Il blog Il mondo di Jane Austen descrive in un articolo le pratiche grazie alle quali era possibile mantenere i terreni e i giardini delle grandi tenute in Gran Bretagna nel passato, descrivendo i metodi di quello che potremmo definire una sorta di “giardinaggio georgiano”.
A fine estate certainly elevated a man in a lady’s estimation. Take this passage in Mansfield Park, written from Mary Crawford’s point of view:
“Tom Bertram must have been thought pleasant, indeed, at any rate; he was the sort of young man to be generally liked, his agreeableness was of the kind to be oftener found agreeable than some endowments of a higher stamp, for he had easy manners, excellent spirits, a large acquaintance, and a great deal to say; and the reversion of Mansfield Park, and a baronetcy, did no harm to all this. Miss Crawford soon felt that he and his situation might do. She looked about her with due consideration,and found almost everything in his favour, a park, a real park, five miles round, a spacious modern-built house, so well placed and well screened as to deserve to be in any collection of engravings of gentlemen’s seats in the kingdom, and wanting only to be completely new furnished—pleasant sisters, a quiet mother, and an agreeable man himself—with the advantage of being tied up from much gaming at present, by a promise to his father, and of being Sir Thomas hereafter. ”
– Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
Un percorso tortuoso accoglieva i visitatori quando arrivavano in una grande tenuta terriera. Questo percorso portava verso la casa con l’intento di mostrare l’intera proprietà al meglio, passando attraverso aree boschive e campi aperti, oltre laghi e fiumi e mandrie di cervi o bovini, fino ad arrivare a un’area selvaggia “controllata” che precedeva il giardino vero e proprio.
Groundskeepers of extensive parks that featured winding drives and a variety of formal and ornamental gardens employed several means of keeping grass under control. Grazing sheep and cattle represented the first lines of defense. These herds were allowed to roam over vast expanses of land. Eighteenth-century romantic sensibility required that nothing as obviously artificial as a visible fence be allowed to contain them. A landscape feature called a Ha-Ha prevented grazing herds from coming too close to the house. The Ha-Ha, which consisted of a deep trench abutting a wall and which was hidden from casual view even at a short distance, allowed for the naturalistic features of romantic landscape gardening to take hold.
Il lungo articolo, ricco di illustrazioni, accenna alle scelte progettuali e alle tecniche di coltivazione e manutenzione che venivano adottate all’interno di questi grandi terreni. Maestri giardinieri paesaggisti come Lancelot “Capability” Brown e Humphry Repton godettero di grande celebrità e fecero nascere il giardino paesaggistico all’inglese, che divenne rapidamente di gran moda, soppiantando nel gusto europeo i grandi giardini formali all’italiana e quelli barocchi alla francese. Jane Austen era a conoscenza di tali sforzi e dei loro conseguenti cambiamenti:
Mr. Rushworth, however, though not usually a great talker, had still more to say on the subject next his heart. “Smith has not much above a hundred acres altogether, in his grounds, which is little enough, and makes it more surprising that the place can have been so improved. Now, at Sotherton, we have a good seven hundred, without reckoning the water meadows; so that I think, if so much could be done at Compton, we need not despair. There have been two or three fine old trees cut down that grew too near the house, and it opens the prospect amazingly, which makes me think that Repton, or anybody of that sort, would certainly have the avenue at Sotherton down; the avenue that leads from the west front to the top of the hill, you know,” turning to Miss Bertram particularly as he spoke. But Miss Bertram thought it most becoming to reply.
– Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
Commenta qui sotto e segui le linee guida del sito.