What ‘English style’ owes to Asia’s gardens
Like so many other aspects of our culture, the origins of British garden style can be traced back overseas. As an avid reader of garden history books, I can’t help but wonder if our collective compass might be a tad off when it comes to understanding the primary source of influence in classic British garden design.
In 1685 Sir William Temple wrote an essay describing the East Asian appreciation of irregularity and asymmetry
In the early 18th century, a radical new garden style arose in England that dramatically overhauled the centuries of rigid formal symmetry of the classical French and Italian styles that had dominated the gardens of Europe. Immaculately clipped topiary mazes, whose perfect geometry was thought to reflect how the Garden of Eden looked before the Fall, were swept away. They were replaced with asymmetrical “naturalistic” landscapes, with sweeping lawns rolling over undulating hills and around sinuous lakes and loose groves of trees, all punctuated by romantic follies. An idealised vision of a pastoral landscape from a painting was turned into a living, breathing, three-dimensional space.
In a few short decades, what became known as the “English style” had spread across Britain and on to the rest of Europe. In fact, centuries later it remains the dominant garden style in the world. You’d be forgiven for assuming this style arose entirely spontaneously from the imagination of a handful of ingenious 18th-century Brits. However, the evidence paints a different picture.
In 1685, Sir William Temple, an English ambassador to the Hague, wrote an essay on a missionary’s reports of gardening in China. It was a time when exotic artefacts, such as screens and cabinets, painted with mountainous landscapes and lakes, were arriving in what is now the Netherlands. He described the East Asian appreciation of irregularity and asymmetry, and criticism of the straight lines and neat rows in gardens, such as Versailles. European interpretations of these landscapes, complete with westernised takes on pagodas and arched bridges, soon started appearing in the gardens of wealthy English aristocrats.
Even though these designers had no first-hand knowledge of the landscapes from which they were drawing inspiration, the similarities with East Asian gardens today are striking. Replace the velvety moss of Japan’s Daihoji temple with a carpet of emerald lawn and the footprint is pure Capability Brown. Want to see a landscape of shrines and follies by the curved edges of a lake, complete with a naturalistic rockery? It’s been sitting in Yu Yuan in Shanghai for well over 400 years. The iconic Palladian bridge at Prior Park in Bath is a neo-classical take on the Little Flying Rainbow bridge at the Humble Administrator’s Garden in Suzhou.
To airbrush out the Asian influence on “English” garden style is to miss out on really understanding how we have come to view gardens. It can also mean we overlook the enormous source of inspiration and ideas these gardens still provide. So next time you marvel at a picturesque English landscape, thank Sir William and the world he opened our eyes to.
Email James at james.wong@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter@Botanygeek
