Searching for the Sublime in Cumbria.

Dalemain Mansion's HaHa 

The Landscape Movement was in full stride in the 1790's and without it the England's Lake District National Park would look totally different today.

The English Landscape Movement created gently rolling hills and trickling streams, planned against a back drop of forests, with groups of trees in the foreground.    Tree planting, the blasting of rocks to gain access created new vistas and the picturesque scenes we love today.

Levens Hall near Kendal was the first place in the British Isles to build, then record a HaHa.  This was something of an innovation.   Until the early 18th Century all gardens had to be enclosed by wall, fence or hedge.   The HaHa is a ditch that facilitates the landscape to be viewed from the garden without interruption.

Dalemain near Penrith also boasted a HaHa enabling them to further expand the terraced walks and the garden below the orchard wall to become part of an 18th Century Low Garden.

Leven Hall's HaHa 

Many historic houses and large estates are sited in the county of Cumbria and landowners were developing their gardens extensively during the time of the House of Hanover (1714-1837).

Wordsworth House, Cockermouth, in 1764 became the home of John Wordsworth when he was appointed Land Agent to Sir James Lowther.    The father of five children, including poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850), had a home set in a picturesque location overlooking a beautiful river.

The National Trust, Britain's largest conservation charity, have restored the gardens to represent the life and times of the Wordsworth family (1764-1784).    The rear garden, known as the privy garden, has been redesigned, with the help of archaeologists and researchers, to recreate the one in which William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy loved to play.    The terrace with its view over the River Derwent was a favourite place.    The garden would also have provided the family with fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers.

Allan Bank, Grasmere, was another home of William Wordsworth from 1808 to 1811 and, although he described the house as "a temple of abomination" when it was being built, today we can look across to the house with the knowledge that the trees and grounds were landscaped by England's greatest poet in the Landscape style of his time.

Leased in 1813 by the poet from Le Fleming family of Rydal Hall, the final home of William Wordsworth, was Rydal Mount, near Ambleside.    He was to remain here until he died in 1850.

The garden remains much as William Wordsworth designed it with sloping West facing terraces and a summerhouse.   The design of this garden would do much credit to a landscape designer today and it says a lot for Wordsworth's love of nature and interest in gardens that he was able to create something that was to stand the test of time in the same way as his poetry has.  

In 1774 a Roundhouse (folly house) was built in on Belle Isle on Windermere and became the  home of the Curwen family of Workington in 1781.   John Christian Curwen (1756-1828), husband of Isabella Curwen - heiress to the Workington coalmines, landscaped the grounds but was criticised by Dorothy Wordsworth, the much loved sister of the poet William Wordsworth.

"Mr. Curwen's shrubberies looked pitiful enough under the native trees ..... And that great house!   Mercy upon us!......But it cannot be covered.    Even the tallest of our oak trees would not reach to the top of it".

The planted grounds can be seen in winter from a cruise on the Lake at Windermere though today, contrary to Dorothy Wordsworth's belief, the trees in summer conceal the view of the Roundhouse.

John Christian Curwen took over the estate at Workington Hall by marriage.    He was a Reformer, MP, Agricultural pioneer and innovator of Social Welfare.    He played an important part in the development of Workington.    As well as landscaping Belle Isle he remodelled many acres of land in Cumbria.    Letters of the 1780's show John Christian Curwen ordered foreign plants from the Americas and show he planned to propagate them in the large glass houses at Workington Hall.

Holker Hall, Cark in Cartmel, was developed between 1783 and 1793 by Lord Augustus Cavendish, Holker's new owner.    He made extensive alterations to the two gardens developed in the 1720's by Sir Thomas Lowther, who had planted clipped topiary hedges embellished by statues transported from London.    The old Dutch gardens were replaced with a contrived natural landscape as was the new fashion.

Holker Hall, Cark in Cartmel

The romantic Nunnery Walks, Croglin, were laid out from 1775 and became famous within a short time thanks mainly due to the splendid write up the they received in Volume I of Hutchinson's widely read "History of Cumberland" published in 1794.    The description of the walks stressed their romantic nature, as fashionable, and became the reason for their  immediate fame.    The Walks were constructed at a time when Europe and Britain were under the influence of the Romantic Movement.    This brought about a totally new perception of nature.   Rocks were blasted and paths built in order to give access to the grandeur of unspoiled nature.

Another romantic landscape was Aira Force, Ullswater.   In the 1790's the Howard family, of Greystoke, had an old hunting lodge, close to the Ullswater shore renovated.   Renamed Lyulph's Tower it was set amongst its own sporting estate.

The landscaped area around the Force (waterfall) was used as a pleasure garden, where over half a million native and ornamental trees were planted.    A network of tracks, footpaths and bridges were established.    By this time the Romantic Movement was discovering the beauty of natural countryside and Aira Force had become a fashionable destination for guided tours and expeditions.

Aira Force Pleasure Ground, Ullswater

Storrs Hall, Windermere, was improved to the designs of Liverpool architect John Gandy for Sir John Leggard, a rich merchant from the the great Mersey seaport of Liverpool.    Today Storrs Hall is a Hotel with 17 acres of landscaped gardens that include two early 19th Century buildings that dominate the shores of Windermere.    The Temple of Heroes, raised to honour the memories of four British navy immortals, and a boathouse.

Between 1714 and 1837 thousands of trees were planted. 

John, first Lord Muncaster, planted hardwood trees throughout the estate of Muncaster Castle, Ravenglass, in 1780 including beech, chestnut, elm and oak.

Henry Fletcher laid out the gardens of Hutton in the Forest.    Included were two walled gardens one for vegetables and fruit and one for cut flowers.    Only the flower garden nearest the house remains.    The Grove surrounds the house on its North and West sides.    There is a woodland walk with mature hardwoods oak, beech and lime many planted over 300 years ago.

The landscape garden was created in the 18th Century.    By 1750 Britain was at last the garden masters - the velvet lawn and le jardin anglais were the envy of the world.

Cumbria's topography and geography was by nature a beautiful landscape.  This did not prevent the rich and powerful from improving their surroundings, creating picturesque vistas and searching for the sublime in their gardens and grand estates.