A haunt of ancient peace - The gardens at Iford Manor, near Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire The home of the Cartwright-Hignett family

After recent renovations, this masterpiece of Harold Peto's garden-making must be counted one of the finest gardens in England

- Tiffany Daneff, Clive Nichols

OH, to have been a fly on the wall in 1898 when Henry Avray Tipping first cycled down the steep hill just outside Bradford-on-Avon and saw below him the River Frome, coursing through its pretty Gothic bridge, and, on his right, the buff-stone walls of Iford Manor. He was immediately charmed by 'its splendid hanging woods, its stately terrace walk, its interesting house with so much history in its medley of styles, its pleasant position near the river with its picturesque bridge'. Was he, perhaps, walking up the garden's triple flights of stone steps when it first clicked that this was the very same property that his house-hunting friend, architect Harold.

Peto, had told him about? Worried that the house was too close to the road and river and that the estate was 'overshadowed and overgrown, neglected and decayed', Peto had held back his offer to buy it.

Tipping, soon to become Architectural Editor at COUNTRY LIFE, thought, on the contrary, that 'the faults were overshadowed by the amenities' (COUNTRY LIFE, September 28, 1907). Perhaps his enthusiasm was enough to tip the balance, for, a year later, Peto bought the estate and soon began works on both house and garden. The latter is Italianate in style, with three initial terraces linked by flights of stone steps, along which he placed piers topped with antique statues and urns. Further treasures gathered on his travels are arranged throughout the garden and placed with the same care as a rock in a Japanese garden-of which there is one here, for Peto also journeyed to Japan. His eye was as infallible as his taste. The result is a garden with such atmosphere and beauty that it almost defies description. It remains, as Patrick Taylor declared, in The Oxford Companion to the Garden (2006), 'his most complete and attractive garden'.