William Kent's Elysium: Rousham House and Garden

Rajyam in Oxfordshire is the work of William Kent whom I consider the great genius of 18th century garden design and this is his masterpiece it's still owned by the same family who employed Kent in 1738 to reshape the garden and despite nearly 300 years of changing fashions and styles Russian has remained practically unaltered since the day it was completed this is one of the great Gardens views it's about a kind gentle embracing of this soft very British landscape but it's manipulated because there's a phony up there on the hillside that looks like an old medieval ruin in fact is just a wall a facade designed solely to be seen from this viewpoint and another way that landscape was manipulated was with a new piece of garden architecture the haha is a beautifully simple and effective device it's a wall designed to keep stock out but it's a wall sunken down in a ditch so from inside the garden it was an unbroken view you didn't see the barrier and see the ditch or the wall all you saw was what you wanted to see which was your prized animals your wonderful trees you were planting with lowly out into the landscape and it was incredibly liberating it open gardens out on the road you look up to the house and this is enormous impressive great Avenue of grass in fact most of it is just a steep slope I mean to look as though it's much bigger than it is but once the scene is set then to go into the garden proper there are a number of different roots and this is this is very typical none of them are grand it almost doesn't quite look like you're in the right place and they're said to be something like a thousand different roots around it so let's go this way you see this really doesn't feel like the entrance to one of the greatest guns in the world does it this gun is green every shade of green is played with the light is green you have this under layer of Laurel and then you have used and you rise up and have the deciduous trees with the light just shifting and falling through then everywhere Russia there are scenes revealed you come out and you find yourself in a setting I thought that's Kent's great genius he was a stage designer and you become the actor you perform on it because what that does is make the garden work entirely in a personal way for you every time is a fresh performance so instead of looking on and Mauri like you're doing so many guns you breathe life into it and that's magic that really is I've got a picture of William Kent and if Brown was someone that everybody of Maude is professional he turned up on time amazingly efficient knew he was talking about Kent was all over the shop he never turned up on time he didn't answer letters he didn't send any voices he drunk too much so he said that Kent would come and stay with you drink all your wine probably sleep with your wife and your daughters and charm you and you can't help but love William Kent he said he's one of the great brilliant rogues of history the accusations against Kent and he's not universally admired are that here a just added embellishment to good work that was already in place but the touches that he added transformed everything that he touched and all his work I think stands peerless above the the more solar contributions of his contemporaries William Kent was heavily influenced by a stay of ten years in Italy where he studied and trained as a painter and absorbed every facet of art architecture and decoration and although he was the son of a humble joiner from bridlington this was the heyday of the Grand Tour when aristocratic young men would set off in a kind of glorified gappiya to absorb European art and culture so from about 1730 as these aristocrats returned home and took over their country seats British Gardens gradually began to reject the existing Dutch formality and replace it with these classical influences but Kent a maverick to the end also added a quirky element to it I love the way that in this temple of echo called Townsend building you have the temple and the pillars in the front then on the side sash window so what you end up with is Rome but Rome with its feet firmly in Oxfordshire and Kent was more much more than just a gun designer hello Aaron I see you coming thank you very much no aspect of design was beyond him and the home of Charles and Angela cultural dormer is testament to his extraordinary range through here the dining room right but if we turn this way this is an extraordinary Katie Simo every detail of this room from elaborate marble mantel pieces too ornate gilt picture frames decorative swans and intricate corner Singh was all designed by Kent and Kent did this ceiling did he paint yes he painted it on canvas and it was tumbled down rolled up as on a wagon a wonderful decoration look at color the Blues your air it's actually wonderful how I want it okay Oh generals very grand lively now that is general door Moses yes who commissioned the garden and what relation is he to you great great great great and not sure how many greats so that the the line has stayed in the family yeah I'm here it does seem I wonder if there are any other examples of rooms looking out onto a garden designed where the building has been designed the plaster work the furniture all designed by the same man it is extraordinary did you know if it come did you know oh just see it through there the visitors doorway that was built by Kent especially it so that passes by in the 18th century could visit the gardens a great tradition in this country of places being visited and Clara the head gardener he got 60 pounds earring tips which was a great deal of money at the wrong reason and he was a wonderful chair and she sacked him Jane Caesar right why because she didn't like him getting tips so people have been visiting Russian from the beginning yes the god it's not the house yeah I'm really pressure to modernize know what for you can't hurt it if you respected spirit it tells you what it likes and what it doesn't rushon brilliantly displays how can't included the landscape to make an idealized image of the English countryside

Channel: BellisVintage

Views: 103,182

Keywords: Old World Glamour, Interior Design, Design Inspiration, Vintage Decorative Style, The Secret History of British Gardens (2015, Garden Design, Rousham, Rousham Oxfordshire, Monty Don, Rousham House and Garden, William Kent, William Kent garden, Monty Don Garden, British Gardens, 18th Century British Gardens, The Secret History of British Gardens Episode 2, Monty Don Rousham

Id: O4pS-NdLL7A

Length: 9min 30sec (570 seconds)

Published: Tue May 31 2016