18 June: Arrival in Liverpool

On 10 June 1928, Loyal and Sam set sail from Boston for the UK. They disembarked at Liverpool after 10 days at sea. They purchased their bikes as soon as they arrived along with two 18” cases from Woolworth’s, which they strapped onto the back of their bikes to hold "all our necessary equipment."

Despite advice against attempting such a long journey by bike, Loyal and Sam were determined to cycle most of the way, taking public transport only where absolutely necessary.

“We’re not sorry yet but a few days cycling may tell.”

30 June: Eaton Hall, Cheshire

Loyal and Sam's journey wasn’t always plain sailing and it wasn't always easy to gain admission to the places they wanted to visit.

Having spent 4 days exploring North Wales and the city of Chester, they arrived at the Duke of Westerminster’s seat, Eaton Hall, to find that "no one is allowed inside the gardens and that we couldn’t talk the lodge house keeper into letting us in."

Luckily, a letter of permission arrived just in time. Delighted, they jumped on their bikes and sped over to Eaton Hall.

 24 July: Guy’s Cliffe, Warwickshire

After their somewhat mixed experiences of public transport, Loyal and Sam were relieved to get back on their trusty bikes. They cycled south through the Peak District and then Birmingham.

When they arrived in Warwick, they stopped to admire the Gothic house, Guy's Cliffe perched on the banks of the river Avon. The next day, they visited the property's small rose garden but were unable to find the gardener so left after a short wander.

“The gardener that Loyal and Sam failed to find was George Walter Tyler who arrived at Guys Cliffe in 1925. With the head gardener at Warwick Castle, he was a regular judge at local horticultural shows, and frequently showed visitors around Guy's Cliffe. He lived in a house next to the walled garden on the west side of Coventry Road.”

What has changed since Loyal and Sam visited?

“Guy’s Cliffe became a school for evacuees during WWII and was then abandoned. In 1946, it was sold to become an hotel. In 1953, the house was stripped of its roof and interior fittings. A fire in 1996 caused further damage and the gardens neglected, becoming almost totally overgrown. The flower garden Loyal and Sam visited has become a car park.

In January 2014, a volunteer group (Guy’s Cliffe Walled Garden Trust Ltd) began extensive work to reclaim the remaining kitchen garden. Today the walled garden is open 4 days a week in the summer.”

Contributed by Christine Hodgetts, Warwickshire Gardens Trust

27 July: Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire

When they reached Blenheim, Loyal persuaded the head gardener to allow them into the grounds the next morning, despite it usually being a closed day.

Loyal and Sam arrived to find the Palace’s grand gardens undergoing major construction work to create new water gardens. Designed by the French garden designer, Achille Duchêne, these took 6 years to construct. The work may also have been why Loyal and Sam were not allowed to take photographs. Duchêne's water gardens survive today.

“Surprisingly Loyal doesn’t mention Capability Brown! But he does record a detailed calculation of the cost of clipping the box hedges!” He notes that: “it takes three men, working 50 hours per week, 6 weeks to trim the box parterres work or a total of 1800 labour hours for both.” Each man was paid 30 shillings per week for this work (approximately £60 today) and Loyal estimates that the men would earn 3 times as much back home in the USA.

Researched by Felix Lam, Oxfordshire Gardens Trust

1 August: St Catherine’s Court, Somerset

Cycling south, Loyal and Sam visited the manor house, St Catherine’s Court, tucked away in the valleys north of Bath. They paid the gardener a shilling to show them around “as it was visitors day”. Loyal notes that the site dates back to the 1300s and that a new pergola and tennis court are under construction.

Exploring the steep hillside gardens, they climb to the west terrace and admire “the beautiful clipped Yews about 30 feet high that were never clipped until they were as large as they are now, and were then cut back severely. They’re perfect specimens now”.

What has changed since Loyal and Sam visited?

“As Loyal notes, the Court is fairly remote, which almost certainly helped preserve it relatively unchanged. It was much drawn, photographed and written about, leaving a unique record of its evolution.

The west front and terraces are probably the one area of the garden that Loyal would recognise fully. The steps and 17^th-century balustrading, which is listed Grade II*, are still in situ. The yew trees and other topiary all remain relatively unaltered.

The head gardener at the time of Loyal and Sam's visit was Frank Godwin. He worked for the Strutt family who then owned St Catherine's Court, and the later owners, the Christophers from 1919 until the 1970s. His late daughters kindly lent me photographs of their father and garden staff during the 1920s."

Contributed by Kay Ross, Avon Gardens Trust

4 August: Hestercombe House and Gardens, Somerset and Bradfield House, Devon

Loyal and Sam arrived at Hestercombe House on a busy Saturday morning and had to persuade the initially reluctant head gardener, James Glasheen, to give them a tour. Once they had convinced him of their interest, Glasheen eagerly showed them around. Loyal was particularly taken with the Formal Garden, designed by the architect, Edwin Lutyens, 20 years earlier with planting schemes by Gertrude Jekyll:

"By 1928, the Formal Garden had been featured four times in the of the Edwardian era’s premier tastemaker publication, Country Life Magazine.  

Head Gardener, James Glasheen (b. 1870) was no doubt pleased with the Country Life plaudits. In the years after Loyal and Sam's visit, Glasheen left Hestercombe to join the staff at Cliveden."

What has changed since Loyal and Sam visited?

During the Second World War, the gardens went into a gradual decline and Hestercombe was sold to the Crown Estate in 1944. It later became the headquarters of the Somerset County Fire Brigade.

The Jekyll/Lutyens garden was restored as part of one of the first large scale garden conservation projects in the country, 1973-77. Since 2003, the gardens have been administered by the Hestercombe Gardens Trust. Today, the Formal Garden remains largely intact both in its strong architectural framework and distinctive Jekyll planting.

Loyal’s journal enty has provided more information about James Glasheen’s period of work and useful clues as to how Lutyens' kitchen garden first looked and was planted.

Contributed by Heather Christian, Hestercombe Senior Marketing & Press Officer

Bradfield House, Devon

On the same day that they visited Hestercombe, Loyal and Sam cycled onto Bradfield House in Devon. Loyal especially admired the estate’s “square boating and swimming pool with trout as long as your arm.” However, he missed the “nice Japanese garden” as Sam “did not tell me about it until we were well on our way to Exeter.”

"The owner of the house, was born Charlotte Margaret Lothian Coats, heiress to the Coats Yarn fortune. She married into the Walrond family in 1904 and her husband Henry died in 1915. She wrote a history of the family titled, The Walrond Papers, in 1913. 8 years before Loyal and Sam’s visit, she married Lt. Colonel Adams."

Just 3 years after Loyal and Sam visited, Charlotte mothballed the house for economic reasons in 1931. It was eventually sold on to become a boy’s boarding school in the 1970s. Today the estate is privately owned."

Contributed by Helen Whitmore, Devon Gardens Trust

17 August: Cobham Hall, Kent

After visiting Rochesther Cathedral in the morning, Loyal and Sam seem to have had a missed opportunity when they visited Cobham Hall:

“It is surprising that Loyal and Sam were not given the opportunity to view the market garden which was to become a well-known feature of the estate. Perhaps they were shown around parts of the garden avoiding the areas which were being changed to nurseries at the time.

In 1925, the 9^th Earl of Darnley had set up the Cobham Hall Estate Company Limited to run the estate on a commercial basis following many years of decline.

The Earl had a passion for gardening and wrote many articles for publications including Country Life Magazine and the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society. In the years following Loyal’s visit, the site became a well-known market garden. After WW2, the cost of labour rose and the market for cut flowers declined. In 1962, Cobham Hall became a girl’s school, which it remains today.”

Contributed by Mike O’Brien and Rosemary Dymond, Kent Gardens Trust

28 August: Aldenham House, Hertfordshire

After 10 days exploring London, Loyal and Sam headed towards Cambridge. On their way, they stopped at the then well-known gardens at Aldenham House in Elstree.

Though the gardens were only 40 years old, they rivalled Kew in the range and diversity of rare plants and trees they grew. Aldenham's 50-acre arboretum was particularly impressive:

For the previous 20 years, Aldenham’s gardens had been under the care of Vicary Gibbs and his enterprising head gardener, Edwin Beckett. In 1928, they were well known in horticultural circles. The gardens featured regularly in the gardening press and both Vicary and Edwin had won RHS medals with Vicary becoming vice-president of the RHS in 1924. 

Among the features that Loyal notices are the “very natural” artificial rocks in the garden landscaping created by the famous Pulham & Sons. Vicary and his father, the late Lord Aldenham, had also employed Pulham & Sons to construct bridges and create a bog and water garden, taking advantage of the gardens' clay soil.

After Vicary Gibbs died in 1932, almost the entire collection of plants, including some small trees, was put up for auction. In 1951 the Haberdashers’ Company bought the house and by now very overgrown grounds to establish Haberdashers’ Boys’ School, which is there today.

Contributed by Kate Banister, Hertfordshire Gardens Trust

29 August: Cambridge

Loyal and Sam spent a happy two days exploring Cambridge, enjoying the “original and quaint beauty” of the city and the hospitality of their landlady Mrs Wolfe who was “mighty generous with her grub”.

Loyal wandered through college grounds and had long conversations with a number of college gardeners. However, because it was the long vacation, many of the colleges were quiet. At Emmanuel College, he simply notes that it “has large gardens and a swan pool” and a “nice outdoor swimming pool too”.

The head gardener at Emmanuel that Loyal missed was William Farrow. He had started work at the College in 1906, coming from Kew. Farrow was known as a grower of prize chrysanthemums, and through the 1920s he worked to replace “dark beds and shrubs by beds and clumps of flowers” around Emmanuel College garden.

Today, the head gardener at Emmanuel is Brendan Sims who explains that ‘Part of what makes Emmanuel College Gardens unique is the “genius loci”, a Latin phrase used in landscape design meaning “spirit of place”. The mature trees, sweeping lawns and natural waterways fed from Hobsons Conduit allow a sense of community. A joy to work in!’

Contributed by Gin Warren, Cambridgeshire Gardens Trust

3 September: Folly Farm, Berkshire and Cliveden, Buckinghamshire

Loyal and Sam set off for Folly Farm in Berkshire on a frosty September morning. In the years before WW1, this 17th-century farmhouse and gardens had been transformed in the Arts and Crafts style by the architect, Edwin Lutyens. Loyal had encountered Lutyens work at a number of stops on his journey including Hestercombe House and Munstead Wood, and clearly felt it was becoming rather familiar:

In fact, as at Hestercombe House, the pioneering garden designer, Gertrude Jekyll had collaborated with Lutyens to create Folly Farm's unique planting schemes. Interestingly, Loyal again does not mention Jekyll.

What has changed since Loyal and Sam visited?

"Just over 10 years ago, Folly Farm's new owners commissioned Dan Pearson Studios to restore the original features of the Lutyens/Jekyll landscape. The main ornamental garden areas have been sympathetically redesigned to link the more formal areas of the garden with the wider landscape. Additions including wildflower meadows and woodland and hedgerow planting have considerably altered the outlook of the garden today from the one that Loyal and Sam would have seen."

"I think Folly Farm is stunning.  The Sunken Garden is simply beautiful – it takes my breath away and I would like to linger there on one of Luytens’ raised platforms, drinking it all in. "

Contributed by Janet Fuller, Berkshire Gardens Trust

3 September: Cliveden, Buckinghamshire

Loyal and Sam cycled from Folly Farm to Sutton’s Seeds in Reading and then onto the grand estate of Cliveden. This was to be their last official garden visit before returning home to the States.

 Mr A. Jeffries, the gardener who took them around seems to have been quite a character: “a jolly old chap who has been at the place for 53 years.” He shows Loyal and Sam Cliveden’s celebrated ‘long garden’, with its 2½ foot box hedges and 180 yard walk, boasting that he “has done most of the topiary work himself and is as proud of it as a little boy with his first pair of pants.”

“The Long Garden with its spectacular topiary, was inspired by the Italian Baroque and Renaissance gardens that the first Lord Astor had seen in Rome. It was created by Nora Lindsey, a friend of Nancy Astor, in the early 1920s, so Loyal would have seen it shortly after it was created.

Cliveden is a majestic vision set high above the River Thames. This may well have drawn Loyal to visit, along with its fascinating 250-year history and the fact that the owner was a fellow American who had married into the English aristocracy.

WW1 had only ended 10 years before Loyal’s visit and Cliveden is unusual in that a number of American service personal who served with the Canadian forces were buried in a small cemetery in the grounds. It is unusual to find a war cemetery in a private estate.”

Contributed by Claire de Carle, Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust