Top of my "must do" list on a visit to England was to visit Hartwell House, in Buckinghamshire, to see the property where the first writer/editor of the Star Garden Book trained.
Harry Clarke (1855-1935) learned his craft at Hartwell in the 1860s, before migrating to New Zealand, landing at Port Chalmers in 1872. Although only 17, he would have been well grounded in horticulture, as boys usually were apprenticed at 12 and sometimes as young as 10 years old.
Knowing this, I glumly acknowledge that my quest to trace Harry's steps seems likely to be futile. Then I meet Hartwell's knowledgeable and enthusiastic head gardener, Richard Jones, and am cheered to learn from him how much of Hartwell's history has been documented.
"The garden has certainly changed since Harry's time, but your Harry would have known this," he says, patting the trunk of a large walnut tree.
Richard's certainty is based on his study of a plan of the grounds from 1760, which shows numerous specimen trees, many of which remain.
At the time Richard Woods was preparing to revamp the grounds, Hartwell's owners, the Lee family, having come up in the world politically and financially, decided to rebuild the house, too.
It had already been changed significantly, a Tudor structure at the rear having replaced a much earlier house, then a 17th-century wing added in front. Happily, Sir Thomas Lee retained the frontage and its lofty and beautifully decorated rooms, now the main public area of the hotel.
Although the classical gardens were swept away in the Woods revamp, they were documented in a series of eight paintings commissioned by Sir Thomas in 1738. The paintings, copies of which hang in the hotel, show formal rows of yew trees, a handful of which remain: some behind the boatshed, a few in the car park and others alongside what is known as Lady Elizabeth Lee's garden.
He points out marks on the rear wall of the sturdy little building, where there was once a doorway to an extension, the enlargement necessary when Louis XVIII lived in the main house with his wife, Queen Marie Joséphine, and kept his mistress in the grounds.
"Louis loved Hartwell," Richard says - "Not surprising", I mutter - "but his wife hated it and boozed herself to death." ("Not surprising", I repeat, a bit louder. Richard grins and pretends not to hear.)
The royal pair are commemorated in shaped trees representing their crowns. Harry Clarke probably had to spend time hand-clipping the regal topiaries, unlikely to have been an apprentice's favourite task.
He also missed the installation of the stone bridge across the lake. The centre span of London's old Kew Bridge, built in 1789, it was moved to Hartwell in 1901.
Even with the large team - "30-ish staff", Richard says - the property was labour-intensive, with large walled vegetable gardens (now tennis courts), a coke-fired pineapple house and numerous cold frames, as well as an extensive orchard.
All these would have been familiar to Harry.
We pause at a small gazebo, and I get excited by an "H" carved in the wood. Could it have been done by Harry Clarke? "Perhaps," Richard says kindly.
Then the house - like the Rothschilds' Waddeston Manor on the adjacent estate - was commandeered for military use during World War 2. The grounds were trashed during army exercises and further neglected when Hartwell House was left empty for a time before becoming a private school. Then the property's fortunes changed for the better in 1989, when it was bought by Historic House Hotels and converted into a boutique hotel.
Because it faces a busy main road, the old grand entrance is no longer used and although Richard says the gates would have been here in Harry's time, gardening staff would most likely have come in a back entrance.
Statues have been put back as near as possible to their original positions. Many have survived undamaged but one that looks the worse for wear is a cloven-hoofed character that a Victorian head gardener hated so much that he took to it with a sledgehammer, burying half of it in the grounds. The missing part has not been found.
Restoring the gardens has been a major commitment by the new owners. In 2001, 10,000 daffodils were planted and these, with bluebells and snowdrops, are a major spring attraction, one of the few times when flowers rule, for this garden would never have been full of flowers: Capability Brown and his disciples shunned such frivolities.
The French crowns, almost obliterated, are being restored. Constant trimming is pulling them back into shape but Richard doubts their lines can be completely recovered.
"We've still got a long way to go to bring it all back," he says.
In a practice with which Harry Clarke would have been familiar, the gardens at Hartwell supply vegetables, herbs and some fruit to the kitchens for the hotel's three dining rooms.
Richard is committed to planting heritage varieties whenever he can, not only in the vegetable beds but also in the orchard, where a handful of older trees still bear fruit.
Next on the restoration list is Lady Elizabeth Lee's garden, dating back to the 1760s. No plan has been found but evidence suggests she created more than a dozen formal flower beds.
Richard Jones' commitment to restoration would surely cheer Harry Clarke, whose training at Hartwell gave him the grounding in horticulture that was to lead to him writing, half a world away, newspaper columns and the Star Garden Book.
Hartwell today
A boutique hotel since 1989, Hartwell House is 3km from Aylesbury and 32km from Oxford. Among its most famous guests are former United States President Bill Clinton and the Emperor of Japan. In 2008, Historic House Hotels donated its interest in Hartwell House and two other hotels to Britain's National Trust, with all profits benefiting the trust and the buildings. Hotel rates are from approximately $660 per person per night but special offers are sometimes available.
For details see www.hartwell-house.com
The French connection
Louis XVIII (1755-1824) spent 23 years in exile, from 1791 to 1814, the last five years at Hartwell House.
With his wife, Marie Joséphine, and an entourage of 100, Louis lived at Hartwell House from 1808. Marie Joséphine died there of dropsy in November, 1810. She was buried in the Lady Chapel at Westminster Abbey but her remains were later transferred to Cagliari Cathedral, in her native Sardinia.
Louis was reportedly interrupted at prayer in Hartwell's chapel (ironically, now a bar) to be told of his reinstatement as king of France.
Apart from paying Hartwell's owner, Sir George Lee, £500 a year in rent - about eight times an agricultural labourer's annual wages - the French couple didn't do too badly, as the king's friend the Prince Regent (later King George IV) had arranged a very generous allowance. Regal standards clearly had to be maintained.
