Country Life

Frolicking good fun

TO stand at the entrance of the Painswick Rococo Garden today, with the hanging beech wood glowing copper in the autumnal light and, below it, the crown of white finials of the 18th-century Exedra marking the boundary between the informal and the formal garden, is a thrilling experience.

In his painting of Painswick House and gardens, of about 1748, Thomas Robins the Elder (1716–70), of Charlton Kings, Cheltenham, positions himself further back and, applying a splash of artistic licence, renders the estate larger than it actually is. Happily, this

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