England: Highgrove and Autumn Tints of the Cotswolds 8960

We depart from our pick-ups points in London, Reading, Swindon and Bristol and head for a visit to the unique Snowshill Manor. Snowshill is no ordinary manor, just as Charles Paget Wade was no ordinary Edwardian gentleman. Mr Wade embodied his family motto ‘Let nothing perish’, spending his life and his inherited wealth amassing a spectacular collection of everyday and extraordinary objects. Laid out theatrically, the Manor is literally packed to the rafters with 22,000 or so unusual objects – from tiny toys to splendid suits of Samurai armour. The Manor is surrounded by an intriguing terraced hillside garden designed in the Arts & Crafts style and, like so many of the gardens here, split into a number of different ‘rooms’. The garden and the valley running alongside typically put on a lovely display of autumn colour.
We continue to our comfortable hotel in the Cotswolds. Dinner is served in the evening.

After breakfast this morning we will transfer to Highgrove, the country home of His Majesty The King. This will be a rare opportunity to see these fascinating gardens which of course are cultivated using wholly organic methods. Since buying the property in 1980 His Majesty sought the advice of a friend, Lady Salisbury, who was an experienced organic gardener well-known for her work at Cranbourne and at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire. She and the King laid out parts of the garden with scented plants: wisteria, honeysuckle, jasmine, holboellia, lillies and thyme were chosen to surround the house. On the advice of Miriam Rothschild, another gardening expert, the King created an experimental wild flower meadow which already boasts around 32 different varieties of endangered native plants including ox-eye daisies, yellow rattle, common spotted orchid, meadow crane’s bill and ragged robin. Every year the King takes on a new project to take his garden in new directions, such as his walled kitchen garden or the arboretum. Vegetable varieties loved by the King are grown such as Charlotte potatoes and Happil strawberries, leeks, spring cabbage, brussel sprouts and carrots. A wide variety of apples are grown from trees next to the Orchard Room, along with others gathered from the Walled Garden, including Formosa Nonpareil, Golden Knot, Cornish Aromatic and Lady’s Delight. After our visit we will enjoy a delightful lunch at Highgrove making this a truly memorable, once in a lifetime visit.
In the afternoon we travel to Painswick Rococo Garden. The last of its kind in the country, the garden is a pleasure ground created in the decadent and fun loving early 18th century. Follies nestle in a hidden valley surrounded by magnificent Cotswolds views and a large Kitchen Garden produces many crops that are used in the garden’s own restaurant. Using a painting, by Thomas Robins in 1748, the garden is being fully restored to its eighteenth-century character, featuring rococco buildings, woodland walks and well-planned vistas. Among the plants looking at their best are beech trees, the Japanese maple, the Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, and Cyclamen hederfolium.
We return to our hotel where dinner is served in the evening.

This morning, following breakfast, we visit Sezincote, an Indian-style house with an eastern ‘Hindu’ garden. The project was inspired by Humphry Repton and led to his 1808 book Designs for the Pavilion at Brighton. Repton favoured the style partly for its novelty and partly because neither the Grecian nor the Gothic styles, then popular, were associated with palaces. Sezincote has a temple with a figure of the goddess Souriya, a bronze serpent, Brahmin bulls, a mushroom-shaped fountain, a conservatory with minarets and an unusual curved orangery. Graham Stuart Thomas advised on the planting design. Thomas Daniell, famous as a painter of Indian scenery, designed the Indian Bridge and the Indian Temple. Repton is associated with the project but the only evidence for his professional involvement is some mention of Sezincote in his writing and a sketch for the South Garden.
In the afternoon, following a break for lunch (not included), we will enjoy a visit to Batsford Arboretum, which contains over 1500 trees with species from all over the world. The collections cover a wide range of plants particularly from the Far East with a good collection of Acer (Maples), Bamboo, Magnolias, Prunus, Quercus (Oaks) and Sorbus, all of which can be expected to put on a fine display of autumn hues. The landscaping includes rockeries, streams and waterfalls, a lake, statues and a hermit’s cave.
Dinner is served at our hotel in the evening.

This morning after breakfast we check out of the hotel. Our final visit is to Westonbirt, the National Arboretum which is perhaps the most important and widely known arboretum in the United Kingdom. It is managed by  Forestry England and was established in 1829 by Robert Stayner Holford. It comprises some 15,000 trees and shrubs, over an area of approximately 600 acres. We will see numerous ‘champion’ trees including rare magnolias, tree rhododendrons and maples as well as a wide variety of smaller trees and shrubs. A recent innovation is the Treetop Walkway, which lends a unique perspective to this impressive collection of trees, which many argue look at their absolute best at this time of year.
Following our visit we will return to our original pick-up points with arrival due in the late afternoon/early evening.