georgian | Author, Jane Lark's stories

Recently I visited Lodge Park, in the Cotswolds, near Cirencester. Lodge Park is a 17th century grandstand.

It was built for John ‘Crump’ Dutton, a Civil War politician, for the purpose of viewing deer coursing.

It stands within the Sherborne Estate, in 18th century parkland designed by English garden designer, Charles Bridgeman.

The deer course is a mile long, and would have originally been walled.

John Dutton, and the political friends he’d brought to his estate to charm, would have ridden up the course from Sherborne House, and then in the luxury of this fully equipped stand dined and watched the deer coursing from the roof.

His lesser guests would have watched it from the balcony.

At the time it was built, from the roof he and his guests could have viewed the whole length of the course and watched their hunting hounds chase the deer into the run and follow them all the way along the course, laying bets even as they ran.

Blood sports are frowned upon these days, but in the 17^th and 18^th century they were part of life in every form, and the animals caught were eaten. There are the remains of a slaughter house at the end of the course where the venison would have been prepared for John Dutton’s table.

With my imagination rampant I can picture the idle, self-centred rich of the 17^th Century drinking, cheering and jeering and laughing as the dogs fly along the course and the deer race ahead in a leaping run, lurching from side to side, looking for escape. There was a ditch at the head of the course the deer could leap if they won.

On the map of Lodge Park you can see the fields which still outline the old deer course. They run a long rectangular length from the A420 to the slaughter house.

The fountain in the picture above is a later addition, put in when Lodge Park was once used as a family home.

And as you see, to add to the ambience of the venue, the day we visited the large hall was being used as a concert hall. I do not doubt John Dutton would have had numerous entertainments to thrill his guests and gain their influence in his political field when he owned and entertained in the grandstand.

Jane Lark is a writer of authentic, passionate and emotional love stories.

See the side bar for details of Jane’s books and Jane’s website www.janelark.co.uk to learn more about Jane. Or click ‘like’ on Jane’s Facebook page to see photo’s and learn historical facts from the Georgian, Regency and Victorian eras, which Jane publishes there. You can also follow Jane on twitter at @janelark

Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown was a landscape gardener in the 1800s. He is the man known for changing the fashion from formal gardens constructed in the Georgian era and earlier than this, in the style of Versailles, to a more natural looking, picturesque style. These gardens were made to look like paintings, and the idea came from a desire to recreate landscape pictures that people painted on the Grand Tour of Europe. They wanted to capture views in more than paint–in nature. But although appearing natural they are anything but. This week I visited Blenheim Palace, near Oxford. This garden is a good example of Capability Brown’s work.

Incidentally Capability was his nickname, because when he came to look at a garden and consider taking the work on he was said to view its capability.

The things that made a garden capable of change were things like, whether a garden had a natural water path, a spring or a river. Capability was a genius but not a God, he could not create a lake from nothing. For instance Blenheim’s huge lake was formed by damming a small river. The lake took 10 years to dig out and one year to fill. You sill see in the photograph it looks natural but from the level of work you can tell how unnatural it is. The Bridge was there before the lake and when Capability flooded the land about it, half the bridge was lost beneath the lake. There is also a picture of Capabilities dam, which has recently been reinforced to prevent the risk of flooding and sadly therefore spoiled. But Capability landscaped areas, like this, added surprise for the Regency families strolling these grounds, stimulating the ears with sound before the cascade from the dam came into view. My favourite landscaped gardens are those where a river is made to grow wider and meander across an open garden, beautiful examples of this are the river before Sherborne Estate near Cirencester, the house is not open but the landscaped river is still on view from the road. Stoneleigh Abbey is another perfect picture, across the river that meanders in front of the house the bank slopes down and sheep and cows graze on the other side, like a Turner painting. The third example I would give of this is in a flat landscaped garden near Warwick, Coughton Court, from the ground the view is less impressive but from the higher position of the house it’s a perfect country view.

Jane Lark is a writer of authentic, passionate and emotional love stories.

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