Desig House: Bowood House

With its Robert Adam interiors and Capability Brown landscape, Bowood is the epitome of an eighteenth-century English country house, formed by the taste and vision of previous inhabitants and now adapting gently to the needs of the twenty-first century...

In the heart of the Wiltshire Downs, near the landmark Cherhill White Horse etched deeply into a chalky hillside, lies the estate of Bowood, which is the home of Fiona and Charlie Lansdowne. The drive leads you through a dense pine forest, thickly carpeted with wild garlic, and past a cluster of majestic tulip trees opposite the golf course. Then, all of a sudden, the magnificent landscape of Capability Brown's 2,000-acre park unfolds before your eyes. It was commissioned in 1762 by William Petty, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, for a fee of 30 guineas.

There is so much to take in: the gently undulating landscape with its carefully positioned clumps of oak and beech; the sinuous lake with its Doric temple; the extensive Pleasure Grounds behind the walled gardens; and the arboretum planted with 700 species of trees. The whole is a feast for the eyes and considered one of Brown's greatest creations. The renowned Rhododendron Walks, planted with 300 rare hybrids - many of which survive to this day - were laid out a century later, after the architect Sir Robert Smirke had added the Italianate terraces at the front of the house.

Today, Charlie and Fiona meticulously steer the development of the park and the gardens with the help of the garden designer Rosie Abel Smith, constantly working to improve and add to them.

Once part of the royal forest of Chippenham, the original hunting lodge at the heart of the estate was replaced in the mid-eighteenth century by a large house with a portico , known as the 'big house', and a separate E-shape service complex, including the kitchen, pantry and servants' quarters. These were later joined together by a grand drawing room.

The 1st Marquess commissioned Robert Adam to work on the interior of the house and to build the magnificent orangery wing to conceal the service complex when viewed from the front of the house. The clock tower by Sir Charles Barry and the chapel were added later.

When the 7th Marquess and his brother were both killed in action in 1944, the estate passed to their cousin George, who was Charlie's father. By the end of the war, the house, which had been requisitioned by the Royal Air Force, was in such a state of disrepair that the 8th Marquess took the radical decision to pull down the big house.

Today, the house is in a charming figure-of-eight combination of the Adam wing running the length of the terraces and the restored service areas, incorporating two courtyards separated by the chapel. Charlie opened the grounds and the Adam wing to the public in 1975, converting derelict stables into a sculpture gallery, restaurant, shop and exhibition space. Paintings and memorabilia relating to his forebears - many of whom served in high office (the 5th Marquess as Viceroy of India, Secretary of State for War and later Foreign Secretary) - are on permanent display here.

In 1987, Fiona undertook the task of redecorating much of the house. Having trained at Colefax and Fowler, she brought with her the influence of its quintessential English country-house style. It was an enhancing synergy with John Fowler's legacy, since he had worked on a few rooms for Charlie's mother Barbara in the Fifties. Fiona later set up
her own interior __design company, under the name Fiona Shelburne - another of her husband's family names - and has since added a more modern style of decoration to her repertoire.

As you enter the private wing through a wisteria-clad courtyard, you step into a graceful square hall that is brimming with bougainvillea and scented geraniums. Once a small dining room, it was converted into a hall in the Fifties, when the elegant cantilevered stone stair-case was added and when Fowler introduced two of the columns he often used to give structure to a space.

He also decorated the drawing room, which remains pretty much intact, apart from some inspired touches of Fiona's. The cotton cream damask on the walls, the curtains and the pelmets are his, the braiding on the pelmets reflecting the honeysuckle __design in the cornice. As a homage to Fowler, Fiona added a trefoil stool - one of his signature pieces that he had not introduced at Bowood - in front of the chimneypiece. A set of eighteenth-century English chairs needed re-covering and, while browsing at Tissus d'Hélène, Fiona stumbled upon a sample piece of Fortuny-like cotton damask. She fell in love with it, so Tissus d'Hélène put it in production and named it the 'Shelburne Damask'. One of these re-covered chairs now sits in front of the French desk in the window of the drawing room. It is one of many pieces of French furniture inherited by the family.

The sitting room that is used on a daily basis glows, particularly at night, thanks to its soft terracotta-hued Cole & Son wallpaper, specially printed from its archive collection. Opposite is the dining room, once a flower room, office and loo, which is painted a bracing tomato soup colour - 'so good behind family portraits, as nearly all of them have a highlight of red somewhere', as Fiona points out. This room leads out to Lady Lansdowne's Garden, which is adjacent to the Glass Hall, where the family eat in high summer surrounded by troughs of geraniums, fuchsias and abutilons, the table always dressed with Fiona's favourite scented roses.

The public rooms run along the whole length of the terraces, a succession of elegant, homogeneous spaces that are also used by the family in the winter months. At Christmas, the tree traditionally stands in the corner of the Robert Adam library under the coffered ceiling, embellished with grisaille medallions and set off by Wedgwood vases. Beyond
is what Fiona describes as the 'Buckram red' oran-gery, which is now a picture gallery where Fiona and Charlie occasionally host dinners; its doors are the original Adam ones, taken from the big house that was pulled down.

Upstairs, Fiona really came into her own. The bedrooms and bathrooms are all decorated by her, with an emphasis on comfort, quality and understated elegance. She has used floral chintz on the walls and curtains (one even named 'Bowood' by Colefax and Fowler) with traditional serpentine and swagged pelmets.

The Bowood estate today is a vibrant, thriving enterprise, with annual garden festivals, dog shows, Christmas extravaganzas and fairs, weddings, and seminars in the conference hall; it is also a hotel and has one of the country's most popular adventure playgrounds. But family life runs in parallel to all this: children and grandchildren constantly drop in, often bringing their dogs. With Fiona and Charlie as custodians, Bowood manages to retain an intimate informality while keeping alive its history - that of a noble and distinguished family.

Take a look inside

The house and gardens are open from April 1 to November 1, 11am-6pm. An exhibition that celebrates the 300th anniversary of the birth of Capability Brown is on until October 31.

bowood.org