West Green House Garden

Tags

Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism, Hartley Wintney, National Trust, Pierian Spring, Tulips, West Green House

Easter Sunday, and I was spending it at my aunt’s in Berkshire. In the afternoon we went to West Green House Garden, over the county border in Hampshire, near Hartley Wintney. It is a National Trust garden (and non-visitable house), run on a day to day basis by their lessee. Among other things, opera performances take place there, by the lake.

There was an Easter Bunny hunt that day, which led me in advance to worry slightly about potential crowds, but in the event they were far from overwhelming. Needless to say, we did not join in, nor even visit the children’s petting zoo.

Join us on a roughly clockwise tour.

I don’t know enough about fish to say, but I was wondering whether this one (about 2 ft/60 cm long) was gulping the air because the water did not contain enough oxygen.

And we came to a wonderful tulip garden. I just couldn’t stop taking photos, of which these are a few.

My favourite

Beyond the tulip garden.

Barbara agreed to pose by one of the many follies.

Above her was this plaque.

I looked this up later. It comes from a poem by Alexander Pope (1688-1744), written in 1711, ‘An Essay on Criticism’. More here on the Pierian Spring and Pope’s poem, and the writings of others, (not to mention magpies) but in brief the Spring is ‘the metaphorical source of knowledge of art and science’.

After a refreshing cup of tea, we completed our exploration.