Historical Gardens

The story of the introduction of the landscape style in The Netherlands has proved to be difficult to uncover, despite many attempts. Information about the layout of those ‘new’ gardens in the form of maps or plans does not pre-date the late 1760s. Which plants were used to embellish the new type of garden with is even more unknown, but they had to be imported from America -either directly or through England.

There’s a hint of earlier developments taking place in the 1750s, based on 18th century remarks that are vague¹, or made decades after the ‘fact’.² My recent addition to that short list is published as one of the many different articles in this new book.³ It might not be regarded better than the other examples, because I am writing about a garden that has been demolished in 1804 and of which we do not have any visual record.
My findings with respect to the garden of Sandenhoeff in Overveen do show that it was quite difficult for garden owners in Holland to acquire knowledge about the new gardens in the 1750s and early 1760s. Despite the abundance of knowledge that by then had been built up at the other side of the North Sea, in England.

But the account book entry of a payment for 60 American trees and seeds, made by Sandenhoeff’s owner Cornelis Backer (1692-1766) in April 1756, can not mean anything other than this: he was trying to create his own landscape garden. And as this payment was also for the delivery of the plants, he may have even started in 1755.
Too bad no visual record of the garden seems to exist.

(Edited to add the correct title of the book and the names of its main editors)

1. The Swede Bengt Ferrner mentioning a ‘natural’ layout at Watervliet, 1759. [back]
2. Harmannus Numan writing in 1797 on developments at Over-Holland that had supposedly taken place from 1756 onwards -a claim that to my knowledge has yet to be confirmed. [back]
3. Henk van der Eijk, ‘Sandenhoeff: een vroeg landschappelijke tuin?’, in: Cacsade 18 (2), 2009, p104-110. Available in stores as: Arinda van der Does, Jan Holwerda (editors), Tuingeschiedenis in Nederland. Veelzijdig erfgoed in ‘t groen (Utrecht 2009). [back]

We have seen the announcement of two restoration projects in the last month, both in the province of Noord-Holland: Nijenburg (Heiloo) and Duinlust (Overveen).

Duinlust will see a restoration in the spirit of the design by the late nineteenth century architect Petzold, who redesigned the garden around a newly built house in the 1880’s. Current owner of the grounds is Staatsbosbeheer, the house is in use by a company and houses a fitness club and restaurant. The restoration plan is made by the Dutch Foundation for the preservation of privately owned estates (Stichting tot behoud van Particuliere Historische Buitenplaatsen -PHB), and will be realised by Royal Haskoning. More about these plans in later posts.

Nijenburg is owned by nature preservation society Natuurmonumenten. Together with Vereniging Hendrick de Keyser they will spend around € 350,000.00 on the restoration of the house and adjacent buildings, some early nineteenth century landscape features, as well as the restoration of older avenues. Also in the plans is a cleanup around a typical 17th century Dutch garden feature, the Kattenberg. This is a man made hill, often used as an elevated spot from which the surrounding countryside could be enjoyed. In most cases, the soil with which these elevations were made, came from one or more ponds that had to be dug out elsewhere in the garden.

The ‘Kattenberg’ at Nijenburg in September 2008. Photo by HvdE.

The theatre which is situated on the left side of this map (“De Comedie”), goes back to an original early nineteenth century design.

A main attraction at Nijenburg is the strait avenue forming the central axis from the front of the house towards the west: on the longest day, the 21st of June, this avenue provides a clear view at the setting sun.