"Do you want to go and see the iris trial at Lamport Hall?" was the question, but what I heard was "Do you want to go on a gnome pilgrimage to Lamport Hall", of course I did.
Lamport Hall has been hosting iris trials for the British Iris Society and I believe this is their last year there for this trial.
My garden has thick heavy clay and irises do not enjoy growing for me, so it was a joy to see so many flowering well.
I enjoyed thinking which ones I would give garden space to and which ones I would not. I liked most to be honest.
and they made a nice sight in the walled garden.
I also enjoyed this patch of tulip Sprengeri, probably my favourite tulip. I should note here it was a couple of weeks ago when I was there, they are probably finished flowering now.
But I was there principally to visit the rock garden, to pay homage to where the first garden gnomes known to be brought to this country lived. They were brought here by the 10th Baronet, Sir Charles Isham in the 1870s. The rockery was purpose built for them. This huge rockery, around 24 feet high, was designed so Sir Charles could see the gnomes even from his bedroom window.
When I visited Lamport Hall previously, the rockery was closed to the public. I was really hopeful it would not be this time. When we were buying the entry tickets the lady in the shop told me that 'the gnomes were out'; well, you can imagine my excitement at this. These are not the original gnomes. Sadly the originals were beloved by Sir Charles but not by his family and after his death his daughters encouraged their guests to shoot them with air rifles. Only one survived as he fell down the back of a crevice to be found again many years later. He is now kept safely inside the Hall.
It is fair to say that my companion on the day could not have given two hoots about the gnomes, but almost managed to pretend otherwise.
Do I now want a 24 foot high rockery that I can fill with gnomes? Well no, apart from the expense if I had one I could see from my bedroom window I would have no driveway to park my car. I did rush home and tell my small but beloved collection of gnomes (just five of them ...... so far....) that I had been to pay respects to their origin story and they looked suitably impressed, or as impressed as an impassive stone face allows.
I had a fabulous afternoon at Lamport, there is much more to see then I have mentioned and we did also have some very good cake. We went on the guided tour of the house that was really interesting, though did begin to feel a little like the plot of a murder mystery as well.... ten of us set out on the tour but by the time we got to the end only four of us were left, I was getting a little worried but then I do possibly watch too much Murder She Wrote (can you watch too much of Jessica??)
I am sure I will visit again.
Comments
Post a Comment
Comments are approved before being published