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The year of the garden at Hampton Court |
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A banqueting house overlooked the King's awesome gardens, where entertainment for privileged members of the court would take place. Although Henry's gardens are long-gone, a new exhibition, opening on Tuesday 1 June with Alan Titchmarsh, will enable visitors to walk in the footsteps of the Tudor monarch's many wives and take a virtual tour through the King's lost Privy Garden. The tour of the palace's sixteenth century gardens is just one of element of the exhibition which will reveal discoveries made by curators about how the gardens have looked over the years. Henry VIII's gardens were a far cry from the Hampton Court Palace gardens of today which have developed through the centuries under the watchful eye of subsequent reigning sovereigns, determined to have the most fashionable and elegant gardens of their era. Elizabeth I introduced fanciful clipped topiary shaped in many exotic forms, such as centaurs and serving girls with baskets, to complement her father's grand designs. The Stuarts, keen on bowling greens, brought refinement to the royal turf, and Charles I was influenced by 17th-Century Italian gardens. French grandeur and great avenues of lime trees were introduced by Charles II, and later William III brought horticultural ideas from his homeland, the Netherlands, which included the stunning Privy Garden (restored to its 1702 glory in 1995). Many of these historic styles can still be seen in the gardens at Hampton Court Palace, preserved despite changes in gardening styles and fashions over the centuries. The modern day gardens at Hampton Court will also be explained, as well as plans for management, archaeology, ecology, conservation and restoration, ensuring the gardens are maintained and conserved for future generations to continue to enjoy. Alan Titchmarsh will be signing copies of his latest book Royal Gardeners, which accompanies the television series that featured the historic gardens at Hampton Court Palace, in the Palace's Garden Shop afterwards. This year - 2004 - is Hampton Court Palace's Year of the Garden, celebrated with a series of special gardens tours to complement the new gardens exhibition. Hampton Court Palace Gardens Tours take place on Saturdays, Sundays, Tuesday, Thursdays and Bank Holidays until mid-September at 2.30pm. Tours last one hour and are included in ticket price. The palace's highly skilled gardeners will lead tours that will take in William III's Privy Garden, the East Front, the Wilderness, the Tiltyard and the palace's extensive nursery (where over 140,000 annuals are prepared and nurtured every year for the summer bedding displays). The Vine Keeper will give talks about the legendary Great Vine, planted by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown around 1768, now the oldest and largest of its kind in the world. Costumed Garden Tours: Saturdays and Sundays from June 5 to September 26. Tours will last for approximately 30 minutes and are included in ticket price. Costumed guides will lead tours of the gardens explaining their royal history and development. Dressed as courtiers from William III and Mary II's court, the tours will include King William's famous Privy Garden (restored in 1995) and the East Front gardens, once known as the Great Fountain Garden where the King had thirteen fountains installed. Friday, May 21, 2004
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Five
hundred years ago King Henry VIII began a tradition of royal gardening
at his riverside residence of Hampton Court Palace: his heraldic Privy
Garden was landscaped in a 'chequer-board' style with squares of coloured
sand interspersed with statues of the King's famous beasts. 
