Canal (garden history)
In the history of gardening and landscaping, a canal is a relatively large piece of water that has a very regular shape, usually long, thin and rectangular.[2] The peak period for garden canals was the 17th and 18th centuries, by the end of which less formal water features were in favour, in the style of the English landscape garden. It is distinguished from a garden pond or lake by its shape, and typically falls somewhere between the two in area. It might be wholly artificial, created by diverting and damming a stream, or based around a natural water feature which is landscaped. Usually it appears to be enclosed, though in fact water passes in and out by channels below the surface. The edges are often walled, and the water relatively shallow.[3]
Traditionally, in England the canal has been associated with the Dutch garden style of the later 17th century, especially from about 1690 to 1720, though this has been challenged in recent years. There was also a tradition of canals in the French formal garden style, culminating in the huge four-armed Grand Canal that dominates the bottom of the Gardens of Versailles, made in 1662–68, the main branch 1585 metres long and 122 wide.[4]
A detailed study of canals in Suffolk found evidence of 56 in the county, some previously thought to be fragments of a moat or "mere ponds"; "Amazingly, in view of the received wisdom about the scarcity of surviving canals nationally, a high proportion of these are still recognisable and water-filled".[5] Analysis of the proportions of these showed that nearly half were between 5 and 10 times as long as they were wide, with the next largest groups (10 or 11 each) those with ratios of 1 to 5, and then 10 to 15.[6] Most were between 50 and 100 metres long, but two were 460 and 300 metres. A few use a tapering shape to give (from one end) an impression of being longer than they actually are. Some had or have islands, others cascades into them.[7]
Apart from being a highly prestigious, because expensive, ornament to a garden, and a pleasant place to walk, canals had some practical uses. A large stock of water near the house may have been useful for watering the garden and other household purposes; some houses had special "dipping pools" for the gardeners and servants to take water from. Many canals were stocked with fish, and they attracted edible waterfowl, who could nest safely if there was an island. Boats of an appropriate size could be taken out, and the Earl of Bristol nearly drowned at Ickworth House in 1717, when he was in "imminent danger from being some time under water in my new-made canal here, with the boate (out of which I fell topsy-turvy) driven by the wind over my head". He may have been fishing with a rod, by now a popular leisure activity.[8] Louis XIV famously staged mock naval battles on the Grand Canal at Versailles. Canals were made during the Little Ice Age, and allowed ice skating during the winter, as well as swimming in summer.
History
Connections to the very long history of long and thin formal water features in gardens elsewhere have not been clearly demonstrated. Setting ancient gardens aside, these have been a strong feature of the
England
A "canal-like feature" was created for
The Mollets were responsible for a canal in what is now
Others soon followed the royal lead, for example at Wrest Park in Bedfordshire, where the "Long Water", "Broad Water" and "Ladies Lake" have managed to survive a makeover by Capability Brown in the 18th century. Wrest Park was done by George London and his partner Henry Wise, the leading English designers of the day, for Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Kent in the 1700s.[14]
The Dutch engravers
A number of more regular serpentine canals were dug "from the late 1720s", following a fashion established for garden paths and walks some years before. One at
By 1771, Horace Walpole, a vocal enthusiast for the new English landscape garden style, thought the Wrest Park gardens "very ugly in the old-fashioned manner with high hedges and canals",[20] and few new canals were being constructed (one excavated in 1759 is mentioned as exceptionally late).[21] Many were converted to more natural-seeming shapes; for example the canal at Culford Park in Suffolk was described as "new" in 1698, but in 1795 was filled in to create a larger lake, crossing it at right angles.[22]
In the next century there was a revival in more formal gardens, with the influential garden designer and writer John Claudius Loudon a significant figure. Shorter and fatter canals began to be built, often featuring the many varieties of water-lilies that were available by then. They tended to be placed as the centre of a thickly-planted flower garden, rather than being flanked by regular avenues of trees, as the larger original ones often were.[23] The "Canal Gardens" at Roundhay Park in Leeds are an early example of this, constructed in 1833 when the park was still a large private garden. The canal is still long, at 350 feet (107 m) by 34 feet (10 m). The "Jellicoe Canal" at the RHS Garden Wisley, with a large collection of water-lilies, dates to the 1970s.[24]
Placement and shapes
The classic placement of a canal was at right-angles to the centre of the garden front (normally the rear), allowing uninterrupted views to and from the house. This was followed at Versailles, Hampton Court, Wrest Park and most other houses. Some canals were at right angles to the facade, but offset to one side, and others parallel to the facade. This cut off the house from the garden beyond the canal unless there were bridges, which were rare. At Longleat, with a sloping site, the "first big commission" of London and Wise, the effect of a canal was achieved by a series of connected pieces of water of different sizes and shapes running parallel to the main garden facade (in fact at the side) quite near the house. These ran under several bridges of different sizes, and down cascades, so that a walk in the garden is little impeded. Various other arrangements are found, some dictated by the site, or the reuse of a pre-existing feature such as a moat. Some houses had more than one canal, typically parallel, as at Stonyhurst, but not always.[25]
Most canals were strictly rectangles, though of greatly varying proportions, but there were some deviations, though very few shapes as complicated as at Versailles. At Chevening the far end had a curving bulge at one side only, and at Westbury Court there is a T-shaped canal.[26] At Hampton Court Charles II's Long Canal was expanded by William III, at the palace end, with much narrower curved branches, with bridges, running round the outside of the semi-circle of parterres of his new "Great Fountain Garden", and then parallel to the palace facade.[27]
At
Skating
Ice skating on metal skates seems to have arrived in England at the same time as the garden canal, with the English Restoration in 1660. In London St James's Park was the main centre until the 19th century. Both Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, the two leading diarists of the day, saw it on the "new canal" there on 1 December 1662, the first time Pepys had ever seen it ("a very pretty art"). Then it was "performed before their Majesties and others, by diverse gentlemen and others, with scheets after the manner of the Hollanders". Two weeks later, on 15 December 1662, Pepys accompanied the Duke of York, later King James II, on a skating outing: "To the Duke, and followed him in the Park, when, though the ice was broken, he would go slide upon his skates, which I did not like; but he slides very well." In 1711 Jonathan Swift still thinks the sport might be unfamiliar to his "Stella": "Delicate walking weather; and the Canal and Rosamund's Pond full of the rabble and with skates, if you know what that is.[31]
The Versailles Grand Canal flotilla
The Grand Canal at Versailles remained exceptional in its size, and as a metaphor for Louis XIV's power. As part of this, a flotilla of naval and pleasure craft was planned for it from the time of construction. These came to include 14
Gallery
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Swans on William III's curving extension of the Hampton Court "Long Canal"
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"Long Water", Wrest Park, Bedfordshire, 1700s
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"Ladies Lake", Wrest Park, Bedfordshire
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The junction of the T-shaped canal at Westbury Court Garden, lying parallel to the "main canal" shown above.
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The Herrenhausen Gardens in Hanover, canal by Sophia of Hanover, mother of George I,[34] round three sides
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Extravagant waterworks at Vaeshartelt Castle, Meerssen, Netherlands, c 1860.
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"Jellicoe Canal" at the RHS Garden Wisley, 1970s
Notes
- ^ National Trust "History" page
- ^ Martin, 213: "These canals were not the waterways used by commercial barges, but were long and thin ponds that were decorative features in formal gardens"
- ^ Martin, 213–215
- ^ Martin, 214–215; Quest-Ritson, 79–83
- ^ Martin, 214
- ^ Martin, graph on p. 221
- ^ Martin, 221
- ^ Martin, 226–227
- ^ Martin, 214
- ^ Martin, 214–215
- ^ Quest-Ritson, 79–80
- ^ Quest-Ritson, 79–80, 80 quoted
- ^ Quest-Ritson, 80–82; Martin, 215
- ^ Quest-Ritson, 82–89
- ^ Martin, 215, quoted
- ^ Jacques, 31, although he generally defends their accuracy
- ^ Quest-Ritson, 112–115, 121–122
- ^ "Hyde Park: Park of Pleasure". The Royal Parks. 2007. Archived from the original on 11 September 2007. Retrieved 5 September 2007.
- ^ Jacques, 333-334
- ^ Quoted, Martin, 215
- ^ Quest-Ritson, 121–122
- ^ Monument record CUL 035 – Post Medieval garden canal, part of a large formal garden around Culford Hall., Suffolk Heritage Explorer, Suffolk Historic Environment Record data.
- ^ Martin, 215, 221; Hobhouse, 229–233, 238
- ^ RHS: "Jellicoe Canal"
- ^ Quest-Ritson, 84–85 (84 quoted); Martin, 224–226
- ^ Added some 20 years after the Main Canal. There was also a further canal, now gone. See the entry on the National Heritage List for England
- ^ Quest-Ritson, 89
- ^ "AISLABIE, John (1670-1742), of Studley Royal, nr. Ripon, Yorks.", from The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, History of Parliament website
- ^ Trotha, 61-62; National Trust map of the site
- ^ Chris Wickham (7 October 2009). "Baroque water garden opens in Bushy Park". Richmond and Twickenham Times. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
- ^ Larwood, Jacob, St. James's Park, Vol. 2 of The Story of the London Parks, 118–119, 1872, Hotwood, google books. Larwood notes that "the London boys" had improvised butcher's bones as skates since the 12th century. Rosamund's Pond was also in St James's Park, see pp. 85 (map), 87.
- ^ Martin, Meredith, and Weiss, Gillian, The Sun King at Sea: Maritime Art and Galley Slavery in Louis XIV's France, 89–94, 2022, Getty Publications, google books
- ^ Hampton Court Palace, c.1665-67, Royal Collection
- ^ Quest-Ritson, 82
References
- ISBN 1862056609
- ISBN 978-0-300-22201-2
- Martin, Edward, "Garden Canals in Suffolk", in East Anglian History: Studies in Honour of Norman Scarfe, C. Harper-Bill, C. Rawcliffe and R.G.. Wilson (eds.), 2002, Boydell Press, ISBN 978-0-85115-878-5
- ISBN 978-0-14-029502-3
- Trotha, Hans von, The English Garden, 2009, Haus Publishing, ISBN 9781906598204