Book review. Vita Sackville-Wests Sissinghurst: The Creation of a Garden

This book is quite simply outstanding. It is without doubt the seminal work on the creation of Sissinghurst.

Sarah Ravens writing is smooth and delightful, it flows and never jars, link this with the words of Vita and you instantly have a book that is impossible to put down.

The addition of the historic timeline is extremely useful and informative. The black and white photographs can only be described as utterly compelling and support the text superbly. They transport you to another world, a lost age. The photograph on page 49 of Vita’s bedroom just after she died leaves one strangely emotional, even sad. The family photos rarely or never seen before give an insight into family life and the progression of the garden. The black and white photograph on page 66 of Sissinghurst at dawn has to be the best one ever taken. After looking at these pictures you will never take a colour photograph again!

One is left reeling over the level of family archival material and memories that have contributed to the making of this book, making it head and shoulders above any other book written on Sissinghurst. One is also left slightly despondent that a subject they thought they knew implicitly has a few holes, due to the in-depth inside knowledge of the author. This really is the definitive book on Sissinghurst and I simply cannot recommend it enough.

Published by Virago Press

ISBN 978-1-84408-896-6

 

Horace Walpole (1717-97) was the son of Sir Robert Walpole, England’s first Whig Prime Minister. He became a Member of Parliament and writer, producing in 1770 his essay ‘On Modern Gardening’. This was written long after the beginning of the English Landscape Movement and with the benefit of hindsight. Horace was one of the most important figures in the 18^th century, an essayist, historian and avid collector of paintings and antiques.

 

Horace recognised, and noted in his essay that the ha-ha was the main catalyst in the change away from the formal French and Dutch garden style in England. He wrote, ‘The sunk fence ascertained the specific garden, but that it might not draw too obvious a line of distinction between the neat and the rude, the contiguous outlying parts came to be included in a kind of general design….. ‘. In the essay Horace writes undoubtedly the most prophetic words ever put to paper in garden history regarding the influence of the ha-ha and Kent, ‘At that moment appeared Kent……..He leaped the fence, and saw that all nature was a garden’.

Walpole disliked the French baroque garden; stating that Versailles had been designed for a child and that it displayed nothing but a symbol of tyranny. Parterres and elaborate water features were, ‘impotent displays of false taste’. His words on the English Landscape Movement were different, ‘We have discovered the point of perfection. We have given the true model of gardening to the world. Let other countries mimic or corrupt our taste, but let it reign here on its verdant throne original by its elegant simplicity, and proud of no other art than that of softening natures harshness and copying her graceful touch’.

Horace lived at Strawberry Hill from 1747. He delighted at discovering a riverside house in Twickenham. He called it, ’the prettiest bauble you ever saw’. He redesigned it as a Gothic castle the style now known as ‘Strawberry Hill Gothic’. At the time the neo-classical style was the norm but he wrote, ‘I give myself a Burlington air and say, that as Chiswick is a model of Grecian architecture, Strawberry Hill is to be so of Gothic’. Gothicism was inspirational to Horace who delighted in the romance and mystery of it.

The view to the Thames which was just a short distance was extremely important to Horace. He planted trees and shrubs that created a frame in which to see the river from the house. Between the river and formal garden he created a water meadow which has since been lost to the encroachment of housing.

Horace continually purchased new land, when he first bought the house he owned five acres, this rose to forty six in total by the time of his death. The pleasure garden around the house totalled nine acres but again because of encroachment from housing and St Mary’s University College campus buildings; this has shrunk today to around four acres. The university still own the land and property but have given a 120 year rent free lease to The Strawberry Hill Trust. The trust are putting back as many of the garden features as possible but some of them cannot go back into their original positions as they are outside of the leased zone.

Horace loved scented plants and flowers; he created a Winding walk through trees that bordered onto a nursery belonging to Mr Ashe. Amongst the trees that were festooned with clematis and honeysuckle were lilacs, philadelphus and spring bulbs.

 

One of the first planting tasks undertaken by Horace while still leasing the house was to plant a grove of Lime trees. The limes have been replanted in three blocks as an open grove, the same as in Horace’s day. The two outside blocks were originally intended to frame the south façade of the house.

 

 

Most of the main planting has been completed but more restoration will be taking place in the garden. The Theatrical Shrubbery that ran alongside the original entrance route to the house is to be widened; now the first stage planting of this is complete, according to the original Walpole plans. It is in its original position on the north–east side and consists of graduated planting which is arranged carefully in terms of height, colour and scent. Hornbeams provide the backdrop and the front of the shrubbery finishes with perennials. In front of these, trellis, one metre high and painted blue will be added. Then in front of this and in other positions around the house some blue and white tubs containing orange and bay trees will be placed.

Information on visiting Strawberry Hill can be found on the website: www.strawberryhillhouse.org.uk