Late 19th or early 20th century Japanese garden at 'Mountains', Mountains Grove (EHER 47421)

One of the earliest Japanese gardens in Great Britain, created in the late 19th/early 20th century by the Hon. Lady Georgina Du Cane and her daughters, the Misses Florene and Ella Du Cane.

LOCATION, BOUNDARIES, AREA, LANDFORM & SETTING Mountains House stands on a ridge at an elevation of about 68m AOD. The ridge continues at more or less the same height to the south-west, except for a narrow valley created by the brook, part of which is the site of the Japanese Garden. To the south east the land falls gently to Great Totham Lane at about 43in AD. During the early part of the 21st century, a lake and extensive woodland planting were set into former agricultural land in this area, extending the amenity land beyond the formal gardens and meadows. The formal gardens occupy approximately 1 hectare to the south of the house; the wider estate covers about 20 hectares. To the north it is bounded by Mountains Lane, to the west by Mountains Grove (Local Wildlife Site MAW 36), to the east by agricultural land and to the south by the amenity land. ENTRANCES & APPROACHES The house and grounds are approached by a gravel drive running south from Mountains Lane. There is no lodge and no entrance gate. GARDENS & PLEASURE GROUNDS These can be divided into several compartments. On the west of the approach drive is a small paddock containing a few mature oaks, and a hard tenths court. The drive ends at the west side of the house in a turning circle built on a new red brick semi-circular retaining wall. To the west of this, in a miniature valley, is a newly formed pond, crossed by a turf-covered bridge and retained by a semi-circular dam. Near the upper end of this pond are two Portuguese laurels from an earlier planting scheme. The land rises on the opposite side of the pond to the adjoining woodland (mainly broadleaf but with a few Pinus ). Below the new pond, the stream flows down over rocks and through three small pools along the secluded valley garden in which some of the earlier Japanese plantings (acer, azalea and rhododendron) still flourish. This area had been over-run by Japanese knotweed (probably part of the original planting scheme) which has now been eradicated. At the north end of the cascade is a plantation of gunnera. Primula from the Du Cane planting continue to thrive throughout the valley garden. The original paved walk winds round the pools with steps leading from the lowest pool up into the adjoining woodland to the west, and to the formal gardens to the east. On the east bank there is a golden yew, a solitary Pinus sp., and rhododendron. At the top of the bank, just outside the South-west corner of the formal garden, is a large oak tree with a modern tree house. From this oak, a retaining wall runs back to the house, with the newly laid out formal garden to the east. This garden was designed and laid out by Marion Cooper and Carrie Mackenzie-Smith. It includes four square box-hedged beds which date from the Du Cane layout. The crazy paving path just to the east of these beds is a continuation of the paved terrace along the southern façade of the house laid out for Lady Du Cane. East of this path is a sequence of new box-hedged beds of geometrical shape, and free-standing spiral box pyramids. There is a decorative iron pergola along the east side of this formal garden, designed and made by Mt Cooper. On the south side, there are steps down between new yew hedges (more or less in the same location as that shown on the 1925 Country Life plan) to a lower grass terrace which was levelled as part of the 2000 design. Two formal rose beds on this terrace replicate the beds illustrated in the County Life plan. The iris border of the 1920s at the southern extent of the formal garden no longer survives. Two brick gate piers, capped with ball finials and with new ornamental iron gates (also by Cooper), separate the format gardens from the lawns below, with views over the new amenity lake to the open country and the Blackwater estuary beyond. East of the formal garden is an area of grass with two large evergreen oaks, and one cherry surviving from the former cherry walk. This area is closed off at the north by a brick wall running east from the south-east corner of the house. The two piers in this wall are surmounted by the Du Cane eagles brought from Braxted Park. The wall ends at the summer house built for Lady Du Cane, a rectangular building open to the south, constructed of round upright poles with plaster or daub infill. It is now covered with a hipped tiled roof, but was formerly thatched. A door through the wall leads to a small kitchen garden and a large paved area to the east of the house. Against the south-east corner of the house is a substantial wisteria, clearly visible in the 1925 Country Life photographs. North of the house is an old barn with a pantile roof; also new outbuildings, one of which has a conical tiled roof like an oast house. KITCHEN GARDEN There is now a small kitchen garden to the east of the house. <1>