Painshill

Painshill Park is a historic garden near Cobham ( Surrey, England). Charles Hamilton designed it in time from 1738 to 1773. It was one of the first facilities in the style of an English garden. He became the model for numerous parks in Europe. After the death of Hamilton, the garden was neglected and partially abandoned. From 1980, the Painshill Park Trust began a restoration.

History

The emergence of Painshill Park is closely linked to the life story of Charles Hamilton. He had traveled to Italy in 1732, visited Rome and acquired numerous paintings and ancient sculptures. From 1738, he began his artistic taste and his fondness for the antique with the contemporary design of a novel type of garden, the landscape garden to put into practice. On a site of fifty acres later eighty - leased and enlarged through acquisitions - consisting of heath and woodland was gradually a picturesque parkland. Hamilton case evolved from a horticultural amateur to a skilled and imaginative landscape architects, the experts of his time uttered praise and recognition. The finance the operation was carried out by extensive debt: One of his backers was the banker Henry Hoare the Younger, who laid out in the following years with Stourhead even a famous landscape park.

The elongated plot of land (about 1.5 km ) has been completely altered by the creation of an artificial lake. The water was conveyed by means of a bucket wheel from the south running river Mole. The construction of bridges connecting the islands formed, and numerous garden staffages brought Hamilton into financial trouble, which could not be resolved by the revenues of a hastily erected tile factory. Hamilton, in addition plagued by health problems was, therefore in 1773 forced the entire estate to sell.

Among the subsequent owners of the park fell prey to neglect. 1948 parts were sold for agricultural and forestry use. Due to public pressure in the 1970s, the Elmbridge Council Borrough acquired approximately 65 acres of land and prompted the 1980 creation of the Painshill Park Trust, which since then is dedicated to the restoration of the garden.

Shape and features

The artificial, about eight -acre lake ( 1760 ) forms the central area of ​​the garden. In the surrounding him, gently undulating landscape of different landscapes productions were inserted by Hamilton with great empathy; There were scenic locales quite different mood. So the ancient world was borrowed scenes with a Temple of Bacchus ("Temple of Bacchus ", with the collaboration of Robert Adams) in a colorful setting, a Roman mausoleum, however, in a harsh and dreary landscape. Yet another emotional state corresponded to a rustic hermitage (destroyed), which was in a gloomy forest area. The hermitage was reconstructed according to historical drawings in 2004, served in it once a Schmuckeremit as picturesque sight.

Among the many garden buildings and follies included a pavilion and a tower, both in neo-Gothic style. The tower ( before 1760 ) served as a lookout. A " Turkish tent " corresponded to the contemporary taste for exoticism (1772, Henry Keene attributed offset somewhat restored). On the shore of the lake there was an artificial ruin, which was an Abbey ( 1770, restored). An extravagant masterpiece Hamilton succeeded with the creation of a cave ( in 1765, by Joseph Lane ), which he had built on a corner of an island. Its interior was designed cavernous and possessed except the main room waterfalls and side rooms. The walls were covered with mineral crystals that sparkle reflected the incident from the water surface of the lake daylight ( heavily damaged and restored ).

The plant equipment Painshill Park included a large number of exotic plants and conifers from North America. The plants underlined the picturesque character of the garden.

Garden Historical classification

Already contemporary visitors (including Horace Walpole, William Gilpin, Thomas Whately and Thomas Jefferson ) were inspired by Painshill Park. Hamilton's creation is one together with Stowe House and Stourhead to the prototype of the English landscape garden. The illusion, carefully staged landscape sections were modeled for numerous later gardens, so in Ermenonville and Wörlitz.

Hamilton advised, among others, Henry Hoare the Younger, Henry Fox ( Holland Park ) and probably William Beckford ( Fonthill Abbey ). His ideas influenced the development of the "free " nature -inspired English garden style, authoritative and work continues to this day. Hamilton's championship, feelings and express moods in a harmonious landscape staging was rarely reached.