PEAR TREE LOG

pear tree log: I started this blog to keep my younger son, Jonny, in touch with life in Lincolnshire, while he spent a year working in China. That year turned into five! Now he is home and training to become a physics teacher. This is simply a patchwork quilt of some of the things I enjoy - life in rural Lincolnshire, our animals, friends, architecture, books, the gardens, and things of passing interest.



Friday 20 July 2012

Ha-ha at Burghley House - Fridays Fences

A few days ago we took some time off to visit the magnificent Burghley House, near Stamford in Lincolnshire.  It is a huge Elizabethan house built by Sir William Cecil, Lord High Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I.  When time is not so short, I will do a posting about the visit.



Click to enlarge!
For one of my entries for Fridays Fences I thought I would show you the
ha-ha - it is the brick wall, which you can see in the foreground.

It was  designed to give uninterrupted views of the grounds, while keeping livestock out of the gardens.

It looks fairly small in this photograph, but the trench in front of it is deep and the wall is about six feet high.

The house is vast.


One of the new additions in the grounds is the Sculpture Garden.     It is home to a wide ranging, ever changing selection of sculptures. 



I particularly liked these cattle, I chose them for today, because they are placed behind  a rather spindly fence, made from copper coloured metal.




They are life size and work wonderfully in that setting.  The finish is rough and they are gradually unravelling.


Once again I am delighted to be joining in Friday's Fences with Jan n Jer.  If you click on the link you will find lots of great fences to enjoy.

32 comments:

  1. I've seen a couple of examples of ha-has here in the U.S. The idea "borrowed" from clever English gardeners, I'm sure! What an unexpected pleasure to find cattle grazing in the fields and I'm sure this rather unsubstantial fence was up to the job of keeping them in. How do you normally see this kind of fencing used?

    Hope you're enjoying your visit with son.

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    1. Hello Faye, Thank you, we are having a wonderful time with Jonny - he is making us catch up on all manner of jobs around the place, the kind which require the extra strength of a young set of muscles. He also allows us time off for good behaviour...hence the visit to Burghley! The hooped fencing is really just decorative and a polite reminder that pathways should be used, not the grass.

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  2. Spectacular view of Burghley House! I wonder how long it took to build the retaining (ha ha) wall?

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    1. Hello Meggie, Burghley is pretty spectacular. As far as the ha ha goes, I have found a note saying it was built between 1765 and 1770 - but that is as close as I can get; say anything up to 5 years. It has recently undergone a programme of renovation which took 12 years, and cost £200,000. I'm so thankful we were able to build our own retaining walls, although it wasn't much fun at the time. They took about 3 months.

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  3. Ha ha (wall) real makes me feel ha ha!I am amazed to see this wall.I knew that wall fencing is traditional method of fencing but this much lengthy fencing I see first time & just like Meggie i am also curious to know how long it took to build ?

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    1. Hello weide-artikelen.nl, Welcome! It is a very impressive wall , the best reference I have found says that it was built between 1765 and 1770, so anything up to 5 years. It was a huge project.

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  4. Ha, Ha, they are such a clever idea!

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    1. Hello LindyLouMac, They are very clever, but I always worry about people, dogs, etc falling over them.

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  5. Great photos! Both the wall and the cattle are just beautiful.

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    1. Hello Sheeps and Peeps, I came across the cattle quite unexpectedly, after looking at all kinds of weird and wonderful sculptures - finally something I could understand!

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  6. interesting cows. wonder how a fence such as that can keep cows inside? looks too simple. (:

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    1. Hello Beth, Isn't it amazing - and yet it seems to work!

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  7. Very interesting. A castle and cows always make a great subject for me. I was worried about the cows before I read everything. They are a little scraggly. Hope you have more for later on.

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    1. Hello Amy, I really like the cows, they became visible as we followed a path around a bend and there they were in the distance. Clever placement.

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  8. In the 'Mrs Bradley' series there is a fabulous quote about Ha-Has....but can I remember it?
    Jane x

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    1. Hello Jane, Now that sounds like a great excuse to put your feet up and watch them again!

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  9. Wow...how magnificent!!! simply gorgeous n breathtaking at the same time. Love those cow sculptures.

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    1. Hello Jan n Jer, It is a very impressive old house, much added to and altered over the years. The cows looked great in their little bit of pasture.

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  10. I'm in love with those cows, I'm not sure one would look right in my garden though! I'm loving the idea of Friday's fences btw, which I'd never come across before reading about it here, so I decided to join in the fun too. Many thanks for the thumbs up about it :-)

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    1. Hello Kit and Kaboodle, Friday's Fences is great fun - and it is amazing how many times I have to stop the car these days and grab my camera because I have seen something for future use!

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  11. beautiful and i love that sculpture garden! what a great idea!

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    1. Hello Tanya, It was a lovely day out, the house tour was wonderful and the sculpture garden was delightful.

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  12. There is a good example of a Ha-ha at Mt. Vernon the historical home of George Washington.

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    1. Hello Doc, Thanks for that, I shall check it out when our internet connection is properly up to speed - right now every page loads very slowly indeed. Tedious!

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  13. those are some wild looking cows.

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    1. Hello W.Latan Barton, Aren't they just - it's a good job that fencing is holding them back.

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  14. What a charming idea to put cow sculptures where the real thing used to graze. I've seen several references to Sir Cecil recently, one in the film "Anonymous" about who really wrote the Shakespeare plays, and the other in a documentary about Elizabeth I.

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    1. Hello Ms Sparrow, I guess they don't take much to feed, either! He was an interesting man - this was just his Lincolnshire home and even this place had to be bigger and better than anyone else's. He wanted everyone to be impressed. I wonder what his main home was like.

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  15. I couldn't upload these shots and am missing out! :-(

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    1. Hello Marie, I am so sorry! I always cut down on the size before I load them up, otherwise they would never get there in the first place. I share the same problem when I am trying to view some of the other entries. It is so very frustrating.

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  16. Cool cows- I can't imagine that little fence holding them in!

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  17. Hi Elaine, that is a pretty cool find. I thought the cows are real hehehe. Thanks for sharing and the visit too.


    Kim,USA

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