Wilderness (garden history)

Generally the garden front of the house opened to a terrace followed by an area set out in parterres, often including "plats" of plain grass.

In Biblical contexts it referred to the arid "treeless wasteland" covering much of the Holy Land,[13] and even with the limited awareness of Middle Eastern geography of most English people, the term was probably understood along these lines.

However the deeper history of words related to "wild" in northern European languages suggests that older connections to heavily-forested land may have lingered in English consciousness.

[16] Regardless of climate and vegetation, the biblical references establish the wilderness as a place of solitude, away from crowds, and this was an important part of the garden meaning.

These included grove, bosquet, clump, shrubbery, boscage, thicket, plantation, wood, coppice, and copse, most generally suggesting a less formal arrangement.

[19] Writing of the similar areas in Italian gardens, Edith Wharton wrote that "the ilex or laurel walks beyond were clipped into shape to effect a transition between the straight lines of masonry and the untrimmed growth of the woodland to which they led, and that each step away from architecture was a nearer approach to nature.

According to a visitor this included a great variety of species, many producing fruit or nuts, and also a number of caged exotic animals,[21] a medieval touch not often seen later, except for aviaries.

[22] The main period for creating wildernesses was about "1690–1750, probably peaking around 1735–1740",[23] although Jan Kip's earlier aerial perspective prints suggest that the greatest houses had them by 1710 or before.

[24] Designs varied with the site, but the most common is what is now called the "Union Jack" style, in French an étoile ("star"), with alleys at regular angles intersecting at a central point.

This was a natural wood, to the side of the main axis of the garden of the newly-built house, which was instead "turned into a labyrinth of tangled paths, enlivened by various fountains", but at least initially, little special planting.

[29] St Paul's Walden Bury, laid out in the 1730s, is a rather late garden with straight walks in the old style, and the "most perfect surviving" English example.

[31] In the previous decade there had been a brief fashion for hedge-less "high stemmed groves", trees all stripped bare of side branches up to 20 feet or more; an early one was planted about 1716 at Chiswick House.

Especially in large and late examples, there might be paths leading into the interior of the quarter, but more often it was fully enclosed, although there were no doubt small gaps left for the gardeners to push through for maintenance.

As in the gardens of Versailles,[38] hornbeam was the most popular choice for hedging round the compartments, though yew and box could be used, with a variety of trees suggested for planting inside them, including some evergreens,[39] which were recommended for surrounding bowling greens, to prevent autumn leaves on the playing surface.

[44] Major intersections of walks, and "glades" or garden rooms, ideally included a feature of interest, whether a fountain, a piece of sculpture, or a larger specimen tree.

Though writers praised the role of the wilderness for improving reading and conversation, the high degree of privacy they offered led to concerns about their potential for moral laxity.

[47] The public pleasure gardens that proliferated in 18th-century English cities, mostly featured large areas set out as wildernesses, and a description of Vauxhall Gardens in London from 1760 gives a rather tongue-in-cheek account:The ladies that have an inclination to be private, take delight in the close walks of Spring-Gardens, where both sexes meet, and mutually serve one another as guides to lose their way; and the windings and turnings in the little wildernesses are so intricate, that the most experienced mothers have often lost themselves in looking for their daughters."

[49] A house on Hog Island near Charleston, South Carolina, was advertised in 1734 as having "A delightful Wilderness with shady Walks and Arbours, cool in the hottest Seasons", and other owners included George Washington at Mount Vernon, Thomas Jefferson and John Penn.

Ham House , near London, seen from the main avenue of the newly replanted wilderness in 2014
Ham House, attributed to Hendrick Danckerts , late 1670s, used in planning the reconstructed wilderness.
Jan Kip , Fair Lawn in ye County of Kent , 1707 (detail). The wilderness, partly in a " Union Jack " design, lies across the top of the image. The quarters are palisaded, with few internal paths. [ 5 ]
Castle Howard in 1725, with wildernesses at top, by Colen Campbell . Rather unusually for England, these were evergreen. [ 12 ]
Inside the Ham House Wilderness, 2011
The full French formal style ; a walk in a bosquet in the Gardens of Versailles .
"The Wilderness", now lost, at Hampton Court Palace , after Jan Kip , c. 1715
Plan with serpentine walks, from Batty Langley , 1726.
Opening from the 1712 English edition of The Theory and Practice of Gardening – Wherein is Fully Handled all that Relates to Fine Gardens, Commonly called Pleasure-Gardens, as Parterres, Groves, Bowling-Greens &c . by Dezallier d'Argenville . Suggested schemes for gardens of 6 (left) and 12 (right) acres, both including wildernesses at top.
Chatsworth in 1699, with several wildernesses to the right, including one with circular walks. [ 33 ] Of Scots pine , they were cut down in the 1730s. [ 34 ]
Vauxhall Gardens by Samuel Wale, c.1751. The entertainment areas at the front give way to large wilderness areas at the rear.
"Dessein d'un Labyrinte avec des cabinets et Fontaines", Dezallier d'Argenville , 1709