Today, I would like to talk about containers, specifically the many planters and urns that we had positioned at strategic spots round the garden. Many of these were in pairs, usually flanking steps between levels, or defining the siting of a bench or the beginning of a new garden area.
When I arrived, you will remember, one of the first tasks we undertook was the renovation of the Iceberg Rose bed by the pond. At the end of the pond was a raised, semi-circular paved area for a bench. On either side of this were two 18th century lead urns. Well, there should have been, but there weren't. What I found was a conspicuous absence, as they had been nicked by thieves in the night not long before I started. As a result of this, two further, even more valuable lead urns had been removed from their plinths at the entrance to the Magnolia Garden and placed in secure storage. What convinced the powers that be that dumping them in an open-sided lean-to and covering them with junk was any more secure than leaving them in situ on their plinths was a mystery to me. When I found out about it, the first thing I did was lock them away in another building. There they remained for about ten years, before I had finally persuaded the nervous types with responsibility for sculpture that they would be better off in their rightful place, properly restored and refixed. We had years of wrangling about whether they should be put back where they came from, which I argued was right, or whether they should be placed more prominently on the South Terrace, where thieves were more likely to be seen. I won the day, because ultimately it was better for the design of the garden, and we were by then in a position to secure them properly.
As for the two stolen urns, we eventually recovered them, as the thieves had tried to dispose of them through Christies, and there is an efficient system for tracing stolen antiques that come up for sale through official channels. Here they are, still missing two years later, probably in the workshop being conserved before return to us. See those bare flat slabs either side of the bench at the far end -
The urns can be seen replaced some years further down the line, in a picture I showed recently of the lily pond restoration, or alternatively in this much later picture, where you can see they contained pruned box spheres -
As for the urns at the entrance to the Magnolia Garden, when we finally replaced these they still proved tempting to thieves, and because of their relative isolation it was decided that they were too vulnerable, so they were eventually moved to final resting places on the terrace in front of the house. The plinths without the urns at the entrance to the Magnolia Garden had looked sad without them in the early years -
It is obvious that the scene looked much better with the urns in position -
but despite excellent security, and the nosiest neighbourhood watch in the country, we could not prevent people from wanting to rob us of them. They never got away with it, because of the afore-mentioned obstacles, but on numerous occasions my team and I were to be found in the early hours of the morning chasing miscreants through the woods in the company of police and their dogs. We got two villains put away for five years for their dastardly deeds. Our nosey-parker system even gave us their registration number a couple of days before they came to rob us. The trouble was, that despite our efficient protection, the urns kept getting damaged in the process, so it seems from my photographs that I must have relented and allowed them to be moved a few years later, because I have a picture taken in my final summer of them now resting on the South Terrace, either side of the steps down to the main lawn -
I must say, my memory is shaky on this. If any of the chaps can tell me what now flanks the entrance to the Magnolia Garden, I would be interested to know.
The fact is, that I experienced one serious security incident for every year I worked there, but almost all of these resulted in a nil return for the bad guys, so strong was our system. But it still represents 15 frights for the team.
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