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CHAPTER FOUR small circle of intellectuals, most of whom were allied to the political fortunes of the Whigs; who swept to power after engineering the accession of King George I, as well as a few Tories like Alexander Pope, one of the most important polemicists of the new "natural-artificial" gardening movement. Coinciding with this development was the rise of neo-Palladian architecture, first introduced to England by the Renaissance genius Inigo Jones and reintroduced a century later by Colen Campbell and his patron, Lord Burlington . The impact ofthis development upon Western architecture over the next two hundred years has been enormous. Its Arcadian dream can be summed up in the images of classical domes and pediments within pastoral landscapes of full-blown trees reflected in undulating bodies ofwater, replete with grazing cattle and sheep, billowing clouds, and the distant sun-lit vistas that one sees in the paintings ofClaude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin. There is hardly a city in the world where some derivative of this dream has not been attempted from Buenos Aires to Vancouver, from Weimar to Hong Kong. In Russia, Italy, and the United States, one eighteenth- and nineteenth-century private landscape park after another was created, and now just as frequently in this century has been opened to the public. An integral part of the lqcal economy in rural England as a source of employment - initially in their construction and then in their maintenance and operation - once again these parks are potentially important as a source of revenue in the rapidly growing tourist and recreation industry. LONGLEAT The closest such park to Longbridge Deverill is Longleat, belonging to ~e Thynne family. Best known as a place of public entertainment and recreation and as the first drivethrough wild animal park in Europe, a visit today can become a very mixed experience, combining a handsome arboretum and sweeping pastoral park, serene vistas, and classical architecture with traffic jams, boat rides among barking sea lions, a carnival midway, great art, and vulgar displays offamily memorabilia, junk, and shops. In the late 196os, as part of their effort to raise money without parting with their land, the family struck a deal with Jimmy Chipperfield, a Spitfire pilot and war hero, who was the heir to a long line of circus owners and wild animal trainers. By 1970, when I first visited Longleat to meet the head animal keeper to discuss their techniques for research I was engaged upon for a zoological project in the United States, I was astonished to find a browse line established by grazing· giraffes among the two-hundred-year-old oak trees planted by Capability Brown in a valley within the northern portion of the park. The "Lions of Longleat'' were the talk of the region, and a local veterinarian at Warminster had become one of the leading authorities on African big game, their health, parasites, and nutrition. The situation was arid is bizarre, attracting many thousands of visitors a year. Visitors are instructed to stay in their cars with the windows rolled up as they drive through the park, where there are rhinos, 222 LANDSCAPE GARDENS AND PARKS baboons (the most destructive creatures in terms of the landscape), and lions. People invariably get out of their cars among the giraffes and antelopes, who sensibly wander slowly away from them. This wildly successful financial experiment i~spired other estate owners, and within a few years the duke of Bedford had created a rival wild animal park closer to London at Woburn. The increasing burden of taxes and staggering maintenance costs of properties such as these in recent times have prompted many families to strike a deal with the National Trust, English Heritage, or some other public charitable organization , thus preserving and opening up a considerable portion of this once private realm. Some landowners unwilling to part with their property, no matter what, have followed the Thynne family's example and set up private theme parks, entertainment, and festivals ofall sorts throughout England. Since the sixteenth century, events at Longleat have often been in advance or at the height of fashion and ambition. Despite the circus atmosphere of today, one can still see the overall structure and large portions of a justly admired landscape park created here in the eighteenth century by the most famous park designer of all time, Capability Brown. Among the best ever, Brown's landscape parks were designed and built in an era of widespread park building, or "improvement" as it was...

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