Perhaps it was the novelty of the thing, or a desire to do something new...Rococo is not our thing, nor is its parent Baroque...or maybe it was just curiosity...and Chat-GPT said it was a great garden and worth the entrance fee*...but we elected to visit the Painswick Rococo Garden and to make a day of Painswick and the nearby Newark Park house and estate. Each warrants a brief post.
Rococo is Baroque on steroids, some say. Think ornate, over the top, rich people in fancy dress enjoying themselves in the paradisical gardens of their 18th century day; while the masses starved. Fragonard. Watteau. After us, the Deluge. How that translates into a garden is still unclear to me, but we saw one and perhaps you can figure it out from the pix below.**
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| Plan of the place; the great house is not part of the deal |
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| The Red House, among the 3-4 follies |
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As it turns out, the garden is almost entirely fruits and veggies, very
little ornamental or decorative...not even close to the top, much less
over it... |
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| Apples and pears, espaliered |
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| Peas |
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Ample interpretive information; there is a textbook definition of
rococo in the garden pamphlet, but little information on how this
get expressed on the ground |
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| Lettuce, cabbage, broccoli being protected from insects |
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| Did I mention it's mostly an edible garden? |
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| Another folly |
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| Cold plunge pool; seriously; spring-fed |
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| Pond and boat |
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| Arbor...nicer if flowering |
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| Impressive stump sculpture |
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Vicki wants a memorial bench, only it has to be wrought iron and
art nouveau |
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| Hermitage...in Montana we might have called this a war lodge |
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| Rococo bees |
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| Great house; not open to the public |
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Fragonard's The Swing, arguably the greatest of Rococo
paintings; I suggest Painswick install a swing somewhere on
the premises and maybe add a dress-up room as well; charge
extra, of course |
*Chat-GPT can make mistakes...
**If you do, please explain to me...
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