Creativity in Garden Design

Turvey Abbey Garden and Park 1792-1845

When John Higgins inherited Turvey Abbey from his uncle in 1792 he set about landscaping the garden and surrounding Abbey park. In 1792 the park was largely treeless having been part of the former enormous common field known as Garden Field. Perhaps influenced by the style that had been introduced by the well-known landscape designer Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (see Context below), John Higgins planted many trees in both the park and garden and, by using just a low railing and wall to separate the two, ensured that the view from the house extended across the parkland.

View of Abbey Park from the garden: design inspired by Capability Brown’s style. Painting by John Higgins ©Rev J. Longuet Higgins.

We can see features of the garden and park in many of John Higgins’ paintings. As in much grander houses of the time, statues were positioned in the garden…

Painting by John Higgins ©Rev J. Longuet Higgins

and there was a separate walled kitchen garden providing shelter for plants out of sight of the house.

Painting by John Higgins ©Rev J. Longuet Higgins

There was a summerhouse…

Painting by John Higgins ©Rev J. Longuet Higgins

and also a terrace from which to enjoy the garden.

Painting by John Higgins ©Rev J. Longuet Higgins

Turvey Abbey Gardens in 1846

The sketch shows Turvey Abbey Gardens in 1846.  Dean John William Burgon drew the gardens while also writing about them[i].  He was a regular visitor to Turvey through his younger sister marrying Charles Longuet-Higgins of Turvey Abbey (1806-1885).  

Charles Longuet-Higgins was the son of John Higgins and so had inherited Turvey Abbey following the death of his father. Burgon explained that John had found himself the owner of “bare acres surrounding the old house,” He planted trees which, Burgon said, by the time Charles inherited in 1846, had become a forest which then “entirely choked” the original garden.  

Charles believed his asthma was due to the “accumulation of vegetable life in the immediate vicinity of his dwelling”.  He had several thousand trees felled but this did not improve his condition so he was “ordered to pass the winter in a warm dry climate as a measure of self-preservation”.  Charles had a large pond filled in, cutting down willows, elms and rows of yews.  He created a “sweep of unbroken lawn bisected by a long straight gravel walk” with a plantation visible in the distance.  Taking ideas from other major houses, he ensured the garden was separated from the park “by a low iron railing and a depressed stone wall”. 

Burgon explained Charles’s “theory of a pleasure garden was that it should be green all the year round” that it should include “yews, laurels, and above all, box trees: that the principal walk should be straight, and broad enough to admit of several persons walking abreast: that flowers as well as fruits should be studiously relegated to a separate part of the domain, duly enclosed by a high wall.”  Burgon agreed the garden showed “the taste of its recent owner; grave, … and cheerful all the year round.” 

Context: The  history of English garden design in the 18th and early 19th centuries

Both John Higgins and his son Charles Longuet Higgins sought to create very different landscapes in the Turvey Abbey grounds from those that they had each inherited. Whilst we know that Charles’s beliefs about the role of trees in his asthma shaped some of his actions, perhaps some of the trends in English landscape and garden design at the time also influenced the Turvey Abbey landscaping of both father and son.

You might notice some of the features highlighted below in bold illustrated in John Higgins’ paintings or described in Dean Burgon’s account.

From the mid-18th century Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (1716-1783) and others introduced the ‘natural landscape’ style characterised by sweeping views over parkland with trees, lakes and belts of woodland. Walled flower and kitchen gardens were placed so they would not obstruct the parkland views from the house. These design ideas influenced not just the large estates like Stowe and Blenheim but also the much more modest gardens of country gentlemen which might be laid out with informal stretches of grass and specimen trees. 

From about 1800 Humphrey Repton and other garden and landscape designers, such as John Claudius Loudon, began to introduce more interest around the house to create ‘pleasure grounds’ for people to walk in and enjoy. Designs included terraces around the house, often decorated with urns. Lawns, walks, shrubberies, pools and statues became popular, and summerhouses were a typical feature.

Developing technology also played a part in garden design. The first lawnmower was developed in 1830 in Gloucestershire and, as mowers became more widely available, lawns became more popular and easier to manage.

[i] Burgon, Dean J.W. 1889. Lives of Twelve Good Men: John Murray. London