The Secret History of the British Garden

Episode 1

The 17th Century

59 mins

In visiting the seventeenth century, Monty starts with what is the only known surviving garden from the era, and discusses the forces that led to its survival over the last three plus centuries. He then moves to Lyvden Niw Bield in Northamptonshire to view not a garden but a sole never completed seventeenth century structure in a middle of field, that structure which tells a lot about other more buildings and the gardens that could have been on that property. He then goes to the library to research among other things the importance of the tulip, not only as a plant, but as a item of trade. Moving to Hampton Court Palace in Surrey, he discusses the major feature of the garden: the long water. The period also marked the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque, and with it a new juxtaposition between house, formal garden, and the adjacent woods. In the new era of enlightenment, Monty visits a vegetable garden to see if what would have been eaten is any different than today, and he visits the first botanical garden, which brings up the issues of how the science of plants was viewed then.