The Tours

A place to lose yourself and relax high on a hillside amongst a marvellous collection of trees. The arboretum was inspired by Chinese and Japanese culture and holds the National Collection of Japanese Flowering cherries. The experience is immersive, revealing a different atmosphere and vista at every turn.

The gardens are the work of William Kent 1685-1748 and his masterpiece remains almost as he left it. Rousham has a remarkable ability of captivating a myriad of interpretations. My favourite detail is an open-air hexagonal pool, discovered while following a serpentine stream along a cool and shady path. Only Rousham offers itself up so tentatively.

Spring water cascades down meandering canals into a series of pools banked with exuberant patchworks of perennials in jewel colours. The garden was designed by Thomas Daniell inspired by his paintings of romantic architectural landscapes in India.

The house with its elaborate interiors was built in 1810 in a Neo-Mughal style by Samuel Pepys Cockerell.

The ‘BEST garden’ looks east over farmland and contains unusually shaped topiary contrasted with naturalistic beds and borders filled with perennials. The style gently shifts between cultivated and pastoral.

The house was built between 1607 and 1612 by wool merchant Walter Jones and must be one of the most outstanding Jacobean houses in the UK.

Created by American Lawrence Johnston between 1907 and 1938, Hidcote is one of the most influential Arts and Crafts gardens in Britain. In fact, it is a series of small gardens within a garden. Each is a tapestry of texture, craftsmanship and colour, blending seamlessly into the next and the countryside beyond.