Painshill Park
Encyclopedia
Painshill Park near Cobham
, Surrey
, England
, is one of the finest remaining examples of an 18th century English landscape park
. It was designed and created between 1738 and 1773 by the Hon. Charles Hamilton (MP)
.
Painshill Park is owned by Elmbridge
Borough Council and managed by the Painshill Park Trust. Painshill, which is open to the public (with entry charge), has a Grade 1 Heritage listing. In 1998 Painshill Park was awarded the Europa Nostra Medal
for the "Exemplary restoration from a state of extreme neglect, of a most important 18th century landscape park and its extraordinary buildings." In May 2006 Painshill was awarded full collection status for its John Bartram Heritage Collection, by the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens (NCCPG).
and Oxford
, and went on two Grand Tours, one in 1725 and a further one in 1732.
In 1738 Hamilton began to acquire land at Painshill and, over the years, built up a holding of more than 200 acre (0.809372 km²). His park was among the earliest to reflect the changing fashion in garden design prompted by the Landscape Movement, which started in England in about 1730. It represented the move away from geometric formality in garden design to a new naturalistic formula. Hamilton eventually ran out of money and sold the estate in 1773. Many of the trees and shrubs planted by Hamilton were sent to him from Philadelphia by the naturalist
John Bartram
. The garden was open to respectable visitors, who were shown round by the head gardener for a tip, and was visited by many well-known figures including two visits by William Gilpin
, pioneer of the Picturesque
, Thomas Jefferson
with John Adams
, and Prince Franz of Anhalt-Dessau
separately, on special tours of gardens, and the important landscape garden author Thomas Whately
. Then as now there was a particular route round the park recommended, designed to bring the visitor upon the successive views with best effect. Views from Painshill were painted on plates for a Wedgewood service of porcelain
commissioned by Catherine the Great of Russia.
Henry Lawes Luttrell, 2nd Earl of Carhampton
(7 August 1743 – 25 April 1821) bought Painshill in 1807 from William Moffat. Luttrell lived at Painshill Park after having fled from the magnificent ancestral Luttrellstown Castle
near Clonsilla
outside Dublin, where his notorious role in crushing the Irish Rebellion
in 1798 made it unsafe to stay. (His ancestor Colonel Henry Luttrell had been assassinated in Dublin in 1717 for betraying the Irish to King William III of England
.) After his death in 1821, Luttrell's wife Jane lived at Painshill until her death in 1831 when it was sold it to Sir William Cooper
, High Sheriff of Surrey
.
Sir William Cooper and his wife, later his widow, lived there until 1863, and installed Joseph Bramah
's suspension bridge
and water wheel
, and planted an arboretum
designed by John Claudius Loudon
. In 1873, the English poet, literary and social critic, Matthew Arnold
, rented Pains Hill Cottage from Mr. Charles J. Leaf and lived there until his death in 1888.
Until World War II
Painshill Park was held by a succession of private owners. In 1948 the estate was split up and sold in separate lots for commercial uses. The Park, as such, soon disappeared and its features fell into decay.
By 1980 the local authority, Elmbridge Borough Council, had bought 158 acre (0.63940388 km²) of Hamilton's original estate and the work of restoring the Park and its many features could start. In the following year the Painshill Park Trust was founded as a registered charity with the remit "to restore Painshill Park as nearly as possible to Charles Hamilton's Original Concept of a Landscaped Garden for the benefit of the public." Fortunately there is a wealth of 18th century images of the main features of Painshill to help the process.
The restoration of this Grade I landscape is continuing, further progress being dependent on the availability of funding. The park continues to be a favourite location for film and television production, most recently as the grounds of "Bridgeford University" in Trinity (TV series)
and the exteriors in the latest movie adaptation of Oscar Wilde
's The Picture of Dorian Gray (2009 film). The park now borders the A3 road
, which is fortunately invisible and inaudible from nearly all parts, but allows easy access.
powered by a water wheel. Hamilton enhanced the views of hills and lake by careful plantings of woods, avenues and specimen trees to create vistas and a number of discreet environments which include an ampitheatre, a water meadow and an alpine valley
. As focal points in the vistas and as sympathetic elements to be discovered in the landscape, Hamilton placed a number of follies
, small decorative buildings, which include a grotto
, Gothic "temple", "ruins" of a Gothic abbey, a Roman mausoleum
, and a Gothic tower with a view of the countryside. All these still exist and have been restored, and the hermitage
(for which a "hermit" was hired on a seven-year contract, but soon dismissed for absenteeism) and Turkish tent have been recreated. The Roman "Temple of Bacchus" remains to be reconstructed, though there is now a cast of the Roman statue of Bacchus
which it housed, among other antiquities bought on Hamilton's Italian tours. Among the original plantings are a number of important specimens including fine examples of Cork Oak
, Yew
, Beech
, Silver Birch
and three Cedars of which one, known as the Great Cedar is 120 feet (36.6 m) high and over 100 feet (30.5 m) in width, and is thought to be the largest Cedar of Lebanon in Europe. In 2010, a conference at Painshill brought together elements of the restoration of this eighteenth century Landscape Garden.
Cobham, Surrey
Cobham is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, about south-west of central London and north of Leatherhead. Elmbridge has been acclaimed by the Daily Mail as the best place to live in the UK, and Cobham is a prosperous part of the London commuter belt...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, is one of the finest remaining examples of an 18th century English landscape park
Landscape garden
The term landscape garden is often used to describe the English garden design style characteristic of the eighteenth century, that swept the Continent replacing the formal Renaissance garden and Garden à la française models. The work of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown is particularly influential.The...
. It was designed and created between 1738 and 1773 by the Hon. Charles Hamilton (MP)
Charles Hamilton (MP)
Charles Hamilton , styled The Honourable from birth, was a British politician.He was a younger son of James Hamilton, 6th Earl of Abercorn....
.
Painshill Park is owned by Elmbridge
Elmbridge
Elmbridge is a local government district and borough in Surrey, England. Its council is based in Esher. The district has only one civil parish, which is Claygate...
Borough Council and managed by the Painshill Park Trust. Painshill, which is open to the public (with entry charge), has a Grade 1 Heritage listing. In 1998 Painshill Park was awarded the Europa Nostra Medal
Europa Nostra
Europa Nostra, the pan-European Federation for Cultural Heritage, is the representative platform of 250 heritage NGOs active in 45 countries across Europe...
for the "Exemplary restoration from a state of extreme neglect, of a most important 18th century landscape park and its extraordinary buildings." In May 2006 Painshill was awarded full collection status for its John Bartram Heritage Collection, by the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens (NCCPG).
History
Charles Hamilton was born in 1704 in Dublin, the 9th son and 14th child of the 6th Earl of Abercorn. He was educated at Westminster SchoolWestminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...
and Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, and went on two Grand Tours, one in 1725 and a further one in 1732.
In 1738 Hamilton began to acquire land at Painshill and, over the years, built up a holding of more than 200 acre (0.809372 km²). His park was among the earliest to reflect the changing fashion in garden design prompted by the Landscape Movement, which started in England in about 1730. It represented the move away from geometric formality in garden design to a new naturalistic formula. Hamilton eventually ran out of money and sold the estate in 1773. Many of the trees and shrubs planted by Hamilton were sent to him from Philadelphia by the naturalist
Naturalist
Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...
John Bartram
John Bartram
*Hoffmann, Nancy E. and John C. Van Horne, eds., America’s Curious Botanist: A Tercentennial Reappraisal of John Bartram 1699-1777. Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 243. ....
. The garden was open to respectable visitors, who were shown round by the head gardener for a tip, and was visited by many well-known figures including two visits by William Gilpin
William Gilpin (clergyman)
The Reverend William Gilpin was an English artist, clergyman, schoolmaster, and author, best known as one of the originators of the idea of the picturesque.-Early life:...
, pioneer of the Picturesque
Picturesque
Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, a practical book which instructed England's...
, Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
with John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
, and Prince Franz of Anhalt-Dessau
Leopold III, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau
Leopold III Frederick Franz, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau , known as "Prince Franz" or "Father Franz", was a German prince of the House of Ascania...
separately, on special tours of gardens, and the important landscape garden author Thomas Whately
Thomas Whately
Thomas Whately , an English politician and writer, was a Member of Parliament , who served as Commissioner on the Board of Trade, as Secretary to the Treasury under Lord Grenville, and as Under- secretary of State under Lord North . As an M.P...
. Then as now there was a particular route round the park recommended, designed to bring the visitor upon the successive views with best effect. Views from Painshill were painted on plates for a Wedgewood service of porcelain
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
commissioned by Catherine the Great of Russia.
Henry Lawes Luttrell, 2nd Earl of Carhampton
Henry Luttrell, 2nd Earl of Carhampton
General Henry Lawes Luttrell, 2nd Earl of Carhampton PC was a politician and soldier.-Military career:Educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, Luttrell was commissioned into the 48th Regiment of Foot in 1757. In 1762, during the Seven Years' War, he became Deputy Adjutant-General...
(7 August 1743 – 25 April 1821) bought Painshill in 1807 from William Moffat. Luttrell lived at Painshill Park after having fled from the magnificent ancestral Luttrellstown Castle
Luttrellstown Castle
Luttrellstown Castle, dating from the early 15th century , is located near Clonsilla on the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland. It has been owned variously by the eponymous and notorious Luttrell family, by the bookseller Luke White and his descendants Baron Annaly, by the Guinness family, the Primwest...
near Clonsilla
Clonsilla
Clonsilla is a suburb of Dublin in the district of Fingal, Ireland.-Location and access:Originally a small village in its own right, Clonsilla is now a large residential suburban area, with Ongar and other localities developing their own subsidiary identities...
outside Dublin, where his notorious role in crushing the Irish Rebellion
Irish Rebellion of 1798
The Irish Rebellion of 1798 , also known as the United Irishmen Rebellion , was an uprising in 1798, lasting several months, against British rule in Ireland...
in 1798 made it unsafe to stay. (His ancestor Colonel Henry Luttrell had been assassinated in Dublin in 1717 for betraying the Irish to King William III of England
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
.) After his death in 1821, Luttrell's wife Jane lived at Painshill until her death in 1831 when it was sold it to Sir William Cooper
William Cooper
-Business:*William Cooper , founder of Cooper Brothers*William Cooper , Canadian businessman*William E. Cooper , prominent businessman in Dallas, Texas-Government:...
, High Sheriff of Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
.
Sir William Cooper and his wife, later his widow, lived there until 1863, and installed Joseph Bramah
Joseph Bramah
Joseph Bramah , born Stainborough Lane Farm, Wentworth, Yorkshire, England, was an inventor and locksmith. He is best known for having invented the hydraulic press...
's suspension bridge
Suspension bridge
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. Outside Tibet and Bhutan, where the first examples of this type of bridge were built in the 15th century, this type of bridge dates from the early 19th century...
and water wheel
Water wheel
A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of free-flowing or falling water into useful forms of power. A water wheel consists of a large wooden or metal wheel, with a number of blades or buckets arranged on the outside rim forming the driving surface...
, and planted an arboretum
Arboretum
An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...
designed by John Claudius Loudon
John Claudius Loudon
John Claudius Loudon was a Scottish botanist, garden and cemetery designer, author and garden magazine editor.-Background:...
. In 1873, the English poet, literary and social critic, Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold was a British poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator...
, rented Pains Hill Cottage from Mr. Charles J. Leaf and lived there until his death in 1888.
Until World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Painshill Park was held by a succession of private owners. In 1948 the estate was split up and sold in separate lots for commercial uses. The Park, as such, soon disappeared and its features fell into decay.
By 1980 the local authority, Elmbridge Borough Council, had bought 158 acre (0.63940388 km²) of Hamilton's original estate and the work of restoring the Park and its many features could start. In the following year the Painshill Park Trust was founded as a registered charity with the remit "to restore Painshill Park as nearly as possible to Charles Hamilton's Original Concept of a Landscaped Garden for the benefit of the public." Fortunately there is a wealth of 18th century images of the main features of Painshill to help the process.
The restoration of this Grade I landscape is continuing, further progress being dependent on the availability of funding. The park continues to be a favourite location for film and television production, most recently as the grounds of "Bridgeford University" in Trinity (TV series)
Trinity (TV series)
Trinity is a British drama series which was broadcast on ITV2 from September to November 2009. The series is set in the fictional "Trinity College" of "Bridgeford University", and stars Charles Dance, Claire Skinner, Antonia Bernath, Christian Cooke, Reggie Yates and Isabella Calthorpe.-Plot...
and the exteriors in the latest movie adaptation of Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
's The Picture of Dorian Gray (2009 film). The park now borders the A3 road
A3 road
The A3, known as the Portsmouth Road for much of its length, is a dual carriageway, or expressway, which follows the historic route between London and Portsmouth passing close to Kingston upon Thames, Guildford, Haslemere and Petersfield. For much of its length, it is classified as a trunk road...
, which is fortunately invisible and inaudible from nearly all parts, but allows easy access.
Description
Today Painshill Park comprises 158 acre (0.63940388 km²) of the original more than 200 acre (0.809372 km²) owned by Charles Hamilton in the 18th century. The Park stretches along the banks of the winding River Mole on land that has a number of natural hills and valleys. The central feature is a serpentine lake of 14 acre (0.05665604 km²) with several islands and spanned by bridges and a causeway. The water for the lake and the plantings is pumped from the River Mole by a 19th century beam engineBeam engine
A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used by Thomas Newcomen around 1705 to remove water from mines in Cornwall...
powered by a water wheel. Hamilton enhanced the views of hills and lake by careful plantings of woods, avenues and specimen trees to create vistas and a number of discreet environments which include an ampitheatre, a water meadow and an alpine valley
Alpine valley
Alpine valley may be:*any valley of the Alps*the Alpine Valleys wine region of Australia* Alpine Valley Music Theatre...
. As focal points in the vistas and as sympathetic elements to be discovered in the landscape, Hamilton placed a number of follies
Folly
In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but either suggesting by its appearance some other purpose, or merely so extravagant that it transcends the normal range of garden ornaments or other class of building to which it belongs...
, small decorative buildings, which include a grotto
Grotto
A grotto is any type of natural or artificial cave that is associated with modern, historic or prehistoric use by humans. When it is not an artificial garden feature, a grotto is often a small cave near water and often flooded or liable to flood at high tide...
, Gothic "temple", "ruins" of a Gothic abbey, a Roman mausoleum
Mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...
, and a Gothic tower with a view of the countryside. All these still exist and have been restored, and the hermitage
Hermitage (religious retreat)
Although today's meaning is usually a place where a hermit lives in seclusion from the world, hermitage was more commonly used to mean a settlement where a person or a group of people lived religiously, in seclusion.-Western Christian Tradition:...
(for which a "hermit" was hired on a seven-year contract, but soon dismissed for absenteeism) and Turkish tent have been recreated. The Roman "Temple of Bacchus" remains to be reconstructed, though there is now a cast of the Roman statue of Bacchus
Bacchus
Bacchus is the Roman name for Dionysus, the god of wine and intoxication.Bacchus can also refer to:* Temple of Bacchus, a Roman temple at a large classical antiquity complex in Baalbek, Lebanon...
which it housed, among other antiquities bought on Hamilton's Italian tours. Among the original plantings are a number of important specimens including fine examples of Cork Oak
Cork Oak
Quercus suber, commonly called the Cork Oak, is a medium-sized, evergreen oak tree in the section Quercus sect. Cerris. It is the primary source of cork for wine bottle stoppers and other uses, such as cork flooring. It is native to southwest Europe and northwest Africa.It grows to up to 20 m,...
, Yew
Taxus baccata
Taxus baccata is a conifer native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia. It is the tree originally known as yew, though with other related trees becoming known, it may be now known as the English yew, or European yew.-Description:It is a small-...
, Beech
Beech
Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...
, Silver Birch
Silver Birch
Betula pendula is a widespread European birch, though in southern Europe it is only found at higher altitudes. Its range extends into southwest Asia in the mountains of northern Turkey and the Caucasus...
and three Cedars of which one, known as the Great Cedar is 120 feet (36.6 m) high and over 100 feet (30.5 m) in width, and is thought to be the largest Cedar of Lebanon in Europe. In 2010, a conference at Painshill brought together elements of the restoration of this eighteenth century Landscape Garden.