Secrets of the Stately Garden | 2007 Prior Park

The team examine the expensive Enlightenment fad for landscape gardens, in particular, one designed by Capability Brown. To get a feel for naturalistic garden designs, Robinson travels to Prior Park near Bath, built by Ralph Allen and inspired by Alexander Pope, where a water cascade feature is being restored by the National Trust. At the Royal Society in London, Tony learns of the explosion of interest in the natural sciences at the time, an interest expressed in Greco-Roman inspired garden grottos and faux statues, temples and lakes. At Stowe House we see evidence of the vice/virtue dichotomy as portrayed in classical symbolism, and Tony travels to Rome and Hadrian's Villa to explore the comparisons further.

Original broadcast date: 27th August 2007.