Painshill
The Painshill Park Trust, a registered charity, has
worked tirelessly since its inception in 1981, to restore the ornamental
pleasure grounds, designed and created by Charles Hamilton (1704-1786) between
1738 and 1773. Hamilton started to create the pleasure grounds the same year
that plans were being drawn up by John MacClary, based on William Kent’s ideas
for the naturalization of Rousham. Painshill and Rousham were at the forefront of
the move away from the formal English garden style, but as Rousham followed a strong
philosophy, Painshill was designed to be a series of changing ‘scenes’, an
eclectic mix inspired by, but not subservient to, the classical world. This can
be seen in the varied architecture and the choice of planting that drew in new,
rare, and exotic plant species from America.
Hamilton visualised his design as though an
artist, constructing his landscape as if creating a painting. The planting,
architecture and layout of Painshill were all designed to be a living canvas.
Professor Timothy Mowl describes early English Landscape gardens like Painshill
as ‘Arcadian Picturesque’, and ‘Savage Picturesque’ for later gardens. The
picturesque style is associated with paintings and the Picturesque (higher case
‘P’) is the aesthetic style.
S. Harmer 2013
The photograph shows Hamilton’s main vista as seen from
the Turkish Tent. In the distance the Gothic temple can be seen and in the
middle the Grotto is just visible. In the foreground is the recently rebuilt
Five Arch Bridge
The topography did not lend itself easily to Hamilton’s plan,
but with judicious planting; height and slopes were accentuated, removing the
need to move vast amounts of soil, which would have been extremely costly.
Planting was also matched to the changing scenes found on the circuit of the
grounds. The Hermitage stood among a mix of fir, pine, birch and larch giving a
feeling of wildness, while the Elysian Fields contained flowering trees and
shrubs with wonderful scent to give the feeling of arcadia. Hamilton also had
to install a water wheel on the River Mole to lift water through pumps to the
cascade, this in turn supplying the lake; some metres higher.
S.Harmer 2010
The 19th century water wheel, not Hamilton’s
original, this one built by Bramah & Sons in the 1830’s.
Hamilton designed various architectural features to instil
different feelings in the beholder. One such feature was the Mausoleum, a
representation of a Roman Triumphal Arch, designed as a ruin and meant to
invoke a feeling of ‘melancholy’, (a desired state of mind at that time) making
the beholder aware of one’s own mortality.
S. Harmer 2013
The Roman Triumphal Arch
Hamilton, as regards available funds was always
disadvantaged compared to other garden builders in the 18th Century.
He did try to supplement his income from the civil service and his employment
with the Prince of Wales; by producing and selling his own Champagne from
grapes grown at Painshill. He also had a tile and brick works hidden behind the
Ruined Abbey, built for this purpose, and which was built used his own bricks. Unfortunately
a good deal of the money used to build Painshill was borrowed and in 1773 his
worried creditors forced him to sell up.
S. Harmer 2012
The Ruined Abbey that Hamilton built to hide his brick
and tile works.
Important and influential people of the day visited
Painshill and overall it had mixed reviews. In 1763, John Parnell wrote; ‘It is
inconceivable how beautiful Mr Hamilton’s grounds appear, all spotted with
pavilions, clumps of evergreens or forest trees’. This view contrasts with
William Gilpin who visited in 1765 and said about the view from the Turkish
tent; ‘too much patched by clumps; and ye eye is disagreeably caught by white
seats, and bridges, and ye grotto’. But of course this is hardly a surprise
coming from Gilpin; who did though enjoy the Cascade, with its rugged and
natural landscape.
Hamilton commissioned the building of a hermitage and
advertised for a suitable resident. A hermit living in a garden may seem
strange now, but they performed an important role, not only as visual
entertainment, but as an embodiment of a simple solitary life, full of moral
purity, but also adding a hint of darkness, and melancholy. Hamilton’s
conditions of work were that whoever took this employment (the successful
candidate being a Mr Remington) would be contracted to; live in the hermitage
for seven years and not utter a single word to anyone, never cut his beard,
hair or nails and never leave the confines of the garden. He would be given a
bible, an hourglass, optical glasses, a mat for a bed and a hassock for a
pillow. He was to be supplied with water from the stream and food from the house,
and he would wear a camlet robe. The wearing of sandals was forbidden and along
with the robe it is possible Hamilton wished to give the illusion of a druid. Unfortunately
Mr Remington only lasted a few weeks and did not stay the seven years to earn what
would have been a considerable sum of money. The story goes he was found drunk
in a pub in Cobham!
S. Harmer 2013
The reconstructed Hermitage placed back in its original
position during 2004.
Hamilton commissioned the grotto makers Joseph Lane to build
his Grotto between 1760 and 1770; they did this for around £8000. Hamilton
would have seen grottos and nymphaea in Italy on the ‘Grand Tour’, these
influencing his design. The Grotto was brick built from Hamilton’s own works
and faced with oolitic limestone. The internal walls were lined with calcite,
gypsum, quartz, and fluorite. The roof held a framework shaped like stalactites
and covered with crystals, making what was described as the finest grotto in
England.
The grotto has just undergone a full restoration and is
now open to the public again.
The restored grotto
The Painshill trust was awarded a grant from the
Heritage Lottery fund to restore the grotto and rebuild the Woollett Bridge.
The Grotto alone is worth visiting Painshill for, but the whole garden is an
example of a sympathetic restoration and a garden that must be visited.
Photographs taken form the Press day opening of the restored grotto
There
are other features not discussed here, so explore Painshill and enjoy the
garden; once again it is in very safe and capable hands with more restoration
projects to follow.
S. Harmer 2013
The photograph shows Hamilton’s Turkish Tent. Here his
guests would find refreshment waiting for them on the return leg.
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