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The Leasowes Ah! Maria ... Ah! farewell! (engraved on the urn to Maria Dolman) | ||
A model of romantic garden
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The Leasowes Ah! Maria ... Ah! farewell! (engraved on the urn to Maria Dolman) | ||
In Halesowen (Worcestershire), William Shenstone, a preromantic poet, created in 1745 a "ferme ornée" of an extent of 60 acres.
He had inherited the farm of his father. His wealth didn't allowed luxury works, so the gardens aren't gathering of precious buildings and rare species, but a highly sensible garden.
He managed paths and streams. He opened lanes in the woods, with dedicated urns and seats at key points (of which the urn to Maria Dolman, his beloved cousin, dead at he end of her teens)
The most remarkable feature were flows falling from one basin to other, and sights on surrounding through wooden dales.
Virgil's grove, a gloomy and mossy lawn at the foot of the main flow falling in a cascade, and the sight on Halesowen church over the Priory Pool were on the pinnacle.
Except the urns, seats and root houses (not too expensive) other buildings were restricted to an ornamental ruined Priory housing the gardener, the temple of Pan, the obelisk in Virgil's grove (dedicated to the Roman poet) and ruined gates. The ruined Priory had been inspired by the actual ruined Halesowen abbey and incorporated stonework from it.
Unfortunately, the Leasowes have suffered. The park was highly admired at its beginning for its novelty (but also criticized by some); then it felt in disregard. The grounds haven't been too much sized down (a part of them are now the golf of Halesowen), but most part of the ornaments and of water amenities disappeared. A channel built for industrial carriage in the 19th century blocks the sight on Halesowen church through the basins valley.
In 1997, an Heritage Lottery fund was granted to restore the Leasowes, with sustained benevolent help. The upper pond is under restoration, but cost increase due to unexpected work on dams has delayed the project. We should hope that the streams would eventually flow again.
The marquis de Girardin visited the Leasowes in the 1760's (to my best knowledge after William Shenstone's death). He was overwhelmed, as he discovered the actual park that he dreamed of, and that Jean-Jacques Rousseau suggested designing in his books. The nature was altogether preserved and perfected to find peace and matter to think of. René de Girardin found there a part of the inspiration for Ermenonville. Several of his own inscriptions are tributes to the Shenstone's poetry : the engraved poem in the grotto of the naiads in Ermenonville is translated from the inscription in the root house of Virgil's Grove, the poem engraved in the grotto of the fountain is a translation of a Shenstone's poetry, and so the stone in the shrub. In Ermenonville, a stone was specially dedicated to William Shenstone. Of all these four, only the poem in the grotto of naiads can still be seen today.
on the site of Garden visit and travel guide at Dudley's . , it was a detached district of the Shropshire, surrounded by the Worcestershire, closely to the border of the Warwickshire.
It was joined to the Worcestershire during the 19th century and, in the 1970's, to the West Midlands.
The Octogonal seat, dedicated to " All friends round the Wrekin " remembered that the Leasowes have had been part of the Shropshire.
It's a traditional toast, the Wrekin being the regional emblematic mountain.. Apart his poetry works, he wrote "Unconnected Thoughts on Gardening" , his concept of landscaping.
gathers Shenstone's selected works , of which
"Inscriptions" ,
poems and epitaphs to be engraved in the Leasowes.,
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A few of inscriptions by William Shenstone | ||
On the temple to god Pan :
On the "Assignation Seat"
On the urn to Maria Dolman :
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On one of the two root houses in Virgil's Grove :
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In the "Inscriptions" | ||
