I thought it might be helpful and hopefully also fun, to take a look at a particular estate in a bit more depth. As we will shortly be talking about the great landscape gardeners, (several of whom worked here) now might be a good moment to start.

Wimpole Hall has come up a couple of times already. It has no particular JA associations that I am aware of. The reason that I want to concentrate on it is that it seems to exemplify so many of the features of the great aristocratic estates of the day, (it is definitely a Pemberley rather than a Barton cottage!) Wimpole is run by the National Trust, and many of these have been preserved or restored and there is a good deal of online material about the place.

It might be helpful to run through the various features that make Wimpole such a good exemplar of a great Eighteenth Century estate.

The Park; Wimpole Hall is set in a substantial park. The hall itself is set on the top of one of the few real hills in Cambridgeshire and has fine parkland views, especially to the south.

The Pleasure Grounds: around the house itself though not at the south facing “front,” are pleasure grounds and gardens, separated from the park by iron fences and a ha-ha.

Formal gardens within the same enclosed area as above with parterre.

The Kitchen Garden: Wimpole has a fine walled kitchen garden, well out of the way of the grand house and now restored and producing vegetables for use in the restaurant.

The Home Farm: Wimpole not only has a home farm but it a Jacqueline pointed out below has a very handsome model farm built as a showpiece at the end of the eighteenth century.

Landscape features. The park has many of the features one would expect of a landscape designed by Brown, Repton etc. There is an artificial lake with a “Chinese” bridge across it. A fake ruin, and a series of “belts” (planted woodland strips that look like much greater areas of forest).

As mentioned recently there is also an astonishingly magnificent stable block built near to the main house.

One feature that is perhaps less usual is the church. The parish church of Wimpole stands next to the house, even though the village has been moved away. In the mid nineteenth century the estate workers were built cottages in “New Wimpole” a mile or so away from Wimpole Hall. Now the Church and Rectory (converted to a restaurant) sit between the great house and the stables.

What I would like to do now is to go through the more important features individually with the aid of some pictures and links to photographs, panoramas and maps. I hope this way that we can give a real idea of what one of these great English estates was like, and use it to illustrate some of the landscapers ideas.

Caroline already gave the link for this map of the estate but I think it is worth giving it again as it gives a good idea of where the various elements are in relation to each other.