ALAN POWER: Welcome to the National Trust podcast.
I'm Alan Power Head Gardener at Stourhead.
Gardener, Lover Of Nature, everything outdoors and
generally curious mind.
In this series, we'll be exploring the Trust's amazing
spaces delving into stories and characters that make each place
so special.
We'll be traveling all around the country from hilltop to
seaside. We'll tread sandy paths and the polished wooden floors
of country homes.
Delight in bird song, sublime views and exceptionally good
cream teas. So join me on this journey and immerse yourself in
the wonders of the National Trust.
Today I'm in Northern Ireland and I'm driving towards one of
the most astonishing gardens in the UK, Mount Stewart. I'm about
13 miles east of Belfast.
So not far away from the largest city in Northern Ireland. But
what I can see out of my window in the car is worlds apart from
the hustle and bustle of that busy city.
On the right hand side, this amazing lough appears called
Strangford Lough. Now, Strangford Lough is an inland,
salt water lake with a tiny, tiny exit point into the Irish
Sea and the tide rushes in and out.
I worked at Mount Stewart many, many years ago. So sitting in
the car, I'm very excited to get to see the garden again.
The garden here at Mount Stewart has been thriving ever since it
was established by the rich and powerful Stewart family who made
their money from selling fine fabrics like linen.
They bought the estate originally in 1744.
The property was passed into the care of the National Trust in
the late 1950s. One of the characters we're going to hear a
lot about today is Edith Lady Londonderry, whose imagination
and passion shaped this place in the 19 twenties.
In the late 19th century, she married the eldest son of the
Stewart family, Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart and
cemented her position as one of the most high profile society
women in Ireland.
She brushed shoulders with the likes of Winston Churchill, Lady
Astor and Harold Macmillan. And she was often the subject of a
little bit of gossip and scandal in the newspapers.
But away from the politics and the parties, Edith used the vast
gardens at Mount Stewart as a place of peace reflection and
self expression. Today, the garden still bear the hallmarks
of the design Edith started almost 100 years ago.
Wow, it's quite a dramatic entrance to the garden. You
leave this massive expanse of water behind huge, huge skies
and then all of a sudden you're utterly encompassed by an
already unusual plant collection. I'm walking past
kind of giant Pittosporum you know, they're, they're huge
plants that would normally just grow to 10 or 15 ft.
But these are, these are almost like trees and I always kind of
think of Mount Stewart as a little bit of a scratch and
sniff garden and a lot of Pittosporum have a lovely scent
to it. And if you squash the leaf and smell it, it's a really
lovely citrusy smell.
The garden is a fanciful feast for the eyes formally clipped
hedging laced with luxurious colourful planting. It's
astonishing. There's plants from all sorts of exotic climbs.
Brazil, Australia, Burma, just to name a few.
And of course, proudly presiding over these spectacular gardens
is Mount Stewart House a grand affair. It was Edith Lady
Londonderry's family home in the early 20th century and today its
doors are open to the public who are invited to enjoy its charm
and splendour.
Now, one of the first impressions you get of the
garden at Mount Stewart is that there are very formal elements
to it. So I'm meeting up with Lisa Risse-Robertson who is a
gardener in the formal garden at Mount Stewart to learn a little
bit more about it. Hi, Lisa, how are you? [Alan and Lisa Talk
over each other]
It's brilliant to think you're standing in a garden like this
surrounded by the amazing plants that we can see today that you
know, you do have to start with research. You do have to start
with getting the facts right and making sure that I suppose what
you do as a gardener here is true to what Lady Edith did you
know, back in the 1920s and 1930s.
LISA RISSE-ROBERTSON : Yeah, I have to do it because what we
do, we want to keep the garden close to what Edith has done.
And I think that is quite nice for me as a gardener because I
can walk in her shoes for a wee while. And that's what I like.
I try to get into her thinking. So what Edith has planted in
here? So I can look in the books and see what she had in there.
But mainly I have to work with the colour scheme Edith left us
and of course, it has to be exotic. If it's possible.
ALAN POWER: You have a lot of southern hemisphere plants here.
Mount Stewart, don't you? Do you focus primarily on the southern
hemisphere when you're looking for some of the plants for the
garden?
LISA RISSE-ROBERTSON : No, I focus on every plant, every
plant which would fit into the colour scheme and give me
everything I wanted for this garden like fragrance and hide,
it goes in. So try it. We have a lot of plants to play with, why
not playing with it?
ALAN POWER: Lisa, We're very far north-
What is so unique about the microclimate at Mount Stewart
that allows you as a gardener here to play with the plants the
way you do.
LISA RISSE-ROBERTSON : We are here on the Ards Peninsula. So
we are more or less enclosed with water. So we have at the
south side Strangford Lough where we get, believe me or not,
a lot of sunshine. Although this is Ireland! Ireland is always
regarded as a rain hole! We get a lot of sunshine here.
And at the other side, we have the Irish Sea and the Gulf
Stream. It makes it quite- quite nice and warm. But our
microclimate really comes from the shelter built we have around
here. You have to think about Mount Stewart as a big duvet
where the garden is sitting in the center and this big duvet is
lying over us which are trees around us.
ALAN POWER: So I'm just about to catch up with Neil The Head
Gardener at Mount Stewart and he's gonna tell me a little bit
more about another compartment in the garden.
Morning, Neil. How are you doing?
NEIL PORTEOUS: Very good. Thanks.
ALAN POWER: Neil, We've only really got time to catch the tip
of the iceberg today in a couple of the compartments at Mount
Stewart. But could you give us an overview of the rest of the
garden?
NEIL PORTEOUS: Well, there are about seven formal compartments.
Each one has a theme. We're in the Mairi Garden then on to the
Italian Garden. And then you go around to the west of the house
with the Sunk garden, which is all about scent and contrast of
strong colours, blue, orange, and other hot colours like red
and yellow.
And then on to the Shamrock Garden, a garden which expresses
Edith's love of Irish and Scottish mythology.
And around the outsides of those are much more informal areas
like the Peace Garden where all the family pets are buried. And
then into lily wood, which was for her love of scented oriental
lilies. She used to make potpourri out of these petals.
So it was a great theme for her.
ALAN POWER: And we're right into the Mairi Garden a very
different feel and much less formal than the compartments
that we've just seen. And right in the middle of this garden is
an amazing statue of a young girl with bells and cockle
shells, dripping water into a fountain.
And that is Lady Mairi Neil, isn't it?
NEIL PORTEOUS: It is. Yeah. In 1920 Edith suddenly found in the
summer that she was pregnant age 41. And so this fifth and last
child was very special to her because she just really moved to
Mount Stewart and invested in Mount Stewart making it her
principal home.
So this was a real gift, you know, to have a young child. It
was also a slight reconciliation. She'd managed to
get her husband Charlie away from his mistress in London and
it was a great triumph.
But on top of that, there's a- sort of Tudor Rose, a stylized
Tudor Rose in the shape of the five tear shaped beds. Edith was
a suffragist. She believed that women should have the vote and a
job and a career just like a man.
By January 1915. You did realize that the war, World War One,
this is, wouldn't be over by Christmas. So it sort of
galvanized her.
And in early January, she started the Women's Legion,
which for the first time, initially got women working on
the land. But very soon after that women were allowed into the
armed services working in the obvious things of those- in
those days, things like the catering corps, the nursing
corps. But soon women were doing a wide range of roles that men
had previously done to allow men to get off to the front.
So by the end of World War One, it's estimated about 80% of the
work in Britain was being done by women that men had done
previously. And the Women's Legion was just one of many
organizations that used the crisis to sort of get women into
the workplace. And of course, by 1920 women over the age of 30
were given the vote for the first time. So she felt very
proud that she'd pushed things along.
But isn't it lovely that you've got Lady Mairi, Edith's last
youngest daughter sitting in the middle of the emblem of the
Women's Legion, sort of hope for the future really. So it's a
very optimistic garden.
We try and use lozenges of blue, roughly blue and purple and
white, maybe with a bit of pink, not too fussy and allow it to
luxuriate. And as you can see that it does become a bit chunky
towards the end of the season. And what we'll do- because the
soil is so poor every five years, we have to take it out
and start again.
We use chaos to give us changes each year, you know, but when
things come and go, we just sort of, basically plant it with us
by the seat of our pants with new things and it looks like
we've done something new.
But this gives you this constant innovation. Edith was somebody
who never went back to an idea once she'd put it in once. So it
gives that impression that we're kind of gardening it the way she
did.
ALAN POWER: I grew up with a superstitious mother from Bandon
in Cork and I know that Edith was quite superstitious as well
and believed that there were certain things in the garden
here that helped or hindered.
NEIL PORTEOUS: Yeah. I mean she wrote at times that she thought
it was the Seelie, the fairies that were helping the plants to
grow here at Mount Stewart and by not cutting down the lovely
hawthorns, the fairy trees and the domain this had sort of, you
know, kept things growing and I don't think she really believed
it 100% but it, it was a lovely thing to write, very romantic
thing.
And then, you know, Mairi herself as a young child is
almost sort of Elf like.
Elfin child. So maybe, you know, on some level, she probably
thought that Mairi was a gift from the garden.
ALAN POWER: Neil, We're standing on the Dodo terrace and correct
me if I'm wrong. But 1915 was the year that Edith Lady
Londonderry was involved in founding the Ark club. What was
that all about?
NEIL PORTEOUS: Yeah, that was in, Jan- End of January 1915 and
she used the attics of their park lane house, Londonderry
house as a meeting place for the honourable Order Of The Rainbow.
The idea of it was to raise morale in their coterie of
political friends.
Basically, there was good food, good drink, singing, dancing,
you know, poetry, just a laugh really to raise morale.
And people were invited to join, they had to take on a rhyming
appellation.
So sort of a really famous people like Winston Churchill
were "Winnie The Warlock" or Neville Chamberlain, "Neville,
the Devil", Nancy Astor, "Nancy The Gnat"
Charlie who was never very faithful to Edith, he was "
Charlie the cheater" over there. And so, you know, it's kind of a
bit of fun and her own name in the Ark club was Cersei the
sorceress, this rather naughty goddess.
ALAN POWER: Just at the top of the steps on the Dodo Terrace.
There is, there is an ark with a couple of rabbits either side
and then it's fantastic where we're standing silhouettes of
what looked like dodos.
NEIL PORTEOUS: Well, the dodos are a bit of fun really. For
Edith's father, Lord Chaplin, who wasn't it fair to say the
most dynamic MP in the world.
So he was satirized as a dodo in 1903 by the Westminster Gazette.
And so she's just poking fun at her father by putting the dodos
on top it in joke. Really?
ALAN POWER: Now, from weird and wonderful animals to plant
preservation that Mount Stewart plant propagator Alan Ryder is
working hard to preserve some of the amazing plants here.
So we're standing in the middle of one of the propagation units
in the nursery at Mount Stewart Alan is standing across from me
and we're under this multicoloured light. It's almost
like we're at a disco and the lights are whirring away in the
background. Alan, what's going on?
ALAN RYDER: Well, we're just supplementing the light levels
in here and this light you're looking at here is multi
spectrum. So it's- it's assisting the growth where the
light levels are a little poor.
ALAN POWER: There's all sorts of weird and wonderful things
growing in here. You must have to apply some very strange
propagation techniques and kind of encouragement for the plants
and the seeds to take. What's the weirdest thing you've had to
do recently?
ALAN RYDER: Well, we've grown a lot of plants from South Africa
and to grow that we- we're having to replicate where the
plant would grow and plants in that area generally will- the
dormancy, the inhibitors in the seed is broken by smoke. So the
result of a, of a bushfire and the seed becomes viable as a
result.
So, what we're doing is we're doing what they call smoke
propagation. And we set up a little tin can and a little
metal dish and we bubble smoke through some water to get the
essence of the smoke in the water. And then use that as a
pre soak for the seed and that is breaking the inhibitors in
the seed.
And I think that's probably the weirdest thing.
So really, it proves that, you know, propagation is all smoke
and mirrors, you know,
I mean, I'm standing here and I'm quite envious at some of the
kit that you've got, you know, apart from these beautiful
lights and the amount of greenhouses and polytunnels that
you've got.
We're inventive and the lights that are whirling away in the
background we got from the local police department, they were
confiscated, shall we say from a local grower who was growing
Cannabis!
And this has been a really good source of material. The police
are delighted about the fact that it's, it's stuff that was
used for ill is now being used for good and it's a good- it's a
good story for, for everybody.
ALAN POWER: Really, this place truly is fascinating from the
Mad Science of the nursery. I'm now searching for something a
little wilder and a little more unusual. I'm headed through the
garden past the lake and I'm on my way to the Temple Of The
Winds.
I'm getting to the top of the hill here, on this quite breezy
day and this amazing view of the lough is slowly unfolding in
front of me.
I know exactly what's at the top of this hill and it's the Temple
Of The Winds, a beautiful, beautiful feature.
But I'm hoping Andrew Upton is going to be there and he's the
coast and countryside manager of this fantastic place. And how
appropriate to be meeting Andrew at the Temple Of The Winds on
such a windy day.
Hi, Andrew, how are you doing?
ANDREW UPTON: Hi, Alan. All the best.
ALAN POWER: It's a bit breezy up here today. Why, why are we up
here?
ANDREW UPTON: And this is a very prominent location. So from
here, you can see vast ways of Strangford Lough. Strangford
Lough is internationally important for wildlife. And at
any time of the year, there's always something important to
see out there.
So during the winter, as you mentioned, you've got the Light
Bellied Brent Geese which breed in Arctic Canada, they then
migrate through Greenland, through Iceland and then in
September, October, they arrive on Mass On Strangford Lough and
we can have up to 90% of the global population on Strangford
Lough.
And most years you're talking about 25,000 birds. But some
years we can have as many as 38,000 birds. And it really is
one of the wildlife spectaculars, in Northern
Ireland.
ALAN POWER: And your job, yourself and your team staff and
volunteers. It, it's part of your job to look after their
habitat, isn't it?
ANDREW UPTON: Yeah. Our job is twofold.
One is to actually manage the habitats these birds either feed
or breed in, but it's also to monitor their numbers.
And only by doing that will we know whether the species are
doing well, whether they're struggling and then we can adapt
the management to hopefully bring the numbers back up
To really appreciate and get into all the nooks and crannies
of Strangford Lough.
You really need a boat. And I'm very fortunate in one of my past
time is kayaking and I get out, I really appreciate Strangford
Lough. We have a canoe trail on Strangford Lough which members
of the public can really come and enjoy. There's various
launch points around the lough.
ALAN POWER: Do you have one outstanding memory or a few that
when you've been out in your kayak on your own that you
always reflect on and think that was a great day or a great
moment?
ANDREW UPTON: Yeah, I mean, what- one that stands out is
seeing the Harbour Porpoises just breaching very close to the
boat.
ALAN POWER: Andrew. I've never seen a harbour Porpoise. You
know, it must have been a real treat. Can you, can you describe
to me what they look like?
ANDREW UPTON: Porpoises are part of the wider Cetacean family.
And that includes whales and dolphins. So porpoises are
related to all those creatures. They're quite small. I mean,
they're about the size of a seal and they've got very triangular
fins.
So they're very common around the British Isles in sort of in
short waters. So if you go to any parts of the coast, you're
likely to see porpoises, but they only come out of the water
very briefly.
So all you'll really see is sort of a dark grey creature with
this sort of small triangular fin.
One of the most important features of Strangford Lough is
the islands. And we have to graze those.
If we don't graze them, they'll turn to woodland eventually. And
this unique landscape that we have will quickly disappear. All
the habitats and species that rely on those islands will
vanish.
What we've tried to do on Strangford is to actually learn
from the people who manage the lough. So the people who live
and the communities that are around the lough.
There's so much to learn from them. They've been here for
centuries. One of the things we've been doing, particularly
with some of the people who are getting on is to actually do an
oral history project to capture some of those stories and those
traditions.
So, there's like- some of the people here would have, remember
the days when they used to swim cattle out to the islands to
graze. Nowadays, the National Trust has a boat which we
transport animals out to the islands.
But in those days, it was done much more sort of basic but- and
the whole community would have come out to help.
So it was fantastic. You know, people remember sort of grannies
coming out, children, everyone helped with this activity and we
sort of lost that. But what we need to do is just capture some
of those stories.
ALAN POWER: We're coming to the end of the day now. But the
warmth and charm of the fabulous Mount Stewart house is beckoning
me inside.
So I'm off now to meet John Kerr, who's the property manager
at Mount Stewart and has seen the property through this
restoration.
It's amazing to see what has been achieved in the house here.
You know, I saw it 15 years ago, pre restoration and it's, it's a
real treat.
JOHN KERR: When I first started here at Mount Stewart, the house
was in a very sad condition. It felt like it felt it was like
the ghost of something once great. And I think what we have
really captured now is the spirit of Lady Edith.
What we set out to do was actually create a house that she
would recognize if she were restored to full health and came
back to Mount Stewart.
She would feel absolutely at home. And I think that's what
we've done.
Talking of Edith. There was one room in the house that was more
important to Edith than any other, her sitting room.
And there you see the two desks, the one that she had her
official correspondence sort of created on and the desk that she
created all of her plans for the grounds of Mount Stewart. So if
you want to come with me.
This is Lady Londonderry's sitting room. This was her inner
sanctum and this is where all the most important things to her
actually are right?
So on the wall, you see her youngest daughter, Lady Mairi
and around her, the books that she drew inspiration for the
amazing gardens at Mount Stewart.
Her desk is just sitting in front of us and you can see
family portraits, you can see little toys that the children
have bought her as presents and you can see her diary and here
in this little basket, just to the right hand side, you can see
her garden diaries and this is where she collected her
inspirations and then created her, her amazing sort of
watercolours and plans for what the garden was going to be.
ALAN POWER: You can really get a sense of what she was like just
from the way everything's displayed, you know, hundreds
and hundreds of little journals and books tied together with
ribbon organized and their shoes and walking sticks.
And the most important thing in this room, I think for me, John
is the fact that she can see the garden.
JOHN KERR: Absolutely. And when she was here, every window would
have been wide open. The other side of each of these wonderful
windows in this amazing bay which looks out onto the Italian
Garden. There are little stone steps and this, she talks about
the garden rooms and what she meant is that this is not the
end of the house.
The house continues out into the garden and vice versa. Actually,
there is- they are inseparable to her. It was all just one part
of this magical Island of Mount Stewart that she created.
ALAN POWER: John. I'm gonna ask you a big question now because I
know how sensitive these environments are. Do you mind if
I just sit at Lady Edith's desk for a minute?
JOHN KERR: We've just had it restored. So it should be in
good enough condition for you to sit in it. Absolutely. Be my
guest.
ALAN POWER: I'm sitting in a little bit of silence, but it's
quite, it's quite moving because I am surrounded by her personal
artifacts. You know, I've been through her garden this morning,
walks through the family home.
I suppose the real thing that makes me tingle is the fact that
her handwriting is right in front of me. And to have that
kind of real tangible link to the woman who created this
magnificent place is really, really moving.
I wish I had longer here. But unfortunately, that's it for me
this season of the National Trust podcast, the next three
main episodes will be about National Trust Walks and these
will be presented by Kate Martin, one of our west coast
rangers.
I've really enjoyed taking you with me on my tour of some of
the National Trust most beautiful Gardens and can't wait
to do it again in season three.
But for more information about Mount Stewart, you can visit
their website at nationaltrust.org.uk/mount-stew-
art.
For our next full episode, Kate will be in Kinder scout in the
peak district. That episode will be available in a couple of
weeks, but don't worry, there will be a mini episode available
next week.
We'll be exploring the power, poisons and pleasures of the
colour purple through the incredible flowers at Mount
Stewart.
To make sure you never miss another episode, subscribe on
iTunes or your chosen podcast app and please do let us know
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You can also email us at podcasts@nationaltrust.org.uk.
So for me, Alan Power, until next season, it's goodbye.