Who wants the bother of a country estate?
Jan. 23rd, 2022 08:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiBook Review: Thenford - The Creation of an English Garden, by Michael and Anne Heseltine
We visited Thenford last October, and I suggested the accompanying book would make a good Christmas present. It's certainly a coffee-table book - provided you have a sturdy coffee-table.
The Heseltines acquired Thenford, near Banbury, in 1976. The first chapter outlines their search for a country house, with the abolition of his Tavistock constituency in 1974. There's an air of entitlement and privilege here that I find awkward, and though it's never arrogant or condescending I wonder whether it could have been addressed in a more sensitive manner. The recently widowed occupant moved into the adjacent Thenford Lodge and retained a portion of the estate, but the Heseltines sought to reinvigorate a somewhat neglected landscape. Each chapter deals with a section of the estate, describes the plans, changes and developments they undertook. The writing is candid, admitting to various mistakes and escapades in unwittingly buying stolen goods, or having their own items stolen. A number of plants were acquired during Heseltine's ministerial career and whilst horticultural gifts seem an unlikely means of obtaining favours, the cumulative value of such items would be rather more than the value of any gifts from work my annual anti-bribery and corruption training reminds me I would be able to keep. The book contains plentiful photographs from their time at Thenford, some professional, others memorialising construction and development or more quotidian events, which adds an air of authenticity. For the visitor, there is a lot of interesting information about the gardens, and it's surprising to read how new, or renewed, much of the garden development is. I have a much better sense of the size of an acre (the Walled Garden at Thenford is described as two acres), and although there is some information about the provenance and acquisiton of the colossal Lenin statue, it remains somewhat enigmatic.
We visited Thenford last October, and I suggested the accompanying book would make a good Christmas present. It's certainly a coffee-table book - provided you have a sturdy coffee-table.
The Heseltines acquired Thenford, near Banbury, in 1976. The first chapter outlines their search for a country house, with the abolition of his Tavistock constituency in 1974. There's an air of entitlement and privilege here that I find awkward, and though it's never arrogant or condescending I wonder whether it could have been addressed in a more sensitive manner. The recently widowed occupant moved into the adjacent Thenford Lodge and retained a portion of the estate, but the Heseltines sought to reinvigorate a somewhat neglected landscape. Each chapter deals with a section of the estate, describes the plans, changes and developments they undertook. The writing is candid, admitting to various mistakes and escapades in unwittingly buying stolen goods, or having their own items stolen. A number of plants were acquired during Heseltine's ministerial career and whilst horticultural gifts seem an unlikely means of obtaining favours, the cumulative value of such items would be rather more than the value of any gifts from work my annual anti-bribery and corruption training reminds me I would be able to keep. The book contains plentiful photographs from their time at Thenford, some professional, others memorialising construction and development or more quotidian events, which adds an air of authenticity. For the visitor, there is a lot of interesting information about the gardens, and it's surprising to read how new, or renewed, much of the garden development is. I have a much better sense of the size of an acre (the Walled Garden at Thenford is described as two acres), and although there is some information about the provenance and acquisiton of the colossal Lenin statue, it remains somewhat enigmatic.