Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, creator of Waddesdon Manor, loved France and French art. In 1874, with his French architect Destailleur and his landscape gardener Lainé, he built this fantasy pastiche of a Renaissance style Loire château. Finished in 1889, for 35 years Ferdinand lovingly assembled here from all over Europe an outstanding collection of fine wines, paintings, furniture, carpets, and curiosities to please his weekend guests.

Outside, his creation included parkland, a Victorian formal garden with an impressive parterre of 40,000 plants and fountains and an ornate and delicate circular sixteenth-century French wrought iron aviary with tracery and rococo curlicues built in 1889, home to exotic birds. Italian, French and Dutch statuary is featured throughout this grandeur on top of a hill with terraces, winding walks, colourful trees, vistas and a panoramic view over the Vale of Aylesbury.

Now owned by the National Trust but managed and supported by the Rothschild family trusts, the garden has been extensively restored. While popular in France, carpet bedding in Britain is seen as the horticultural equivalent of flying ducks on the wall. At Waddesdon Manor, an old trend has been given a new twist. In summer there is carpet bedding in the Parterre and amazing strategically placed three dimensional carpet bedding sculpture.

Waddesdon Manor