The Development of the Park and Gardens at Knole

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARK AND GARDENS AT KNOLE KRISTINA TAYLOR Henry VIII acquired Knole from Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in 1538 for hunting purposes and he then set about enlarging and improving the house and grounds. Earlier, the estate had been bought and the first house built by Archbishop Thomas Bourchier between 1456 and his death in 1486. Though Elizabeth I subsequently presented it to her cousin Thomas Sackville, later 1st Earl of Dorset, in 1566 he was not able to occupy it until he bought back the lease in 1603. Over the next two years the house underwent a transformation into a great Renaissance palace, and it largely remains unaltered from that time. Throughout part of the seventeenth century, occupation by the Sackville family was intermittent, possibly due to lack of money and it was sometimes leased. It was not until the beginning of the eighteenth century that the 6th Earl and later his son, the 7th Earl, used the house as their principal residence, renovating, improving and embellishing what the 1st Earl had initiated. The family have lived at Knole ever since, but owing to the burden of upkeep and protecting the valuable collections within the house, presented it (with the walled garden) to the National Trust in 1946, in exchange for a generous lease of 200 years. THE PARK In Fuming' s guide book (1795) Knole park is described so: The soil is happily adapted to the growth of timber, stately beeches and venerable oaks fill every part of the landscape: the girth of one of these oaks exceeds 28 feet ... The plantations ... in broad and spacious masses cover the summits of the undulating line, or skirt the vallies in easy sweeps ... a point of view from the end of the valley, which goes in a south-west direction from the house; it forms a gentle curve, the 153 KRISTINA TAYLOR groves rise magnificently on each side and the trees, many of them, beeches of the largest size, are generally feathered to the bottom; the mansion with its towers and battlements, and a back ground of hills covered with wood, terminate the vista; the time most favourable for the prospect is a little before the setting sun, when the fore ground is darkened by a great mass of shade, and the house, from this circumstance and its being brought forward in a beautiful manner to the eye. Archbishop Bourchier enclosed the park within a pale (Du Boulay) which was thus the beginning of a long history of deer husbandry, tree planting and enlargement at Knole. In 1468, 6s. 8d. was paid for making 1000 palings and 2s. 8d. was charged 'for carrying 4 cart loads of palings from Breton to Knoll-land', a nearby farm (SL, I). The park keeper was called John Judde and he was paid 3d. per day between 1470 and 1472 making £4 11s 6d for a year. The exact amount of land within the park pale at this time is unclear, perhaps 200 acres around the house and to the south, which may have been mostly arable (Ward, p. 153). A century later, in 1561, when considerably more land had been acquired, a survey for the earl of Leicester measured the park at 446 acres. But though the park pales were in good order there is a reference to Knole being disparked about this time (Phillips, vol. 2, p. 397). This would have been because the house and park had been taken over by the Crown and they remained so until the beginning of the seventeenth century when Thomas Sackville took over the lease from Samson Lennard (SL, 3, p. 101). John Lennard, who officially leased Knole from 1574, but may have lived there from 1570, restored the house, built the garden wall and repaired the park pale after its di sparking (Phillips, vol. 2, p. 401 ). There are no early maps, general or estate, for Knole Park and the first time it appears in print is on Saxton's (1575). However, Gordon Ward's map (Fig. I) based on field names and local tithe and manorial records can be used to determine the extent of the park's boundaries in Elizabethan times (CKS U442 P60). The pale extended to the present west lodges, built in 1797 (Ward, p. 153). More acreage was added so that when the Sackvilles arrived in 1603 the park comprised 550 acres. In 1724 the Duke of Dorset bought, for £260, the rights and title (110 acres) of the last four freeholders of St Julian's, Rumshott and Fawke Commons, south of the park, so that the park pale came right up to the road to Fawke. The boundary met the Tonbridge road in places but it was not until the purchase of a house and¾ acre at the top of Riverhill in 1748 that the southern boundary was completed. When the park reached its present form, by 1826, it comprised about 950 acres (Fig. 2). 154 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARK AND GARDENS AT KNOLE MANNOR Of WICKHERST Fig. l Gordon Ward's map of Sevenoaks c. 1600 (compiled in the 1930s). 155 White Hart lnnX KRISTINA TAYLOR \ 222• Golf course 205 204• • •20 6 203• •207 Fig. 2 Main Features of Knole Park including the distribution of ringcounted trees. Key. I. Beech pollard. 2. Stump A. 3. Oak pollnrd. 4. Chestnut Walk. 5. Broad Walk. 6. Duchess/Countess Walk. 7. Riverhill nursery. 8. Mounted walk. 9. Q. Petrea epd 1700. 10. Castanea c. 1700. I I. King beech site. 12. King (John's) oak site. 13 Old (Great) oak site. 14. Ice House. 15. 1797 lodges. 156 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARK AND GARDENS AT KNOLE Nowadays the park is fenced off mostly with a two metre high chain fence with concrete posts. Part of the north-east end is bounded by a nineteenth-century rags tone wall. The wall may have been built from stone quarried at Blackball Quarry nearby, or to the south of Sevenoaks at Weald Road. Historically the pale was oak; a good fencing of old English upright oak could last for a century (Shirley, p. 80). It is likely that pollarded oak was used for park pales· and it is possible that the oak pollard, near Chestnut Walk, was one of those still being used for that purpose well into the mid-eighteenth century. There are many references to the paling in the accounts, as it was continuously and conscientiously repaired from its first enclosing. In 1628 £8 9s. 6d. was spent on pale for the park (Phillips, vol. 2, p. 320). Mr Tattersall, at Knole in 1670, wrote to the 5th Earl of Dorset, staying in Drury Lane, saying: My Lord the rough timber set out for the mending of the pales is spent and so for the present year a cessation from the work, and therefore your lordship it is humbly requested by Mr Harrison the new Tenant to take a course speedily for more to be sought out. There is not quarter of the pales yet mended (CKS U269 C60/3). [Hereafter this U269 reference series is abbreviated.] In a letter from Thomas Neill, the Duchess of Dorset's lawyer to Mr Nevin at Knole in 1819, he says: Her Grace thinks the Park Paling had better be deferred for another year. You will therefore not take down any of the oak trees which we talked of. (C205/2) Tree Planting and Specimens Knole park has the tallest sycamore, horse chestnut, hornbeam, sweet chestnut, beech, larch, plane, lime, turkey and sessile oak in Kent; there is also the champion sessile oak and fastigiate oak, for the whole of the British Isles (Johnson). Apart from the sheltered aspect and sandy and well drained soils (on Lower Greensand), the main reason for this is that they have grown as forest trees, densely packed and reaching up for the light. Knole has never been woodland pasture. Unusually for a deer park in Britain there are five ancient yew trees, 400-600 years old, which predate all the other trees. The clean trunks indicate that the young sprouts have been regularly cropped by the deer and continue to be so. (Many new yews have been planted along the road/park margins of the Chestnut Walk as part of the restoration after the 1987 and 1990 storms.) 157 KRISTINA TAYLOR There have been other champion trees, which are long gone. The King John Oak and King Beech to the west of the house were named on the 1867 OS map, and were well known to nineteenth-century visitors. A report in Gardener's Chronicle (1890) says: ... two and a half centuries ago it was then known as the Old oak. The bole is hollow, and was formerly used as a place of resort by travellers and others, but now the entrance is boarded up, and a stout iron fence guards the tree from intruders. The King Beech, which survived until the late 1950s, was also remarkable: ... [it] was mentioned in our columns in 1841 as the largest undecayed and entire Beech in the Kingdom. At the same time, the trunk measured ... at 4feet, 28feet linch ... the mean height of the tree was then given at 89 feet, and the circumference of ground covered by the branches 347feet (Gardener's Chronicle, 1890). There have been various waves of tree planting throughout the park's history. The estate is noted for its avenues of sessile oak, Quercus petraea. This has a much more upright habit than the common oak, Q. robur, the trunk reaching higher into the crown. Wood has been managed and sold throughout the centuries. However, because the soil is free-draining, in times of drought the trees become stressed and the wood is no longer commercially viable because it exhibits 'shakes' (internal splitting). The 7th Earl Lionel, later to become the first duke, who had escorted George I from Hanover in 1714, planted many of the avenues and walks. Some of the remnants we can see today: Duchess Walk, formerly Countess Walk (E27) named after his wife; Chestnut Walk; and, cutting through the woods, Broad Walk (Fig. 2). The Chestnut Walk was planted on common land after it was enclosed into the park in various stages from 1724 onwards. Because of the variety of tree girths and planting distances it seems to have been created in stages with damaged trees being replaced as they were needed. This interplanting was a traditional way of managing trees in an avenue (Couch 1991). There is a distinct clump of trees planted in a grid above the 650ft contour line, at the south-east point of the park. A lot of these remain. It was probably a tree nursery because the duke refers to this piece of land as such in 1749 (SL, 4, p. 19). The remaining trees line up in a grid at 5 degrees from north and at about 285 degrees. Two of the trees which fell in the 1987 storm, 220 (Quercus) and 22I(Castenea), both had estimated planting dates (epd) of 1725. The chestnut girth 158 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARK AND GARDENS AT KNOLE was 3.53m. There are 23 chestnut trees and stumps within this clump whose girths are similar. The totalled summed average is 3.66m. On the southern end of Chestnut walk, tree 217 (Castenea) had an epd of 1720, four years before the walk was planted. This anomaly could be explained by five year old saplings being used. The walk has a variety of differing tree plantings with various distances between them. Those trees at the southern end are older than those at the other end, with epds of 1725 (Colvin and Moggeridge). This is clarified by comments the duke made in 1749: Scotch Firs to be planted in clumps within the hurdles next the Chestnut Walk where Birch is missing ... likewise at the uper end of the Chestnut Walk next Julands where the chestnut don't thrive (SL, 4, pp. 23-4). There were 190 rings on Stump A (Fig. 2) on the north side of the walk and assuming it was cut down 10-20 years ago would suggest an epd of 1790. It looks similar in ground girth to others nearby. Trees in line going north-east along the walk vary in planting distance, many have a spacing of 8 paces but others are 11 and 14 paces apart. This can be confirmed by an account of 1787 which mentions 'the new part of the Chestnut walk' (E27). At the position of the oak pollard that sits just north of the walk, the tree positions were altered to accommodate it. It is likely that this oak tree was on the boundary of the common. There are 4 large branches lying on the ground, which have been cut off in the last 10-20 years. The largest with a girth of 2.9m had 220 rings. This suggests the tree was last pollarded in l 770. It is an unusual branch of 6.9m, and 60cm diameter at its sharper end, as it is made up of two stems which have grown together. The beech pollard is now badly damaged, with two big branches lying on the ground. Its position is curious on the side of a slope. If the oak pollard was a boundary tree to the common it is likely the beech is one too. Gordon Ward writes of a map from 1700 indicating the park pale coming a little further south of the White Hart Inn with Julians Common on one side (Ward, p. 154). Pollards have not always been scarce at Knole despite only two surviving. Ash pollards along the south boundary were mentioned in 1736 (A301/1 ). However, some of the trees, for instance the chestnut with an epd of 1700, would have had to have been planted when the land was still a common. Though this was a very unusual practice, there are other examples, Shugborough, Hatfield and Wooton for instance, where creative tree planting took place on commons before the land was enclosed (pers. comm., J. Phibbs). 159 KRISTINA TAYLOR The second duke, who succeeded in 1765, vandalised his estates and sold off a great deal of wood. In letters between Thomas Jackman and Mr Mason at Knowle Park in 1766 there are the following exchanges: Have Mr Cope the Coachmaker from London been at Knowle to look on any ash - and if he have if be have fix' d on any lots and what lots he fixed on. Mr Legg is to look on all the ash sickelmore and walnutree as is in the Garden, please to show him that when he comes .... You may order the ash timber to be cut down in the Garden I have sold them to Mr Cope ... The fir timber in the Garden is now at liberty and the lo est price is 1 Od per foot ... the sicklemore the same price ... (C 199). Horace Walpole tells us that the second duke did not 'leave a tree standing in the venerable old park at Knole' (R. Sackville-W est, p. 80). Even the neighbours were alarmed, and a letter from John Brampton to Countess Stanhope in Switzerland in 1766 says: The timber is all cut down at Knole .. .in the whole there is about 6 thousand cut down, all in the gardens and the fine walk by the garden side is cut and in no place in particuler in the park for it is cut everywhere, that that was fit for sale. it is talked about as the Duke intend next winter to cut most of the Beech. it is said the Duke has cut down in one of his other parks but which I can't justly say about 26 Thousand oaks ... Another letter in 1769 sounds almost relieved that the duke was dead: . . all proceedings was stopped at Knole in regard to cutting down Timber as soon as the Duke died . . . a great havock is made all over the Park and was thought if the Duke had lived a few years there would have been but little left (Mills, pp. 21, 51). Though to be fair the second duke did instigate new planting in 1768 and over 1,100 trees were introduced throughout the park (E27). On an engraving of the south prospect of Knole (1712) the Countess (later Duchess) walk is shown going north. This was replaced with 36 oaks (not specified) planted on the west side and 34 planted to the east (although the 1st edition OS map indicates 40 trees on each side). His nephew, John Frederick, the third duke, was known for his love of the estate and replanting. Tree ring counts from the 1987 storm indicate his planting initiative from the last years of the eighteenth century. And this is confirmed by Furning in 1795: The present duke has, with much affinity and taste repaired the gaps 160 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARK AND GARDENS AT KNOLE made in the woods by one of his ancestors, who 'Foe to the Dryads of his father's groves' had unveiled their haunts and exposed their secret recesses to the rude and garish eye of the day. In 1811 a waggoner delivered 3,000 transplanted larch, 7,000 Scotch Firs, and 10,000 seedling Scotch Firs 2 years old, from Beck and Allan in London (C205/3, B). The kitchen garden and Wilderness were being used as tree nurseries to bring on trees, later to be moved to surrounding woodland. There were nearly 30,000 young trees in the kitchen garden in 1813 (E5 l 1 ). The larch near the Sevenoaks playing fields would have been planted at this time. It is not a plantation tree as it is too tall and thin, or if it had been, then the plantation failed, leaving one specimen behind. In 1836 and 1837 there are many references to estate workers being employed grubbing up stumps and planting trees in the park. They were also cutting through and clearing rides in the woods (A610). Outside the west main entrance stands a large handsome sycamore (Acer campestre). Its girth is 4.9m, and it could be over 200 years old. Looking at the Knyff/Kip view of the garden of 1698 one might jump to the conclusion that this was one of the two trees with seats underneath, to the right of the central drive in the enclosure (Fig. 3). Horace Walpole wrote in 1752: The park is sweet, with much old beech and an immense sycamore before the great gate, that makes me more in love than ever with sycamores .... (Bentley, vol. 2, p. 435). But analysing a series of prints made during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it becomes clear that the Kip trees have been replaced (Figs 4-7). In a 1775 etching from a Paul Sandby picture there is only one of the two Acers left (SL, C992(53)). It has its distinctive double square seating arrangement underneath. The perspective of the picture makes it unclear whether it is the left or right specimen. A later etching drawn by P. Amsinck shows two trees, the left one in a terrible decayed state and the right one of the wrong shape and size to be that of the Kip etching (SL, C992 (35)). Both trees are without the seat. The third etching from 1838 drawn by T .J. Rawlins 'from nature', shows two young trees, the left being slightly smaller than the right (SL, C992 (4)). In April 1858, the accounts show that a seat outside the front of the house was repaired and painted (A610/2). Perhaps this was a tree seat. In a post-war black and white postcard both trees are shown; the left was still slightly smaller than the right. Barbara Tate who has 161 Key. I. Tree seats. 2. Wooden rail/posts around enclosure. 3. Climbers. possibly roses, on wes1 face of tower. 4 Statue. 5. Old gateway. 6. Viewing platform in slew pond (used for fishing?). 7. Standing/mound for view over Park. 8. Vegetables. 9. Two sets of steps, not central. 10. Walls. 11. Mound. steps on four sides. with seat in middle. 12. Gale (1101 in line with colonnade/gallery). 13. Tudor arch and gate. 14. Steps up to mounted walk. 15. No fruil trees on wall. 16. Slope. 17. Tudor garden house wilh wooden door and small door 10 lefl in wall. I 8. Water house. 19. Small gme. 20. Back wall. 21. Water house. 22. Old gale in10 Wilderness. 23. Hedge. 24. Siew ponds. 25. Gateway. 26. Vegetables. 27. Fruit trees. 28. Pigeon house. 29. Pigeon house plain. 30. Lodge Plain. 31. Paling. 32. Back Orchard. 33. Barn. ,---:;::::􀀑􀀒?J:􀀓=;:::::::;::-s--=􀀔=􀀕;;:;J􀀖􀀗7:::􀀘=-=2􀀙􀀚- 1 '», "''/r/.,,,4(,,u"•"i Jl,v1,.. .., { '/1,11 ,.-;.,· J-l.:.0·1 e,.,,JJ..v.,-.IJ,,.d.,;.:t ·1 uu U.,,• f(-:-,1 1, ,,, ,',.,, t c ·.,,,,,,,// "' [I r􀁙 /,,;,, 􀁚 f!-1-..;;.. . ., ·• Fig. 3 Bird's eye view from the west (1698) drawn by Knyff and engraved by Kip (from a private collection and by kind permission of the National Trust). Published 1708 in Briw1111ici 11/ustrata. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARK AND GARDENS AT KNOLE Fig. 4 Wesr Fronl of Knole. Erching ( 1775) from a Paul Sandby water-colour (Sevenoaks Ref. Library). worked and lived at Knole for most of her life remembers when the left hand tree came down in 1950 when, in the early hours of 26 April, Sin. of snow fell (pers. comm.). Entrance enclosure The enclosure on the Knyff/Kip view (Fig. 3) on the west front of the house has been part of the landscape since at least the beginning of the seventeenth century, when three labourers were paid in 16 I 2 'for beating and rowling the green before the gate at Knoll to make it even' (A2/2). There remains a distinctive earthwork to the south-west corner. The early eighteenth-century engravings show two different treatments of the enclosure rail, one in wood and one in iron, and there are many references to blacksmith work in the accounts between 1706 and I 720. Deer Park Management and Sport It is generally believed that the park has been in continuous use as a deer park since its enclosure in 1456 and that the 700 fallow deer are 163 KRISTINA TAYLOR Fig. 5 West Front of Knole. Etching (1809) from drawing by P. Amsinck (Sevenoaks Ref. Library). descended from those that were first in the park (EH). At times in the past, there have been red deer too, and now there are I 00 Japanese sikka. The principal beast of the park was fallow deer though red deer were also quite common and many favoured park owners, when first creating their parks, received gifts of deer from the crown. But wild red deer could also be enticed into the park via a deer leap. Considering the number of red deer now roaming the woodlands around Sevenoaks and the Weald it would not be difficult to imagine building a considerable herd in a relatively short time. Assuming that references to 'venaison' necessarily means deer meat before the eighteenth century can be misleading as the term was also used for 'beasts of the forest' generally. These included hare and wild boar as well as red deer and fallow deer. Roe deer meat was not called venison unless it was hunted (Cox, p. 13). Even though in 1467 there were nine butchers' shops in Sevenoaks, a slaughter house called Dranes in Knole Park was renewed and reserved for the use of the household (Du Boulay, p. I 0). Perhaps this suggests that a separate butchering site would have kept the venison away from the local populace and that the park was already stocked with deer. Deer 164 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARK AND GARDENS AT KNOLE Fig. 6 West Front of Knole. Etching ( 1838) from drawing by T.J. Rawlins (Sevenoaks Ref. Library). would seem to have been present in the park between 1504 and 1514 because Henry VIII frequently visited Archbishop Wareham there to go hunting. It is likely that the deer would have been fallow as they were considered the best beasts to chase on the hunt (Cantor, p. 57). By 1539 soon after Henry VIII had acquired Knole, there is strict deer control: 'several local men who went mufneyd to Knole about 8pm and hunted deer with dogs and bows: a number were killed including a grey one' (Phillips, vol. 2, p. 395). There were 50 deer in the park in 1561 and the pales were in good order according to Lord Leicester's survey (Ward, p. 153). There were disputes as to how many deer Lord Buckhurst (later Earl Sackville) had claim to, in 1575/6 (Phillips, vol. 2, p. 400). A little later on in 1588 there is a letter from Roger Puleston to John Lennard at Knole saying: ' ... they saw iii younge men come oute of the parke wth a deare on their shoulders' (S L, 7). So during this time of upheaval and disparking there were still a few deer about. After Thomas Sackville took back the estate from the Lennards in 1603 there was continuous building and renovating for two years. His grandson Richard, the 3rd Earl (1609- I 624), spent a great deal of his time hunting with his friends. He kept his hunting horses and hounds 165 KRISTINA TAYLOR Fig. 7 Postcard view (pre-1950) of West Front (Sevenoaks Society). at Knole, as there are references to them being sent to Hampton Court and his estate at Buckhurst (Clifford , pp. 50, 55, 59). In 1615 a charge of ignoramus was found for William Baker when there was no case to answer: 'William Baker, of Sevenoaks. warriner, broke into the park called Knole Park ... with several others unknown and hunted without I icence' (CKS QM/SI 1615/2/5). Maybe game at Knole was seen as easy pickings when the master was away. A banquet at Knole in 1636 served 'rost venson in blud', 'venson pasty of a Doe' and 'venson bolyd'. Interestingly on the same menu is 'redeere pie hott' (Phillips, vol. I, pp. 273, 328) making a distinction between 'venson', presumably from fallow deer and red deer meat. This is the first indication that there could have been both kinds of deer in the park. During the Civil War, Knole was occupied by Roundhead soldiers in 1642, who caused a great deal of damage to the house. It is possible that Knole lost some stock, but in 1643 some fallow deer remained in the park according to an account that a few of them were killed (E23 ). In 1664 there was an agreement to repair pales (E25/2) and in 1669 there was a letter form John Creeset from Eaton Collidye to the earl: 'I most humbly returns my thanks to your Lordship for your most excellent venason' (C93/l 0). In 1714 the earl writes to his countess ' ... I wish you a good Journey to the Wells. Remember the venison for Sir John Percival' (HMC, 166 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARK AND GARDENS AT KNOLE vol. 1, p. 35). A good record of the stock is then regularly recorded in the venison lists from 1716 to 1825 (E24 ). From 1724 there are regular references to carriage of venison in the accounts, and by 1730 board and wages are charged for keeping the huntsmen and hounds (A46). Gifts of venison were used to encourage the voters in elections! In 1753 the following post-script is added to a political letter: 'If our candidates meet at Tunbridge Wells soon; will it not be proper to send 'em some hiver venison' (Cl49/11). Haviers, derived from French hiver, meaning fallow deer meat fit for use in winter, is castrated deer culled in late autumn, after the buck season and before the does are fit to be killed (Shirley, p. 241). This suggests a well-managed park. The 3rd duke was so proud of his deer that he mentioned them in his will when he died in 1799: 'I desire that my deer at Knowle Park .... Shall be regarded as heirlooms and shall be in the possesion of the person in possession of Know le Park' (Phillips, vol. 2, p. 264 ). His widow was much more commercially minded as she regularly sent venison to various London dealers to be sold at 12-14 guineas a brace, often making over £100 a year (C205/3). In February 1754 after 16 days of severe frost the deer were dying (Cl49/23 and Cl52/15). There was a recommendation to sow more hornbeams to give the females and their young more shelter. Often beans and hay were fed to the deer in the following winters when the conditions were very bad. Throughout the nineteenth century there were accounts for making and mending deer pens and collecting acorns to feed the deer in winter. A few red deer were to be found within the park from the early seventeenth century till the late twentieth century. In 1892 there were 60 running with 670 fallow deer. However, with new tree planting they are considered unmanageable at present. In the late nineteenth century the fallow at Knole were recorded as being lighter than those in other English parks, suggesting a distinct breed (Whitaker, p. 80). A number of deer courses are known to have existed in Tudor parks where all kinds of coursing were popular. Deer courses in general would have been a mile long and 200m wide, funnelling in near the end where there was a 'standing' from which spectators would have viewed the sport. The meaning of the word at th􀁽t time was of a place from which one would watch or partake in game killing or sport. Usually two dogs raced against a fallow deer and there would be a great deal of betting, from the spectators, as to the outcome. The most suitable location at Knole for a deer course would have been a north-south dry river valley, close to the present entrance lodges near to Sevenoaks (Fig. 2). With fairly steep sides and a wide 167 KRISTINA TAYLOR flat bottom, the dry river valley would have been ideal (R. Sackville-West, p. 46). This area was part of the park in Tudor times. Earthworks lie immediately north of the entrance drive near the 1797 lodge gates where, from a height, one could obtain a clear view to both ends of the dry valley. One may visualise a two or three storey structure, on these earthworks, similar to that in Epping Forest (Fig. 8). In the late sixteenth century the entrance was elsewhere, so that the present main e ntrance drive, since embanked, cuts across where the course might have been and at the point where all the excitement of the finish would have been viewed. John Lennard, the leasee, Fig. 8 Queen Standing, Epping Forest (by permission of the Superintendent of Epping Forest). 168 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARK AND GARDENS AT KNOLE wrote to Lord Burghley in 1587: 'That I have layd oute yn reparynge yt stanynge with the covenante ccciiij (£400)' (Phillips, vol. 2, p. 400). (The bill for £400 also included building the garden wall and other works.) It is unclear where this 'standing' was. There may have been another within the garden walls, as Lady Anne Clifford talks of it in her diary in 1617: 'said my Prayers in the Standing in the garden'. However, each of her references to the standing is qualified by describing it to be in the garden. This wording may suggest that there was at least another somewhere else. Henry VIII' s building work at Knole was undertaken in 1542-3, and it is possible that the deer course and standing were made then (at the same time as the Epping example). They may also have been used in 1573 to entertain Queen Elizabeth when she stayed at Knole during one of her progresses (Barrett-Lennard, p. 114). Ancient Grassland and Arable cultivation A great deal of care has to be taken when interpreting the estate's agricultural accounts because the Sackvilles also owned land immediately outside which they farmed and cropped for wood. Vita SackvilleWest comments about hops being grown in the park. These would have been grown in fields/gardens of 1-3 acres, at the margins. Field evidence shows that the majority of the park's grazing is ancient acid grassland with anthills forming bumps, which are uncomfortable to walk upon. This also includes the roughs on the fairways of the golf course, over which the deer wander freely. But how 'ancient' are they? There are many references to ploughing and planting in the park and one of the most interesting in 1720 is 'for levelling ploud ground from the garding wall to ye Lodge pails' (A301/l). This is Lodge Plain, which is now recognised as 'acid grassland' of national importance and an SSSI. Less than 300 years ago it was a crop field. In 1762 the duke's secretary wrote to the manager at Knole: 'The Duke pleasd that the oats are sowd at Shangden and in the Park and that you are drudging [labouring] in the Park and in the meadows' (C152/l l ). It may be that the oats were being used to feed and provide cover for the hares, which were managed in the park at this time. We cannot be sure where the oatfield was. However, on the 1867 OS map there is a field towards the east of the park (Fig. 2). The 4th earl rented out grazing rights in the park in 1629 during the summer, possibly for sheep, welcome income at times of financial hardship for the Family; in 1698/ 9 9 the rent for 'Knowle Park in the occupacon of Thomas Haswell' was £72' (Phillips, vol. 1, p. 476). 169 KRISTINA TAYLOR Fig. 9 The Walled Garden, based on the 1896 OS map (by permission of Sevenoaks Ref. Library). (For key see opposite page) 170 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARK AND GARDENS AT KNOLE THE WALLED GARDEN The stone walled garden at Knole is one of the largest enclosed pleasure gardens in Britain (Fig. 9). Covering 16ha (including the house) it comprises a number of named areas whose functions have changed over the last 500 years. There is no evidence as to the size of the garden in the time of the archbishops from 1456 to 1538, but it would probably have been considerably smaller than it is now to match the then smaller house. Henry VIII had a garden made for him in 1543 but without archaeological work it is not possible to discover precisely where, and in what form, this was (V. Sackville-West, p. 35). There is an important group of five bird's-eye views of Knole drawn (of which two are shown at Figs 3 and 10). They are snapshot of what the garden may have looked like over a fifty year period from 1698. The walls may have originated in the 1580s as the tenant John Lennard states (around 1587): I will take my othe before you that I have layd oute yn reparynge yt standynge with the covenante £400 and more, besides stone walynge ye house, and gardeyne, and other voluntarye actes for which I ask no thynge (Phillips, vol. 2, p. 400). This extract, from a begging letter to Lord Burghley asking him for money for the repairs, was because according to the lease they were to be done at Her Majesty's charge. (Knole was still the property of the Crown.) The house and walls are not conjoined. The wall is on average 12ft high and is made of Kentish ragstone blocks. There are quarries in the park and in the surrounding neighbourhood, which could have supplied the stone. The west wall is capped with bricks and tiles, in a style similar to Hampton Court, probably because it had the grand entrance gates beside them. The other walls have simpler capping. The walls are pierced with gates, grilles and clairvoyees of various ages. Key to Figure 9 opposite I. Bowling green. 2. Dwarf ground. 3. Stew pond. 4. Great green bottom/mirror pond. 5. Round pond. 6. Fountain site. 7. Mounted walk. 8. Third mount. 9. Fourth mount. 10. Conservatory. 11. Oranger y/greenhouse. 12. Lime circle. 13. Rose pergola. 14. Old walled garden. 15. Site of mulberry ground. 16. Green court. 17. Water court. l 8 Ha-ha. 19. Clnirvoyees. 20. Oates. 21. Duchess Seat. 22. Tudor gateway. 23. Laundry yard. 24. Spring. 25. Wet place. 26. Stream. 27. Still room passage. 28. Stopcock. 29. Bishop's stables. 171 KRISTINA TAYLOR Why was such a large wall built? The first answer is the aggrandisement of John Lennard, the builder, who was an extremely ambitious man (Barret-Lennard, p. 5). Primarily though, the wall was built to protect the four springs in the Wilderness which supplied the house (see below). There are many seventeenth- and eighteenth-century accounts of mending the wall, and one letter from April 1701 and says: ... I suppose Oliver will say that we had better amended the cope of the house then adone that wall we are about but you may be beforehand with and say I wonder anybody would be two or three years about the wilderness wall and lay out so much money on it, and the cope of the house so much out of repaire and want so much to be done to it (Cl38/4). The walls were afterwards completely rebuilt, probably largely between 1720-40 as indicated by various pieces of evidence: There is garneting/galleting to the outside of the walls, a practice used commonly after the seventeenth century. The inside of the west wall, facing east, has a brick lining with bricks in Flemish bond which have characteristics in common with walls of the eighteenth century. To knit the lining to the wall, it would have to have been rebuilt. The corresponding west wall in the old walled garden is also lined with bricks, of the same size. The openings of the Knyff view of 1698 are not all present today and there are no obvious breaks in the present wall; for instance on the north wilderness wall (Fig. 3). In an account of 1741 of trees that were planted on 'the new stew pond wall next ye gates' has 30 peaches and apricots. The bricks will already have been in place (E22). The ironwork gates at Knole are in the style of Jean Tijou at Hampton Court and elsewhere. They were probably made locally, as there were several bills from local blacksmiths at the beginning of the eighteenth century (A44). Some would have been for Charles Sackville, who became Baron Cranfield and later succeeded as the 6th Earl of Dorset, accounting for the double C in the design. Charles was Lord Chamberlain of William IIl's household from 1689. After the sale of his house, Copt Hall, in 1701 he improved Knole (R. Sackville-West, p. 73). The gates in the Knyff view have been replaced, and in places resited. The one in the north wall no longer exists. The present gate at the south-west corner has been moved from somewhere else. Charles's son carried on the work after 1706 and there are blacksmiths' 172 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARK AND GARDENS AT KNOLE bills in the accounts for 1710-1712 and a bill 'for stones to put the Iron rails on' (A44/6). This gives us a date after 1712 for the drawing of the Badeslade engraving (Fig. 10) on which the new gates and grilles appear. In the east wall a grille exists, though the formerly wet ha-ha outside suggests that this was constructed as a claire-voie. Gates flanked by grilles were inserted in the south wall opposite the colonnade, but by the 1st edition OS map, 1869, a wet ha-ha had been made outside them. This ha-ha is now filled in. The National Trust excavated and replaced the railings there in 1997 (Fig. 11). (Pers. comm., P. Leach) The Wilderness at Knole is one of the earliest in Britain named thus, and may be the first wooded garden area to which the term 'wilderness' was applied. The first reference is in 1612 (A2/2). It has four springs which once supplied water to the house via lead pipes. These may have originally been tapped by Henry VIII. We do not know how they developed. The pre-ecclesiastical medieval house which Archbishop Bourchier rebuilt, would probably have been sited here because of the readily available natural water sources. Nothing is known of the Wilderness area in the sixteenth century. It was used for wood cropping in the seventeenth century, and had a section known as the 'back orchard' in 1687, confirmed in the Knyff view of 1698 (Fig. 3). As well as willow pollard, 'asp' and chestnut coppice there were oaks. Roberts the tanner was sold '40 yards of tan as it lay in the Wilderness for £1 10s.', in 1689. General clearing and replanting was carried out in 1687 with 'Coopers' ash, 'asp' and cherry being cut and sent to the sawpit, and bushes and 'stubbs' grubbed out. Crab stocks were planted and hay was also cut in 1688. There may have been animals grazing there because another account in 1689 is for 'digging and paling about the fruit trees ... 3s' (A42/l +2). Probably the patted' oie was cut from existing trees between 1698 and 1710, before Thomas Acres, a well-known landscape gardener of the time, was employed. His contract specifies that he was to clip the hedges on each side of the walk in the Wilderness (E21/3). These were shown in the Badeslade engraving (Fig. 10) and an earlier drawing c. 1712 of the east end of the Wilderness (P30). That this design was executed can be confirmed by a document of 1736: And to plant the three walks in the wilderness with oak and chestnut - And to plans the semi-circle by the three yew trees near Diana with the hedge yews that came from Coll: Campbell (A301/l) In 1738 a serpentine walk was made in the wilderness reflecting a 173 Key. I. Iron railing,. 2. Frame, with gla,,. 3. Mount with three tree,. 4. Covered ,eat in bowling green arbour. 5. Espaliered tree,. 6. Ga1cs. 7. Trees and vegetables. 8. Twen1y-fivc espaliered tree,. 9. Siatuc. possibly Diana. 10. P1111e d'oie. 11. Clairvoyee. 12. Sca1. 13. Gates with urns. 14. Lodge house. unwal/ed cnclo,urc. 15. Two barns. 16. Two pools of water with rill between. 17. Water house. 18. Mount D; fourteen trees in outer circle. five inner. 19. Seal. 20. Clairvoyt!e. 21. No espaliered trees. 22. Round pond. 23. Gate. 24. Hedge with rail. 25. Pool with founiain. 26. Cows. 27. Cobbles. Fig. 10 Badeslude's Engraving of the West Prospect from a drawing ( 1712) of J. Harris (from a private collection and by kind pcrrni􀁐,ion of the National Trust). THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARK AND GARDENS AT KNOLE Fig. 11 Clairvoyee Gate and Screen (by kind permission of the National Trust). change in fashion (A49/I ). A note from 1755 is intriguing and is difficult to interpret. 'A new walk to be made from the Octagon to the venis (Venus statue) - the Orie walk next to it to be stopt up and planted' (E43/l ). The 'octagon' may be the Chinese summer house or the fountain. By the early nineteenth century the Wilderness was being used as a tree nursery, on a large scale to bring on oak and beech tre􀁚s later to be planted elsewhere on the estate (E5 I I). It is not surprising that there are stew ponds in a house of this size and it is likely that there would have been at least one during the time of the Archbishops. We know that there were a number of fish ponds at Knole from the 1622 accounts: 'paid unto John Wood 14s. for a drag nett for the taking of the fish out of the stews at Knoll' (A3). In September 1623 there were four stew ponds with carp in them (E23). And from a memo book about works needing to be done in September 1746: 'Quere Goldfish to remove some into the great stew pond' (E43/I ). So even in the eighteenth century there were at least two being used for fish. 175 KRISTINA TAYLOR The Knyff view (Fig. 3) shows three large ponds, two in the Wilderness and one next to the west garden gate. The Badeslade view (Fig. 10) shows an additional pond with a fountain to the north-east corner of the house next to the laundry yard. The pond near the west gate was always referred to as 'stew pond'. This would probably have been fed with water from a lead pipe in the greenhouse (now known as the Orangery), which comes from the water houses in the Wilderness (E131/4). The pond was still there at the end of the nineteenth century but is omitted from the 1909 OS map. The area was made into a herb garden in 1963 (Brownlow, p. 134). The large stew pond in the Wilderness could have been in existence from the sixteenth century. One of the Wilderness ponds corresponds to the Great Green Bottom of 1670 (E25/1). Rundle's note of admeasurement in the Wilderness 1670 stated: 'The iner head of the pond and the iner side are 20 rodes and a half' (E25/l). This measurement probably means the width and the length added together make 100m. At present the Great Green Bottom earthwork is 85m x 40m on the top outside and 71m x 25m in the bottom inside. It is 2.5m deep at its maximum with a walkable ledge half way up on the two long sides. The slope from the top to the bottom measures l Orn. It would seem that the present earthwork corresponds to the size of the 1670 measurement. This conclusion makes Thomas Acres' bill of works in 1710 difficult to interpret. He was contracted 'To dig a canal 40 foot wide and four foot deep and pond at the end something regular and handsome' (E21/3). There is considerable doubt that this canal was ever made even though the bill was paid. It does not appear in any records, maps or engravings. The 1719 Badeslade drawing (Fig. 10) clearly shows an earthwork of the scale of the present earthwork measurements, planted up while the earlier Knyff/Kip engraving drawn in 1698 (Fig. 3) shows two pieces of water in this area. The larger, planted with trees alongside corresponds to the present earthwork. The Acres canal would have fitted into the bottom of the earthwork. It has been suggested that the canal was made, but that it failed, and that the area was subsequently planted up (pers. comm., D. Jacques). Or it may be that the water supply was so poor that though the canal was made there was not enough spare water to fill it. Whatever the problem was, a new solution to this area was developed in the autumn of 1720. There are records for 'diggin & bricking ye drain from ye pond in the new bottom Wilderness, and the bricklayers will finish ye pond tomorrow' (A301/l). There was a pond in the bottom of the earthwork in 1723. If there had been a water supply problem, then this was solved the same year with the replacement of the lead pipes. This 176 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARK AND GARDENS AT KNOLE pond later developed in the nineteenth century into the Mirror pond, depicted in Essenhigh-Corke watercolour postcards, and since the 1970s has been a swimming pool. Another pond, the basson is mentioned in the Wilderness in 1726 (A301/l). This is the round pond shown on the 1719 engraving (Fig. 10). This corresponds to a round pond on the earlier OS maps which has recently been restored. There is a stream running into it from a spring further up the hill. Lord Sackville believes there to be at least six springs in the walled garden, four which have been connected to the house in the past. There are many intriguing references to the pipes, the earliest from 1612: 'Paid to Johnson the glasier for laying a pipe in the Wilderness. 5s 6d' (A2/2). These pipes in the Wilderness supplied the house with water and they were present in 1707 when Gill, the bricklayer was paid for 'cleaning of four water houses and bring ye water to one that was lost' (A288/2). In 1723 they were replaced: 'New water pipes from the Wilderness to the house, deducting £36 for 3 tunn of old lead. £69.13.0' (A46). Another large parchment document explains how the water supply system worked. There are the remains of four water houses in the north-east section of the Wilderness, over springs. The two towards the north side of the Wilderness were marked on the early OS maps as ice houses and are now fenced in. (One of these is no. 21 in Fig. 3.) The other two are hidden in the vegetation and have stone and brickwork remains. (One is clearly seen as no. 18 on Fig. 3.) They are all flowing at present, two above and two underground. In 1654 the glazier is employed, 'For work to the wildernesse house' (A4/3). They are all mapped on Fig. 9. The piped water system may have been installed by Sir Thomas Sackville after 1604. However, given that the great garden wall predated this and that it encloses and protects the source of the water it is more likely that either John Lennard or Henry VIII paid for and installed the system. Archaeological investigation and comparison with the elaborate water systems which Henry VIII put into his other palaces is required. There is only one fountain on the Badelslade engraving in a yard, north of the kitchens, purchased in 1706 (A228/1 ). It may be the one which is now in the kitchen garden; placed there in the late nineteenth century. Other fountains are shown on the 1st edition OS map ( 1869), in two ponds in the Wilderness which no longer exist. The paucity of fountains is due to low water pressure and the need to store water for domestic use during times of drought. 177 KRISTINA TAYLOR The Dwarf Ground once took up a large section of the south part of the garden. On the Knyff & Kip engraving (Fig. 3) this area was already orchard, but an anonymous drawing shows that it had been replanted with dwarf fruit trees. This conversion must have been before the Thomas Acres contract of 1710, because Acres is asked to prune the trees (E21/3). There are 70 cypress trees in an avenue with nine rows of clipped trees. The trees may have been those supplied by George London in 1698 (A218). The fruit trees were replaced in 1741 (E27). In February 1739 there was a memo 'for heading part of the dwarf trees in the dwarf ground' (A49/1). The third duke made many improvements after 1769 to the walled garden, seen by a lead pump under the pergola dated 1789, probably not in its original place. By the 1 st edition OS the area has been informalised. There are seven 'mounts' in the gardens and park of Knole. The first mounted walk which runs along the division between the Wilderness and the Dwarf Ground is 59m long and about I .Sm high (no. 14 on Fig. 3). At the south end next to the south garden wall, the slope becomes level where there was once a gate to the wilderness and gate to the park at right angles (Dr Harris, vol 1, pp. 470-8). At one time there were steps in the middle. The mount is in an elevated position to view both the gardens to the west and the spire of St Nicholas' s church in Sevenoaks a mile away, the park to the south and into the Wilderness to the east, with views over the house to the north-west. At present it has a border running along the east length, which is heavily mulched and is very difficult to cultivate as it appears to be solid ironstone. It possibly dates back to a mid to late sixteenth-century redesign when mounted walks were a common feature of Tudor gardens. There is a reference 'for carrying sand to mend the mount', in 1623 (A3), but it is not clear which one. The Duchess seat was made at the north end of the walk, with views to Sevenoaks church, in the eighteenth century. A note asks for the view to be cleared in 1745 (E43/l). The second mount, in the garden, is commonly known as the bowling green. Bowls was played in the time of Lady Anne Clifford (Clifford, p. 54 ). It may have been played here towards the end of the seventeenth century when it was fashionable, but the 1698 Knyff engraving shows four grass plats and planting making this site an unlikely one for bowling. The bowling green was reinstated by Acres in 1710 with very elegant woods and arbour seats placed at each end (E21/3). The woods were grubbed out and replaced in 1739 (A49/l). They were to disappear before the first edition OS map of 1870. The third mount is in the Wilderness and appears on the 1 st edition OS map of 1869. It is unattractive and irregular with a limited view 178 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARK AND GARDENS AT KNOLE out to the north over the wall and down to the house. It could have been made in 1723, and may have used up excess rubble. 'Cutting and levelling new walk in ye Wilderness and making ye mount round ye Oak tree ... ' (V. Sackville-West, p. 36). It could have been used as a Victorian fernery later (EH). The fourth mount, or possibly standing, is in the south-west corner of the walled garden. It slopes up to three foot below the wall coping giving views into the park, in two directions. It appears on the Knyff view (Fig. 3) as a mound of earth. There may have been a structure here in 1616 as Lady Anne Clifford writes of going 'to the standing in the garden' (Clifford, p. 32). In the park the fifth mount is first shown on the 1719 engraving of the West Prospect, on the east side of Lodge plain. The text says: 'From the Mount D is seen a very fine prospect' (Dr Harris, vol. 1, pp. 470-8). It is a natural feature with magnificent views over the park in every direction. Known as Chestnut Mount in a note from 1736, it lines up with the oaks of Broad Walk (A301/1 ). It was planted up with 14 trees in an outer circle and 5 inside and a paling put around. Two Castanea which fell in the 1987 storm had epds of 1700. When the Bird House was built beside it in 17 54, it lost its prominence. It is possible that a grotto was built into the south-east side of the mount with bricks, but the remnants cannot be interpreted visually (see Fig 12, no. 15). The sixth mount is Echo Mount to the west of the house, and was originally the rabbit warren (Colvin and Moggeridge). There are records from 1612 of 'paling about the mount' (A2/2) but it is unclear where this was. A 1719 engraving shows an avenue of trees ending in a circle at the Mount. The 1st edition OS map, I 869, shows the circle, but not the avenue. The latter may have been cut down by the third duke in 1768, and not replaced. The seventh mounted walk is at the south end of the park at Riverhill and can be seen as an earthwork along the park pale. This would have been designed to view the valley and Weald of Kent which fans out below and as far as the Sussex border. Created after 1724 when the common was enclosed it is referred to in 1758 (E43/1). THE KITCHEN GARDEN AND GLASSHOUSES The walled area, 2.3ha in size, to the east of the Wilderness was turned into a new kitchen garden around 1723 (Fig. 12). The barn and stable there had been thatched in 1709, and probably had been used as · farm buildings (A44/2). Trees were planted around them in 1713 179 \ "I> ., '-; . .. •\ KRISTINA TAYLOR som iN 􀀅 1 I GOLF COURSE Fig. 12 The Kitchen Garden, based on 1896 OS map (Sevenoaks Ref. Library). p Key. I. Existing wall and position of slab of fallen wall. 2. New glasshouse. 3. Peach house, only the back wall remains. 4. Lodge cottage. 5. Earthwork for barn. 6. Bothies, two remain. 7. Oldest part of wall. 8. Frame yard. 9. Fountain. 10. Tree nursery, now planted with larch. I I. Hawthorn poUards. 12. Pools (see Fig. 10, 16). 13. Mount (see Fig. 10, 18). 14. Bird house. 15. Grotto. 16. Quarry. 180 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARK AND GARDENS AT KNOLE (A44/8). Some of the buildings, particularly a barn, appear on the Knyff view. From 1716 bricks were being made on the estate, and there are payments to the bricklayers, carrying of lime and sand, with other mason's bills continuously until 1730, starting again in 1738 (A46). Though this may have included the building of estate workers' houses it seems likely that it also included the building of the kitchen garden walls. A brick survey shows that the walls have been built in different sized bricks, suggesting successive building phases. Later, between 1807 and 1809, bricks were made commercially, some to be sold and others for stock in hand. A statement of account shows their value as £833 18s. 9d. of which over £270 worth were sold (E49). Knole's kitchen garden provided fruit and vegetables for the family wherever they were living. Items were frequently sent to London and even abroad. Grapes were being sent to Ireland for the use of the 2nd Duke in October 1753 (C149/10). When the family were at Withyam, Sussex, the collection point was at Penshurst, half-way between the houses. This happened three times a week in 1809, with the Duchess keeping in touch by letter (A676). A large amount of fruit continued to be grown in the house walled garden during the eighteenth century (E22). The melon ground continued there well after 1741 with 40 different varieties being grown overall. But gradually production was moved over to the kitchen garden after 1745 when grafts and stock were built up there. A note from 1741 suggested that the impoverished soil in the Lodge garden, i.e. the kitchen garden, is a result of the quick set hedges and great number of fruit trees within, and to remedy this, leafmould should be brought from the park to improve it (E27). In 1765 there was an estimate for 12 cucumber frames to be made of various sizes for £18 5s., and their position, confirmed on the 1st edition OS map (1869), facing south in front of the peach house, can still be traced on the mossy grass lawn. Excess food was regularly sold off and in 1806 the sale of asparagus, strawberries and cherries came to £12 9s. 4d. The duchess even complained (1811) that it was a pity that all the excess fruit and vegetables were consumed by the servants when they could be sold, and she kept her eye on it through the accounts (C204/l ). Pineapples had been grown at Knole from c. l 770 as a letter from a disgruntled greengrocer in London, complains of the quality of the grapes and 'pines' sent to him for sale. This suggests why new hot houses were needed (E435/5). In 1777 new hot houses and pineries, i.e. pineapple houses, were built, and fully stocked. (V. Sackville West, p.37). They appear to have been built in the kitchen garden, and 181 KRISTINA TAYLOR not beside the chapel as has been recently thought (Sclater). The 1805 accounts indicate that the hot house/peach house flues were repaired at the kitchen garden (A583). In 1814 the back wall of the old hot house was taken down and rebuilt (C205/2). This allowed a series of back sheds to be revamped, one which became the mushroom house. It still contains large heating pipes running around it and its shelves. Mushroom spawn was purchased in 1818; in 1818-19 twelve gardeners were being employed requiring more accommodation (A676). Their bothies were built along the north wall to the park, two of which still stand with the remains of sleeping shelves at head height. After the duchess died in 1825, Knole became a permanent home to her daughter Mary. There is a confusion in the accounts which is difficult to interpret, about the number and naming of all the glasshouses in both the Walled and Kitchen gardens. In 1835 a new conservatory/ camellia house was built with a coal boiler nearby. It is possible this was to replace one next to the chapel, and was that seen in a 1865 photograph, but it is not clear (A610). In 1852 the estate workers pulled down the greenhouse in the kitchen garden and replaced it the following year with a new boiler (A610/2). This peach house and vinery has recently been taken apart leaving the wall standing. A new multipurpose span glasshouse, which still stands, was built at the end of the nineteenth century. Its building would have coincided with the 2nd Lord Sackville coming to live at Knole in 1889, and his daughter, Victoria, taking charge of the running of the household. It was serviced by large heating and water pipes which run straight underground from the boiler house through the frame yard, directly inside. Water from the roof is also fed into a large cistern in the eastern end. At present it still stands but is in want of repair. The octagonal stone fountain was placed in the walled vegetable area, seen on the 1896 OS map. On the south side of the walled vegetable garden is an area as large again, about Iha, which is a larch plantation. It was designed to be part of the original garden in 1723. In 1813 there were over 29,000 trees planted here, including larch, scotch fir, transplanted chestnut and beech. It was being used to bring small trees on before planting out in the park and surrounding woods (E51 l ). It is a convenient sheltered south facing site, easy to hedge off from the deer, next to the wall. With water and the gardeners living nearby, it may well have always been used as a tree nursery. Loudon visited Knole in the early nineteenth century and commented on the improvements by the duchess, including the building of extensive conservatories (Loudon, p. 1231). These were an orangery 182 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARK AND GARDENS AT KNOLE and a large glasshouse, next to the chapel on the south side of the house. There were a succession of at least two glasshouses, the last being removed in the early twentieth century as it does not appear on Country Life photos from 1912. The orangery, originally built as a range for Henry VIII, and known in the eighteenth century as the greenhouse, was altered by enlarging the south windows in the early nineteenth century (R. SackvilleWest, p. 84). There are many references to mending, cleaning and plant bills. It should be noted that the glasshouse that was beside the chapel was not the vestige of the pinery which was created in 1777, as stated in the 1999 guide book of Knole (R. Sackville-West, p. 50); the pinery was in the kitchen garden (V. Sackville-West, p. 37). ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author would particularly like to thank Lord Sackville for his encouragement and for allowing her to ferret around in the walled garden before Foot & Mouth closed off the park for months. Also the late Hugh Sackville-West who kindly looked in the Library for various documents and his son Robert for letting me loose in the kitchen garden and for checking this paper for me. Katy Fretwell and Keith Alexander at the National Trust landscape department in Cirencester have been helpful where others feared to tread, as was Louise Todd, Hugo Brown and Ed Gibbons at Queen Anne's Gate. Owen Johnson, of the Tree Register, enlightened me on the trees of Knole, giving up a day of his time while writing Trees of Kent. On the field trip we found the second champion tree at Knole, Quercus Robur 'fastigiata ', in the Walled garden. It certainly made his day. Particular thanks to Hugh Prince, the author's tutor, who is so encouraging and positive about everything. BIBLIOGRAPHY Barrett-Lennard, Thomas, An Account of the Families of Lennard and Barrett (1908). Bentley, Richard, The Letters of Horace Walpole (London, 1840) 6 vols. Brownlow, Margaret, The Delights of Herb Growing (Sevenoaks, 1965). Cantor, Leonard, The Medieval Parks of England, A Gazeteer (Loughborough University, 1983). Cantor, Leonard (ed.), The Medieval Landscape (London: Croom Helm, 1982). CKS (Centre for Kentish Studies). 183 KRISTINA TAYLOR Clifford, D.J.H. (ed.), The Diaries of Anne Clifford (Gloucs, Croom Helm, 1982). Colvin & Moggeridge, The Restoration of Knole Park, A Landscape report for the Trustees of the Knole Estate, 1989. Couch, S., Avenue Planting 1660-1850, A Framework for Conservation Practice (London: AA Thesis, 1991). Cox, Nicholas, The Gentleman's Recreation, 1st published 1674 (London, Cresset Press, 1928). Du Boulay, F.R.H., 'The Assembling of an Estate: Knole in Sevenoaks', Archaeologia Cantiana, LXXXVIX (1973), 6-10. EH: English Heritage Listings File for Knole, 1999. Fretwell, Katie, 'Lodge Park, Gloucestershire: A Rare Surviving Deer Course and Bridgeman Layout', Garden History, 23:2, 133-144. Furning, John, The Beauties of Knole (Piccadilly, London: John Stockdale, 1795). Harris, Dr, History of Kent (London: Midwinter, 1719). Harris, John, The Artist and the Country House (London, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1979). HMC (Historical Manuscripts Commission), Report on the Manuscript of Mrs Stopford-Sackville of Drayton House, Northamptonshire, Volume l (London: HMSO, 1904). Johnson, Dr. Owen, Tree Register data (forthcoming, to be available from 77a, Hall End, Wootton, Beds. MK43 9HP). 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