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Gertrude Jekyll was one of the most important garden designers of the twentieth century, creating or working on close to 400 gardens over the course of her long career. A prolific writer and a hugely influential plantswoman, her circle of friends included some of the most distinguished architects, horticulturists, artists, and writers of the time. This new tour, which takes us from England’s southern home counties, where Jekyll lived and many of her commissions were located, to the scenic southwest, explores Jekyll’s rich gardening legacy. We visit a fascinating selection of gardens, both private and public, that were wholly or partially created by Jekyll; see gardens that were heavily influenced by her ideas; and travel to Arts and Crafts gardens designed by some of her many friends, associates, and peers. Highlights include an exclusive visit to Munstead Wood, Jekyll’ home for almost 40 years; Hestercombe, among the best of her many some collaborations with Sir Edwin Lutyens, the architect with whom she is most associated; and the superbly restored Manor House garden, a living tribute to Jekyll’s planting ideas. In all we visit nineteen gardens, including many that seldom, if ever, feature on tours and at which we will be the exclusive guests of the owners. Throughout the tour we will be accompanied by Jekyll scholar and author
Judith B. Tankard and stay in charming first class lodgings, including several country house hotels with distinguished period gardens.
Sign up for this tour before January 1, 2012 and receive a free copy of Judith’s highly acclaimed and beautifully produced new book
Gertrude Jekyll and the Country House Garden: From the Archives of Country Life
(New York: Rizzoli, 2011)
Land Tour Price:
9 Nights -- $4495.00
Single supplement: $875.00
Meals included: all Breakfasts (B), 2 Lunches (L), 3
Dinners (D)
Limited to: 18 members
Tour Manager: Jeff Sainsbury
ITINERARY
June 10 (Sunday) – Depart
Depart on overnight flight to London Heathrow Airport
June 11 (Monday) – Arrive, Ashford, and Godinton House
Arrive London Heathrow Airport and transfer to our hotel in the Kent countryside. After a period of free time, we visit nearby Godinton House to see one of England’s finest formal gardens. Designed in 1902 by the formalist architect and author Sir Reginald Blomfield, the hedge-enclosed gardens contain large herbaceous borders, and a colonnaded Italian garden with statuary and an oblong lily pond. Return to the hotel for an evening at leisure.
June 12 (Tuesday) – The Salutation and Great Dixter
This morning we travel to The Salutation in Sandwich, a private property designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens around 1911. Lutyens also devised the overall garden layout, featuring a bowling green, rose and white gardens, and Jekyll-inspired mixed borders, all of which have been restored since 2004 by the new owners. Later in the afternoon we visit Great Dixter to see one of the most popular and exciting Arts and Crafts gardens in England. Laid out by Lutyens around 1910 for Nathaniel Lloyd, in recent years it was the home of Christopher Lloyd, one of the country’s foremost horticultural figures, who was born here. The gardens surrounding the medieval buildings include a formal sunken pool, an exotic garden, historic yew topiary, carpets of meadow flowers, and colorful mixed borders, such as the famous Long Border. Return to the hotel. (B,D)
June 13 (Wednesday) – Buckhurst Park and Gravetye Manor
Following breakfast, we journey to Buckhurst Park, a large private estate with 18th century landscaped grounds and a delightful formal garden that Lutyens and Jekyll collaborated on in 1903. We then travel to Gravetye Manor, now a fine country house hotel, but for many years the former home of William Robinson, the hugely influential garden writer and a close friend of Jekyll. We enjoy lunch in Gravetye's Michelin-starred restaurant, then take a stroll around the gardens, for which Jekyll provided some of the plants. In recent years the gardens have been beautifully restored in accordance with Robinson's ideas. We continue westwards to Tylney Hall, a country house hotel with exquisitely restored formal gardens. (B,L)
June 14 (Thursday) – Tylney Hall and The Manor House
We spend a leisurely morning exploring the hotel’s extensive and historic grounds, including an excellent water garden for which Jekyll did planting plans and supplied plants from her own nursery. Later in the day, at the privately owned Manor House, we see a garden that Jekyll laid out in 1908, now beautifully and authentically restored by owners Rosamund and John Wallinger. Mrs. Wallinger will take us on a tour of the flower-filled garden, explain Jekyll's planting theories, and tell us how she and her husband have brought the garden back to life over the last 25 years. Return to the hotel. (B)
Cothay Manor (photo credit:
Jeff Sainsbury)
June 15 (Friday) – Munstead Wood, Loseley Park, and Vann
This morning we pay a specially arranged visit to Munstead Wood, Jekyll’s home for many years until her death in 1932. The current owners, Sir Robert and Lady Clark, have restored large parts of the garden in recent years according to Jekyll's original plans. Although less extensive than in their heyday, the gardens still demonstrate Jekyll's genius for planting and design. We then travel to nearby Loseley Park, a 16th century estate with a delightful 2.5 acre walled flower garden. Based on a Jekyll design, the garden is divided into five distinct ‘rooms,’ each with its own character and Jekyll-influenced planting scheme. Later in the day, at Vann, we see an enchanting woodland water garden, with stream-fed ponds, stone bridges, and lush planting supplied by Jekyll in 1911 for the family of the current owner, Mary Caroe. Other highlights of this renowned five-acre garden include a cottage garden, the yew walk, and a stunning Arts and Crafts stone pergola designed by W.D. Caröe. Return to the hotel. (B,D)
June 16 (Saturday) – Townhill Park House, Boveridge House, and Exeter
Leaving Tylney, we travel to Townhill Park House gardens on the outskirts of Southampton. Originally designed by the architect L. Rome Guthrie in collaboration with Gertrude Jekyll in 1912, the once magnificent gardens became badly neglected and overgrown after World War II as the property was sold to a succession of institutional owners. Fortunately, under the auspices of the Hampshire Gardens Trust, the formal gardens have been faithfully restored and now showcase many of Jekyll's trademark design features -- herbaceous borders, a sunken garden, a herb garden, and a magnificent wisteria-clad pergola. Our next stop is Boveridge House, now a school, where Jekyll and the landscape architect Thomas Mawson created a formal garden in 1920 for shipping magnate Charles Gordon. This once grand garden, with ponds, canals, and one of Jekyll’s largest perennial borders, is now being restored. We continue to Exeter and check into our hotel overlooking the city’s magnificent medieval cathedral. The balance of the day is set aside for individual sightseeing. (B)
June 17 (Sunday) – Hestercombe and Cothay Manor
Our first stop this morning is Hestercombe, buried deep in the countryside, down narrow lanes. This exquisite garden was designed by Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll in 1904 and is regarded by many as their masterpiece. Among the garden's many highlights are Lutyens' walls, paving, pools, and rills, as well as the plantings, which have been restored according to Jekyll's original plans. The estate also features a fascinating 18th century landscape garden, which we also explore before traveling to nearby Cothay Manor, one of the finest small medieval manors in England. The romantic gardens were laid out in the 1920s by former owner Colonel Reginald Cooper as a series of garden rooms, a style that Lawrence Johnson and Harold Nicolson, both lifelong friends of Cooper, were later to borrow at Hidcote and Sissinghurst respectively. Return to the hotel. (B,L)
Hestercombe
(photo credit: Jeff Sainsbury)
June 18 (Monday) – Dartington Hall, Coleton Fishacre, and Castle Drogo
Three wonderful though very different gardens feature today, starting at Dartington Hall, a magnificent medieval mansion (now a college) surrounded by ancient trees and shrubs. The lawn terraces aside, which date from the at least the 18th century and are possibly much older, Dartington’s elegant gardens are largely the result of work done in the interwar period, when owners Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst called in a succession of designers, including H Avray Tipping, Beatrix Farrand (her only commission outside the US), and Percy Cane to advise on the landscape. We then travel to Coleton Fishacre, magically set on a remote coastal promontory, to see an an enchanting valley garden packed with an exciting range of tender and exotic plants that thrive in the garden’s mild microclimate. The gardens, which date from 1926, compliment the enchanting Arts and Crafts house, which the architect Oswald Milne, a pupil of Edwin Lutyens, designed for the D’Oly Carte family as a summer retreat. We cap the day with a visit to Castle Drogo, an imposing 20th century castle designed by Lutyens overlooking Dartmoor. Jekyll contributed a naturalistic planting scheme for the drive and George Dillistone designed the dramatic granite terraces. (B)
June 19 (Tuesday) – A Private Garden and Great Fosters
Today we leave Devon and head back to London, stopping en route at a private terraced garden with ancient yew topiary that Jekyll wrote about in
Country Life. We continue to Great Fosters and, after checking in, explore the hotel’s magical Arts and Crafts topiary garden, designed in the 1920s by architect W.H. Romaine-Walker with the aim of recreating the old world charm of the Tudor property. We gather later in the hotel’s acclaimed restaurant for our farewell dinner. (B,D)
June 20 (Wednesday) – Depart
This morning we make the short journey to London Heathrow Airport for the return flight home. (B)
Included in the tour price:
-- 9 nights accommodation in comfortable hotels with private
bathroom
-- tour coach throughout
-- entry to all gardens and sites as per the itinerary
-- all breakfasts and other meals as indicated in the tour
itinerary
-- services of tour manager, usually Jeff Sainsbury, from
London Heathrow airport until departure of return flight
-- tips for hotel porters, bellmen, doormen, waiters at tour
meals, and sightseeing guides
-- arrival and departure transfers (certain restrictions
apply; please ask for details)
Not included in the tour price:
-- airfare and airport taxes
-- excess baggage charges
-- personal expenditure such as room service, telephone
calls, drinks, and optional activities
-- meals other than those specified in the itinerary
--
driver gratuity
-- travel insurance
-- any other items not specifically included
To
reserve a place on this tour:
Please read the Booking Terms and Conditions, print out and
complete the Booking Form, and mail to:
Roberts Travel
Attn: Priscilla Earhart
208 5th Street South
P.O. Box 1048
Columbus, MS 39703
Tel: 662-329-3998
priscillae@bellsouth.net
or E-mail Jeff
Sainsbury:
info@jeffsainsburytours.com
Booking Conditions
Booking/Registration
Form
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