HYLAND
Stylistically speaking, Fowler looked back to a fascinating
antecedent, Palladio's unfinished villa of Counts Lodovico
and Francesco Trissino at Meledo, incorporating, however,
new theories of curvilinear greenhouses to create a
central glass dome surmounted by a cupola. The new
conservatory abounded in natural light and contained the
latest innovations in heating, with four miles of piping!
The Duke was deeply engaged in
Fowler's project, and had the architect
consult with Richard Forrest, head
gardener and botanist, to divide the
building into separate geographical
rooms, one for New Holland (the name
at that time for Australia); plants from
the tip of South Africa; an east wing
of African geraniums; a section for
camellias from India and China. The
central domed court was planted as
a tropical house with palms and giant
bamboo in pots and planters.
So devoted was the Duke to botany
that he sent his own ship across the
world to collect specimens! From Nepal
came orchids, from the Himalayas pine seeds; specimens
arrived from destinations as distant as West Africa, Mexico,
South America, Ceylon, India, the Philippines and the South
Seas. When Richard Forrest published his Alphabetical
Catalogue of Plants of Syon Garden in 1831, it contained
some 3,000 species of hardy outdoor trees and plants and
