Trust visit West Dean Gardens and Goodwood House - TrustNews Sep 16
The day got off to a promising start when our coach driver took a scenic route to Chichester, treating us to panoramic views of Portsmouth Harbour on one side and the South Downs on the other as we passed along Portsdown Hill. This was a bonus and so was the weather, which started clear and bright and remained so.
West Dean Gardens are impressive. The walled kitchen and fruit gardens display fruit trees and bushes trained into every imaginable shape - drums, pyramids, cones - or attached to walls as cordons or espaliers (some among us could even tell one from another). They are also notable for the restored Victorian glasshouses, full of vines, strawberries, peach and nectarine trees, geraniums and other delights. I was particularly intrigued by a collection of dozens of mints from different parts of the world (did you know that Japan has its own variety, with tiny green leaves?) and by a gooseberry trained up a column to show off its pretty red flowers (another plant I’d never seen before: a fuschia-flowered gooseberry).
Outside, we were impressed by the pergola (one of the longest in the country), where wisteria and honeysuckle were beginning to come into bloom - and we would have been even more impressed had this year’s cold spring weather not held back so many flowering plants.
An excellent pub lunch was had by all at the Partridge in Singleton, before we were treated to more beautiful scenery on the journey from there to Goodwood House.
From outside, the house is something of an architectural oddity; inside, it is full of delights. Knowing that the 3rd Duke of Richmond was one of George Stubbs’ early patrons and had helped launch his career as a sporting artist, I was particularly looking forward to seeing the three paintings he made there in 1759. They did not disappoint, and nor did our guide, who was clearly another admirer. There are some impressive royal portraits by van Dyke, Lely, Reynolds, Romney and Ramsey, and two Canalettos showing Richmond House in London before it burnt down. Also well worth seeing are the Egyptian dining-room (supposedly inspired by Nelson’s victory at the Battle of the Nile), a collection of Sevres porcelain, and some beautiful tapestries lining a sitting-room where the Queen has been known to hold Privy Council meetings. Always in June - and never lasting very long.
Cream tea in the ballroom and then home. An excellent day all round.