How a historic British estate embraced Chinese garden design

CGTN Europe

As Chinese-inspired English landscape gardens became the height of fashion in the 18th century, landowner and garden designer Coplestone Bampfylde created a wild, winding walk through the grounds of his Hestercombe Estate.   Join CGTN Europe Russell Beard on a journey to discover how these grounds embrace the principles of Chinese garden design.   #tracesofchina

Transcript

00:00As the Chinese-inspired English landscape garden became the height of fashion in the

00:1118th century, landowner and garden designer, Coplestone Bamfield, created a wild winding

00:19walk through the grounds of his estate.

00:22It doesn't appear to be a kind of a construct.

00:24It doesn't feel like a garden, does it?

00:27Yeah, right.

00:28A lot of people walk through here and think this is just the landscape.

00:31This is just wild.

00:32This is just what walks are like, but actually it's very managed.

00:37So from here, you have a glimpse through to the mausoleum.

00:41You don't want to see the whole thing because you want that bit of interest.

00:44And then the view across the pond, you get a glimpse of where you've been in the Octagon

00:48Summer House down there, and then across the pond in the Vale of Taunton.

00:53The idea of the borrowed view is a big part of every Chinese garden, and there's a whole

00:59science attached to this.

01:00You have distant borrowed views, which are mostly mountains.

01:03You have adjacent views, which could be other buildings.

01:08And the idea is you make use of objects which can be seen, which are actually beyond the

01:13garden itself, but you calculate very precisely where to put your garden features to make

01:18use of those distant views.

01:21So instead of everything being laid out like a geometrical pattern, you've got a much more

01:26natural garden with a sequence of surprises and views that you only get when you reach

01:32a particular point.

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