Part III: Enjoying the Sights of Spring
In the final instalment of our spring blogpost, we start on a bucket list item.
Friday 10 May 2024 is a date we will never forget as the sky above our home in Berkshire was awash with the purples, pinks, emeralds and turquoises of the aurora borealis. We had followed the news about the solar cycle all afternoon and were initially sceptical that nature’s light display would arrive in the south east of England but just after 11pm the skies began to dance. We were in awe, necks craned, gazing up at the skies which were also twinkling with stars. This was a bucket list sighting, experienced in the comfort of our back garden.
Update: We were treated to an even more powerful display of this natural phenomenon on 10 October 2024 as the skies lit up in the most stunning fashion. Greens and purples were the dominant shades of May’s display but in October ethereal wisps of reds and pink infused the starry sky.
After a rather thrilling Friday night, we started the following day with an early morning walk in Windsor Great Park’s Valley Gardens. Whilst the azaleas in the Punch Bowl were over, the rhododendrons were in spectacular form.
Covering over 250 acres, the Valley Gardens are a quieter area of the park, and easily the most beautiful. We spent an hour or two getting lost on the undulating paths, enjoying the haziness of the early morning sun trickle through the trees. Rhododendrons and azaleas in jewel-toned colours marked our route and after our walk we sat with hot chai lattes, admiring the unspoiled view towards Virginia Water Lake.
On the south-west side of the park, you’ll find Ascot Gate, another peaceful area for a walk. We often take early-evening ambles here and the established oaks with their luscious green leaves cast splendid shadows on the path at golden hour.
Another local National Trust property to us is Cliveden, which we have visited several times this season. Whilst the house is now a private hotel, it boasts a glamourous 300 year history. The estate has been home to dukes, earls, viscounts and a prince and its last owners continued the property’s long legacy as a glittering hub of high society, hosting exclusive parties and political gatherings. In 1893, America’s richest man – William Waldorf Astor – bought Cliveden for $1.2m. Cliveden had a dazzling reputation as the place you had to be if you were a ‘somebody’. It hit the headlines in 1963 for its place in the ‘Profumo Affair’ and shortly after this, the National Trust took over its management.
Its grounds are very special and the perfect place for a long walk. You must not miss the water garden and its ornate pagoda, which was made for the Paris Exhibition of 1867 and takes centre stage among three large ponds. The pagoda is bordered by feathery foliage, including a beautiful white wisteria that flowers in May.
Nearby you’ll find the entrance to the yew tree maze that provides 500 metres of winding paths and a challenging conundrum to those who enter. We spent at least half an hour finding the centre and making our way back out again.
Many of the estate’s highlights are thanks to the Astors love of classical sculpture, Italian design and transplanting their travels into their English countryside abode, although the mark of earlier residents is still present.
The gilded clock tower and fountain of love, provide dramatic focal points on the approach to Cliveden House. The Blenheim Pavilion, nestled in a meadowy top corner of Cliveden’s extensive grounds, is the work of Venetian architect Giacomo Leoni in 1727. The Parterre is a grand, symmetrical display of manicured gardening, framing the impressive property with perfect topiary.
The Rose Garden shines in summer months as around 850 roses in shades of peach, blush, plum, butter, lemon, coral and carmine fill the beds, their sugary fragrance rousing comments from visitors who push their noses up to individual blooms, ready to inhale deliciously intoxicating perfumes.
Your visit must start or finish (or both) at the conservatory café which serves delicious cakes, hot drinks and savoury bites. It’s also a good place to consult your map and choose which bits to revisit, save for a future visit or head to next.
Our penultimate National Trust tripe of the spring season took us to Kent and Scotney Castle. This fairytale medieval moated castle and Victorian country mansion set within a spectacular example of Picturesque landscaping. The grounds date back to the twelfth century, but the Hussey family are to thank for its current iteration. They lived here from 1778 and, in the 1830s, transformed it into the estate you see today. Edward Hussey III hired Anthony Salvin to build a new house at the top of the hill overlooking the sweeping valley. He also had the vision of transforming the old castle into a ruin, and so it became a romantic folly situated on a moat awash with waterlilies. Edward Hussey III’s imagination transformed Scotney Castle into not only an idyllic space but one of the most significant survivals of a complete Picturesque landscape.
The manor house is full of art, books, collectables, furniture and decorative objects, and is well worth a tour before exploring the expansive gardens. The quarry garden contains a 100-million-year-old impression of an Iguanodon, a dinosaur that roamed this part of the world in the Mesozoic era. Pink and blue hydrangeas were in bloom and leaves in shades of jade, emerald and chartreuse fluttered in the warm breeze. We walked around the moat, enjoying the view of the bucolic old castle. Old English roses, clematis and ivy clamber up the walls, enveloping the ruins in a sweeping sash of bright green with hints of white. Geese were grazing along the banks. You’re even able to go inside the ruins, which were hosting a small exhibition for local wildlife artist, Nessie Ramm. Ramm paints beautiful scenes of nature on old metal road signs and the exhibition, entitled ‘Changed Priorities Ahead’, celebrated the forgotten, native wildflowers of our roadsides. Toadflax, viper’s bugloss, common vetch, rare green-winged orchids and ox-eye daisies, species that thrive independently on verges, are depicted with exquisite detail by Ramm. With 780 acres of estate to explore, Scotney Castle provides wonderful routes – long and short – to explore.
Before heading home, we popped to picturesque Ticehurst to wander around the village’s quaint shops and galleries. In this East Sussex village lives the most charming shop: The Old Haberdashery. It’s a sweet shop for anyone who considers themselves a magpie and a lover of vintage textiles, ribbons, embroidery threads and pretty trinkets. We spent a while perusing the shelves; rummaging through all sorts of delights and chatting to the shopkeeper who gave us great shopping and eating recommendations for the local area.
Our final adventure of the season took us back to Sussex, this time to the west of the county. Petworth is an imposing seventeenth century house displaying one of the finest collections of art in the care of the National Trust. Petworth has passed through just one family – the Percys – in its 900 year history. The Percy family stronghold was in the north and Petworth was originally only intended for occasional use. In the late-sixteenth century Queen Elizabeth I grew suspicious of the family’s allegiance to Mary, Queen of Scots, subsequently banishing the family to the south, making Petworth their permanent home. In the late-seventeenth century the property was reinvented. This was in large part down to the marriage between Elizabeth Percy and Charles Seymour, the sixth Duke of Somerset in 1682. They formed one of the wealthiest couples in England. They wanted Petworth to rival European palaces like Versailles, so set about transforming the property into a grand mansion that hosted some of the most influential people of the era. Petworth experienced its ‘Golden Age’ in the late-eighteenth century when George O’Brien Wyndham inherited the state. He was a collector and patron of British art, and so the property boasts work by JMW Turner and John Constable.
A wander through Petworth’s many rooms will leave you spellbound. The work of Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Blake, Turner, Constable and other old masters guild the walls. Turner, himself, enjoyed a productive relationship with Petworth, drawing much inspiration from the estate’s great beauty. While Turner is known for his majestic landscapes, we were particularly taken with a resplendent portrait of Jessica from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice which hangs in the North Gallery. Also in this room is the Molyneux globe, the first English terrestrial globe and only surviving first edition. The Carved Room is one of the most flamboyant. Carvings by the Dutch artist Grinling Gibbons frame regal portraits of the family. Enriched by everything we had seen, we headed for some food.
After lunch in the wonderfully restored servants’ quarters, we explored the grounds, which were redesigned by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, the most famous landscaper of the eighteenth-century. Capability Brown was responsible for introducing two ponds, which are now home to hundreds of Egyptian, greylag and Canadian geese. While it was a fairly grey day, the property’s sweeping splendour was clear to see from quite a distance. Petworth was a perfect conclusion to a wonderful season full of colour and countryside jaunts.
