Bowood
2 September 2010
Capability Brown, one of England’s greatest landscape gardens, was so named because he would tell his clients that their estates had great “capability” for landscape improvement. I rather love this idea and rather like Brown optimistically believe that you can find potential in everything. Capability certainly saw the potential in Bowood Park, when he was commissioned to design the gardens in 1762 by the 2nd Marquess of Lansdowne. Bowood House and Gardens is a 2,000 acre estate and considered one of Wiltshire’s finest treasures.
The gardens include classic examples of Brown’s work such as his landmark features; the serpentine lake (almost a mile long), expanses of grass and clumps of trees (something best seen rather than explained). Some would describe Brown as a naturalist garden designer in that his gardens would imitate nature and attempt to fit in harmoniously with the surroundings.
The gardens also have other wonders such as an extensive arboretum, pinetum, including 11 champion trees (yes trees can also be champions), bluebell woods, waterfalls, grottoes, a Hermit’s cave and a 2 mile-long rhododendron walk. The rhododendron walk was planted by the 3rd Marquis of Lansdowne in 1854 and rather wonderfully added to by each successive generation up to the present day.
The Lansdowne family have been at Bowood for quite some time – since 1754. You can thus imagine the memorabillia collected over the years. These can be seen at Bowood House itself, which is open to the public and include;
• The Laboratory, where the scientist Dr Joseph Priestley, tutor to the 1st Marquess’ two sons, discovered oxygen in 1774. In those days the room was full of scientific equipment – all sold when the 1st Marquess died.
• The Library, where the great Bowood house parties would meet after dinner to read, play chess, sing, and talk about politics and other topics of the day. Talleyrand, Jeremy Bentham, Lord Macaulay and Irish poet Tom Moore were among the many visitors.
• The Sculpture gallery, which was designed by Robert Adam as a menagerie or zoo for wild animals; a leopard and an orang-utan were kept here in the 18th century.
• The Georgian Room where examples of 18th-century costume of the time of the 1st Marquess are seen as well as the early 19th-century Albanian costume, in which Lord Byron was painted by Thomas Phillips in 1813.
• The Victorian Room, which houses, among other memorabilia of the period, Queen Victoria’s wedding chair and a sprig of waxed orange blossom, both given by her to the 3rd Marquess after her wedding in 1840.
• The Napoleonic Collection, which includes Napoleon’s death mask, pieces of gilded Imperial Sèvres porcelain and other unusual treasures, such as Napoleon’s handkerchief.
In fact, Bowood has so much to offer the historian, nature lover, scientist, golf pro, spa seeker and the young and it is the wish of the current Marquess to share his house and gardens with people of all ages.
Thus, in order to get a real feel for the magnificent estate I would recommend staying there at the recently built Bowood Hotel and Spa. The present Marquis saw the capability Bowood had for a traveller’s refuge and along with his wife created the most wonderfully peaceful getaway.
Bowood Hotel and Spa, 01249 812102
-Emilia Hungerford is deputy-editor of FQR
Tags: Bowood, Capability Brown, Marquis of Lansdowne, Napoleon
