Landmarks: Painshill Park

Follow the signs for Painshill on the A3 road to Portsmouth, turn left down a drive and you are suddenly in the idyllic English landscape garden of Painshill Park in Surrey. This inspired layout was the brainchild of Charles Hamilton, the youngest son of the Earl of Abercorn's 14 children. He took a lease in 1735 but had to sell up in 1773 as by that time he was broke. Yet, in 35 years, he transformed a previously unpromising piece of countryside into something marvellous.

Hamilton began the garden in a more formal way but gradually became influenced by the 'Back to Nature' movement which focused on designing all park features around a walk. He created a cleverly planned and designed series of 'pictures'. It was divided up and abandoned in 1948 and was only recently rescued by The Painshill Park Trust.

You first walk across this formal, planted 'amphitheatre' to a sudden surprise. The restored Gothic Temple is a ten-sided pretty little thing, with ogee arches in its sides, set on an eminence which overlooks a splendid, sweeping view. In the skyline is the Gothic Tower and on the green hillside opposite is the recreated Turkish Tent, made of canvas, painted blue and white.

Down the slope is the little Chinese Bridge, which takes you to an island. Here, in a change of mood, is the dark serpentine grotto. It is a joy to follow the trail in a landscape consciously designed as a series of contrasts, each with its own focal feature.

Donald Insall is a director with Donald W Insall and Associates, Architects, Eaton Square, London, SW1.

(Photograph omitted)