I have been doing a lot of travelling in recent months for work commitments. This usually involves getting up early to drive there and then driving back late into the evening with no time for a quick popping into a garden nursery or a nearby garden. Regular readers will know how frustrating this will be for me. However, the opportunity came to travel down on a Sunday so I could be there early on the Monday morning. I decided as I was under no deadline to arrive, I would find somewhere to visit on the way.
I went through several possibilities before deciding that I would stop off at Hinton Ampner. This is a fine Georgian house, built on the site of an Elizabethan house. The Elizabethan house was demolished allegedly following ghostly goings on. The Georgian house itself has not had an uneventual time as it was seriously damaged by fire in 1960 and had to be rebuilt and refurnished again.
As you would expect though, I was not there for the house, I wanted to wander the gardens.
Before I had got very far from the car park I was stopped in my tracks by this ancient oak tree, gleaming in the mid-October sun. The sun in itself was quite amazing as the day had started foggy and the drive had been quite misty until I was quite close to my destination.
I entered the walled garden to be greeted by a sea of pink dahlias. They looked amazing. The 'scarecrow' overseeing the dahlias had a look of Postman Pat to my untrained eye, maybe this is where he retired to?
The espaliered trees show their age and make such great architectural features that bear fruit. Yet I had this feeling of being watched....
and look at this kale! What a phenomenal colour - it seems very hallowe'en-esque, with its blood red stalks and dark dark leaves. Well worth growing as an ornamental if you don't fancy eating it.
There was also this very fine medlar tree, it has more a weeping habit than mine does at home, I now think I want a weeping medlar. Except I looked up which type of medlar 'weeps' and apparently Nottingham does, and mine is Nottingham. Maybe I need to not prune it and see if it will start to do so.
The walled garden is full of flowers. Borders full of cosmos,
and roundabouts full of orange dahlias and bronze hazy grass.
As I arrived into the main gardens that wrap around the house, I was greeted by this tree with a wonderful twist in its trunk. It looks almost fluid and stopped in mid-motion.
The house is beautifully proportioned (by the way, isn't the ability to delete people from photographs wonderful?) there was a person sitting on one of those benches and poof! with quick erasure they were gone).
and as you turn from looking at the house, this is the view stretching away across the downs. You can see that it is still a bit misty in the distance.
There is the most beautiful semi-circular ha-ha protecting the gardens from livestock yet allowing the view to stretch out into the distance.
This garden is all about vistas and views.
One way draws you along the Long Walk,
with clouds of cleome, salvias and dahlias. The colour scheme is beautifully romantic.
The walk goes right along across the front of the house.
Topiary is a big feature of this garden.
This topiary is hiding a tiny boarded up cottage. I am intrigued by it.
Whilst the grounds are many hectares, the formal gardens are not that huge yet pack a lot in. I loved the temple (yes I deleted someone sitting in here too - oh the power).
There were many pumpkins in evidence. It was hard to get a photo that did not include a child or a dog posing in front of them for a photo, but patience is a virtue and I managed to get one.
and lots of Erigeron karvinskianus, Mexican fleabane. It is well known it is against the law to have steps, paths or cracks in stately homes that do not contain these daisies.
I wandered into the churchyard as I love a good churchyard. Look at this incredible yew tree - it is just stunning.
I was fascinated by this gravestone, I have never seen one like this previously. It is for Colonel George Greenwood (1799 - 1875) who, according to the internet, was a geologist and an archaeologist and who built circle stones by the A272. Which I say as if I know where the A272 to, but frankly I haven't a clue.
Yet from all the grand and expansive, it is often the little moments that really make me smile, like these Dahlia merkii growing in a small wooded area,
and whilst I hope the owner does find their lost hat, I rather like it atop of this plinth.
I had a fabulous visit, I had a good coffee and scone (nice fluffy scone), bought a book on ghosts in the bookshop (as you do) and wended my way to my hotel. I might have to try and fit visits into my commute again. It made the journey far more fun.
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