Beautiful autumn garden landscapes enjoyed by Queen Victoria, Charles Darwin and Capability Brown are amongst the best historic views in England. To celebrate these, we have unveiled glowing gold viewing frame installations at five historic sites around the country. The gilded frames are positioned in the gardens to allow visitors to appreciate autumn scenes as they would have been seen by their famous residents, and will be in place until the end of October.

From the scarlet Virginia creeper adorning the home of Charles Darwin, Down House, to the reds and oranges of the Japanese Acers in the gardens of Mount Grace Priory where Gertrude Bell took refuge when not on her Arabian travels, historic properties in England provide some of the most beautiful garden landscapes in the country. Here, not only is the planting maintained as faithfully as possible to the historic designs, but in these gardens visitors can stand in spots once familiar to famous figures of the past, like Queen Victoria at Osborne or The Queen Mother at Walmer Castle.

English Heritage’s Best Historic Autumn Views and their Famous Residents: 

• Audley End House and Gardens, Essex – Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown
• Home of Charles Darwin, Down House, Kent – Charles Darwin
• Mount Grace Priory, House and Gardens, North Yorkshire – Gertrude Bell
• Osborne, Isle of Wight – Queen Victoria
• Walmer Castle, Kent – The Queen Mother

Christopher Weddell, English Heritage’s Senior Gardens Advisor, said:

'The historic gardens in our care are among the finest in the country and provide magnificent views of autumn colour for our visitors today as they did for their famous residents. Thanks to a particularly scorching summer we could have one of the best autumn displays in recent years. The recent cooler weather is already transforming the green to beautiful oranges, browns and reds; enough to get out your paint brush and canvas and paint the picture-perfect views like Queen Victoria did when she stayed at her Isle of Wight home, Osborne.

Our historic gardens were crafted to be seen as works of art in their own right and our expert garden teams care for them as carefully as our historic interiors; both are precious and irreplaceable. It is our hope that the beautiful gilded picture frames, standing proud in the landscapes, will frame the views for visitors and let them look through a window into the past.'

The gilded frames at the five properties will be in place until the end of October, and Digging Deeper: History’s Glorious Garden Tours will be running at 14 properties throughout the month.

For more information about the garden tours, click here.

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