The Iris Walk, Gravetye Manor

Gravetye Manor is a Tudor house set in a fold of the Sussex Hills between East Grinstead and Turner's Hill. It belonged to William Robinson, a pioneer of the 'English, natural garden' and a distinguished writer on gardens who urged a greater informality of planting than had hitherto been seen in Victorian flowerbeds. His garden was characterised by woodland walks as seen in the present picture, where great drifts of colour led the eye onwards. The garden was discussed in Country Life, 28 September 1912, and subsequently in the same publication in April and October 1913. Two further watercolours by Parsons of the garden can be seen in Penelope Hobhouse and Christopher Wood, Painted Gardens, 1984, pp. 126-9, illustrated.