81 – 85: Nature
Marlburians are fortunate to be able to enjoy the contrasts provided by the greenery of the central part of the College and the trees and plants which flank the River Kennet, and the grand landscape views which can be seen from the playing fields. Pupils may not always appreciate the beauties of the school’s setting, and George Turner, Master (1926-39), an Old Marlburian (C1 1904-10), shocked a congregation of boys in his first Sunday sermon in chapel, when he confessed that at house matches his eyes ‘wondered to the sunset dying over the Kennet’ for the excellent reason that the sight lingered in his memory long after the cheers of victory. He was determined that under his leadership the aesthetic and liberal arts were to be fostered, and that Marlburians should appreciate the splendour which surrounded them.
For many years the Marlborough College Natural History Society was an important feature of the school’s life. Founded in 1864 under the auspices of George Granville Bradley (see objects 38 and 53), this studied the wide-ranging subject matter presented by the ancient Wiltshire countryside. Some Marlburians have enjoyed remarkable careers pursuing their interests in nature, such as William Keble Martin (B1 1891-5), the priest botanist and botanical artist, who is well known for his Concise British Flora in Colour (1965), a best-seller, which was published when the author was 88. Some of the most beautiful gardens ever made were the result of the work of the designer and architect Cecil Pinsent (B1 1897 – 1900), whose famous works in Tuscany reinvented the concept of the Italian Renaissance garden.
William Newton, (C1 1899 – 1904) the architect of the Memorial Hall and the Rose Garden, an integral part of the memorial to the 749 who died in the First War, devised a planting scheme with the help of fellow Old Marlburian, Arthur William Hill (HB 1890-94)), Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Moving eastwards from the pergola, in paired beds the roses changed from white to cream, lemon, soft orange, yellow blush, apricot and pink, culminating in red roses around the small statue. The borders within the hedges were planted with pinks, lavender and lilies. Wisteria, clematis, jasmine and hydrangea climbed the pergola at the west end of the garden. The original planting scheme has been altered over the years, and it would be good if at some stage in the future the Newton and Hill scheme could be restored.
The trees most appreciated by pupils in recent years, perhaps, are those which constitute Isaacson’s Copse, planted by John Isaacson (CR 1955-91) and his Wednesday works group to provide some shelter from the weather on the most exposed northern games fields. The plants and trees on the Mound were also valued by some pupils because they provided cover for nefarious activities, but saving this ancient structure from dangerously outsized arboreal growth resulted in the restoration of the elegant low-cut quickset hedges which adorned the spiral path to the summit in the eighteenth century. The landscaping and planting involved in this restoration project has been of the utmost importance, given the great historical and archaeological significance of the Mound.
This section of Marlborough objects will focus on a great tree, now lost, and another one planted nearby which also has an interesting planting history. One of the country’s most striking works of topiary will be covered, as well as a small piece of garden architecture with a curious provenance. An extraordinary collection of preserved plant specimens, preserved in the archives will also be described.
81. Tennyson’s Copper Beech
Alfred Tennyson, the Poet Laureate, visited the Master’s Lodge on numerous occasions in the 1860s, having developed a close friendship with the Master, George Granville Bradley. In January 1866, he brought his son Hallam (PR 1866 – 72. See Object 7) with him and stayed for four days with Bradley, giving poetry readings to members of Common Room and Upper Sixth pupils.
Tennyson planted a copper beech tree at the bottom of the Master’s garden. This grew to a great size over a hundred- and fifty-year period, but in 2017 it collapsed. The loss of this splendid tree is to be mourned but related trees are still growing in the garden.
82. The Cedar of Lebanon in Master’s Garden
In the late ‘fifties and ‘sixties the future of schools like Marlborough began to be questioned.
Tommy Garnett (Master 1952-6) welcomed visitors from the outside world and invited the BBC to come in 1954, but the programme produced gave listeners little idea about school life. He had an open mind about who should be educated at Marlborough, but he was very aware of the economic realities which had to be faced and the challenges which lay ahead for the school. When two well-known Labour MPs, Dick Crossman (famed for his diaries) and Christopher Mayhew (who became a Liberal) visited Marlborough, they planted a sapling Cedar of Lebanon in the Master’s Garden, and Garnett bet them the school would still be there when it reached maturity.
The threats remain and broadening access is key to the future success of the College. John Dancy’s pioneering work with boys from Swindon in the 1960s began a process which has resulted in the building of a fund for those who would not otherwise be able to come to Marlborough. This vital fundraising work continues today, and the cedar is still growing.
83. The yew hedge by C House
The great hedge to the south of C House was in existence in the early eighteenth century, and it can be seen in the engraving of Marlborough which William Stukeley, the great
archaeological pioneer, made for his Itinerarium Curiosum (1724). Its dimensions in the early days of the house and its garden were, of course, far more modest than they are now, but the complex form of the hedge in its early days reflected the horticultural ambitions of Lady Hertford (see Objects 13,14 and 21). In the days of the Castle Inn, from the mid eighteenth century onwards, the gardens began to grow wild, but in the early nineteenth century the hedge was still a far cry from its current sculptural form.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, it had become a towering feature, and its topiary has evolved in a fascinating way ever since this time. Until recently it was clipped by cricket pad cladded gardeners who climbed tall ladders, presenting an almost surreal scene. Now modern garden machinery has made the process easier, but the artistry of those who shape this great feature continues to impress.
The hedge frames what is now called the C House lawn. The semi-circular area used to contain the turning area for carriages when the main entrance to mansion was the southern door.
84. William Morris Arbour
At the bottom of the Common Room Garden near the River Kennet, an oak structure nestles in the greenery. This arbour appeared at the College after the close of the Chelsea Flower Show in 1996, the centenary of the death of William Morris. It was supposed to have come from a Morris-themed garden, but at the time of writing no evidence of this garden can be found.
William Morris (Aa 1848-51) spent much of his boyhood at Marlborough exploring the local area, and the education which this gave encouraged his fascination with the countryside and the natural world. It did much to inspire his work as a designer, a conservationist, a poet and as a political visionary. Marlborough, he wrote, is ‘in a very beautiful country, thickly scattered over with prehistoric monuments and I set myself eagerly to studying these and everything else that had any history in it, and so perhaps learned a good deal.’
Morris’s biographer, Fiona MacCarthy, wrote that his relation to landscape was already, in his schooldays, ‘a physical experience of sensual intensity’ and ‘he wrote about the marshes and the marigolds, deep ditches and muddy furrows with the enthusiasm of an early Seamus Heaney.’
85. The Wedgewood Herbarium
In addition to giving the playing fields and the stone commemorating Allen Wedgewood (CO 1907-11, see Objects 15 and 71) his mother, Mary Louisa, also donated a remarkable Herbarium to the College. Allen was a botanist, with whom she collected many specimens. She was on the Council of the Botanical Society of the British Isles and travelled widely in India and the Mediterranean. She undertook the extraordinary project of collecting a specimen of every plant listed in The London Catalogue of British Plants, and the finished work was presented in The Wedgwood Herbarium, which was given to the College in 1936.
During the Second War she lived in Marlborough to escape the Blitz and compiled and then published a catalogue of the herbarium. In 1932 a species of rose, the Rubus Wedgwoodiae, was named after her in recognition of her services to botany and she is remembered both as a great benefactress to the College and a woman of science.
The extraordinary collection of pressed plants is now cared for in the College’s archives. The frontispiece to the beautifully illustrated manuscript catalogue of the Herbarium was written for Maria Louise by the artist Ethel Sandell, a member of the Women’s Guild of Artists. This was founded in 1907 by William Morris’s daughter May, for female artists excluded from the male-dominated Art Workers’ Guild. The work contains an interesting classical reference. The Socrates of Plato’s Apology is quoted, in which Socrates makes claim to a new sort of heroism, on a par to that of Achilles, that of moral heroism. This was a new concept. Allen Wedgewood died near where Achilles died.