Two Bloomsbury Gardens

November, 2024

For anyone visiting Great Dixter and with an interest in the Bloomsbury group (and dare I say I seem to have collected several bookshelves of their voluminous writings!) it is tempting to allow an extra hour and drive on through the glorious Sussex countryside to also visit Charleston and Monk's House. These were respectively the homes of sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf. Thus it was on a lovely summer's day last June, we found our way to Charleston.

Valerie and I were very much hoping to explore Charleston House as it is famous for murals in almost every room, and its decorated furniture, most of the work done by Vanessa Bell herself, the artist of the family. However, our bad luck, there was a wedding scheduled and the house closed to ordinary visitors, so instead we contented ourselves with the garden. Here we have the pond.

Sussex is famous for its flint walls, and below we have a good example on one side of Charleston's garden topped with several busts. Heaven knows who they once were. Vanessa and her husband Clive never had too much money and their garden sculptures were often made of plaster. These are what plaster sculptures look like after nearly 100 years of English weather.

Above: The famous old gallica rose Rosa mundi, the story being it commemorates 'Fair Rosamond', King Henry the Second's mistress. The geranium, I am fairly sure, is ‘Johnson’s Blue’.

Above: And another flint wall with decaying sculpture.

Above: Cottage gardening par excellence.

Above: And Charleston's frustratingly handsome front door. Darn that wedding!

Above: And after a quick pub lunch and a ten minute's drive across the valley we arrived at Monk’s House, the home of Virginia and Leonard Woolf, and a welcoming display of pelargoniums by their front door.

Above: In theory Monk's House was attached to a monastery, one closed down by King Henry 111V, one supposes. And this is the parlour.

Above: Virginia Woolf, I think by Stephen Tomlin.

Above: A tiled table, and probably by Vanessa.

Above: And a close up of the previous image.

Above: The dining room.

Above: Steps to the garden. Famously these turned into a water fall every time it rained. Leonard was 40 years rearranging garden levels trying to prevent this, however, the guide was telling me in June they still have mops and buckets at the ready.

And a few steps along the same path. Monk's House is a good a 'cottage garden' as you will ever see. I might add, Leonard was the gardener. He was an interesting bloke. Among his many other achievements, during WW1 he wrote a paper arguing the only solution to such events was some form of international government. After the guns fell silent, this became an important founding document of the League of Nations, which of course, after WW2, became the United Nations. We can only hope that his vision will eventually bear fruit. Of all the extraordinary people in the Bloomsbury Group, I find Leonard by far the most interesting.

Above: A modest goddess.

Above: Valerie enjoying the occasion. It was a perfect summer's day for garden visiting.

Above: Monk's House from its garden. Quite a modest affair really. And bitterly cold in the wintertime by all accounts.

Above: The ancient church next to the garden. I do not think Virginia ever darkened its door and Leonard was Jewish, however, a very lovely building to make a garden next to don't you think? The spire hovers over everything.

Above: Leonard in the garden he made.