Phillips Brooks

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I then went home to freshen up and visit Mum for an evening meal of slow roasted lamb.  It was delicious.  I had to do a slight detour on the way because I had forgotten to take a picture of the decorated cross outside the parish church.  The lighting wasn’t quite right and in hindsight I should have used fill in flash.

This cascade was built for the 1st Duke of Devonshire by a French engineer, Grillet, and completed in 1703. Each step is different to the one below and above it, to vary the sound of the falling water. The temple was designed by Thomas Archer. Water can be made to flow over the roof and out of 13 spouts, including the mouths of the stone dolphins, and there are even hidden jets in the floor. The temple and the Cascade were restored between 1994-96.

All the waterworks in the garden are gravity-fed, with water piped from man-made lakes 400 feet higher than the house, above the slope behind the garden. Water from the bottom of the Cascade is used twice more in it’s decent to the river – in the seahorse fountain on the south lawn and a fountain in the private west garden. No water is pumped back up the hill, so in a dry spell we restrict the hours the waterworks play.

The second photo is from a previous visit in 2003. This time I couldn’t get a clear view to take a photograph looking up from the bottom of the Cascade due to the large number of people paddling and a temporary sculpture that was installed near to the bottom of the Cascade.  More on the sculpture later…

I couldn’t miss PhotoHunt even though you won’t be able to comment on the post due to a technical hitch with my blog.  Hopefully it will be resolved soon.

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These are pictures of the waterfall at Abbey House Gardens. The brochure explains the idea behind this part of the garden:

As the winter of  2001 approached it was time to organise our annual tree pollarding when dead, dying or dangerous tree limbs are removed before the winds attack!

An area in the back corner, beyond the ponds, had not been previously focussed upon, but with the tree works undertaken, a large pool of light appeared which brought with it the inspiration for a waterfall.  The sound and movement of water would put life and light into a previously ‘dead corner’ and complete the basic structure of the garden.

Impressed by images of Japanese waterfalls, we’ve planted azaleas and acers among rockery plants and reflected Japanese mythology by causing the cascade to fall onto a ‘fish stone’.  The fish struggles to swim up the waterfall but when it gets to the top it turns into a dragon, a symbol of good fortune.

The whole story is a parable of man’s struggle to achieve and attain.  Not inappropriate for the work undertaken in this garden.

For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out tnchick.