Q2. Discuss how ideas from the Italian and French Renaissance informed the design of the gardens at Ham House. As well as the planting and layout of the garden discuss how the building establishes specific sets of relationships to the garden.

Ham House and its extensive gardens were constructed in 1610 for Sir Thomas Vavasour, Knight Marshall to James I. On his death it passed briefly to the Earl of Holderness, before becoming the home of William Murrey in 1626. It was during his ownership that the works on house and garden began, defining what exists at Ham today. Having no male heir, on his death in1670 his estate and titles passed to his eldest daughter Elizabeth, Countess of Dysart. It was during her second marriage to the 1st Duke of Lauderdale, Secretary State of Scotland during the Restoration of Charles II in 1672 that works were completed and evidence of the house and garden can be gathered. Figure .1 illustrates the plan design of John Sleaver and Jan Wyck (1671 – 1672), while Figure .2 provides a birds eye view from the south in an engraving produced in the “Vitruvius Britannicus”, the title revealing its Italian heritage.

The principles of the Italian Renaissance garden were defined by Leon Battista Alberti who compiled his ten part “De Re Aedificaticria” in 1452, his works followed the studies of Vitruvius and classical Roman architecture. His new found rules of mathematics and linear perspective enabled gardens to be created where nature and art could co-exist with proportion and symmetry. The garden is about the manipulation of space; its distinctive geometric composition originating from a central axis leading from the middle of the house, which was intersected by a number of cross axis, developing a grid system arranged in compartmental squares divided by sand or gravel paths to be viewed from the house windows or terrace. This being the arrangement set out at Ham, with a broad south terrace from the house looking down on eight grass plats separated by intersecting gravel paths at right angles to the house.

The garden outside was becoming an architectural extension of the inside. Symmetry, harmony, balance and proportion between house and garden were the basic tenets. This architectural relationship was achieved at Ham by the Scottish architect Sir William Bruce who redesigned the house in 1671 by building new rooms along the south front between existing projecting wings creating a perpendicular for the gardens corresponding layout. The central axial line of sight was the most defining characteristic of the Italian Renaissance garden, which by the time of the 17th and early 18th century had extended from their ordered layout surrounding the house into “wilder” groves and orchards in the countryside. This part of the garden was to contrast with the architecturally contrived area near the house, where a more naturalistic setting of paths winding through a woodland or wilderness would attempt to merge and become an extension of neighbouring countryside. Again this was another feature included within the gardens at Ham. Beyond the southern plats is set out, in the form of grass walks, sixteen compartments of hornbeam hedges and field maple.

Although Italian ideas forged new and sophisticated designs, they were rooted in the tradition agricultural landscape. Broad terraces reflected the ancient layout of vineyards

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and olive groves cultivated for centuries. The Melancholy Walk east of the Cherry garden with its trees planted in quincunx order harks back to the traditional placements of crops, whereby plants could receive as much air and light as possible.

The planting scheme within Ham garden can be reflected in Alberti’s recommendations for formal patterns.

“The trees ought to be planted in runs exactly even and answering to one another In straight lines . . . let the walks be evergreens.” History of Gardening, Penelope Hobhouse, Page 131

And thought attention should be paid to

“accuracy of spacing, the regularity of angles” History of Gardening, Penelope Hobhouse, Page 131

It is within the planting scheme at Ham that we can discover the impact of the French Renaissance. The Cherry garden to the east of the house displays the techniques and ideas developed on from the Italian form, with its two Bercaux of pleached hornbeams and a central parterre of dwarf box and clipped box cones, with alternating santolina and lavender in the centre of each box hedge compartment.

Although the physical presence is minor compared to the scale of the garden at Ham, those who provided the inspiration and confidence to create the gardens in 17th century England were French and set the styles of garden style which influenced at Ham. The De Caus brothers continued from their grandfather Androuet Du Cereau, the dynasty of the Mollets and Andre Le Notre were pivotal members in the development and creation of noted gardens throughout Europe during the mid-16th and 17th century. One of the De Caus brothers, Isaac worked for the Countess of Bedford, Lucy Harrington, where at Wilton in Wiltshire in the 1630’s his design shown in Figure 3 consisted of a broad central gravel path divided into plats by cross axial paths to be viewed from a terrace extending the width of the garden. Included were groves of trees with walks cut through them to form a wilderness with two symmetrically placed statues of classic mythology on either side of the main walk, all these features mirroring those at Ham (Fig 4).

One of the reasons in the absence of the drama typified by the baroque French Renaissance gardens was the trend in some English gardens to dispose of the display and pomp to produce modest gardens absorbing the classical features of Italy, not feeling the need to impress with copies of grand grottoes, water features full of allegorical meaning.

Ham house and its recreated gardens by the National Trust provide present visitors with an excellent example of the influences and styles of the aristocracy and designers of the 17th century. Though predominantly inspired by the classical Italian garden, Ham illustrates the progression and adjustment of ideas concerning design through 150 years, embodying the finest elements the different movements could tender.

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1027 words.Bibliography.

J. Dixon Hunt Garden and GroveJ. Dixon Hunt & P. Willis The Genius of the PlaceR. Strong The Renaissance Garden in EnglandNational Trust Ham HouseP. Hobhouse The History of GardeningJ. Curl Oxford Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture

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