Gardening, from Eton to Paradise

My grandmother Jeanie Bellew (1890 – 1973) was an excellent fisherman until she went to live at Barmeath when she turned her attention to gardening. Heather Muir, who created the garden at Kiftsgate, named this viola after her friend and neighbour.

She did all the work herself – unless there was some heavy lifting when she’d summon help from a farmhand. She gardened full time taking breaks only to feed the birds and have a cigarette. My grandparents never went on holiday. That generation didn’t; my grandfather had enough of being abroad in the First World War. When I was in bed as a child on summer evenings I became accustomed to hear the door leading out of the hall into the garden opening as she went for a last inspection and a Sweet Afton. Once a bat flew into my bedroom causing much activity with a landing net.

This all came back, listening to Robin Lane Fox delivering the Old Etonian Association annual lecture at the Royal Geographical Society via video. Eton encourages boys to pursue their enthusiasms. David Profumo tied flies, Jonathan Franklin kept two owls at Eton; more modestly I learnt pottery from Gordon Baldwin , went to my first opera and an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery. Robin Lane Fox arrived at the school as a closet gardener but it was not long before he was asking permission to attend the Chelsea Flower Show. After some thought his House Master consented, so long as he was chaperoned by Mrs M’Tutor.

For me pottery was a passing fad, for RLF horticulture became a mainstay. You may know he is responsible for the gardens at New College Oxford, other Oxford colleges and his own. He has written a gardening column in the Financial Times for fifty years and shows no sign of retiring. He is a most engaging speaker and, like my grandmother, a hands-on gardener; not a Lord Emsworth. How he had time to teach Classics is a mystery.

I have been given a Canna and planted it this week. It doesn’t look much now but perhaps will turn into this, or maybe not if I forget to keep it watered.

If you have time, here is a link to Robin Lane Fox’s top-notch talk. Quite a lot of Eton slang but you’ll pick it up as you go along his enchanting garden path of life. ‘The Purest of Human Pleasures? Gardening from Eton to Paradise’, was given on Tuesday 23 March 2021 at 7.00 p.m. by Robin Lane Fox (DHM 64).

https://vimeo.com/530227777/7518bd994c