They Were Lost and Now They Are Found

As planned, staying right next door to these famous gardens, today was our day to explore them and because we were residents at the campsite...even at a discount.  The lost Gardens of Heligan date right back to the 16th century when a long line of Tremaine family members painstakingly added more and more parts to hundreds of acres of land surruounding the Tremaine family residence.  It seems that since the early times all the male members of the Tremaine family legacy were also all called John - which made it rather confusing trying to work out who was responsible for what.  After a while it was just easier to recognize that one or another John Tremaine was responsible for most of it.  Unfortunately, after several hundred years, they were blessed with a descendant, aptly named John who preferred to live in Italy and decided gardening was for the birds.  This and the advent of 2 world wars, when the place was used for housing tanks and American troops practicing for D-Day and the gardens disappeared gradually under their own wild and uncontrolled growth.  That is until another John who was actually a Willis and not a Tremaine, but who was a nephew of the Italian John inherited the land and teemed up with the musician and composer Sir Tim Smit (7 platinum and gold discs with among others Barry Manilow and the Nolan Sisters) the latter also being an Archeologist and with a strong desire to create a center for Rare Breeds of animal.  The Gardens were completely buried under bramble and overgrowth but a chance encounter with a door in the undergrowth saw these 2 start to hack their way into the gardens and discover that there were extensive sections including vegetable and flower gardens, an Italian garden (remember the Italian John), and such unusual additions as Pineapple pits, which used to be kept warm using tons of manure which had to be turned regularly by the poor sod who had the job of tending them.  They now use electric heating but continue to produce an average of 30 pineapples a year in Cornwall!
Anyway, sorry for the long history - I found it fascinating and in amongst all this there is also the Jungle garden where you can see L traversing a Burmese Rope Bridge.  Apparently it was fashionable to create Jungle gardens back in Victorian times, with a lot of large ferns and giant leaved plants that looked like Rhubarb on steroids.  This felt remarkably like a jungle given the absence of anything actually grown in a real jungle.  We walked another 4 miles during our visit and after 3 days of this kind of walking began to feel it.  I have posted an extra of a strange plant and if anyone knows what it is I would be very grateful for your contribution.  The other extra is of the large rhubarb like plants and you can see just how big they are with L in attendance.  This truly was a day in Eden - and our last day here in what has been a lovely break in a beautiful part of this fair island (We won't even mention the madness happening up the road), there really is a lot to be enjoyed here and we have enjoyed it immensely.