In the Garden at Hinton Ampner

The gardens at Hinton Ampner were designed and planted over many years by Ralph Dutton, 8th Baron of Sherborne, who was the last private owner of the house and land. They are a mixture of the formal and the informal. Garden "rooms" of clipped yew hedges and topiary stand alongside woodland glades where wild flowers and grasses grow. It is a garden of surprises and wonderful plantings.

As we left the church through an old wrought iron gate, we crossed a lawn and entered the shadows of a woodland path. A heady scent lead us on, into the Philadelphus Garden, where several varieties of these tall, bushy shrubs were spangled with perfumed white and cream flowers.

Through a yew pathway, the back of Hinton Ampner House could be seen, across a formal, paved garden.

To the east, a gap in the hedges showed landscaped pastureland, reaching away towards wooded hills.

Underplantings of aquilegia....

...more clipped yew....

....and plantings of small trees and shrubs in many shades of green.

Scudding white clouds blew in from the south .

Foxgloves and Dicentra Alba were visited by bees in a sunlit glade....

....and an iron gate lead out into pastures where sheep and cattle grazed.

A Ha Ha separated lawn from farmland.......

...and steps lead up to the main rear doors of the house.

Along pathways through herbaceous borders......

....we climbed up to the level of the house and then looked down, across fields and the great old trees in the park.

An ancient chestnut had been saved by careful pruning.

In the rose borders....

.......that lead us to the house once more.

Topiary - is it a mushroom or a staddle stone?

From the east drawing room, windows looked out across a formal , rectangular pool where a water fountain played......

......and where great carp swam. Water lilies were in bud and smaller fish and tadpoles found shelter at the green water`s edge.