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Painshill (formally Painshill Park) is a restored 18th-century English park and landscape garden in Cobham, Surrey, England. It was designed and created between 1738 and 1773 by the owner, Charles Hamilton. Painshill is Grade I listed building and is a representative of a time when formal were being superseded by a landscape style that used architectural folly and areas of wilderness to construct an idealised representation of nature. The evolving design of Painshill was also influenced by the Picturesque, particularly in the hillier, western half of the park, which Horace Walpole likened to a "kind of Alpine scene".
In designing the park, Hamilton was influenced by 17th-century landscape artists, including Claude Lorrain, Nicholas Poussin and Salvator Rosa, whose works he had encountered on in 1725 and 1732. Painshill is laid out as a series of scenes, crafted by combining architectural features with trees and shrubs, many of which are non-native species. Visitors followed a clockwise circuit, allowing them to experience each area in turn. Several of the surviving follies are listed in their own right, including the Gothic Tower, inspired by a similar structure by John Vanbrugh at Claremont, and the Gothic Temple, which overlooks the western part of the lake. The Grotto, the largest in England, is decorated with mineral stones, including quartz, feldspar and Blue John.
After Hamilton sold Painshill in 1773, the park passed through a series of private owners until the Second World War, when it was requisitioned for the Canadian Army. After the war, it was divided and parts were used for commercial forestry. The architectural features began to decay and much of the land became overgrown. Concern over the condition of the park began to grow in the 1960s, but in the late 1970s, over were purchased by Elmbridge Borough Council. Restoration of Painshill began in the early 1980s and the park was reopened to visitors on summer weekends from mid-May 1989. Following a protracted planning dispute about the location of the car park, Painshill opened to the public seven-days-a-week from April 1997. In January 1999, the park was awarded a Europa Nostra medal for its "exemplary restoration". Since 2000, Painshill has been used as a filming location for television show, including Black Mirror and Bridgerton, and for the Dorian Gray and Suffragette.
Painshill was originally part of the manor of Walton-on-Thames, but had become separate by 1512, when a portion of the land was conveyed to Richard Foxe, then Bishop of Winchester. Foxe transferred his holding to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, which he founded in 1517.
Henry VIII died in 1547 and Painshill was subsequently divided into plots and leased. The two largest areas, the "Tenement at Payneshill" and the "Tenement at Coveham Bridge", became a single holding in 1570. Comprising around , the united tenement forms the core of the land at Painshill owned by Elmbridge Borough Council. A survey of March 1649 suggests that part of the area was being used as arable farmland, although there were still significant areas of woodland.Symes 2010a, pp. 20–22 There is also a record of a warren at Painshill in the 17th century.
At the start of the 18th century, Painshill was divided between land leased from the Crown by Robert Gavell and a freehold property owned by the Smyther family.Taylor 2003, pp. 73–74 Gabriel, Marquis du Quesne, bought the Smythers' land in around 1717, by which time it consisted of two or three farms. Du Quesne is thought to have built a house and laid out a small garden, but he was ruined as a result of the collapse of the South Sea Company in 1720 and he sold Painshill to William Bellamy in 1725. Bellamy, a barrister at the Inner Temple, also started to lease the land owned by the Crown, which had become available following the death of Gavell in 1724.
Hamilton began to acquire property at Painshill in 1737, purchasing William Bellamy's freehold and lease from the Crown, and adding additional land to create an estate of more than .
He moved to Painshill in 1738 and began to create the park shortly afterwards. A map by John Rocque, dated 1744, indicates that the first part of the lake had been dug out and formal areas of planting at the Amphitheatre and Keyhole had been created.Symes 2010a, p. 23 In the mid-1740s, Hamilton began planting exotics, non-native species of trees and shrubs, some of which were supplied as seeds by John Bartram, an American horticulturalist.Symes 2010a, pp. 110–111
The earliest known folly to have been erected at Painshill was the Chinese Seat, described and sketched by Sophia Newdigate after a visit in August 1748. It is not mentioned in any subsequent first-hand account and Michael Symes, a garden historian, suggests that it was replaced by the Hermitage, first recorded in 1752.Symes 2010a, p. 94Symes 2010a, p. 102 The majority of the other architectural features were constructed in the late 1750s and early 1760s, although work on the Grotto continued until around 1770. Towards the end of the 1760s, Hamilton constructed a brickworks in the southern part of the park in an attempt to develop an income stream from his land; the scheme was a financial failure and he constructed the Ruined Abbey in 1772 to conceal the remains of the works.
Although a relatively private person, Hamilton nevertheless entertained small parties of guests in the garden. On those occasions, refreshments were probably served in some of the follies, especially the Temple of Bacchus. Painshill was also open to respectable visitors, not specifically invited by Hamilton, who were generally shown round by the head gardener for a tip after giving their names. Among those to write about their experiences were William Gilpin, a leading advocate of the Picturesque, who considered Painshill "one of the most beautiful things of the kind I have seen", and Thomas Whately, the landscape garden author, who wrote that "a boldness of design, and a happiness of execution, attend the wonderful efforts which art has there made to rival nature." Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, future American presidents, toured the garden in 1786, and Adams wrote in his diary that "Paines Hill is the most striking piece of art that I have yet seen." Other international visitors included Prince Franz of Anhalt-Dessau and Count Ferenc Széchényi, a Hungarian statesman and founder of the National Museum of Budapest. Views from Painshill were painted on some pieces of the Frog Service commissioned by Catherine the Great of Russia from Wedgwood.
Although Hamilton had received an income while working as Clerk Comptroller to Frederick, Prince of Wales, between 1738 and 1747,Symes 2010a, p. 34 he also borrowed money from Henry Hoare and Henry Fox to finance the work at Painshill. The repayment of these loans became due in 1773 and Hamilton was forced to sell the estate to Benjamin Bond Hopkins.Symes 2010a, pp. 26–27 In around 1778, Bond Hopkins commissioned Richard Jupp to build the current Painshill House to the south of Hamilton's residence, which became the site of the stables. Bond Hopkins continued to invest in the park, constructing the Bath House and a boat house, as well as planting new trees. He died in 1794 and, three years later, the of his estate sold Painshill to Robert Hibbert, a merchant.
Cooper commissioned Decimus Burton to make alterations to Painshill House, reconfiguring the interior, so that the east-facing portico became the main entrance. Cooper also installed the Grade II-listed Waterwheel, manufactured by Bramah, to raise water from the River Mole to the lake. Cooper died in 1840, but his widow, Harriet, continued to live at Painshill until her death in 1863. The next owner was Charles Leaf, who bought the property nine years later and commissioned Norman Shaw to make further alterations to Painshill House. Leaf, who sold the estate to Alexander Cushney in 1887, was responsible for renting Painshill Cottage to Matthew Arnold from 1873.Taylor 2003, p. 127 Arnold, a poet and cultural critic, lived in the cottage until his death in 1888.Taylor 2003, p. 130
Alexander Cushney died in 1903, but his widow, Alice, remained at Painshill and married Charles Combe, who owned Cobham Court. The Combes were responsible for starting a commercial timber plantation on the estate. Charles Combe died in 1920, but Alice Combe continued to live at Painshill until the start of the Second World War, when the park was requisitioned for the use of the Canadian Army.
By the late 1940s, many of the architectural features were in an advanced state of decay, and the garden was becoming overgrown. Osvald Sirén, a Swedish art historian, observed on a visit to Painshill in 1947 that the Grotto roof had fallen in and that the interior was "filled with rubbish". Of the Mausoleum little more than the foundations remained, the Temple of Bacchus was in danger of collapse, and the Turkish Tent and the Hermitage "had disappeared". The Waterwheel was still able to supply the lake with water, although the Cascade was no longer visible.Sirén 1950, p. 43 In Sirén's opinion, the Gothic Tower was the "best preserved of the architectural monuments", and he suggests that it might already have been subject to restoration work by the late 1940s.
In 1948, of Painshill were purchased from the trustees of the Combe estate by the Baroness de Veauce, who divided the land into land lot and sold it to separate purchasers. Commercial forestry continued and part of the park was used as a pig farm. In 1973, the Girlguiding opened the Heyswood campsite on land that had originally formed part of the park, and in the mid-1970s, a fire gutted the interior of the Gothic Tower, destroying the roof and staircase.Symes 2010a, p. 160
Painshill Park Trust was formed in 1981 to restore the park and gardens, Mackellar Goulty 1993, p. 129 and was granted a 99-year lease on the land that the borough council had acquired. Detailed botanical and archaeological surveys, as well as archive research, were undertaken to fully understand the layout of Hamilton's park and its subsequent development. The information gathered was used to prepare a restoration masterplan, published in early 1984. The intention of the trust was to have undertaken all major capital works by 1994 and for the restoration programme to have concluded within 15 years. The first project, the restoration of the Gothic Temple and the surrounding land, was completed in 1985. Much of the early work was undertaken by participants in a Manpower Services Commission scheme, students from Merrist Wood Agricultural College and volunteers, including a group from the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers. In June 1984, around of Hamilton's original estate was designated a Grade I Park and Garden on the register of historic parks and gardens maintained by Historic England.
Although an education programme for schoolchildren had been launched at Painshill in 1983,Symes 2010a, pp. 157–158 the park was not opened to the public until mid-May 1989. Visiting hours were restricted to weekends during the summer months, and the lack of a car park prevented full-time opening. A planning application for parking facilities had been submitted in 1984, but local opposition delayed approval until April 1993, when an inspector from the Department of the Environment overruled the objectors. National Lottery funding of £848,000 was secured in mid-1996 to construct the car park and visitor facilities, and Painshill was opened seven-days-a-week from April 1997. In early 1999, Painshill was awarded a Europa Nostra medal for the "exemplary restoration from a state of extreme neglect, of a most important 18th-century landscape park and its extraordinary garden buildings." In 2022, Surrey Live, a local newspaper website, reported that around 200,000 people were visiting Painshill annually.
Initially Hamilton was restricted to planting native trees, such as oak, elm, Tilia, beech, Fraxinus and chestnut, as well as naturalised and cedars.Symes 2010a, p. 109 The Great Cedar, which he planted next to the lake, was around and in diameter in 2010, and is reputed to be the largest multi-stemmed cedar in Europe.
Hamilton planted in several parts of the park. They were used to screen unwanted views and to force paths to take circuitous routes, giving visitors the illusion of greater distance as they moved between different areas.Laird 1999, pp. 15–16 They also provided an appropriate setting for the follies, with darker evergreens creating a solemn backdrop to the Mausoleum, while more decorative species were found around the Temple of Bacchus, which John Parnell described as being "dressed and clumped with sweet trees and flowers". Loudon wrote in 1838 that Whitethorn hedging was used to separate Painshill House from the park, and he also noted that Hamilton had planted some of the first azalea and Rhododendron species to be imported to England.
Bond Hopkins, who purchased Painshill in 1773, continued to plant new trees and also removed those that Hamilton had planted but that had not grown well. Luttrell, who owned the park between 1805 and his death in 1821, introduced more native species, overplanting the Vineyard with Scots pine and creating large areas of oak, sweet chestnut and beech.Symes 2010a, pp. 28–29 The Coopers, who acquired Painshill in 1832, introduced several new exotics, including Wellingtonias, and . In the early 20th century, Charles and Alice Combe planted additional exotics, but also introduced commercial forestry species, creating plantations of larch, Norway spruce and Douglas fir.
Detailed botanical research was undertaken at the start of the 1980s, after Painshill had been acquired by Elmbridge Borough Council. A historic tree survey took place in 1981–1982, during which the positions and ages of around 8000 plants were recorded.Symes 2010a, p. 156 Around 170 trees were identified that had been planted by Hamilton. Restoration began with the clearance of 20th-century plantations, as well as areas of scrubland where species such as alder had self-seeded. Several large trees were lost during the great storm of 1987, including a 200-year-old oak, which was felled by the high winds. Arboreal restoration was focused on reintroducing species that Hamilton had used at Painshill, with two cedars imported from Pisa, Italy, and other plants provided by the Royal Horticultural Society from its nearby garden at Wisley. In May 2006, the John Bartram Heritage Collection of exotics on the Chinese Peninsula was awarded "national collection status" by the Plant Heritage.
Unlike contemporary gardens at Stourhead and Stowe Gardens, Charles Hamilton did not intend Painshill to have a single unifying theme or narrative. Instead, as Stephanie Ross writes, Hamilton's garden offered "a series of engaging visual scenes with contrasting emotional tones and carefully composed visual surprises, but did not have a complex meaning that visitors were to puzzle out."Ross 1998, p. 87 The use of illusion is a key aspect of the design, and the planting was arranged to subtly restrict views across the park, producing a distorted perspective to give the impression of greater distance and scale.Symes 2010a, p. 12 Ross cites the open-sided Gothic Temple as an example of a "managed surprise", from which the vista across the lake to the Five Arch Bridge and Turkish Tent opens up.Ross 1998, p. 160 She also notes that Painshill, like many 18th-century landscape gardens, cannot be seen in full from a single viewpoint and as a result "the visitor lacks a 'mental map' or sense of the whole."
The was planted in the mid-1740s. For the first few years, productivity was low and so Hamilton recruited David Geneste, an experienced vine grower and Huguenot refugee from Clairac, France.Symes 2010a, p. 144 Geneste introduced better cultivation methods and the quality of the wine improved as a result. He continued to work at Painshill until 1757. The Vineyard declined thereafter,Symes 2010a, pp. 146–147 and was overplanted with Scots pine in the early 19th century.Symes 2010a, p. 27 Restoration was completed in 1992, when of new vines were planted, and the first full grape harvest took place in late 1998.
The is a formal oval lawn surrounded by evergreen trees and shrubs. It was restored in the late 1980s with species recorded on a plan of a similar area at Worksop Manor, drawn by Robert Petre in the late 1730s.Richardson 2024, p. 233Mackellar Goulty 1993, pp. 73, 132 It also features a mature cork oak that may have been planted after Hamilton had left Painshill.Symes 2010a, p. 117 The Sabine Group, by Ivor Abrahams, is at the east end of the Amphitheatre and was unveiled in 1992. Sculpted in bronze, it depicts a young woman being abducted by a naked male, who is stepping over her protesting father. The original sculpture in this location, a half-size reproduction in lead of Abduction of a Sabine Woman by Giambologna, was removed from Painshill in the early 1950s, although sources disagree as to whether it was sold or stolen.Symes 2010a, p. 57
The Grade II*-listed is a wooden structure, plastered to appear as if made of stone. It overlooks the western half of the lake and provides a panoramic view of the central part of the garden. The structure has ten sides, of which six are open, and the ceiling has a fan vault.Symes 2010a, pp. 84–85 Arthur Young, an agriculturist, wrote in 1768: "As the temple is on rising ground, and looks down upon the water, the beauty of the scene is greatly increased. In point of lightness, few buildings exceed this temple." In contrast Horace Walpole was less complimentary, casting doubt on the structure's authenticity, writing in 1761: "The whole is an unmeaning edifice... The Goths never built summerhouses or temples in a garden." The Gothic Temple was the first building at Painshill to be restored. When work started in 1983, it was supported by scaffolding and was close to collapse. The restoration, completed two years later, included the clearance of the hillside between the temple and the lake.
The Grade II-listed , on the northern side of the lake, was the last building to be constructed at Painshill by Hamilton and is not part of the circuit. It was built to conceal the unsuccessful brickworks and was completed in the early 1770s.Symes 2010a, p. 90Richardson 2024, p. 236 Although it originally had a roof and a wall at the rear, in its restored condition it consists of a brick façade, plastered to appear made of stone. Tim Richardson observes that the abbey is "wholly unconvincing either as architectural pastiche or as a genuine ruin", but concedes that it is "effective nevertheless in its stark, limewashed incongruity". He further comments that the structure is "perhaps best enjoyed romantically as a reflection in the stillness of the water."
The Grade II-listed is one of three wooden bridges built by Hamilton at Painshill. Ronald Yee suggests that the designs may have been inspired by I quattro libri dell'architettura by Andrea Palladio, translated into English as The Four Books of Architecture by Isaac Ware in 1738. The Chinese Bridge links the Chinese Peninsula to Grotto Island. It has nine spans, is around wide and has a total length of around . The name is a misnomer, based on the false premise that the cross bracing supporting the handrails is an Oriental motif, when in fact it is a Palladian style. Michael Symes suggests that the misunderstanding is a reflection of the mid-18th century fashion for chinoiserie and notes that similar structures were common in landscape gardens in England during this period. The restoration of the Chinese Bridge was completed in 1988, but the structure was closed in 2023 after concerns were raised over the stability of the supporting pillars.
The Grade II-listed , on Grotto Island, was constructed in the 1760s by Joseph LaneRichardson 2024, p. 239 and is the largest in England.Richardson 2024, p. 232 It consists of an entrance arch and a tunnel passageway, leading to a main chamber which is around in diameter.Symes 2010a, p. 99 The walls are built of brick and the roof is timber, but the exterior surfaces are covered with tufa limestone. The interior is decorated with a wide range of mineral stones, including quartz, feldspar and Blue John. The main chamber is primarily lit by openings onto the lake, with light reflecting off the water surface.
Fredrik Magnus Piper, a Swedish architect who visited Painshill in 1779, described the interior of the Grotto as containing: "transparent spars, , crystallisations and the like, some descending from the vault in the form of hanging pyramids, chandeliers and , some rising like pillars from the floor. These catch the sunbeams which are reflected from the surface of the water outside and break into the grotto."Sirén 1950, p. 45 Richardson notes that, compared with its contemporaries, the Grotto at Painshill is "fairly monochromatic, allows in lots of light, contains no shellwork and includes many more stalactites." He suggests that Hamilton and Lane intended to create "a geologically convincing scheme."
By the time the borough council had bought Painshill in the late 1970s, the Grotto was derelict and its internal decoration had disappeared.Symes 2010a, p. 99 The roof is thought to have collapsed in the mid-1940s, after the lead flashing was sold to finance VE Day celebrations. Restoration began with the reinstatement of the Coral Gates in 1986 and was completed in 2013.
The timber links Grotto Island to the western bank of the lake and has a total length of around . First erected in the 1750s, it is named after William Woollett, whose engraving shows the structure in the 1760s. It was built as a copy of a truss bridge over the Cismon in northern Italy, designed by Palladio. The Woollett Bridge was replaced by a Chinese-style bridge in around 1770, but was reinstated to the original design in 2012. During the 2019–20 United Kingdom floods, the bridge was submerged on two occasions and the wood began to rot. A restoration project was launched and was completed in 2022.
The Grade II-listed was built overlooking a meander in the River Mole and was designed to resemble a ruined Roman arch.Symes 2010a, p. 81 In Hamilton's time, the recesses in the walls were occupied by funeral urns, a sarcophagus and other classical artifacts,Ross 1998, p. 88 and the surrounding area was planted with dark-leaved evergreens, including Taxus baccata, to generate a sombre atmosphere. Walpole was critical of the structure, which he described as a columbarium, writing: "The Ruin... has great faults... The upper row of niches... are too high & in proportion more gothic than Roman. The tesselated sic pavement unluckily resembles a painted oil-cloth." In the late 1980s, a partial restoration was undertaken to stabilise the remains of the Mausoleum and to relay the original floor, although the main arch span was not reconstructed.Symes 2010a, p. 159
The provides a focus for the views from the Gothic Temple and the Turkish Tent over the western part of the lake. The design was based on a drawing by Palladio of the Roman Ponte di Tiberio in Rimini, Italy. The original bridge was constructed in wood, plastered to appear as if made of stone. In 2013, the bridge was reinstated in white concrete with copings in Portland stone.
The is thought to have been completed around 1760 and may have been built by Joseph Pickford, the stonemason who constructed the Grotto at Claremont. It was designed to conceal the pipework that fed water raised from the Mole into the lake.Symes 2010a, pp. 74–75 Young wrote in 1768: "The water gushes in five or six streams, out of tufts of weeds, growing in the rock; really in the very taste of nature".Young 1768, pp. 189–190 Symes suggests that although the Cascade at Painshill is a relatively early example, Hamilton may have drawn inspiration from similar features at Virginia Water and Stowe.
The design of the first waterwheel to raise water from the Mole to the lake at Painshill is attributed by Richard Pococke, a clergyman and writer, to Hamilton personally. In a travelogue published in 1889, Pococke describes the wheel as having "four spiral square pipes from the radius to the center sic... it conveys the water to the axel where 'tis emptied, and the water is convey'd by pipes to". The wheel was replaced in 1770 by a horse engine, consisting of a series of buckets attached to a looped chain. This mechanism had been replaced by a new wheel by 1779, when Piper produced a detailed drawing.Symes 2010a, pp. 72–73 A third wheel was purchased in the 1780s or early 1790s, before the manufactured by Bramah was installed in the 1830s.Symes 2010a, p. 28 The diameter undershot wheel cost £800 (equivalent to £ in ) and is Grade II listed. Restoration began in 1986 and was completed two years later. Although most of the mechanism had survived, the wheel had not turned since the mid-1950s and was badly rusted.
The was built to resemble a tree house when viewed from the front and is elevated above the sloping ground below. It is divided into a living room and bedroom, with a thatched roof. It is thought to be the oldest surviving folly at Painshill and is first recorded in 1752 by Joseph Spence. John Parnell described the approach to the structure in 1763: "You strike into a wood of different firs, acacias, etc, and serpentining through it arrive at a hermitage formed to the front with the trunks of fir trees with their bark on, their branches making natural gothic windows." Hamilton employed a man to live in the building as a hermit for a period of seven years, but he was dismissed three weeks later after visiting a local inn. Although the ruins of the original structure were still present in 1897, all traces had disappeared by the late 1940s. The Hermitage was reinstated in 2004, and a new hermit took up temporary residence that year.
The is at the far western corner of the park and is Grade II* listed. It is thought to have been inspired by a belvedere at Claremont, designed by John Vanbrugh in around 1716.Richardson 2024, p. 242 The four-storey brick building was originally and was used by Hamilton to display part of his collection of sculptures.Symes 2010a, p. 54 The tower was severely damaged by a fire in the mid-1970s, which destroyed the roof and staircase. The restoration project, begun in 1986 and completed in 1989, provided a tea room and exhibition space, as well as accommodation for a park ranger.
The was completed in 1762. It was based on the Maison carrée at Nîmes, France, and may have been designed by Robert Adam. It was built with Doric order columns and was intended to display the statue of Bacchus that Hamilton is thought to have purchased in Rome in 1727. Whatley described the temple and its setting in 1770 as "a scene polished to the highest degree of improvement".Whatley 1770, p. 190 The statue was sold to William Beckford in 1792 and passed through several private owners before it was installed at Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire, in 1928.Symes 2010a, p. 60 The columns and frieze were removed from the temple and were relocated to form a new porch at Painshill House in 1925, although the rest of the structure remained standing until the late 1940s. A cast of the statue of Bacchus was installed at Painshill in 2008, and the Temple of Bacchus was rebuilt in 2018.
The was installed at Painshill in around 1760. It was based on a design by Henry Keene and may have been inspired by a similar installation at Vauxhall Gardens. Clive Aslet and Nebahat Avcioğlu suggest that it represents the legendary Tent of Darius, in which Alexander the Great supposedly freed the women and slaves of Darius III after defeating the Persians in battle. In contrast, Mavis Collier and David Wrightson argue that Hamilton was simply following a fashionable trend of erecting Oriental-style tents, and Andrew Zega and Bernd H. Dams note that 18th-century landscape architects built these "inexpensive" structures "prolifically in their gardens, indiscriminately them as Tartar, Turkish, Siamese or Chinese."
Excavation work in 1985 revealed the brick floor of the first tent, from which dimensions could be calculated. It was not possible to reinstate the structure on its original site, which is mostly part of the Heyswood campsite, and so the replacement was erected to the south wholly on borough council land. The current Turkish Tent is a rigid structure, supported by a circular brick internal wall and metal stanchions. The external parts of the new structure are made of fibreglass, instead of the original painted canvas. Christopher Thacker, a garden historian, suggests that the "'best' view" at Painshill could be obtained from the original site of the Turkish Tent "both outwards – to the south, beyond the Mole – and across the gardens..." and that Hamilton had intended to build himself a new mansion there.Thacker 2002, pp. 20–21
The is a circular plantation close to Painshill Park House. It consists of seven concentric rings of beeches and pines, and contrasts with the plantings of exotics elsewhere in the park. It is shown on the map of Painshill by John Rocque, and Symes suggests that it may have been inspired by similar circular features at the Villa Ludovisi or the Villa di Castello in Italy. Close by is the Ice House, which was commissioned by Henry Luttrell.
The Grade II-listed , at the east end of the park, were built in 1756. They consist of three brick enclosures, arranged in an "L" shape. Primarily used as a kitchen garden for herbs, fruit and vegetables, one of the enclosures contained a heated greenhouse, in which were grown.
The was designed by the architectural firm, Feilden Clegg Bradley. The timber-clad building, which provides café facilities and a teaching area for schoolchildren, was completed in 2001. The footbridge over the Mole, between the car park and the Visitor Centre, was completed in mid-July 1997 and includes a drawbridge section to close the park at night. Designed by Kim Grady, it is built of tubular steel with splayed arches, one either side of the deck. It has a total span of around and is wide. It was part of a project funded by a National Lottery grant, that also included the construction of the ticket office.
The change in garden design was also influenced by the evolution of political philosophies in Britain. As the importance of the royal court diminished following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, landowners became more focused on developing their country estates.
Like many young aristocrats in the early 18th century, Hamilton visited continental Europe, embarking on two in 1725–1727 and 1731–1734.Ross 1998, p. 89 His ideas were shaped by the artworks that he encountered in Italy and by the landscapes of Claude Lorraine, Nicholas Poussin and Gaspard Poussin, and Salvator Rosa in particular.Ross 1998, p. 93 At Painshill, Stephanie Ross notes the similarities with paintings by Claude in the plan of the garden with the lake at its centre,Ross 1998, p.85 and Paula Deitz suggests that the "quiet aloofness" of the Temple of Bacchus echoes the style of the same artist.Deitz 2011, p. 231 H. F. Clark identifies Rosa's influence in the design of the Cascade, describing it as a "slice of the Alps... at the head of the lake", contrasting it to a similar feature that Hamilton designed at Bowood House, which he likens to "a picture by Gaspard Poussin."
William Robertson, an Irish architect who visited Painshill in 1795, also acknowledges the influence of landscapes on the garden, writing: "Mr Hamilton studied painting for the express purpose of improving this place and such was his passion for planning and ornamenting that he expended the greater part of a fine property on this place."Ross 1998, p. 90 Stephanie Ross argues that Hamilton did not set out to copy specific artworks,Ross 1998, p. 106 but instead used the techniques of landscape painting to create the vistas and scenes at Painshill.Ross 1998, p. 122
The ideal of the Picturesque began to influence garden design in England from the 1730s onwards. A forerunner of romanticism, it emphasised the importance of pictorial values in the creation and appreciation of artworks, buildings and landscapes, and challenged Enlightenment and rationalist views of aesthetics. One of its principal promoters, William Gilpin, defined Picturesque as "a term expressive of that peculiar kind of beauty, which is agreeable in a picture", and proposed that landscape should be viewed in the same way as a painting, incorporating ruggedness, variety, and architectural elements.Bowls and Sullivan 2010, p. 162 Another advocate of the ideal, Uvedale Price, argued that the concept could be "applied to every object, and every kind of scenery, which has been or might be represented with good effect in painting."
Hussey describes Painshill as a "proto-Picturesque garden",Hussey 1967a, p. 48 and Hamilton's design of the Gothic Tower was certainly influenced by the work of John Vanbrugh, who was recognised by Price as one of the originators of the ideal.Hussey 1967b, p. 128 Several leading proponents of the Picturesque were complimentary of Hamilton's park and of the western part in particular, which Horace Walpole likens to a "kind of Alpine scene". He continues, "the walks seem not designed, but cut through the woods of pines; and the style of the whole is so grand, and conducted with so serious an air of wild and uncultivated extent, that when you look down on this seeming forest, you are amazed to find it contains a very few acres."
Hamilton may have been influenced by the ferme ornée style, an early example of which was developed in the early 1730s by Philip Southcote at Woburn Farm, also in north Surrey.Symes 2010a, pp. 13–14 Whately visited the farm in 1770, noting that around were "adorned to the highest degree".Whately 1770, p. 177 The concept of a ferme ornée is described by Derek Clifford as "a genuine business-like farm, operating for profit as a farm... ornamented and equipped in such a way as to fulfil the function of a garden."Clifford 1966, pp. 139–140 David Watkin, an architectural historian, writes of Woburn Farm that "Visitors were confronted with cattle, sheep and poultry to emphasise the modest pastoral charms of rural life."Watkin 1982, p. 26 Richard Pococke, the clergyman and writer, described Painshill in 1754 as a "most beautiful farm improvement", and Hamilton's park shares some similarities with Woburn Farm, including its circuit, its indirect paths and the fact that it could not be seen in its entirety from a single viewpoint.Hussey 1967a, pp. 104, 158
Other British artists to depict Painshill include George Barret Sr. and Sawrey Gilpin, who collaborated on an undated oil painting of the eastern end of the lake that shows the Vineyard and the Ruined Abbey. A view across the western side of the lake, showing the Grotto and the Gothic Temple before 1773, is also attributed to Barret. An oil painting of the Temple of Bacchus, dated to the 1760s, is attributed to William Hannan who produced a series of landscapes of English country estates in the mid-18th century.Harris 1979, pp. 162, 201 William Gilpin visited Painshill twice, in 1765 and 1772, on the latter occasion producing a sketchbook, which is at the Surrey History Centre, Woking. A portrait of Benjamin Bond Hopkins at Painshill by Francis Wheatley, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1791, is at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
International artists visiting the park included Elias Martin, an engraver and landscape painter from Stockholm, who produced three sketches of views at Painshill in around 1770, two of which were exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1777.Harris 1979, p. 254 A sketchbook by François-Joseph Bélanger, a French architect working in the Neoclassical style, contains several images of Painshill, and may have been produced over a series of visits starting in the late 1760s.Symes 2010a, pp. 72–73 Henri Roland Lancelot Turpin de Crissé, a French aristocrat who fled the Reign of Terror in 1793, produced eight drawings of Painshill before leaving England for Philadelphia in 1794. Fredrik Magnus Piper, who designed Hagaparken, a royal landscape park in Stockholm that also contains numerous follies, visited in 1779, producing a series of sketches.Symes 2010a, pp. 131–132
Painshill has been used as a filming location for several television series, including The Adventures of Robin Hood, Vanity Fair, Black Mirror, Good Omens and Bridgerton. The park was used as a substitute for Hampstead Heath in Dorian Gray, released in 2009, and was used to film scenes for Suffragette, released in 2015.
(2025). 9780198792475, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198792475 In 1539, Henry VIII expanded the Chase of Hampton Court, incorporating "parte of the Towne or Village of Cobham in the Countie of Surrie". A survey of the chase from around 1540 identifies six areas within Painshill owned by the Crown Estate, including the "Greate grove", of around , and "hale hill", the future site of the Grotto.
Creation of the park
Charles Hamilton was born in 1704 in Dublin, the 9th son and 14th child of James Hamilton, 6th Earl of Abercorn. In 1718, he became a pupil at Westminster School, where he was a contemporary of John Petty, 1st Earl of Shelburne, the future owner of Bowood House.Symes 2010a, p. 31 He began studying at Oxford University in 1720, where he formed friendships with Henry Hoare, who would later create the gardens at Stourhead, Wiltshire, and the brothers Stephen Fox, the future 1st Earl of Ilchester, and Henry Fox, the future 1st Baron Holland. After gaining a BA in 1723, Hamilton set off on his first Grand Tour in 1725 and, while in Rome, collected numerous artworks and became familiar with the landscape paintings of Claude Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin and Salvator Rosa. He returned from Europe two years later and became the member of the Irish House of Commons for Strathbane.Symes 2010a, p. 32 During his second visit to Rome in 1732, Hamilton was introduced to George Knapton, the artist and dealer, and his portrait was painted by Antonio David.Symes 2010a, p. 33
(2025). 9780300234787, Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300234787 In the early 19th century, Jane Austen and John Claudius Loudon visited the garden.Laird 1999, p. 4
19th and early 20th centuries
Following Hamilton's departure in 1773, the subsequent owners had continued to allow visits to the park by members of the public. However, this access was withdrawn by William Moffat, who purchased Painshill from Robert Hibbert in around 1801. Moffat sold the estate in 1805 to Henry Luttrell, 2nd Earl of Carhampton, who moved to the property from Cobham Park. Luttrell was responsible for planting additional trees in several areas, including the Vineyard, the Amphitheatre and along the boundaries of the estate. He also planted an oak tree near the Grotto to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo and commissioned the construction of the Ice House.O'Brien, Nairn, Cherry & Pevsner 2022, p. 575 He died in 1821, but his widow continued to live at Painshill until her death in 1831, when it was sold to William Cooper.
Restoration
In the 1960s, concern about the state of the gardens at Painshill began to grow. A successful campaign was launched in the early 1970s to persuade the Historic Buildings Council for England to listed building the remaining buildings. Elmbridge Borough Council purchased in 1975 and secured a further in 1981. In acquiring the land, the council hoped to restore Painshill "as nearly as possible to Charles Hamilton's original design... for the benefit of the public and with the aim of making the Park a self-supporting enterprise."
Botanical history
When Charles Hamilton purchased Painshill in 1737, much of the area was heathland with some areas of woodland. The park was created on two natural terraces to the north of the River Mole,Taylor 2003, p. 2 where the acidic soil is primarily sandy with some clay, peat and silt.Symes 2010a, p. 7 Hamilton began by trying to increase the soil fertility of the land, growing turnips on which sheep could graze.Edwards 2018, p. 124 In a letter written in the 1760s, he describes how were prepared by ploughing four or five times, before each acre (0.4 ha) was sowed with "six English around of the cleanest hayseed I could get and of fresh Dutch clover seed".Edwards 2018, p. 180
(2025). 9781529909104, Ebury Press. ISBN 9781529909104 In the mid-1740s, he began planting "exotics", non-native species of trees and shrubs, and he received two consignments of seeds from John Bartram, a horticulturalist in Philadelphia, in 1748 and 1756. North American species that Hamilton planted include , and Nyssa species, which provided a vivid display of autumn colour.Edwards 2018, p. 125 Hamilton also received plants from the Abbé Nolin, an adviser to Louis XV in Paris, who was able to source species from the French colonial empire. The variety of trees was admired by Karl von Zinzendorf, a Saxon-Austrian civil servant who, after visiting Painshill in 1768, wrote that the park was "premièrement par le choix des arbres".Laird 1999, pp. 4–5 Horace Walpole also praised Hamilton's planting scheme, noting that the exotics, "contributed to the richness of colouring so peculiar to our modern landscape".
Description
Overview
Painshill (formally called Painshill Park) is a Grade I-listed park and landscape garden, around west of the centre of Cobham, Surrey. It is laid out as a circuit, which 18th-century visitors typical followed in a clockwise direction.Ross 1998, p. 85 It was created as a combined park and garden: The garden, centred on the northern shore of the lake, was highly cultivated and was described by some contemporary writers as the "pleasure ground"; the park lay to the west and to the north, and contained areas of woodland, although parts were also grazed by sheep.Symes 2010a, pp. 10–11 The two areas were complementary, as Thomas Whately wrote in 1770: "park and gardens at Painshill... mutually contribute to the beauty of several landskips landscapes..."Whately 1770, p. 192 An unusual feature is that Painshill House, which is not in public ownership, is not at the centre of the park and garden, and its location provided a degree of privacy for the owners of the estate.Laird 1999, p. 383Richardson 2024, p. 231
Features
The is at the centre of the gardenSymes 2010a, p. 62 and forms the setting for several of the follies, including the Gothic Temple and Grotto. It was developed in several stages from an existing pond or gravel pit,Symes 2010a, p. 65 and the final part, the section in front of the Ruined Abbey, was not completed until the early 1770s. The water surface is about above the River Mole and there is a retaining dam between the two. (2025). 9781856697088, Laurence King Publishing. ISBN 9781856697088 The lake has a complex shape, which Michael Symes suggests was "ingeniously devised to furnish variety, illusion and surprise..." Whately observes that it "is never seen at once; but by its form, the disposition of some islands, and by the trees in them and on the banks, it always seems larger than it is..."Whately 1770, p. 187 The restoration of the lake included the removal of islands that had been added after Hamilton had sold the park.
Cultural context
At the start of the 18th century, the majority of gardens in England were of the formal Baroque garden, often focused on a rectangular parterre with areas of planting separated by evergreen hedging and gravel pathways. However, the economic climate of the period meant that this style was becoming increasingly unsustainable. The War of the Spanish Succession and the collapse of the South Sea Company contributed to the strain on the finances of the British state and the aristocracy, and early in Queen Anne's reign, Henry Wise was instructed to reduce the cost of maintaining the royal gardens from £60 per acre to £20 per acre.Hussey 1967a, p. 27 Christopher Hussey, an architectural historian, writes that the emergence of landscape gardens "seems to be traceable to the common English predilections for seeking to effect economies... and for sport." In particular he notes that the new style allowed the land to be laid out for horse riding and carriage driving, and that "providing a grand static view from a window or terrace" was a lesser priority.
(2025). 9780470289334, John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 9780470289334 Charles Hamilton was part of a circle of Patriot Whigs connected to Frederick, Prince of Wales, many of whose members created landscape gardens in the early 18th century. This group included Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham (owner of Stowe Gardens), Francis North, 1st Earl of Guilford (owner of Wroxton Abbey) and George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton (owner of Hagley Hall). (2025). 9781780236445, Reaktion Books. ISBN 9781780236445 They, like many other Whigs, sought to redevelop their Baroque gardens, which they believed were too closely associated with the absolute monarchies of Europe. As Andrea Wulf, a historian of science, writes: "gardens like Painshill... allow you to experience, in its true glory, that revolutionary time when English gardeners dug up their topiary and planted a new world."Wulf 2008, p. 246
In art and in popular culture
Several artists visited Painshill in the 18th century to sketch and paint the garden. In the 1760s, William Woollett produced the engraving of the bridge that is now named after him, although the image may have been based on a sketch produced a few years before. Prints were distributed as part of a set, all by Woollett, entitled Six delightful Views of elegant Gardens.Symes 2010a, p. 123 The popularity of the engraving meant that unauthorised copies and inferior reproductions were made, one of which appeared as a mirror image of the original in a collection of views of "jardins anglo-chinois" published by in Paris in the 1770s and early 1780s. Woollett's engraving of the bridge is one of three images to appear on the Frog Service produced for Catherine the Great in 1773–74.
Notes
External links
Categories: Www.painshill.co.uk Official Website, Borough Of Elmbridge, Grade Ii Listed Garden And Park Buildings, Grade Ii* Listed Garden And Park Buildings, Grade I Listed Parks And Gardens In Surrey, Grade Ii Listed Buildings In Surrey, Grade Ii* Listed Buildings In Surrey, Lakes Of Surrey, Nccpg Collections In England, Parks And Open Spaces In Surrey
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