Tag Archives: Art and Craft Movement
Sissinghurst Castle Gardens and Vita Sackville-West
Sissinghurst is probably one of the most famous gardens in England and forever linked with the prolific writer Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson. How did it all begin? Sissinghurst in Kent started out life as a Saxon pig farm – Saxonhurst. Hurst means woodland in Saxon. During Tudor times a fine manor house […]
Topiary – the art of the tree barber
We’re accustomed to seeing art in the form of sculptured stone or clay, even ice, but there is another, which is cheaper, and offers longevity if maintained correctly, and often forgotten – topiary – the art of shaping shrubs and hedges. Topiary dates back to classical antiquity, and supposedly invented by a friend of Emperor […]
Inverewe and Inveresk, a tale of two Scottish Gardens
In 1862 Osgood Mackenzie started a garden from scratch on barren land. Nothing too remarkable about that. Except, the 850 hectare estate is in the Scottish Highlands, an area not exactly renown for fair weather. Osgood’s mum bought him the Inverewe estate. Very nice of her, but what about a garden? Shouldn’t all big estates […]
Miss Gertrude Jekyll and grand garden designs
Often wondered where Dr Jekyll got his name? Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote the book Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, was friends with Walter Jekyll and borrowed his name. Walter though had a more famous sister, Gertrude Jekyll, who really should be better known for her name and its legacy. Gertrude Jekyll is an architect […]
The Quiet Writer 