The Great Fountain Garden

The Great Fountain Garden. . , The Great Fountain Garden was a magnificent baroque formal garden, created by Daniel Marot for William III (r 1689-1702) and Mary II (r 1689-1694) to frame Henry VIII’s hunting park. , , Thirteen fountains , The French architect Daniel Marot designed 13 fountains set in intricate ‘broderie’ (embroidery) beds of flowers, grass and coloured gravels. , , The fountains never worked well and all but one were swept away after Mary’s sister, Anne became Queen in 1702. She disliked the garden’s expense and its over-elaborate design. She also hated the smell of box hedginh and had it uprooted and replaced with closely clipped yew trees and gravel paths. , , ‘… the King also directed the laying of the pipes for the fountain and… increased the number to them after the first design.’ Daniel Defoe, A Tour Thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain, 1724 , , Yew trees grow … and grow … , Royalty abandoned living at the palace in 1760 and George III’s Chief Gardener, Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown decided to stop clipping the topiary – such formal gardens were out of fashion and it also saved his own money. The stunted yews from Queen Anne’s garden began to grow and grow. , , After the First World War gardeners returned to clipping these magnificent trees, turning them into giant toadstool shapes. Our gardeners continue to clip these 300-year-old trees every summer.