Three now - three centuries The valley, which begins on the southern slopes of the Quantoc Hills, in Somerset, has recently become an open-air museum. After years of restoration, the gardens of Hestercombs were open to the public. Three parks: the landscaped "Garden of Delights", which emerged during King George’s reign, the Victorian garden of the late 19th century, and Edwardian (the most spectacular of the three), created by the great Edwin Lutienz and Gertrude Jekyll before the First World War, represent the three centuries of English landscape history.

Landscape painting. "Garden of Delights". 1750-1786 The landscape garden that artists come to love so much is actually a living painting itself, influenced by the great landscape painters of the seventeenth century - Salvator Dew, Gupard Poussin, Claud Immrein. In the eighteenth century, when such parks became fashionable, the then owner of the estate of Koplstoun Varre Bampfild gave 40 acres of their land under the pure beauty - lakes, gazebos and forest trails. The eloquent name "Garden of Delights" is not accidental. After all, this part of the Hesterkombsky estate consists entirely of charming corners, panoramas and "natural" viewing platforms. It is nice to wander around, looking at local sights: the temple in Doric style, the majestic mausoleum, the eerie "house of the witches" or the real waterfall surrounded by rings of trees and lawns with large blocks of white quartz. And if you get tired, you can relax next to the “box” pond sheltered from the winds, in which real white swans live. In the heart of the garden is located "Pear Lake". Hence, surprisingly harmoniously arranged park is revealed in all its glory ...

Victorian garden. 1873-1878 In 1872, Miss Elizabeth died, the last in the Varra family, and the Hestercomb estate was acquired by Viscont Portman. The new owner made a significant renovation of the castle and, in accordance with the then fashion, decided to split another garden on the adjoining grounds. The terrace next to the house was designed along the lines of Victorian parks: the architect Henry Hall invited from London placed a fountain in its center, around which four geometrically planted flower beds were located. A little later, a Victorian alley was added to the house from the north, linking the castle with a water tower. The stiffness and formalism inherent in the Victorian style had no effect on the house, but the garden was spared - one of the best examples of the style of its era.

Rural era: Edwardian garden. 1904-1906 In place of the prolonged reign of Queen Victoria came the short age of King Edward. Growing flowers, walking and catching butterflies, tennis and croquet on picturesque lawns became the main attractions of the British nobility. Idleness gave vent to fantasy, natural riches gave birth to refined beauty arising from pure love for art ... It was the pastoral pastimes of the time that England owes to the reputation of the country of gardens, and Hestercombs estate to its last and most significant park. In 1904, my grandson Wiscont Portman, Edward Portman, turned to Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll with a proposal to design a new regular garden in Hestercomb. He is a young and fashionable architect, whom the glory of the builder of New Delphe, the London Cenotaph and the British Embassy in Washington have been waiting for. She is the first woman who professionally engaged in gardening, the creator of the principles without which modern landscape design would be unthinkable. Hestercombe Park has become one of their most successful joint projects. Stone walls and pergolas, artificial ponds and paths paved with bricks, old mill stones and curving staircases — characteristic features of Loutienian architecture, influenced by Italian and Moorish gardens — were mixed here with Gertrude Jekyll’s complex Mediterranean palette. Following the example of Claude Monet, who perceived his garden at Giverny at the same time as the artistic expression of gardening and as an object that could be painted, she saw Hestercombe Park as a series of scenes that vary with the seasons. Jekyll created pictures from bulbous - for spring, from asters - for September, from roses - for the hot months of summer ... As soon as some flowers bloomed, others immediately blossomed. Gertrude Jekyll used picturesque shrubs, wild flowers and perennial plants instead of patterned flowerbeds adopted by gardeners in the Victorian era. “I strictly adhere to that opinion,” wrote Gertrude Jekyll, “that plants, no matter how diverse and good they are and no matter how many, do not themselves create a garden ... We must use plants so that in everything this diversity has a meaning, so that they can form beautiful pictures. " The garden created by Gertrude Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens is beautiful all year round: naive and touching in the spring, lively in the summer, bright in the fall and calm in the winter.