Rousham Garden, Oxfordshire.

Outside Rousham House in Oxfordshire, Longhorn cattle graze today as they did three hundred years ago. Actually, at that time, there were '...two fine Cows, two Black Sows, a Bore, and a Jack Ass' as John Macclary, gardener at Rousham in the 1750s, wrote in a letter. As then, a ditch, the ha-ha, separates the pastures from the green lawn in front of the house. This invisible but effective boundary was part of the works completed by Charles Bridgeman, garden designer, for Colonel Robert Dormer, Rousham's owner, around 1721. Unperturbed by the unusual shape of the garden, Bridgeman arranged a bowling green in the large rectangular area in front of the house and developed a semi-formal garden, with rectilinear paths and pools, in the sloping area above the River Cherwell.

In 1737, William Kent's interventions proved more impressive. The architect and garden designer, summoned by Rousham's new owner, General James Dormer-Cottrell, added crenellations and two wings to the house, a Jacobean mansion built in 1635, and gave to Bridgeman's layout a more natural look. He created meandering paths through the wood and glades where light and trees framed classical statues, pools, cascades, solitary temples and small buildings. Seats arranged in strategic positions made the surrounding landscape part of the experience.

Turning the corner of the house the marble group of a lion attacking a horse creates a focal point at the end of the perfect English lawn.

'You walk forward to view the Lion nearer,' Macclary wrote 'when your eye drops upon a very fine Concave Slope, at the Bottom of which runs the Beautifull River Charvell, and at the top stands two pretty Gardens Seats... from whence prehaps at this time you have the prettiest view in the whole World  ...five pretty Country Villages, and the Grant Triumphant Arch in Aston Field, ... and [far away] a very pretty Corn Mill, Built in the Gothick manner...'

Not far, the statue of Apollo closes the view at the end of a straight path, but, once there, you discover

'... a very near view of Heyford Bridge, and the fine Clear Stream comeing Gliding through the Arches.'

Kent developed the relationship between the garden and the surrounding landscape hinted by the ha-ha borrowing views, 'call[ing] in the country,' as Alexander Pope, poet, Kent's friend and Rousham's enthusiastic visitor, suggested in his Epistle IV to Richard Boyle, Lord Burlington. Unexpected views surprised visitors beyond the boundaries as well as in the garden, where the different scenes, screened by trees and shrubs, could be approached from different paths.

Seen from the river, the Vale of Venus is a pleasant dell with a sloping green lawn, with, in Macclary's words:

'a Cascade, where the Water comes tumbling down from under three Arches, through Ruff Stones, ... in the middle stands another Cascade, where the Water comes pouring down one Arch, on the right hand of which stands Faun, on the Left stands Pan, upon pedestals, you carry your eye still on you see a Fountain playing thirty feet High, that is five inches Diameter, behind which stands a Figur Venus.'
The high jets of water in front of the cascades have long since disappeared as the thick trees in front of the octagonal pool at Venus's feet. But, even without trees, the mirror of water is not visible from the river, as the cascades are just gentle mounds covered by grass standing by Venus. 

Statuary and buildings were more than a  decorative element in the garden, but a shared language that, referring to ancient Rome and classical myths, told life and death, love, sorrow and pleasure. Macclary mentioned many more statues in his letter, such as 'the Busts of a young Cleopatra, Shakeesper, ... Alexander,' and they were painted. 

Besides, among trees and evergreen shrubs bloomed flowers. Macclary proudly reported the variety of trees in the garden, including oaks, elms, black cherrys, beach and alder, but also large masses of evergreen and flowering shrubs. In his letter addressed to the owners who neglected Rousham, Macclary lingered on the effect of flowers intermixed with evergreen leaves:

'here you think the Laurel produces a Rose, the Holly a Syringa, the Yew a Lilac, and the sweet Honeysuckle is peeping out from under every Leafe, in short they are so mixt together, that youd think every Leafe of the Evergreens, produced one flower or a nother.'

Evergreens inspired an endless spring, providing interest in the garden all year round. They were considered valuable plants, and usually arranged in specific areas. Here, they created an intriguing picture mixed with flowers, a different atmosphere from that we know today. Walking around the garden, the old General James Dormer-Cottrell, who had retired at Rousham to spend his last years, could enjoy scents and colours, bubbling water and noble thoughts.

'...from hence you goe a long a Sepentine Gravel walk, which brings you to the Kitchen Garden Door, which when you enter in, it makes you forget all they Beautys you have seen befor, it lookn more like paradice then a Ketchen Gardn.' 

Macclary was not exaggerating. Entering the door, the kitchen garden is 'wall'd round with Brick walls twelve feet high, well planted with choise Fruit trees...' today as it was three hundred years ago.

Photos:
TravelinaGarden,  Rousham Garden, April 2014.

Further reading:
Tim Richardson, The Arcadian Friends, Transworld Publishers, London, 2007.


Links:
Rousham House and Garden, Rousham, Oxfordshire.
http://www.rousham.org/

William Kent: Designing Georgian Britain.
V&A Exhibition 22 March- 13 July 2014
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/william-kent-designing-georgian-britain/