ArabeUa Lennox-Bor~

power to outdo the spectacular jeuxd'eau known to exist at the Russianimperial palaces. Paxton duly redirecteda good number of the streams on themoors above the estates, constructed acouple of lakes and created sophisti-cated water systems in order to createthe water pressure he required; usingthis~ he was able to make the fountainspout to an astonishing 300 feet.

Such water schemes were the heightof fashion, and were imitated on a hum-bler scale in the gardens of Victorianvillas throughout the land. The foun-tain here is charming, made of mossystone, it is supported by a small boy; itsthree jets spill downon to the leaves ofiris and water lilies in the small rusticpond below, bathing with their spraythe innumerable tilly frogs that bask onlily pads. Frogs are now much lessplentiful than they used to be, for theponds where they lay their spawn havesteadily disapperaed or become pol-Iuted. City ponds such as this are there-fore a welcome haven. Here the lan-guid hush of a hot summer' s afternoonis punctuated by a chorus of throatycroaks; and in the evening the frogsprovide quite a spectacle. At eighto'clocksharp, accordingtoMrGardner .they form up and process as one to thelawn, where, as if on a given signal,they scatter into the herbaceous bordersto forage for food. As theirdietincludesslugs, snails and greenfly. Mr Gardnerregards them with a benevolent eye.

Beside the pond is one of the gar-den' s most remarkable features, therock-work grotto, planted with fernsand ivy, of a type which was all the ragein Victorian gardens, Such decorativefancies echoed the taste for chinoiserieand the rococo which bad flourished inthe late eighteenth century; but to Vic-torian gardeners, obesessed as they were

gardens flourished. By the end of the18th century two notable botanic gar-dens wereestablishedhere, one, in Liv-erpool Road, belonging to J acobHarvey, and the other to Dr WilliamPitcairn, President of the Royal Collegeof Physi-cians.

From the 1820's, however , ruralBarnsbury succumbed to the greatbuilding boom of the nineteenth cen-tury, and its fields were dug for clay tomake the bricks for new houses ( oftenthe clay was dug on site, the resultinghole becoming the basement of thehouse subsequently built with the bricksmade from it). Thomas Cubitt, later tobecome famous for his speculations inBloomsbury and Belgravia, was thebuilder here, a 'liberal benefactor ...ofunassuming demeanour ...who borehis great prosperity with be(:omingmodesty .' He laid out a rather loose andvery attractive composition of stuccostreets, crescents and opencomeredsquares, of which Barnsbury Square isone of the prettiest parts.

It is possible that the White Conduitstill flows through the square, thoughunderground now, for there is certainlya stream running under the Gardners'garden: one of the supports of the ar-bour stands permanently in water, whichbubbles up if ever the pole is moved.Water is a feature here, as it was ofevery selfrespecting Victorian garden.W ater , and the control of it with thenew engineering skills then develop-ing. became a mania. When TsarNicholas visited Britain in 1844, forinstance, the Duke of Devonshire de-cided to mark the occasion by erectingthe Emperor Fountain on his great es-tate at Chatsworth. The engineer JosephPaxton, designer and builder of theCrystal Palace, was engaged tor thework, and was instructed to do all in his

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Arabella Lennox-Boyd-I -

planted en masse, yielded the concen-trated blocks of colour so beloved ofbedding-out schemes. Petunias,clarkias, salpiglossis, salvias,schizanthus, alstroemerias and

eschscholzias, among others, quicklybecame firm favourites for elaboratedesigns, which became known as'mosaiculture'. As in virtually everyother aspect of Victorian gardening,however, feeling ran bigh, and the bed-ding-out craze bred its own reaction inthe person of William Robinson, whoin bis majorworks, The English FlowerGarden (1883) and The Wild Gardner(l87o), set out bis views with character-istic forthrightness: 'The genius of cre-tinism itself could hardly delight inanything more tasteless orignobte thanthe absurd daubs of colour that everysummer flare in the neighbourhood ofnearly every country-house in WesternEurope. ' It was estimated that for any

averagely ambitious scheme as manyas 7000 plants would be needed.

Robinson insisted tbat bis moreinfomal style of gardening was bettersuited to small gardens,and bis ideasbecame extremely influential. Follow-ers ofhis New Landscape School wereto include Gertrude Jekyll and AlfredAustin, who summed up their feelingswhen he wrote, 'I have seen one clam-bering rose, one lingering hollyhockglorify a cottage home, arrest one'sstep, and prolong one's meditations,more th an alI the terraces ofChatsworth. ' Clearly this was the school

of gardening which most influencedMrs Gardener as she re-stocked theherbaceous borders -though the holly-hocks ofwbich there used to be so manysimply disappeared one year, and haveproved impossible to re-establish.Quantities of camellias, peonies andgeraniums are here, while Rosa' Paul' s

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Himalayan Musk' grows through a tallCotoneasterlacteus and a pinkramblerscrambles up a crab apple tree.

A clematis arch under a laburnumtree, with a cherry beyond, marks thetransition from the top half of the gar-den to the lawn and borders. Under thetrees are Rosa 'Buff Beauty' and aSyringa meyer; 'Palibin', a daintycousin of the ordinary lilacs with leavesthe size of an old penny and minutemauve-pink flowers, and nearby is abush wisteria which flowers at the sametime as the laburnum, with brea.th tak-ing results. Much consternation wascaused in 1987 ,when after the night ofthe hurricane the Gardeners awoke tofind a huge sycamore from next doorsprawled across this part of the garden.Fortunately the damage did not turn outto be as serious as they feared: the treehad ripped a large bough off the cherrytree as it fell, but then bad been sup-ported by its own branches and so badnot completely flattened everythingunderneath.

Halfway down one of the borders area seat and white wrought-iron table, inthe shade of an arbour of clematis,jasmine, iv y and rose 'Cerise Bouquet' .ln the opposite corner of the gardenstands the gazebo, the perfect spot fromwhich to enjoy the view back to thebouse. This garden is a commemora-tion not only of an era in garden design,but also of the considerable time andcare devoted to its restoration by MrsGardener, who might have bad in mindsome words of Gertrude Jekyll:Thepurpose of a garden is to give happinessand repose of mind, which is' moreoften enjoyed in the contemplation ofthe homely border. ..than in any of thosegreat gardens where the flowers losetheir identity, and with it their hold ofthe human heart. ,

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Privale Gardens of London -A Viclorian Garden

Fig. 2. The pool and fountain are fed by a tiny waterfall which is sheltered by an ivy-shrouded grotto. The water is piped under the path, and pressure is provided by apump hidden in the old coach house.

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