Snowdrops at Painswick Rococo Gardens

Wednesday
Janet had proposed we went to see the snowdrop display at Painswick Rococo Gardens near Stroud this morning, but we were a little uncertain about the weather as snow was in the forecast, and we were going to be on the edge of it. They didnt open until 11am, so that gave us a few hours to watch the weather. Nothing much seemed to be happening, so we decided to risk it. We did run into some snow as we approached Painswick, but it soon stopped.
Painswick House was built in the mid 1730s. Its owner, the asthma suffering, Charles Hyett came to Painswick to escape the smog of Gloucester and named his new house 'Buenos Ayres'. Sadly this move was not enough and he died soon after the House was completed. It was his son, Benjamin, who created the fanciful Garden in a hidden valley behind the House. Fortunately Benjamin asked local artist, Thomas Robins, to paint the Garden in 1748. During the nineteenth century, the original eighteenth century design was lost as much of the garden was converted to grow fruit and vegetables, and by the 1970s the garden had become an overgrown jungle, and without this artistic representation, little would have been known about how the garden looked originally. The Rococo Garden has one of the largest naturalistic plantings of snowdrops in the country, and although they would have looked much better on a sunny day when they would have opened up a bit more, it was still quite striking. When we had finished wandering around, we had lunch in their cafe, then headed home, via the village of Slad, which Roger was interested in seeing as some years ago he had read and very much enjoyed Laurie Lee's book, Cider with Rosie about his own life in and around the village.

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