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53-571: The Leasowes / ˈ l ɛ z ə z / is a 57- hectare (around 141 acre ) estate in Halesowen , historically in the county of Shropshire , later (from 1844) Worcestershire , England , comprising house and gardens. The parkland is now listed Grade I on English Heritage 's Register of Parks and Gardens and the home of the Halesowen Golf Club. The name means "rough pasture land". Developed between 1743 and 1763 by poet William Shenstone as

106-514: A ferme ornée , the garden is one of the most admired early examples of the English garden . Its importance lies in its simplicity and the uncompromisingly rural appearance. Thomas Whately praises it in chapter LII of his Observations on Modern Gardening of 1770: The ideas of pastoral poetry seem now to be the standard of that simplicity; and a place conformable to them is deemed a farm in its utmost purity. An allusion to them evidently enters into

159-661: A dash ; for example, 1-21-00.26 ha would mean 1 hectare, 21 ares, and 0.26 centiares (12,100.26 m ). The metric system of measurement was first given a legal basis in 1795 by the French Revolutionary government. The law of 18 Germinal, Year III (7 April 1795) defined five units of measure: In 1960, when the metric system was updated as the International System of Units (SI), the are did not receive international recognition. The International Committee for Weights and Measures ( CIPM ) makes no mention of

212-404: A double prefix is non-standard. The decimilliare is (100 mm) or roughly a four-inch-by-four-inch square. The centiare is one square metre. The deciare (rarely used) is ten square metres. The are ( / ɑːr / or / ɛər / ) is a unit of area, equal to 100 square metres ( 10 m × 10 m ), used for measuring land area. It was defined by older forms of the metric system , but

265-576: A hollow way from between the church and the former site of the Hall. On the slope immediately overlooking the new Hall was a column, originally the gift of George Lyttelton's old employer, Frederick, Prince of Wales , which was moved to that position as a memorial following the prince's death in 1751. Beyond that was the Wychbury Obelisk , raised in 1758 by an illegitimate Lyttelton half-brother, Admiral Thomas Smith , who lived at nearby Rockingham Hall. On

318-405: A Tour of English Gardens delivers some additional background: Leasowes. In Shropshire. Now the property of Mr. Horne by purchase. 150. as. within the walk. The waters small. This is not even an ornamented farm. It is only a grazing farm with a path round it. Here and there a seat of board, rarely any thing better. Architecture has contributed nothing. The obelisk is of brick. Shenstone had but 300£

371-439: A few other units including the are (and implicitly the hectare ) whose use was limited to the measurement of land. The names centiare , deciare , decare and hectare are derived by adding the standard metric prefixes to the original base unit of area, the are . The decimilliare (dma, sometimes seen in cadastre area evaluation of real estate plots) is 1 ⁄ 10,000 are or one square decimetre. Such usage of

424-419: A gothic folly . About the grounds were various inscriptions underlining the fact that this was a literary landscape which reflected the shaping vision of some of the leading poets of the 18th century. Because the grounds were wide and extended up valleys and over wooded hillsides, it was impossible to take in the whole as a single vista. Instead there was a circuit often described in contemporary works, such as

477-542: A measure of land area. The names of the older land measures of similar size are usually used, redefined as exactly one decare: The most commonly used units are in bold . One hectare is also equivalent to: The Unicode character U+33CA ㏊ SQUARE HA , in the CJK Compatibility block, is intended for compatibility with pre-existing East Asian character codes. It is not intended for use in alphabetic contexts. U+3336 ㌶ SQUARE HEKUTAARU

530-565: A new one on the same site completing it around 1776. He also built a walled garden and a hothouse . With Whately's treatise guiding him every step of the way, in April 1786, polymath Thomas Jefferson , the future third President of the United States , visited the Leasowes (then owned by Edward Horne) on his tour of English gardens in the company of his close friend and future second President of

583-410: A patriot dedicated to the national good was a theme developed by several of the poets who invoked the place: by Thomson, as being one of the themes taking Lyttelton's mind from appreciation of the beauty surrounding him; by Mason, whose ode closes with a compliment to Lyttelton's parliamentary performance; and by James Woodhouse, who conceives of Hagley as a place where the patriotic lord can withdraw from

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636-400: A year, and ruined himself by what he did to this farm. It is said that he died of the heartaches which his debts occasioned him. The part next the road is of red earth, that on the further part grey. The 1st. and 2d. cascades are beautiful. The landscape at No. 18. and prospect at 32. are fine. The Walk through the wood is umbrageous and pleasing. The whole arch of prospect may be of 90°. Many of

689-760: Is a combination of ヘクタール ( hekutāru ), the Japanese translation of "hectare". Hagley Park, Worcestershire Hagley Park is the estate of Hagley Hall in Worcestershire , England. The grounds comprise 350 acres (1.4 km ) of undulating deer park on the lower slopes of the Clent Hills . They were redeveloped and landscaped between about 1739 and 1764, with follies designed by John Pitt (of Encombe) , Thomas Pitt , James "Athenian" Stuart , and Sanderson Miller . Planned as part of an 18th-century enthusiasm for landscape gardening , especially among poets,

742-451: Is now outside the modern International System of Units (SI). It is still commonly used in speech to measure real estate, in particular in Indonesia, India, and in various European countries. In Russian and some other languages of the former Soviet Union , the are is called sotka (Russian: сотка : 'a hundred', i.e. 100 m or 1 ⁄ 100 hectare). It is used to describe

795-497: Is now your Boast?" was particularly admired. In its wake came references to Lyttelton's sorrow as the burden of Hagley's streams in Mason's "Ode to a Water Nymph" and to his monody in Maurice's descriptive poem. The English private parks that developed in the 18th century coincided with a consciousness of national identity and self-confidence. That Lord Lyttelton, the creator of Hagley, was

848-618: The are in the 2019 edition of the SI brochure, but classifies the hectare as a "Non-SI unit accepted for use with the International System of Units". In 1972, the European Economic Community (EEC) passed directive 71/354/EEC, which catalogued the units of measure that might be used within the Community. The units that were catalogued replicated the recommendations of the CGPM, supplemented by

901-468: The "ever murmuring streams and ever tinkling rills" of Richard Meadowcourt's address to Lyttelton and in the diminished sound of "each tinkling rill" in Anthony Pasquin ’s "Verses written at Hagley on the 4th of December, 1788". Pasquin also recalled the distinguished poetic visitors to the place, as did Mary Leadbeater in her lilting "On a visit to Hagley Park". But these would be mere distractions to

954-803: The 18th century English park was the product of those educated in the Classics during the Augustan age , men whose imagination had been taught to interpret a landscape through the eyes of the Latin and Greek poets, and also in part by the Classical landscapes of Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin . Although examples from neither of those painters were to be found in Hagley Hall, in the parlour there hung Arcadian landscapes by their later Baroque counterpart, Francesco Zuccarelli , and visitors to Hagley certainly compared aspects of

1007-514: The Hall, and a quarry that produced the stone known as Hagley-rag. Above the quarry was the site of Thomson ’s Seat, at one time an octagonal building in a grove before it was destroyed by the fall of a tree. The circuit of the grounds as described by Thomas Maurice began at the parish church , which in the 18th century was entirely lost behind trees, and took a path "to a gloomy hollow, whose steep banks are covered with large rocky stones, as if rent asunder by some violent concussion of nature." On

1060-430: The Hall. Up until the mid-19th century the park was generally open to the public, "And citizens who take the air/ Full oft to Hagley Park repair," a local author observed. No doubt some carried with them one or other of the tourist guides published at the time. But because of the vandalism caused by some visitors, only supervised access was allowed thereafter. Time, the weather and neglect were also taking their toll over

1113-454: The Rotunda. From there a woodland walk climbed to an ivy-covered castellated ruin , completed in 1748 and designed by Sanderson Miller. The Gothic style windows of this are said to have been transferred from the remains of Halesowen Abbey . Of the castle's four towers, only one was intact and that was inhabited at the period by the park keeper. Continuing within the park, rather than leaving by

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1166-458: The SI, being equivalent to a square hectometre. It is widely used throughout the world for the measurement of large areas of land, and it is the legal unit of measure in domains concerned with land ownership, planning, and management , including law ( land deeds ), agriculture, forestry , and town planning throughout the European Union , New Zealand and Australia (since 1970). However,

1219-470: The US, John Adams . Adams wrote in his diary: Stowe , Hagley , and Blenheim , are superb; Woburn , Caversham , and the Leasowes are beautiful. Wotton is both great and elegant, though neglected ... Shenstone's Leasowes is the simplest and plainest, but the most rural of all. I saw no spot so small that exhibited such a variety of beauties. Jefferson's more purposeful and inquisitive account in his Notes of

1272-940: The United Kingdom, the United States, Myanmar (Burma), and to some extent Canada, use the acre instead of the hectare for measuring surface or land area. Some countries that underwent a general conversion from traditional measurements to metric measurements (e.g. Canada) required a resurvey when units of measure in legal descriptions relating to land were converted to metric units. Others, such as South Africa, published conversion factors which were to be used particularly "when preparing consolidation diagrams by compilation". In many countries, metrification redefined or clarified existing measures in terms of metric units. The following legacy units of area have been redefined as being equal to one hectare: In Mexico, land area measurements are commonly given as combinations of hectares, ares, and centiares. These are commonly written separated by

1325-458: The age of 45. In June 1795, Edward Butler Hartopp became the owner of the estate, and held possession till July 1800, when it was transferred to Charles Hamilton, and when he became insolvent in 1807, it passed into the hands of Matthias Attwood, who unlike the previous owners did not take any action to preserve William Shenstone's park features, and by the 1820s the park grounds had sunk into a "state of ruin and desolation". An extended description of

1378-538: The bank above was an elegant Palladian bridge from which one looked up along a sequence of three lakes one above the other to a Rotunda (the work of John Pitt in about 1748) crowning the valley's head. This was a circular Ionic structure, also known as Pope's Temple in the past. On the bridge itself (a later work by Thomas Pitt) were lines by Catullus recalling the Classical Vale of Tempe overhung by woods ( Tempe quae sylvae cingunt superimpendentes ). Ascending

1431-417: The creation of a linear lake in the disused Lapal canal which runs across an earth filled embankbent 60 feet above Breaches pool to the south of the park. 52°27′16″N 2°01′48″W  /  52.454578°N 2.030067°W  / 52.454578; -2.030067 Hectare In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as 100 square metres , or one square decametre , and

1484-458: The dekare/decare daa (1,000 m ) and are (100 m ) are not officially "accepted for use", they are still used in some contexts. The hectare ( / ˈ h ɛ k t ɛər , - t ɑː r / ), although not a unit of SI, is the only named unit of area that is accepted for use with SI units . The name was coined in French, from the Latin ārea . In practice the hectare is fully derived from

1537-527: The design of the Leasowes, where they appear so lovely as to endear the memory of their author; and justify the reputation of Mr. Shenstone … every part is rural and natural. It is literally a grazing farm lying round the house; and a walk as unaffected and as unadorned as a common field path, is conducted through the several enclosures. [After this passage, Whately goes on to describe every detail]. Shenstone died in 1763. The house and grounds were purchased by Edward Horne, who demolished Shenstone's house and built

1590-526: The fifth book of Paradise Lost . William Mason, author of a poetical essay on The English Garden (1772-82), had earlier taken up the criticism of artificiality (also present in Milton) in his "Ode to a water nymph" (1758), particularly the way water was forced from its natural course and into regularity. The poem then ends in a compliment to Lyttelton‘s water vista at Hagley as the principal example of naturalness. But even before Lyttelton had begun work on it in

1643-556: The gate to Clent Hill, one next encountered a pebble-floored rustic hermitage composed of roots and moss and near it a curved seat of contemplation with its Latin name ( sedes contemplationis ) spelled out in snail shells. The design for this may even have been Alexander Pope's and was associated with a description of such a retreat in Milton's Il Penseroso . Leaving this haven, the path descended and then climbed to Milton's Seat itself, with its panoramic view. From there one returned downhill to

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1696-514: The grounds to paintings by Poussin. Jacob's Well reminded Horace Walpole of "the Samaritan Woman's in a picture of Nicolo Poussin," while James Heely found in the prospect uphill to the Prince's Column "a landscape that would do honour to the pencil of Poussin – an inexpressible glow of the sublime and beautiful, in all the fullness of their powers". Chiefly, though, the landscaping of Hagley Park

1749-469: The hectare (" hecto- " + "are") was thus 100 ares or 1 ⁄ 100  km (10,000 square metres). When the metric system was further rationalised in 1960, resulting in the International System of Units ( SI ), the are was not included as a recognised unit. The hectare, however, remains as a non-SI unit accepted for use with the SI and whose use is "expected to continue indefinitely". Though

1802-440: The inscriptions are lost. In 1789 Edward Horne sold the property to Major Francis Halliday who made considerable additions to the house and parkland. He added a stone portico at the entrance of the house and a folly hermitage in the high wood, which was decorated with "stained glass windows, furnace cinders, cowheel bones, horses' teeth, etc." (this was not in keeping with Shenstone's park improvements). Halliday died in 1794, at

1855-443: The introduction to Thomas Maurice ’s Hagley: A Descriptive Poem (Oxford 1776), which guided the reader along a route through alternating light and shade, open and closed prospects, rises and descents. Along the way were memorials to poets that commanded outlooks either across an open area within the park, such as that from Pope's Seat , or else down to the Hall and then across to the distant hills beyond, as from Milton's seat . On

1908-513: The landscapes of Hagley Park and of the Leasowes in 1845, with reflections on Shenstone, is given by the Scottish geologist Hugh Miller . The house, despite being not architecturally outstanding, is Grade I listed in view of its association with Shenstone and its importance in the history of landscape gardening. Between 1897 and 1907, it housed the Anstey College of Physical Education . Part of

1961-433: The least reflexion on the confinement of a spot, replete with such beauty as this is…but I may lament, from the pleasure it afforded me, that the same flowery taste did not spring even from the rough scene preceding that of the alcove, which had it taken effect, instead of the present reservoirs, would have risen (properly conducted) the most delectable scene the powers of genius and taste have to give. One other person's name

2014-427: The left bank, one reached a grotto of "grotesque stone alcoves and seats shaded with laurels" above a cascade decorated with glittering vitrified slag from the old glass industry in the area. Beyond that was the first memorial to an English poet in the circuit, a tall stone urn dedicated to William Shenstone . A further climb through woods brought one to open grassland and another urn dedicated to Alexander Pope beyond

2067-492: The management of water to the principal garden vista at Hagley In addition, lines from Milton appeared at two other sites in the park. Within the Hermitage was inscribed the description of the "mossy cell" to which the devotee of melancholy will withdraw, taken from Il Penseroso ; while on Milton's Seat, with its broad outlook over the countryside, appeared the passage beginning "These are thy glorious works, parent of good" from

2120-560: The new taste in landscape gardening there which, eschewing European artificiality, took its lead from the description of Eden in the fourth book of Paradise Lost . In his essay on "The History of the Modern Taste in Gardening" (1780), Horace Walpole was to commend Milton's description as "a warmer and more just picture of the present style than Claude Lorrain could have painted from Hagley or Stourhead", going on then to apply Milton's lines on

2173-420: The park brought many distinguished literary visitors to admire the views, as well as poetic tributes to their beauty and Classical taste. A park adjacent to the former manor house at Hagley was mentioned in the 14th century as having an embanked ditch as boundary, traces of which still remain. The grounds eventually fell into disuse and were only renewed at the end of 17th century by Charles Lyttelton . It

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2226-511: The site was purchased by the Halesowen Golf Club in 1906. Halesowen Council (later to become Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council ) purchased The Leasowes in 1934 and since then the site has been managed as a public park with part of the site leased to Halesowen Golf Club. Neglected since Shenstone's death, restoration of the 18th century landscape began in May 2008 and was completed by January 2009 (several months ahead of schedule). The restoration included

2279-580: The size of suburban dacha or allotment garden plots or small city parks where the hectare would be too large. Many Russian dachas are 6 ares in size (in Russian, шесть соток ). The decare or dekare ( / ˈ d ɛ k ɑːr , - ɛər / ) is derived from deca and are , and is equal to 10 ares or 1000 square metres. It is used in Norway and in the former Ottoman areas of the Middle East and Bulgaria as

2332-517: The south-eastern boundary there was access to an even wider prospect from the summit of Clent Hill , where yet another memorial was erected. It consisted of four rough-hewn pillars, the so-called Ossian ’s Tomb, known also as the Druid's Temple or later simply as the Four Stones. Another series of prospects was associated with Wychbury Hill to the north, towards which the old road to Halesowen climbed in

2385-574: The tawdry temptations of the capital. Maurice's descriptive poem dated from after Lyttelton's death and closed with the patriotic hope that Britain will triumph against its continental rivals, lately allied against it during the American Revolutionary War . Some three years later, at a time of damaged national confidence, the second Baron Lyttleton finds in Hagley a place of retreat from Parliamentary strife and ambition. Though poetic tributes to

2438-630: The valley above his house, James Thomson had recognised its Classical possibilities and christened it This was written following his first visit to Hagley in 1743 and introduced the following year into the Spring section of his revised The Seasons . Only in 1762 did work on the Palladian Bridge begin, when Lyttelton followed Thomson's lead by incorporating there the reference to the Vale of Tempe by Catullus. Remote echoes of Thomson's evocation are heard in

2491-526: The way there was the Temple of Theseus built for George Lyttelton's father by James Stuart in imitation of the ancient Temple of Hephaestus at Athens . Its purpose was to serve both as a landscape feature visible from the Hall and to "command a most beautiful View of the Country" round about. Along the course of the old road on its way there was the rectory, and near it Jacob's Well, the original water source for

2544-433: The years, causing some features in the grounds to disappear completely. Only comparatively recently has restoration work begun, starting with the Wychbury Obelisk in 2011. More recently the Palladian Bridge was rebuilt and the vista opened up the valley to the repaired Rotunda at its head. Paths are now being brought back into use, and new trees planted, in preparation for opening the park up once again. The development of

2597-505: The youthful Romanticism of Chauncy Hare Townshend in his "Sonnet on visiting Hagley". Ardent admiration forgives what is now perceived as the artifice of 18th century landscaping, and forgets the literary associations of a bygone age, as it responds naturally to the handiwork of "Nature's God". But Townshend only echoes misgivings expressed (though more diplomatically) by earlier visitors. Thomas Maurice exclaims And James Heely follows him at greater length: Not that I would mean to throw

2650-430: Was Henrietta Knight, Lady Luxborough who, while she lived, was at the centre of the circle of local landscaping poets, and who came to view the newly constructed "Giant's Castle" in 1748. Lord Lyttelton was himself a poet and erected monuments about the grounds to those poets whom he admired and counted as his friends: Shenstone, Pope, Thomson, Milton . The inclusion of the last of these was an aesthetic announcement of

2703-443: Was a poetical project. Among visitors were Alexander Pope, who had developed his own more modest grounds at Twickenham , and William Shenstone who, in addition to his work on his own property at The Leasowes , helped develop the garden at the neighbouring Enville Hall . Other poets with an interest in garden development who wrote poetical tributes to Hagley were William Mason and Richard Meadowcourt (1695–1760). One other visitor

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2756-651: Was his grandson George , however, who was chiefly responsible for landscaping them in the Neoclassical taste and making them one of the foremost examples of the style in England. In particular he started a tradition of abandoning the European taste for formal gardens, incorporating instead the natural beauty of the landscape. The charm of the grounds was further underlined by the creation of buildings in diverse styles: some that recreated ancient Greek and Roman examples, another being

2809-465: Was linked with Hagley Park, that of Lucy (born Fortescue), George Lyttelton's first wife, who died in 1746, before the park's main development. Thomson represents her as accompanying her husband on walks about the grounds, although under the poetic name of Lucinda. The association was deepened by Lyttelton's monody "To the memory of a lady lately deceased", which is set in the grounds at the start, and whose fifth stanza, beginning "O Shades of Hagley, where

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