Dan Pearson explores the enchanting gardens at Rousham

Charles Bridgeman’s design – comprising 22 acres of landscaped grounds and five of flower gardens – was finished in 1737. Shortly after, General James Dormer commissioned William Kent to provide further enhancements. Bridgeman and Kent had worked alongside each other at Stowe, where the former was landscape designer from 1715 to 1726 and the latter introduced several small buildings into the gardens. The two then collaborated on a number of important landscapes, with Bridgeman’s horticultural expertise supporting Kent’s designs.

Although Bridgeman was arguably the founder of the naturalistic movement in Britain, Kent overwrote some aspects of Bridgeman’s original design at Rousham to soften the landscape further, rounding the once-square ponds in Venus’s Vale. In his new vision, Kent brought in Augustan elements to recall the glories of Ancient Rome, inspired by his Grand Tour travels and time living in Italy. Several of his interventions were masterstrokes, including the Praeneste belvedere, tucked into the hill overlooking the river and pastoral land beyond the cultivated landscape garden: a place of refuge and protection and – thanks to its statuary – also intellectual reflection.

Kent’s original drawings, which the family still owns, show Rousham much as it is today, with beautifully drawn copses and an easy flow from one space to the next. Records are few, but a letter of 1750 from head gardener John MacClary to Rousham’s heir, Sir Clement Cottrell-Dormer, conveys the intent and mood of the garden. Notable in its difference from Kent’s time is the rill, which MacClary calls a stream, complete with trout. The now sinuous rill must have been refined later. To follow its elegantly traced line through the dark tunnel of vegetation is nothing short of magical. Silvery and light-reflecting, it pauses at the crystal-clear octagonal Cold Bath by the grotto before moving on towards the open ground of Venus’s Vale at the end of the tunnel.

Visit Rousham at any time of year and the gardens always provide a sense of calm contemplation. A clear narrative and strong bones make for a guided journey, but one on which you are gently led, not controlled. Though there is a prescribed route (MacClary refers to it in his letter), I think it is better to explore intuitively. You are not meant to see the whole space at once and, as you move over its contours, the garden retains its mystery to reveal its many moods. There is a sense of discovery as you walk along the sinuous paths and dip in and out of the shadowy canopies; the light of a framed, far distant view seen from the shadows; the still, silent river bringing a sense of peaceful quietude; a building or statue drawing you on as the narrative builds.

Hung heavy with a verdant summer canopy, the vast limes and flowing understorey of light-reflecting laurel never feel overwhelming, due to the cut grass rides (wide mown paths), which flow airily between light and shadow. In midwinter, the same canopy is now open, but the supporting austerity of evergreen laurel, yew and holly serve just as effectively, never allowing you to experience more than two chapters together. With slumbering water lilies sunk to the bottom of the ponds in winter, the water becomes entirely reflective. Dead wood is left to decay naturally, as in Kent’s day, to show the life and death in a landscape, marking time and the delicate balance between the tended and the wild.

I am reminded of Japanese stroll gardens – designed to encourage you to change your pace and to reveal and unlock a landscape through choreographed roaming. Rousham’s garden embraces its rolling topography, playing with intimacy one moment and the breathing space of the borrowed view the next. Bridgeman’s design set many of these key moves in place to frame the landscape, including the vast yew hedges to the east of the formal lawns and the building sitting square in gravel with an expanse of lawn before it, leading your eye to the land beyond. There are also focused views north over the River Cherwell below and the prospect across the flood plains, directed by a distant Gothick ‘ruin’ eye-catcher. East of the lawns, Bridgeman’s revolutionary ha-ha brings the parkland and its magnificent trees close. These fields are still grazed by the long-horned cattle that have been part of Rousham since the 18th century, highlighting the juxtaposition with the pastoral.