The exquisite private gardens of Petworth House
It was on the west coast of Scotland, where Caroline Egremont spent her childhood roaming free among the soft landscapes and fleeting mists, that she developed her affinity with nature: a love of trees, the rustle of leaves, the smell of the earth, the cry of the seabird.
‘My father didn’t believe children should be indoors during daylight hours,’ she explains. ‘I was outside the whole time, often barefoot, building huts in mossy woods and making bonfires. We used to visit neighbours’ gardens to admire their hybrid rhododendrons and I remember thinking how much more beautiful were the natural woods, with their lichen, ferns and bluebells.’
The belief that you have to be careful what you impose on a landscape – that there should be nothing alien or jarring in any planting scheme – has been the guiding principle of Caroline’s work as a garden designer. In 1978 she married the writer Max Egremont and found herself at the helm of National Trust-owned Petworth House, with its 700-acre Capability Brown park. The park is untended – fallow deer mow the grass and trim the trees – and comes right up to the great house, a scene immortalised by JMW Turner in his painting Dewy Morning.
The family lives in the south end of the house. It is here, on the south lawn and in the walled garden, that Caroline set to work creating her own private sanctuary. The south lawn sits between the park and the walled garden and, at that time, consisted of a large expanse of close-mown lawn, interspersed with wide gravel paths. Caroline boldly swept these away, replacing them with sweeping curves and circles of long grass, centred around three eighteenth-century urns; one, by the architect and designer of that era, William Kent, is encircled by a ring of crab apples. Mown paths meander softly through, creating a soothing interplay of mown and unmown grass. Great drifts of bulbs and wild flowers come up in spring: snowdrops, aconites, camassias and Narcissus ‘Pheasant’s Eye’. Native oaks, horse chestnuts and limes were planted to harmonise with those introduced to the park by Capability Brown in the 1730s.
‘When I married, I knew little about horticulture. But I realised how lucky I was to inherit an abandoned six-acre garden, surrounded by centuries-old 12-foot-high walls that would offer shelter – a wonderful canvas on which to start,’ says Caroline. ‘Fred Streeter, the head gardener at Petworth in the Thirties and legendary BBC broadcaster – the Monty Don of his day – had arranged for the topsoil to be double dug. I realised this when I put my spade in and it didn’t stop.’
The structure of the derelict walled garden was still in evidence: a curved doorway led to three large spaces linked by enfilades of arches, opening up into long vistas. Caroline’s first task was to cover the weathered walls with climbing roses in shades of cream, white and buff, including Rosa ‘Paul’s Lemon Pillar’, ‘Gloire de Dijon’ and ‘Alister Stella Gray’; they still thrive today. She then created a series of garden rooms.
The cloister garden, once a tennis court, was conceived as a place for reading. ‘My mentor, the garden designer John Brookes, encouraged me to plant iris, cistus, lavender, yucca and Gallica roses here – loosely in gravel,’ she explains. ‘The idea was that the plants would have space to develop their own particular shapes and you could walk among them. Some have self seeded, creating a pleasing air of asymmetry.’
Two sides of the garden are formed by pergolas of white wisteria. The Japanese Wisteria floribunda ‘Alba’ was chosen, as it flowers in stages down the panicle, adding a glorious extra three weeks of bloom. Scented evergreen Trachelospermum asiaticum winds its way up supporting columns. The magnolia garden is dominated, on one side, by vast architectural yew hedges, planted 35 years ago. They conceal the swimming pool and create two changing rooms open to the skies. Opposite, on the east wall, is a row of magnificent Magnolia grandiflora.
Vestiges of the old sunken garden, created by Fred Streeter, were resuscitated and four ziggurats of box bring geometric grandeur to the entrances. The raised borders on all four sides, framed by hornbeam hedges, flower in June in unfolding waves of pink, purple and silver: artemisias, cerastiums, lychnis and oreganums are punctuated by the velvety crimson ‘William Shakespeare’ rose. A square, black mirror pool at the centre of the garden occasionally catches the reflection of the moon.
Native apple trees are the focus in the orchard. Brownlees and Egremont Russets were chosen for their blossom, the latter raised at Petworth in the nineteenth century. They flower at the same time as the buttercups in the grass beneath. Mown in mid June to 10cm, the grass recovers quickly and the buttercups bloom again. Beyond, a small flock of woolly Southdown sheep grazes on half an acre, eating the spare apples and snoozing under the trees. A split-oak fence forms one side of the rose walk, covered in a profusion of the rare white Rosa banksiae var. normalis. Ethereal grasses sway along the verges.
With the sense of enclosure provided by the walls, the subtle changes of light, shadows and reflections, and the occasional hint of windblown scent, Caroline has created a timeless atmosphere in these intimate spaces. ‘I invariably set out into my garden with a feeling of excitement,’ she explains. ‘Although the major work has been done, I will always continue planting bulbs and nurturing the wild flowers’.
Petworth House and Park, Petworth, West Sussex. For opening times, visit nationaltrust.org.uk/petworth-house-and-park. The private gardens are open to horticultural groups and students, by appointment only: send a written request to Lady Egremont, Petworth House, Petworth, West Sussex GU28 0AE
Ngoc Minh Ngo1/10The west façade of Petworth House, built in the late seventeenth century in local sandstone with Portland stone framing the windows. A seat below a sycamore on the bastion that projects into the park offers views across the ha-ha to the Capability Brown landscaping.
Ngoc Minh Ngo2/10Pergolas swathed in Wisteria floribunda ‘Alba’ create a backdrop for Iris pallida var. dalmatica in the cloister garden.
Ngoc Minh Ngo3/10A plaque in the wall is inscribed with Caroline’s initials and the words ‘Fair Quiet, have I found thee here’ from Andrew Marvell’s poem The Garden.
Ngoc Minh Ngo4/10Hornbeam hedges surround the old sunken garden.
Ngoc Minh Ngo5/10The pergola above a walkway at the side of the cloister garden becomes a tunnel of fragrant Wisteria floribunda ‘Alba’ in early summer. The path is edged with camassia, Euphorbia polychroma, dicentra and Digitalis purpurea ‘Camelot Queen’ in a restful cream and green scheme. An arch leads to the south lawn.
Ngoc Minh Ngo6/10White Japanese wisteria cascades over a wall in the magnolia garden, where a line of Magnolia grandiflora on the east side faces a dramatic 14-foot-high yew hedge planted 35 years ago. The sides of the topiary yew obelisks have been squared off in keeping with the distinctive architectural form of the hedge
Ngoc Minh Ngo7/10Leading into the orchard, wooden gates crafted on the estate are set into an eighteenth-century wall covered in cascades of the vigorous climber Clematis montana var. rubens ‘Tetrarose’.
Ngoc Minh Ngo8/10An antique statuary urn creates an elegant focal point at the end of a mown grass path, framed by an arch in one of the high brick walls.
Ngoc Minh Ngo9/10Rustic split-oak fencing marks the boundary of the orchard, where the native apple trees include Brownlees and Egremont Russets.
Ngoc Minh Ngo10/10On the south lawn, sweeping circles of long grass planted with ox-eye daisies and native pignut are centred around an elegant eighteenth-century stone urn.
