"a Tardis for hunting earls"

[flemmings]

Though what I mostly take away from the links in this is a confirmation of something I'd noted myself: the stately homes of England have a distinct dislike of trees. Maybe it's the climate-- cloudy and damp, we need all the sunlight we can get! Maybe it's the history/ origins: Cavalier strongholds in the Civil War, no sniper cover required. But it's been three and a half centuries since the latter, and global warming surely has altered the former; and me I have to wonder why the English aristocracy doesn't want trees softening the distinctly forbidding lines of its great houses.

Comments

[incandescens]

I honestly don't know. I don't suppose tree roots could be a danger to the foundations?

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

There's just so much *space* in front of those buildings. A tree sixty feet from the house won't wreck the foundations, says the woman with trees ten feet from hers.

[incandescens]

I honestly don't know, then. Unless you just put it down to "the fashion".

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Too "messy"? Not properly topiaried into submission?

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

Well possibly ... Capability Brown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capability_Brown) had a lot to do with them. All the more open space to have there garden parties and what not. *shrugs* I dunno, so that no one can sneak up on you. You can see for miles around from a vantage point.

Maybe after Dunsinane Wood went a marching, and Sherwood hid all those outlaws, I guess trees and woods were just not in.

Just as an aside, hubby gets the TLS sent to him on occasion from his parents.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I thought we were all for vistas and views, and both those need at least a single stately elm atop a knoll.

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

Yes, Brown and a lot of the other influential landscape designers from England. I see their influence here, too.

Also, Vistas and views work in both directions. You need the elm to be far enough away to be viewed in context with the landscape. You also need approaching visitors to see the vista of the building's splendor, unobstructed by trees. Buildings are not just dwellings in this context, they are there for impressing and intimidation and social status and all kinds of other things.

I suspect that past dwellers were a lot closer to nature, and therefore probably not as enamoured of it as we are today. I saw a lot of that on vacation, including people trying to get up close and personal to cuddly grizzly bear mommy and cubs.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

If we're talking Blenheim Palace or something Palladian with wings spreading out at each side, then maybe trees interfere with the magnificence of the view. But these boxy mansions with their understated architectural features aren't impressive by themselves. They need something to soften their boxiness. As it is they have a grim Puritan feel to them-- 'just the house, ma'am'-- which is most odd, given who built them.