DOI Heft:
No. 111 (June, 1902)
DOI Artikel:The garden at Tigbourne Court, near Witley, Surrey
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19876#0033
The Garden at Tigboume Court
HE GARDEN AT TIGBOURNE
COURT, NEAR WITLEY,
SURREY.
Many are the problems that the garden designer
has to face, but their very diversity, as presented
by one place after another, only adds to the interest
of one of the most attractive of occupations. Every
place has somewhat of its own character; many
are strongly influenced by what is actually beyond
their own limits, but it is only upon the rarest
occasions that two gardens can be carried out
alike.
The grounds at Tigboume Court, a space of
some three acres, when they were taken in hand
by Miss Jekyll, presented rather unusual features.
The ground lies at the southern foot of a hill,
whose upper portion is clothed with a dense wood
of Scotch fir. Still more to the south, and only a
few yards beyond the garden's limits, the soil
changes almost abruptly, the sand of the hilly land
giving place to the stiff soil of the weald. Accord-
ing to the law of the local formation, at this point
the natural drainage of the hill is stopped by the
stiffer soil, and just within the garden it is so close
to the point of overflow that the ground is naturally
full of moisture. The late occupant, who lived in
what is now the gardener's cottage, took much
pleasure in planting fruit trees and evergreen
shrubs, but was unable to undertake the expense
of draining the land. About half of the space was
planted with orchard trees, but these, instead of
being placed some twenty feet apart, were in many
instances only four or five feet distant from each
other.
In consequence of this crowding, and the sour-
ness of the undrained sandy soil, the orchard trees
were in a miserable condition—thickly moss-grown
and badly cankered. The other portion of the
ground was nearly as thickly planted with conifers,
mostly of the cypress and thuja class, for the most
part also in close lines. Fortunately, some well-
grown lines of the fine Lawson cypress of the
erecta viride variety stood at such a distance
apart that they could be taken as a kind of
backbone of the future garden scheme. These
cypresses now stand in in a position which
enables them to be well seen, and they form
the house, tigbourne court, surrey edwin lutyens, architect
2 I
HE GARDEN AT TIGBOURNE
COURT, NEAR WITLEY,
SURREY.
Many are the problems that the garden designer
has to face, but their very diversity, as presented
by one place after another, only adds to the interest
of one of the most attractive of occupations. Every
place has somewhat of its own character; many
are strongly influenced by what is actually beyond
their own limits, but it is only upon the rarest
occasions that two gardens can be carried out
alike.
The grounds at Tigboume Court, a space of
some three acres, when they were taken in hand
by Miss Jekyll, presented rather unusual features.
The ground lies at the southern foot of a hill,
whose upper portion is clothed with a dense wood
of Scotch fir. Still more to the south, and only a
few yards beyond the garden's limits, the soil
changes almost abruptly, the sand of the hilly land
giving place to the stiff soil of the weald. Accord-
ing to the law of the local formation, at this point
the natural drainage of the hill is stopped by the
stiffer soil, and just within the garden it is so close
to the point of overflow that the ground is naturally
full of moisture. The late occupant, who lived in
what is now the gardener's cottage, took much
pleasure in planting fruit trees and evergreen
shrubs, but was unable to undertake the expense
of draining the land. About half of the space was
planted with orchard trees, but these, instead of
being placed some twenty feet apart, were in many
instances only four or five feet distant from each
other.
In consequence of this crowding, and the sour-
ness of the undrained sandy soil, the orchard trees
were in a miserable condition—thickly moss-grown
and badly cankered. The other portion of the
ground was nearly as thickly planted with conifers,
mostly of the cypress and thuja class, for the most
part also in close lines. Fortunately, some well-
grown lines of the fine Lawson cypress of the
erecta viride variety stood at such a distance
apart that they could be taken as a kind of
backbone of the future garden scheme. These
cypresses now stand in in a position which
enables them to be well seen, and they form
the house, tigbourne court, surrey edwin lutyens, architect
2 I