Category Archives: English Gardens

Portmeirion 2. Portmeirion and the Picturesque

Posted on November 12, 2017 by Montacute Pavilion

The most useful way of approaching Portmeirion is through the concept of the picturesque. Williams-Ellis (or, as everyone calls him, Clough) explains how he liked sailing around the Mediterranean and enjoyed the view of coastal towns from the sea. He … Continue reading →

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Portmeirion 1. Introduction

Posted on November 12, 2017 by Montacute Pavilion

People don’t always get Portmeirion (Fig. 1). For example, it has been argued that it is a proto-Post-Modernist work, created by an architect trying to subvert the modernist norm long before Venturi and Scott-Brown came on the scene. But this … Continue reading →

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Goddard’s in York: An Arts and Crafts House Made with Chocolate

Posted on October 23, 2017 by Montacute Pavilion

Goddard’s is an interesting house and garden in the suburbs of York (Fig. 1). It was designed by Walter Brierly, the Lutyens of York, and has many Lutyenesque moments. (It is not to be confused with Lutyens’ building with the … Continue reading →

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On Garden Gateways: Part 1. Serlio’s Libro Estraordinario

Posted on October 5, 2017 by Montacute Pavilion

Sebastiano Serlio’s Libro Estraordinario (Lyons, 1551, also 1558 and 1560) contrasts thirty rustic gateways with twenty ‘delicate’ ones. In a well-known passage, Serlio describes how he came to conceive them: ‘… finding myself continually in this solitude of Fontainebleau, where … Continue reading →

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Highgrove’s Berninian Fabrique

Posted on September 20, 2014 by Montacute Pavilion

A new book on Highgrove arrived today, by Bunny Guinness. I was interested to see if one feature was illustrated there—the Oak Pavilion—as it does not appear in any other book and they don’t let you take photos. Indeed, it … Continue reading →

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Notes on Rodmarton Manor: The Circle

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Montacute Pavilion

Kelmscott Manor is a Museum that feels like a private house, but Rodmarton Manor, curiously enough, is a private house that feels like a museum. The interiors feel oddly unlived in, even though the sofas (a sure sign of inhabited … Continue reading →

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Tim Richardson’s The New English Garden and the Personal Intellectual Garden

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Montacute Pavilion

I have just acquired Tim Richardson’s The New English Garden. One of his bugbears is that the art world won’t take gardens seriously as art, a theme he develops in the introduction. I was reminded of my own Gardens and … Continue reading →

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A Curious Impost Block at Iford Manor

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Montacute Pavilion

At Harold Peto’s Iford Manor by there is a neo-Romanesque pavilion called the Casita on the upper terrace. Its wonderfully weathered architrave is supported on double stone columns with fused capitals (apparently pink Verona marble dating from c. 1200) with … Continue reading →

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