IT’S like going to Narnia’ is how garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith described his first visit to Encombe, hidden away on the coast of Dorset’s Isle of Purbeck. The combination of complete seclusion and a breathtaking natural setting have for centuries given Encombe a fabled reputation that successive owners have embellished, not least James and Arabella Gaggero, who bought the estate in 2009—and became only the sixth family to own the property in 1,100 years.
The estate goes back to 948, when it was given to the Abbess of Shaftesbury by King Eadred. It was dissolved by Henry VIII and eventually passed into the hands of the Culliford family. In 1734, the story of modern Encombe began, when the estate was bought by George Pitt. He gave the property to his son John, who pulled down the existing house and replaced it with a new one of his own Classical design, which survives today. Built of local Purbeck ashlar, it was much larger than its predecessor, with a central block and a wing off each corner.
For advice on creating the landscape garden setting for his new home, Pitt turned to his cousin William, who would become far better known for his political exploits and national leadership, which brought him the Earldom of Chatham. As a young man, William had acquired a keen interest in landscape gardening as the protégé of Lord Cobham (whose niece Hester he would later marry), when Cobham was developing Stowe into the most influential 18th-century landscape garden in England. His cousin’s estate gave William a chance to demonstrate his landscaping skills.
Denne historien er fra July 05, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra July 05, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds