Page 20 - Studio International - October1973

At this stage no views have been given into
the garden itself. Now the spectator turns and
faces inwards for the first time, and on the
return journey follows the course of the
Cherwell, although he has, if he so wishes,
uninterrupted views now of the countryside
which he can select for himself. From the
statue of Apollo, there is the most dramatic
view within the garden, along the Elm Walk
towards the Praeneste, seen diagonally. The
second view of the Praeneste comes after the
12 bend in the river, when the entire length of the
13 garden as far as Venus's Vale comes into view.
From above, the cascades of the Vale are hidden
9. View from Townesend's building
below the grass terraces into which they are set,
and only the large Octagon Pond can be seen,
rising above the Cherwell and the landscape
beyond. From here below, however, the Vale's
cascades are seen in perspective, the single
arch of the top one forcing it back thus
suggesting greater distance, but both, according
to Kent's drawing, intended to throw their
reflections into the small half-moon ponds
beneath them. From below too the Octagon
pond cannot be seen, and the upper ponds
would have been hidden by a screen of trees,
thus presenting the spectator with the subtle
contrasts of green and the sound of running
water. Such a view encouraged Walpole to 10. View from Colossal Figure looking due north,
describe Rousham as 'the most engaging of all showing Heyford Bridge, Temple of the Mill,
and the eyecatcher
Kent's works'30
The seven-arched structure next to the Vale
further strengthens comparisons with Italian
landscape. Called Praeneste (the ancient name
for the modern town of Palestrina), the structure
is clearly based on the famous Temple of
Fortune, which occupied most of the terraced
side of the town and is now believed to have
been a probable source for Bramante's design
of the Cortile del Belvedere in the Vatican.31
The Praeneste is not visible, like the two
cascades in perspective, until the tour of the
garden is more than half completed.
Comparisons can now be made with the long
views over the Roman campagna visible from the 1. View down the Elm Walk from Colossal Figure,
top of the Temple of Fortune.32 The showing Praeneste
counterbalancing of views out of, and then
into, gardens is a common device in Italy,
especially the placing of the spectator so that
he can inspect the views of terraces rising up
the hillside. In fact, at the Villa Lante and the
Villa d'Este, as well as the Villa Aldobrandini,
the first view is into the garden first before the
terraces are climbed and the view of landscape
opened up.
From the bottom of Venus's Vale, the path
leads up to the front of Praeneste. Inside are
seats, and from between the arches are the
long low uninterrupted views of landscape
14 similar to those visible from Palestrina. From
32. View of Praeneste from bend in the Cherwell
the Praeneste, the path passes through the
theatre and along the Cherwell past the slope
leading up to the bowling green, and to the
Pyramid Seat. From all these positions are flat
views over the surrounding countryside,
quite different from the more picturesque
structure of the landscape seen from the higher
124
is elevation. Finally, according to the 1738 map,
a small bridge over the Cherwell could be
crossed, and the whole length of the garden
16 viewed.
Footnotes
'Near Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire. The property of
Mr and Mrs T. Cottrell Dormer, with whose kind
permission these photographs appear.
'William Kent (1684-1748): interior designs for
Kensington Palace (1725-27), Houghton Hall
(1726-3o), Chiswick House (3730-32), Holkam
(1736): garden layouts at Carlton House (c. 173o),
Stowe (c. 173o), Claremont (c. 1734) and Esher
(c. 1735). For a full account of his life and work
see Jourdain, M, 'The Work of William Kent',
Country Life, n.d. A detailed account of the
construction of the garden can be found in Hussey,
Christopher, 'English Gardens and Landscapes.
1700-1750', Country Life, 1967, pp. 347-53.
'Price, Uvedale, 'The Picturesque', 1796 (2nd. ed.)
p. 248. He is here applauding the work of
naturalistic improvers (like Kent) as 'meritorious'
but who had 'substituted other narrow prejudices
and absurdities in the room of those' (i.e. formal
gardens) 'which they had banished'.
'Defoe, Daniel, 'A Tour through the Whole Island
of Great Britain', ed. Cole, 3927.
'Even the Closterman — Gribelin engraving of
Shaftesbury, the frontispiece to 'Characteristicks
of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times', (4th. ed.
1728) shows a close view of a formal garden and
then distant views of mountainous country beyond.
The Moralists, 3709 and the Miscellaneous
Reflections, 1711, collected in `Characteristicks'
`dwell on the value of enthusiasm, and thus
reinforced the cause of emotionalism in art and
life while, at the same time, they provided a
philosophical basis for the appreciation of the
natural world' (Monk, Samuel, 'The Sublime',
Ann Arbor, 196o, p. 59.)
"Ichnographia Rustics', 1718 and 1741-2.
Stephen Switzer (d. 1745) was a nurseryman, and
said to have worked for Lords Orrery and Bathurst,
and with Henry Wise for Marlborough at Blenheim.
'Of course landscape changes over centuries. Over
23o years old, Rousham is obviously, and
necessarily, different from what it was — for
example, it is more densely wooded now, and
some of the important 'open groves' are either
`closed' or no longer there. In describing what
Rousham was like one is, needless to say,
speculating; describing it as it is now, it is possible
that the changes wrought by time could have
obliterated certain intentions and falsified others.
However, the basic structure remains the same
and, judging from Kent's drawing of the Temple
of the Mill and the eyecatcher now in the house
(illustrated Hussey, ibid, illus. 215), the landscape
around has much the same general appearance,
although the village of Heyford has developed and
a railway line crosses the middle distance.
'Charles Bridgeman was successor to Henry Wise
as Royal Gardener, a collaborator with Vanbrugh,
Gibbs and Kent, and the designer of Eastbury, the
Royal Gardens in London, and of the western
gardens at Stowe, He died in 1738. For further
details, see Green, David, 'Gardener to Queen
Anne'. OUP, 1956; Willis, Peter, 'Charles
Bridgeman A Problem in Genealogy', Pinhorns,
197o; and Dr Willis's forthcoming study of
Bridgeman to be published next year by Zwemmers.
'Charles Bridgeman designed a theatre at