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ALAN POWER: Hello and welcome to
the National Trust podcast.

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In this mini episode, we'll be
hearing about the strange tale

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that Edith Lady Londonderry had
clipped into hedges in Mount

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Stewart's famous Shamrock
Garden.

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Now I'm standing here in the
Shamrock Garden at Mount Stewart

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surrounded by tall Yew hedges.
But what's really striking and

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quite unusual is a series of
topiary that runs across this

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hedge.

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Thankfully, Neil the head
gardener is here and he's going

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to explain the whole thing to
me.

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NEIL PORTEOUS: Well, the
Shamrock hedge on the top of it,

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is a children's story in
topiary.

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And Edith was a great children's
story writer. She's published

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the Magic Ink Pot in 1928. But
on top of the Shamrock hedge is

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a different narrative that she
just made up on her own with the

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artist Edmund Brock who lived in
the house quite a lot of the

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time during the 1920s.

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So after 1928 I think they sort
of dreamt up this new narrative,

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which was the Stewart family
coming in a leather bottom

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sailing ship at Curragh to
Ireland.

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Edith's at the back blowing a
horn, three young children,

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Helen, Mary and Margaret are
under the rigging. And the

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artist Edmund Brock is at the
bow with a bottle of whiskey.

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And the Macaw, Edward, who used
to had his wings clipped, but he

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could climb up people's backs
and sit on their shoulders.

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So he's on his shoulder, they're
going off on the hunt. So Edith

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is depicted as a Huntswoman
blowing a horn and they're off

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hunting the White Stag, which in
Irish mythology, when you die,

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your spirit is taken by the
White Stag to Tír Na NÓg the

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land of the ever young.

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So they catch up with the stag.

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Edith has depicted as a- an
Amazon with a bow and arrow. And

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ultimately, she or originally
she had a sort of Robin Hood,

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Errol Flynn hat with a feather
in it.

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So we're trying to grow- she'll
have a mohawk for a while and

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then we'll develop this, Errol
Flynn hat and she shoots the

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White Stag in the bottom or
haunches it.

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And so you can see the White
Stag with a bit of arrow

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sticking out of it. And because
all of this is Pagan and pre

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Christian, the devil gets
involved and he brings down all

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the hawks of the air who then
swoop down and disrupt the hunt,

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scattering everybody.

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And in the confusion, he rides
the wounded stag to safety and

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saves him.

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And ultimately, you know, the
this hedge was much taller and

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we'd like to grow it up taller
one day again, this is not the

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original hedge.

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And we now have this narrative
in six pieces. But before

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originally, the pieces were much
bigger and there were 24 of them

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telling the narrative.

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And one day we'd love to have
the hedge taller and all 24

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back. And if we did the last
figure right at the end of the

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Shamrock hedge would be a boy
walking home, disconsolately

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with a skinny hair and a pole.
And that's all they bring back

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from the hunt. So it's complete
shambles.

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The original structure was made
by a man called Robert Burnett

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of Skipton in Yorkshire. And
we've got pictures of him in his

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shed in Yorkshire making the
devil.

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You know, and the level of
detail of this metal structure

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is so refined. You can see his
eyelashes. I don't know how

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you'd ever translate that into
topiary.

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But the idea is that you the
young shoots of the Yew, it's

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usually Yew that we're using,
although we're starting to use

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Chilean Yew now, which is,
doesn't get any of the diseases

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that Yew get. But it's the same
deal is you wrap the little

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fresh growth, spiral it around
the metal cage really and stop

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the end.

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So you tie it on, wrap it round,
stop the end and this bushes it

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up, and makes it much more sort
of fluffy.

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So what you're trying to do, you
know, ultimately is have the

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growth about half an inch above
the metal. And then you can cut

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that with a set of sort of sheep
shearing shears and keep it nice

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and fine.

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And the other trick with the
topiary is when you have a right

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angled edge, you can't leave it
right angled, otherwise, it

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looks ragged.

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So you take a chamfer off, just
you take the corner off and that

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makes it look much sharper.

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So when we finish, you know, the
figures are done with sheep

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shearing shears with the chamfer
for it looks really sharp.

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They haven't quite done it. We
find if we leave the work till

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early August, when we cut it, we
won't have to cut it again. It

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won't grow back. So we let it
get a little ragged at this time

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of year, but it saves us work
long term.

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ALAN POWER: Thanks for listening
to this week's National Trust

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mini episode. The next full
episode will be available in a

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week's time.

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Kate Martin, one of our west
coast rangers will be in Kinder

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Scout in the Peak district
exploring the wonders of the

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landscape there.

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I've really enjoyed taking you
with me on our tour of some of

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the National Trust's most
beautiful gardens and looking

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forward to exploring some others
in the third season of the

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National Trust podcast. Until
then from me, Alan Power.

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Goodbye.