Oh so capable Mr Brown....

Our last garden to visit in the country before we head off to the big city of London, on our way through, is Blenheim Castle.  This is an enormous fantasmigorical castle stilled lived in by the inherited Duke and Duchess.  It's supposed to be the most fantastic castle in England!
This garden is on our visit list so we can add to our education about  Lancelot "Capability" Brown.
He worked on this garden for 10 whole years while the castle was being built in the early 1700's.  As you walk around the large large large estate park - it took us hours-, you can hardly imagine the changes he managed to make on such a huge scale.  Without machinery, he completely reworked and rechanged the shape and size of the landscape to create views and vistas and spacious parklands - imagine 1000's of people digging new lakes and damning rivers and creating sweeping rises!  Almost impossible.
The trees have been let go to whatever size they prefer and have impact and scale and you suddenly realise how big some of these trees that we prune and control can really get when left 'wild'.
A lot of the garden is quite formal especially close to the palace, which suits the architecture of course, but where does a duchess go for a nice couple of tea from the sitting room for a bit of peace and quiet??

Rather daunting really but inspiring in its own way.  The undertaking itself makes my mind spin.  Impressive.

We also had a quick lunch stop at Oxford...such an amazing town with lovely old old buildings.  And we caught a glimpse of the university of oxford botanic gardens...but we were running late by then and couldn't stop.
Next time??

see you in London....off to Chelsea darling......