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CHAPTER FOUR BUSCOT HOUSE Six miles west of Buckland along the same ridge lies Buscot House and Park, first built between 1770 and 1780. Heavily derived from the style ofAdam inside and out, the house had been altered several times and was restored to its earlier appearance just before World War II. Although the main lines of the park are distinctly representative of Brown's manner , its most distinctive feature is a series ofhandsome Italianate allees, basins, and gardens added by Harold Peto in 1899. The author of the original park remains unknown, which often means that the design was the result ofthe owner's own efforts with the aid of a skillful steward and local craftsmen. no. View to Buscot House from the statue ofCeres after leaving the lake and climbing the hill through the woods along the entry drive. 111. View back to the park and approach drive from the front entrance ofBuscot House. This view to the left is mirrored by a similar view to another drive on the right. CHAPTER FOUR The house sits on a slight ridge facing north toward the Thames and the Cotswolds. The two approach drives from the Faringdon road wind into the park, both crossing bridges that offer views of an extensive lake that curves out of sight. In fact, there really are two different lakes, as one learns only by examining a plan or exploring the park on foot. So carefully placed and made are they that from the lawn overlooking the ha-ha in front of the house, both lakes are visible and appear as one. From the house the visitor looks out to the right and sees a lake in the distance. Straight ahead a grassyvista leads down to a rolling land form to a mass of trees screening the public road running between Faringdon and Lechlade. The viewer does not realize that a second body ofwater seen beyond yet another meadow diagonally down another vista to the left is not connected to the first behind the central screen oftrees. A short drive to the northwest is now used as the principal entry for visitors. In former times a longer more circuitous route from the northeast was followed from which one first viewed the house from just inside the gate, and subsequently from a situation where it was seen on a rise, across from and reflected in the lake. Both the twenty-acre lake, with its three small islands and curving shape, and the theatrical visual composition are superb examples of the genre. A classical bridge comes next. It is actually a dam in disguise holding back the lake - nearby stands a small temple on the bank by the lake. The drive passes between a wood and farmland and begins to wind up a gentle rise, passing through alternating areas of woodland and meadow until, at the top of a small crest in the wood, the road turns at a statue of Ceres and the visitor sees the entry court of the house in the near distance beyond a small vale at the end of a tree-lined avenue. One descends and climbs again to enter the gravel forecourt ofthe house. Having arrived, the visitor inevitably turns to look back before entering, to see offto the left the point where the drive came out ofthe wood and straight ahead to the south a skillfully planted valley opening out to a distant wood. Finally, walking through or around the house, one' reaches the front lawn that sweeps right up to the base of the building. From here a broader view opens up to the bridge and temple near the entry where one began. Elsewhere on the property are handsome kitchen gardens, orchards, farms, and a third lake hidden from sight by encircling plantations. 112. The south entrance front ofBuscot House (above) and the north garden front ofthe house with lawn sweeping right up to the base ofthe building, sans terrace (below). 300 LANDSCAPE GARDENS AND PARKS FACING PAGE: 113. Two views to the northwestfrom Buscot House: from the lawn out over the ha-ha down a vista framed byplantations to a meadow and one ofthe lakes (above), and from the second floor garden front looking down onto the lawn, ha-ha, and pasture that forms the upper portion ofthis vista (below). 114. Plan ofBuscot House: note the baroque organization ofthe vistas from the house that have been overlaid with curving meadows and terminated with irregular lakes. Harold Peto's...

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