The gardens at Rockingham Castle are made up of several different terraces that are divided from the plain Terraced Lawn directly in front of the castle building by the Elephant Hedge – so called because they are sculpted to look like a row of elephants.
The gardens at Canons Ashby present a lovely first impression of the estate. Edward Dryden, beginning in 1908, was largely responsible for the development of the gardens as it looks today. He wanted to create an organised landscape of geometric shapes.
On my last trip to London there was such glorious sunny weather that I decided to head to Holland Park which I last visited in 2018. I wanted to see if the blossoms were in bloom yet on the trees – they weren’t quite but there were lots of lovely colourful flowers.
A friend and I picked Leamington Spa in Warwickshire as a good day trip location roughly half-way between where we each live. Our first stop was to wander around Jephson Gardens. Around five minutes from the train station the gardens, which are named for Dr Henry Jephson who promoted the town as a spa destination, were created in 1831 and have been a popular attraction ever since.
Princes Street Gardens is a public park in the centre of Edinburgh and the first place we headed after booking into our hotel in order to stretch our legs after a long car journey.
We had assumed when booking a combined ticket for Alnwick Castle and garden, that the gardens were part of the castle, but in fact they are also an attraction in their own right and a registered charity created by the Duchess of Northumberland.
Paycocke’s House and Garden is a National Trust property in Coggeshall, Essex. The house was built in 1509 by Thomas Paycocke, a wealthy cloth merchant, one of the richest men in Coggeshall. The wool Paycocke produced, known as Coggeshall white, was said to be one of the best cloths in the country.
Charlecote Park is an impressive 16th century National Trust property on the banks of the River Avon in Warwickshire. Not only are the interiors beautifully decorated, but it is surrounded by a deer park where we were fortunate to get quite close to the deer, and the River Avon is literally on its door step.
On a sunny day last year we headed to Derbyshire and Hardwick Hall, a stunning Elizabethan house built by Elizabeth Shrewsbury, best known as Bess of Hardwick. Rather than explore the house on this visit we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and go on some of the walks around the Estate and the gardens, which did however bring us close enough to admire the Hall.
On the same day we visited the Monkey Forest we headed next door to Trentham Gardens. Examining a map beforehand we decided to walk around the mile long Trentham Lake, designed by Capability Brown, stopping off to also visit the ruins of Trentham Hall and the Italian Gardens.
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