Villandry
I took a little travel break to stroll the gardens at Villandry on streetview.
I did the same thing at Chambord the other day; it’s striking how different the settings are. Chambord is plunked down in the middle of a flat plain near the Loire, with nothing else around it, just fields and trees. It looks downright odd, this massive chateau in the middle of nothing.
I love this setting, with the village right at the end of the garden. I went down a street in the village before going to the gardens, a street that ends at that church you see sticking up. It’s a substantial village.
I don’t like French gardens. Everything is too controlled, too clipped, too domesticated and too constrained. One gets the impression that every plant, shrub and tree are in pain.
English gardens, on the other hand, are far more aesthetic, and their naturalism is most appealing and sensual.
An old friend prefers the Italian variety (though he has since moved on from photographing gardens to urban public spaces and other gritty environments).
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/983328.The_Italian_Garden
http://www.cppsonline.com/portfolios/geoffrey-james/
I love the fluffy fuzzy English style, but I have also learned to love the formal style. I was probably nudged that way by seeing a thing on tv once, years ago, in which Debo Duchess of Devonshire talked to John Julius Norwich in the gardens at Chatsworth. She didn’t approve of what Capability Brown had done because she thought it wasn’t the right style for Chatsworth – it didn’t fit. Chatsworth was built (and later expanded) in a formal age, and should have formal gardens.
Hampton Court is a nice place to get both. A decade or so ago they tore down what had become a fuzzy Capability Brown-style garden and restored it to its original formality. But you can go from the formal gardens into the park, which is as fuzzy as anyone could want.
This subject is much discussed in Mansfield Park. Henry Crawford is an Improver.
I believe it’s this one:
And here’s a very nice one of the formal with the informal beyond: