BRITISH GARDENS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 23, 27 July 1933, Page 3

BRITISH GARDENS

OPENING TO PUBLIC

A GROWING MOVEMENT

TWOFOLD BENEFIT

Whoever first suggested that .tha' greater gardens of Britain be opened to the public for a small entrance fee which should go to help the nursing of the sick conceived an idea that is nea* perfection in its goodness. For triers are so many boons it confers other than its .main .objective, writes Percy; Izzard in the "Daily Mail." • .

It gives our garden-loving nation op> portunity to see the higher practice' of the most ancient craft, often amid surroundings rich in history and romance. That has meant in past years for many thousands long summer afternoons of pure delight. ' \ ■'

It affords the . humble gardeners among them an unequalled chance-to learn. To the horticultural .trade, which has suffered severe depression since the ivar,^ it is second only- in ' value to the opening of its own grounds ; for public inspection at certain seasons j of profuse bloom, which so many- of our most famous linns yearly do. Aad i it gratifies the garden owner in peculiar ways which only they who, have wel-' coined the public to their gardens; caa fully understand. . ■'*"■■■.

There are intense devotees ,of horticulture in every1 social class, and pridftin the cultivation and ownership of beautiful trees and plants and in tha creation of new and-lovely floral forms ! (for few earnest gardeners today do; not experiment in crossing and selec- ■ tion) is common to them all. NEAR A VIRTUE. j I am writing here only of . ths ■ pleasure garden, but the spirit is ' ths ', same with the products of the kitchea '< ground. House pride can be condemned, but garden pride is pardonable. It comes very near to being ,a virtue. I know that if I possessed a ' glorious garden and should open ■ its j gates to all, I should love to hear what > the people thought of my roses and i shrubs and beds of annual flowers,-and; should thrill at the sound of words of praise. i And there is another point of ownYf- ■ ship to consider. During this after-waf ' depression, the maintenance of the gar* j dens of many of our great country, | houses has been a severe drain'on ths j resources of their owners. But, even; if on a less ambitious scale, they must! be maintained, unless what, is of ten a j very valuable asset to an estate is to! be allowed to decline and thus depreci- j ate the whole property. And this is ' apart from the urge of those intimate ' family associations which always: ren« der old gardens dear. ■: . .! The opening of these" places to ths' public in the name of charity is , a means whereby owners no less than.! visitors can'preserve the flow of :-help j to needy institutions at a. level whichi | in these times.of economic stress, could-i not be reached by straightway giving.' i This summer the country lists "of i open gardens are longer than ever.' Many of the gardens are famous ; ml British horticulture,, distinguished -in their general charm for certain objects • of outstanding interest and beauty.' DIFFERENT CHARM. . ; , In some it is the herbaceous borders, or the planted tracts of rocks and water, or the glowing terraces, or-Tt'hs i high, broad hedges of yew or holly.and j far-spread velvet of turf, centuries""old;' that have brought them renown. : In! others it is the rose walks, or the iubtls [ charms of shrubberies, or the free-; grown trees of perfect contour, having, i space in which to stretch their gplen-; did' limbs-—"gentlemen's trees," as I' have heard them called. At the head of these lists must stand the King's. demesne of Sandringham,' where the gardens and precincts, of J Sandringham House are open on '■two;. days in every week from May until'th's ■ end of September. In the past sevea j years they have been the means of col« I iecting, in sixpenny admission fees,: £8734, half of which sum has gone.to | the Queen's Nursing Fund, and the othe'f i half to King's Lynn Hospital and ;• few smaller local institutions. '• In that they are" a well-loved part of i his Majesty's home, the King's gardens are typical of the great majority of. | those "to which the public now has ac- ;j cess. > They are. home, and places of. | many tender memories. All have tneif ,■ "holy. ground.'-' AH-have their sacred I spots of wistful.thought no less!tl\aa j those '■ others whose ■ memories are. v \of : light and laughter amid the flowers under summer suns. , . - v A; PRIVILEGE. J And when one remembers, too, tK« . great figures which have trodden th.est j paths and the historic, scenes whoa ; have been enacted in so many of thess . gardens, it is a very high priviiegr that is accorded us of walking at will within, them. ■";. '. I wonder whether the people who oa , the open days pass through the gj«a|..j pergola at Saniringham remember that ( in her later years the gentlest; of . Queens, Queen Alexandra, who I?***! these gardens well, was driven beneata, j those massive arches every Sundays ; see her flowers .there and in the bro&O' herbaceous borders beyond? ; ■'..-.';,. Do they know, too, when they loolc into the glasshouses'one by one front the ;path, that-he* ear was stopped, aj.. those very places so that she, ..tqp, might gaze at the'flowers through th«open doors? • Are1 they aware that thsKinc, who has a sure eye for landscape effects, a love of shapely trees and airy; vistas, himself inspired, some of tfts most charming prospects now to bs. seen in the Sandringham grounds? One could say much more of ths intimate things of the royal ownership of Sandringham, and.Tepeat them o£ any of'Britain's- famous ancestral gar-, dens. But 'there.is' orie other point ,ox a different character which I want to . emphasise. It, is the magnificent opportunity given by the opening of thess places for noting the. methods-and practice of our leading professional gardeners, who in numerous cases nay«, at their back the knowledge and ingenuity of skilful amateurs, the owners of the ■ gardens. The sincere gardener always is learning from other people's gardens, and one of the highest joys of the horticulturally minded,travellers about QU* countryside is afforded by the extent and variety of the garden ground., .. . . Here, then, along the musky' walks,. under the dreaming trees, by the still waters and the flowery ledges of ths rocks, and in glowing glades of shrub! where the bee-song is like an organ note, there come to the.humble-minded visitor who loves his own garden thoi* supreme moments of "the purest or human pleasures."