The Great Fountain Garden was a magnificent baroque formal garden, created by Daniel Marot for William III (r 1689-1702) and Mary II (r 1689-1694) to frame Henry VIII's hunting park.
Thirteen fountains
The French architect Daniel Marot designed 13 fountains set in intricate 'broderie' (embroidery) beds of flowers, grass and coloured gravels. The fountains never worked well and all but one were swept away after Mary's sister, Anne became Queen in 1702. She disliked the garden's expense and its over-elaborate design. She also hated the smell of box hedginh and had it uprooted and replaced with closely clipped yew trees and gravel paths.
'... the King also directed the laying of the pipes for the fountain and... increased the number to them after the first design.'     Daniel Defoe, A Tour Thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain, 1724
Yew trees grow ... and grow ...
Royalty abandoned living at the palace in 1760 and George III's Chief Gardener, Lancelot 'Capability' Brown decided to stop clipping the topiary - such formal gardens were out of fashion and it also saved his own money. The stunted yews from Queen Anne's garden began to grow and grow.
After the First World War gardeners returned to clipping these magnificent



trees, turning them into giant toadstool shapes. Our gardeners continue to clip these 300-year-old trees every summer.

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The Broad Walk
The Privy Garden
Golden Jubilee Fountain
Home Park and the Long Water
Barge Walk
Site of the Toy Inn
Molesey Riverbank
The Family Coat of Arms of Thomas Newland Allen
King William's Temple
Temple of Bellona

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