‘W
hen English gardening was mostly represented by the bedding system, with its wearisome repetitions and garish colouring, Mr William Robinson chose to make better known the treasures that were lying neglected.” So wrote Gertrude Jekyll of the Irish gardener who is credited with popularising the cult of the English cottage garden, championing hardy native species and naturalistic planting and paving the way for the great drifts of wild flowers that are so in vogue today.
Born in Ireland, Robinson moved to England in 1861 and worked for the Royal Botanic Society’s Gardens in Regent’s Park before founding an influential journal, The Garden, and writing the bestsellers The Wild Garden and The English Flower Garden. From 1884, as the owner of Gravetye Manor in Sussex, he was able to put his revolutionary ideas into practice, recording his journey in Twenty Years’ Work round an Old Manor House, republished last year with a foreword by Gravetye’s head gardener, Tom Coward (Rizzoli, £60).
Luckily for us, Robinson’s gardens can today be visited. Even better, they are now part of a gracious hotel that turns the garden’s edibles into Michelin-starred food. Nor is Gravetye Manor the only luxury hotel with an exceptional garden from which ingredients are picked. Here are ten of Britain’s loveliest.
