travelling beyond that point.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48And that's what Brown was genius at, controlling the views.
0:47:48 > 0:47:52And it's not just trees he was planting here, the hills we see,
0:47:52 > 0:47:55the rolling hills we see, the trees he's planted on them,
0:47:55 > 0:47:57they're adjusted, or improved,
0:47:57 > 0:48:00as they would say in the 18th century.
0:48:00 > 0:48:03I love that term, you know, the improvements that were made.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07They were massive alterations, an amazing feat.
0:48:09 > 0:48:13The aristocracy loved the simplicity of Brown's designs.
0:48:13 > 0:48:16His natural parkland was cheaper to maintain
0:48:16 > 0:48:18and could be used for grazing livestock,
0:48:18 > 0:48:22making his improvements even more appealing.
0:48:22 > 0:48:24His talents earned him a fortune
0:48:24 > 0:48:27and a host of followers who copied his ideas.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31By the time he died there were 4,000 gardens in England
0:48:31 > 0:48:35that had been landscaped according to his principles.
0:48:35 > 0:48:37It's an amazing spot this, isn't it?
0:48:37 > 0:48:41We really get to reap the benefits of what landscape gardeners
0:48:41 > 0:48:45and landscape architects did in the 18th century.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48It just makes you happy that people like Brown did work like this.
0:48:51 > 0:48:54In the 50 years
0:48:54 > 0:48:57since he began working under William Kent in Cobham's Elysian fields,
0:48:57 > 0:49:01the English garden had changed beyond all recognition.
0:49:21 > 0:49:24Viscount Cobham died at the age of 74,
0:49:24 > 0:49:28leaving an extraordinary mark on the landscape and history.
0:49:28 > 0:49:29During his lifetime,
0:49:29 > 0:49:34his gardens had grown from a dozen to over 200 acres.
0:49:34 > 0:49:40He built 36 temples, excavated eight lakes and a dozen avenues.
0:49:40 > 0:49:42He built four miles of ha-has
0:49:42 > 0:49:46and commissioned almost 100 busts and statues.
0:49:46 > 0:49:50But his greatest legacy was to liberate the English garden
0:49:50 > 0:49:54from the shackles of man.
0:50:05 > 0:50:09Over the next 50 years Stowe grew more and more removed
0:50:09 > 0:50:12from the politics that had inspired it.
0:50:17 > 0:50:21Cobham's family climbed further up the ranks of the nobility,
0:50:21 > 0:50:24becoming marquises and then dukes.
0:50:24 > 0:50:26But they won their titles
0:50:26 > 0:50:29by abandoning Cobham's political convictions.
0:50:30 > 0:50:34By the 19th century the garden that had been inspired by lofty ideals
0:50:34 > 0:50:37had become a garden of pleasure.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41The first Duke was notoriously self-indulgent.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44Unlike Cobham he never went to war
0:50:44 > 0:50:48but spent a fortune playing soldiers with his own private army.
0:50:50 > 0:50:53His son was even more profligate,
0:50:53 > 0:50:54borrowing huge sums of money
0:50:54 > 0:50:58to the make the family estate even grander and more lavish.
0:51:03 > 0:51:08But the house and gardens grew more and more removed from real power.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11In a desperate bid to revive the family fortunes
0:51:11 > 0:51:12by gaining royal favour,
0:51:12 > 0:51:18the second Duke invited Queen Victoria to visit Stowe in 1847.
0:51:28 > 0:51:31I have here a article from the Illustrated London News
0:51:31 > 0:51:35which describes the days of her visits here,
0:51:35 > 0:51:37and they're wonderful illustrations
0:51:37 > 0:51:41that show us what kind of show the Duke put on.
0:51:41 > 0:51:43He sent his yeomanry,
0:51:43 > 0:51:47which is basically his private army, to greet her.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52They were all given very elegant new uniforms.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56All the tenants and peasants turn up, line the streets,
0:51:56 > 0:52:00all dressed up very nicely because the duke had given them clothes.
0:52:00 > 0:52:02There were illuminations, which said,
0:52:02 > 0:52:04"Long live the Queen, God save the Queen."
0:52:04 > 0:52:07For the Duke this is the event of his lifetime,
0:52:07 > 0:52:08this is the party of his lifetime.
0:52:08 > 0:52:14He is refurbishing the house, he buys new paintings, new silks,
0:52:14 > 0:52:16new curtains, new silverware, new goldware,
0:52:16 > 0:52:22the whole place is just so full that the Queen says
0:52:22 > 0:52:25that she doesn't have apartments like this in any of her own palaces.
0:52:25 > 0:52:31When she gets let into her bedroom she sees this huge Persian carpet
0:52:31 > 0:52:34and she says to her husband, "Oh, Albert, I know this carpet,
0:52:34 > 0:52:35"it was offered to me
0:52:35 > 0:52:39"but I didn't want to spend so much money on a carpet."
0:52:39 > 0:52:41The Duke borrowed hundreds of thousands of pounds
0:52:41 > 0:52:44to put on this lavish entertainment,
0:52:44 > 0:52:46and by the time the royal visit was over
0:52:46 > 0:52:52he owed £1.5 million, around £1 billion in today's money.
0:52:52 > 0:52:54His extravagant display of wealth
0:52:54 > 0:52:56hadn't impressed Victoria and Albert,
0:52:56 > 0:53:00who epitomised a new age of self-restraint.
0:53:00 > 0:53:04Smelling blood, his creditors closed in.
0:53:04 > 0:53:07The Duke was left with no choice but to open his doors
0:53:07 > 0:53:11and put the contents of his great home up for sale.
0:53:11 > 0:53:13Christies were the auctioneers
0:53:13 > 0:53:17and this contemporary sale is filled with the kind of lavish furnishings
0:53:17 > 0:53:20that would have been on sale at Stowe.
0:53:20 > 0:53:25In the summer of 1848, this house, these rooms,
0:53:25 > 0:53:27were filled with strangers
0:53:27 > 0:53:30who came to buy all the possessions of the Duke of Buckingham,
0:53:30 > 0:53:34they could buy this book, which is the sales catalogue,
0:53:34 > 0:53:37and anybody who could afford this, 50 shillings,
0:53:37 > 0:53:41could bring in four people, so it's like the entrance ticket.
0:53:41 > 0:53:46Everything was sold from the wine to the bed linen, furniture,
0:53:46 > 0:53:49paintings, candlesticks, silverware.
0:53:53 > 0:53:56Those 40 days in the summer of 1848,
0:53:56 > 0:54:00that is really the end of Stowe, as we know it.
0:54:08 > 0:54:11A lot of people from within the aristocracy
0:54:11 > 0:54:16just thought that the Duke had really brought shame to their class
0:54:16 > 0:54:21because he was so extravagant and so over the top.
0:54:27 > 0:54:32There's a wonderful article in The Times, written at that time,
0:54:32 > 0:54:35which says that, "A man of the highest rank
0:54:35 > 0:54:37"and of a property not unequal to his title,
0:54:37 > 0:54:41"has flung all away by extravagance and folly
0:54:41 > 0:54:44"and reduced his honours to the tinsel of a pauper
0:54:44 > 0:54:46"and the baubles of a fool."
0:54:46 > 0:54:50This is the end of Cobham's dream, that's really what it is.
0:54:50 > 0:54:53The dream of creating this dynasty,
0:54:53 > 0:54:56the dream of shaping Britain's future.
0:54:56 > 0:54:59All of that is at an end that summer.
0:55:03 > 0:55:05Cobham's family never recovered
0:55:05 > 0:55:09from the financial devastation caused by the second Duke.
0:55:09 > 0:55:12In 1910 they sold the house and gardens
0:55:12 > 0:55:15and it was turned into a public school.
0:55:15 > 0:55:18Right, OK guys. So, here we are.
0:55:18 > 0:55:20This is the entrance to the Elysian Fields.
0:55:23 > 0:55:25Cobham's Cubs are long gone
0:55:25 > 0:55:28but new generations are being shaped by the garden.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31We're going to stop off at Temple of Ancient Virtues.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34So have a quick look, turn around.
0:55:34 > 0:55:36'I don't think it's possible to grow up in a place like Stowe
0:55:36 > 0:55:39'and not be affected by the place itself.
0:55:39 > 0:55:43'There is a message that infuses the garden'
0:55:43 > 0:55:46that ideas matter,
0:55:46 > 0:55:47that people of the past
0:55:47 > 0:55:49have something to say
0:55:49 > 0:55:51to people in the present.
0:55:51 > 0:55:55There are not many places that are as evocative as that.
0:55:56 > 0:56:00To promote his political ideas Cobham encouraged visitors to Stowe,
0:56:00 > 0:56:02beginning a fashion for garden tourism
0:56:02 > 0:56:05that would sweep through the country.
0:56:05 > 0:56:08Over the last twenty years The National Trust has spent
0:56:08 > 0:56:13£6.5 million restoring his gardens to their pomp and glory.
0:56:22 > 0:56:24Stowe's influence is far reaching.
0:56:24 > 0:56:29Cobham's garden of ideas didn't just overthrow a Prime Minister,
0:56:29 > 0:56:34its serpentine lakes and rolling fields sparked a revolution,
0:56:34 > 0:56:38which freed the English garden from centuries of western formality
0:56:38 > 0:56:43to become something unique, and quintessentially British.
0:57:00 > 0:57:02You really get a sense of how the landscape
0:57:02 > 0:57:08has been moulded and formed, and how the tree plantation works.
0:57:08 > 0:57:11I mean, this is essentially the English landscape
0:57:11 > 0:57:13that we're looking at
0:57:13 > 0:57:15and it's a very manufactured product
0:57:15 > 0:57:18and really that's the legacy of Stowe.
0:57:18 > 0:57:19It's set up in us.
0:57:19 > 0:57:24The idea that our landscape should appear like this,
0:57:24 > 0:57:26and you can see why,
0:57:26 > 0:57:31as a nation of gardeners, we have separated ourselves
0:57:31 > 0:57:33from the rest of the Western world
0:57:33 > 0:57:37and that chasm starts to emerge right here.
0:57:37 > 0:57:41It's this landscape that creates that sense of division.
0:57:41 > 0:57:45It drives a wedge between the Western landscape principles
0:57:45 > 0:57:48and the English landscape principles,
0:57:48 > 0:57:50and we carry that with us, 300 years later.
0:57:56 > 0:57:59Next time we go on a journey around the globe
0:57:59 > 0:58:03in a revolutionary Victorian garden, Biddulph Grange.
0:58:03 > 0:58:07It's a story of empire, science, and religion.
0:58:07 > 0:58:10This garden is like a very bizarre piece of Victorian theatre.
0:58:10 > 0:58:14For me it feels almost as if I've stepped into Alice In Wonderland.
0:58:14 > 0:58:17Wow, look at that!