Castle Howard
Pyrotechnic plantsmanship - and a plethora of pyramids
25 July 2023
By: James Lennox
I’ve spent large parts of my life within easy striking distance of Castle Howard and, until this week, had somehow never got round to visiting. For most of that time, I’d been labouring under the misapprehension that it was all house, no garden. And this Philistine can only take so much chinoiserie and parquet floors.
And then, when I discovered that there were indeed gardens of note, I held off, torn between the apprehension that they wouldn’t live up to the grandeur of the house and the temptation to eke out for another year the anticipation of visiting. A bit like not wanting to unwrap all your presents on Christmas morning, determined to string out the pleasure until Boxing Day at least.
In the end, curiosity got the better of me - I had to see the gardens for myself, probably the last long-term inhabitant of Yorkshire to do so.
On arrival, most visitors head straight to the house itself, to get their fill of tapestries, frescoes and kitchenalia. Their loss is my gain as, en route, they skip right past the Walled Garden (a mere 9 acres, give or take, around a quarter of which is open to the public). And what a gem it is. No, it’s not been laid out by the fashionable designer de nos jours, nor does it have a collection of rarities to bowl you over.
Instead, you’re greeted with a south-facing mixed border that must be 150 yards or so long. Not a bad opener, filled to bursting with a wide range of herbaceous do-ers, many with a distinct purplish tinge (Hylotelephium ‘Purple Emperor’, Atriplex hortensis var. rubra, Eupatorium purpureum, Thalictrum ‘Elin’), with the odd dazzler, such as a startling clump of orange alstroemeria. No fear of bright colours here.
The rest of the Walled Garden has a decorative veg patch, particularly well-executed red borders, the Sundial Garden filled with blue and white annuals (Salvia viridis treated as an edging plant, Cleome hassleriana ‘White Queen’ adding height and drama), the Venus rose garden (past its first flush in mid-July), and Lady Cecilia’s Garden, a loose romantic space dotted with silvery plants (eryngiums, lychnis, anaphalis) to complement the Pyrus salicifolia ‘Pendula’ planted by the dipping pond. And overseeing it all is the Gardener’s House, a showpiece worthy of a grand estate.
If it’s flowery borders you’re after, well, that’s it. The rest of the gardens at Castle Howard are on too vast a scale to entertain such trifles. Best to keep them under lock and key where they can’t interfere with the jaw-dropping grandeur of the house itself.
And that’s the biggest dilemma at Castle Howard - how to reconcile one of the grandest houses in England to its surroundings. The solution hit upon by the 3rd Earl of Carlisle and Sir John Vanbrugh is the tried-and-tested one that was rolled out across the land in subsequent decades - carpet up to the house with manicured lawns.
The south lawn was initially studded with ornaments (obelisks, urns, columns, etc), but this was all swept away in the mid-19th century by Nesfield’s geometric gravel and box arrangement of which the only surviving element following a further revision at the end of the century is the Atlas Fountain, hedged in with yew. It was probably too big to move.
Homage paid to the house, turn your back on it, look due south and behold! a pyramid. Now, I’m as much a fan of pyramids as the next man and in my more pharaonic moments idly imagine being buried in one when the time comes. But Lord Carlisle seems to have taken his pyramid fix to the max, his own son thinking there were ‘enough already’ and asking for ‘some other Ornaments … of a different form from ye pyramide’.
Thank goodness this pyramid remains. Jauntily off-centre, it looks like nothing so much as an alien landing craft on a recon mission. Nonsense - the little green men would get completely the wrong impression of England if they thought Castle Howard was representative of the rest of the country. And having landed here, why would they want to go any further? Result: the premature end of the invasion. Instead, we’re encouraged to believe it was designed by Hawksmoor, along with the Mausoleum and Temple of the Four Winds.
Step down from the parterre and leave all thoughts of Martians behind. Re-enter a sublime Arcadian idyll as you head for the South Lake, with views back to the house and ahead of you to another showstopper - the Mausoleum. Some of us prefer pyramids as our final resting place. Horace Walpole, however, famously thought it so fine that it ‘would tempt one to be buried alive’. He had a point.
Or should you have progressed from the house along the terraced walk leading to the Temple of the Four Winds? It’s at this end of the garden that the landscape is most reminiscent of another great 18th century creation, Stowe, where Vanbrugh also sprinkled his magic. With views down to the lake, strategically placed statues lining the route and the wider landscape opening before you as you reach the temple, grass and native trees will do nicely.
Which only leaves Ray Wood and its decidedly non-native treasures. Of course, the middle of July, especially a cold, wet and windy one, is probably not the most propitious time to wander along winding paths through a woodland renowned for its rhododendron collection. But who doesn’t love stumbling across an Aztec pyramid (Lord Carlisle having another moment, perhaps?) and the occasional late-flowering beauty (R. ‘Polar Bear’, I think - a missing label in an otherwise perfectly labelled collection). A spring re-visit is definitely in order. This time, I contented myself with some Stewartia-spotting and Nothofagus-necking.
Is it possible to learn anything for one’s own more reduced circumstances? Of course. Don’t plant climbing roses or a Virginia creeper up your house if it’s an architectural gem. If, on the other hand, it was built in the 1970s, then go ahead and pop in that Virginia creeper. Be bold with colour - who doesn’t love red and purple under a grey northern sky? Throw some annuals into the perennial mix. And don’t get carried away with garden ornaments, unless they’re pyramids and you fancy being buried in one.
More information here: https://www.castlehoward.co.uk/
