VisitorCar Park

FrontCircle

Dutch Canal

Yew WalkWoodland Walk

(see separate leaflet)

To Bluebell Walk (see separate leaflet)

Sports Hall

Carriage House

Lion Terrace Italian Garden

Derelict Second World War buildings

(take care)

Cimetière

Gate (no access)

Railway Tunnel entrance

Pegasus Courtyard 1 2

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From the Front of the Manor—the Front Circle, or Forecourt Gateway, is comprised of English Heritage listed Grade I gates, double entrance lodges, open screen work, and two of our

famous lions (though all the lions—stone and bronze—were bought and placed by Mrs. Van der Elst in the late 1930s). The Forecourt is a major architectural element of Harlaxton Manor and is notable for the innovative use of Jacobean Revival style in combination with Baroque.

The Manor was positioned on a NW-SE axis, to make the best of the British climate. The mile-long drive has a terminal point on Bottesford church spire, with views of Belvoir Castle to the right. Half way down the drive is a remarkable 6-acre Walled Garden (see separate booklet).

One enters the “garden proper” from the Forecourt by means of the Lion Steps. Directly beyond the gravel path are the first French-style grass terraces. Other

such terraces are found at different levels of the Garden and usually included benches so the garden visitor might pause for a short rest and enjoy lovely vistas (contrived or natural!). The stone benches seen in this area are original features, c.1838-54.

At this point, the visitor might turn to enjoy the sight looking over Harlaxton village and its church spire and across to nearby Belvoir Castle. Other Grade I listed features to view are the Gazebos. These would have had interior wooden steps in their early days to provide an even higher perspective over the vale.

Two other very notable features on this side lawn terrace are the large iron gates (leading at the time to the treed parkland surrounding the front of the Manor, but now leading to farm fields) and the delicate low stone screen arcade separating areas of the grass terrace. Both of these features were moved from the old de Ligne-Gregory Manor in the village and thus can be dated to at least the 17th or early 18th century.

The statue at the top of the steps leading to The Dutch Canal is of a

priest holding a child, dating from c. 1948-66 when the Jesuits occupied the Manor. The pedestal however is an original from Gregory’s time. A walk to the far end of the Dutch Canal reveals one of its “purposes.” The cupola of the Manor is reflected in the flat surface of the water. One of the “contrived natural” features of the Garden was found alongside the Dutch Canal. Benches at various levels on the grass terrace would have provided views overlooking a low yew hedge out to the parkland and the countryside. Over time the yew hedges were left untrimmed. They are now yew trees and provide a thick green border to one side of the Canal.

The Italian Garden with its Summer House and colonnades provides a pleasant stop on the

European Tour. Gift funding has allowed for replanting, with modern shrub roses, hydrangeas and tree peonies, and the purchase of urns and the armillary.

The upper Woodland Walksare both pleasant and interesting

and in spring time there are many different varieties of daffodils. (See separate Woodland Trail leaflet). At many points on a walk around the Gardens you will notice the beautiful stand of Cedars of Lebanon at the highest terrace level. While a few of these, previously part of a great semi-circle along the back ridge, have been lost in storms the remaining trees are still among the most impressive in all English gardens.

The Conservatory was designed as “a considerable extent of garden walk

under glass, and including Cape and Australian plants in one part, palms and Scitamineæ in another, and Orchidàceæ in a third.” Loudon, 1840. As you walk around the Conservatory, imagine the House without it, as it was not in the original plans. Such structures were only “technically possible” (the iron support mechanisms) toward the later dates of the House construction. What a job it must have been for Mr. Burn to add this “small detail” for Gregory late in the game. Major repairs to the Conservatory were undertaken in 2003-04. Benches honouring all past principals, and the lovely curved bench across the lawn from the Conservatory, have been added recently to encourage more use of the beautiful Harlaxton Gardens.

Above the Lion Terrace sections of the Yew Hedge have been replanted.

Additional clearing work has been completed and a stone bench added at the end of the Yew Walk - it makes a very nice place to spend a few lazy moments.

Previously known as the Baroque Fountain Terrace, two more of Mrs. Van der Elst’s lions, have caused this feature to

become known as the Lion Terrace. The lions originate from Clumber Park and date to the 18th century. The centrepiece includes an altar and a shell grotto. The arch behind the fountain repeats the pattern of that over the former arch from the Forecourt into the (now) Pegasus Courtyard. This arch is now part of the Kitchen and Refectory, but is still a very visible feature. More of Gregory Gregory’s “supporting” characters can be seen holding the upper Lion Terrace platform. Long needed repairs to the Terrace began in 2009. Looking from the Lion Terrace toward the House, the Conservatory is seen on the left, and do make note of an interesting area seen on the right. A small, cloister like feature, now covered with wisteria vine, has two long benches inside, making for a wonderful reading and relaxing corner.

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Accessed from the end of the Lion Terrace, The Daffodil Walk

is a recent addition to the Garden. Started in Fall 2012, students plant daffodil bulbs every Fall. So far there are 59 different varieties. (See separate leaflet). There are beautiful views from this upper terrace, but do take care of the steep slopes which can be slippery when wet.

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The Formal Gardens at Harlaxton Manor are thought to have been designed as a “walk around Europe” including highlights of features known in European pleasure grounds. The 110 acres of gardens and woodland, French-style Terraces, Italian Colonnade, Dutch Ornamental Canal, and English landscape walks combine to make a most pleasurable whole, and complement the House and Conservatory in gracious style.

The design of the Gardens and its structures is as much a mystery as that of the House, with no formal garden plans in existence nor reference to a landscape designer. It is believed that Gregory Gregory’s first architect, Anthony Salvin (1799-1881), designed the Gatehouse, or Halfway House, on the entrance drive. But it is likely that Gregory’s second architect, William Burn (1789-1870), designed many of the Garden structures, for they were built after Mr. Salvin’s departure from the project. Mr. Salvin’s early elevation drawings show a much different garden surround to the main House than came to fruition. No doubt Gregory himself played a large part in the designs, as he did for the House itself.

There was a famous garden designer in the de Ligne family (one of Gregory’s ancestors), Prince Charles-Joseph de Ligne of Belgium (1735-1814). It is (of course) unknown whether Gregory Gregory might have visited Prince Charles-Joseph’s famous garden, Beloeil, on one of his European jaunts. What is known is that the Prince died in 1814 and thus could not have been responsible for the Harlaxton Garden design.

In the early 1830s and 40s John Claudius Loudon - creator of the first gardening magazine - journeyed through the countryside of Britain with his wife, visiting the country parks and gardens, recording all they saw. Loudon’s writings include a visit to Harlaxton Manor in May 1840, soon after its construction.

“The terraced gardens will be on seven different levels, communicating by flights of steps, ornamented with vases, figures, and numerous other suitable objects; and, in appropriate places, there will be canals, basins, and fountains, summer-houses, shrubs clipped into artificial forms, &c. The upper terrace will be 150ft. higher than the house, and will form a winding plateau, extending along the ridge of the hill on which the house stands, and commanding, on one side, a very rich view over a fine agricultural and wooded district, and, on the other, the mountains of Derbyshire, forty miles distant. The two extremities of the terrace-gardens will gradually be united to broad walks on the same levels as the terraces, in extensive woods already existing. After these walks have been continued to a certain length on the same level as the terraces, the upper one will gradually descend, and the lower one gradually rise, till, at a considerable distance from the house, they will form, by gentle inclined planes, communications with every level of walk or terrace. At least, the situation admits of this kind of arrangement, as well as of several others.

One thing is however certain, that Mr. Gregory will create what may be called an atmosphere of highly artificial garden scenery in the geometric style, round and overhanging the mansion; and that he will gradually unite it, not with modern shrubbery walks, but with the picturesque woods already existing, harmonising these woods with the artificial scenery by the introduction of foreign plants. For ornamenting the geometric garden, Mr. Gregory possesses an ample stock of vases, statues, and other sculptured ornaments, and of rich gates, and other iron work, collected by him on all parts of the Continent, soon after the peace of 1815.

In the natural woods at Harlaxton, Mr. Gregory has introduced masses of rhododendrons, holly, periwinkle, tutsan, laurel, and other evergreen shrubs; and a great many sorts of herbaceous plants, including bulbs and Californian annuals. One interesting circumstance we cannot avoid mentioning, which is, that when Mr. Gregory was travelling in the Caucasus, and also in the Crimea, he saw the Heracleum giganteum, and thinking it a very suitable plant for the Harlaxton woods, and not knowing that it was already introduced into England, he had a young plant taken up, planted in a box, and sent from Constantinople to England. This plant has left a numerous progeny, which are now luxuriating in a favourite spot called the Cimetière, in the woods at Harlaxton.”

Boniface, P. (Ed) (1990) In search of English gardens : the travels of John Claudius Loudon and his wife Jane. London: Century. (National Trust classics).

Loudon, John Claudius (1840) The Gardener's Magazine and Register of Rural and Domestic Improvement, Volume 16 (July), A and C Black: Edinburgh.

Photograph: View of the Gardens looking towards The Italian Garden and Summer House, dated 1920s. Courtesy of Hazel Shelton.Garden plan: Sue Howard.