Reading Rousham: An Observational Study with Advolly Richmond

Using analogue photography and post-visit reflection, this study follows garden historian Advolly Richmond through Rousham Gardens, exploring how historic landscapes are read and interpreted through movement, observation and direct engagement with place.

Introduction

This photographic project forms part of an ongoing series exploring how expertise is formed and expressed through engagement with cultivated and historic landscapes.

During a visit to Rousham Gardens, garden historian Advolly Richmond was given complete freedom to move through the landscape without direction, interruption, or commentary. There was no guided route and no intervention in how she chose to experience the garden.

Working with analogue film and a deliberately limited number of exposures, I observed and photographed moments as they unfolded naturally, tracking movement, pause, and shifts in attention as Richmond encountered the garden independently.

The aim was not to influence interpretation in real time, but to observe how a garden historian reads a historic landscape through direct, unmediated engagement with place.

Following the visit, I invited Richmond to respond to a series of written questions developed from what I had observed during the day. Her reflections form a second layer to the work, offering insight into how historic gardens are read and interpreted through professional knowledge and accumulated experience.

Together, the photographs and written responses explore how historic landscapes are read through professional knowledge, and how meaning emerges through movement, attention and interpretation.

• Photographer, author & project developer: Gina Dover-Jaques

• Date: 8 May 2026

• Read time: 3-4 minutes. Total experience time: 5-7 minutes.

Moving Through Rousham

Rousham is often described as one of William Kent’s most complete surviving landscape gardens, yet its character is never revealed in a single view. It emerges gradually through movement.

For Richmond, this is fundamental.

“Rousham is so special, it is a collection of set masterpieces contained in a limited space. Some are artfully hidden beneath another and therefore it is important to move through the gardens as William Kent’s design intended.” Richmond wrote.

Her response highlights a defining quality of the garden: it is experienced sequentially rather than statically. Paths guide direction, views open and close, and attention must continually adjust as the landscape unfolds.

The photographs follow this unfolding structure rather than attempting to present an overview.

Reading Without Guidance

Richmond approaches historic gardens with a preparatory framework formed before arrival.

“I always do my homework before I visit a garden. I approach gardens with an understanding of the creator’s intentions. Are they trying to tell you something about themselves? What might be the symbolism behind a certain statue or the reasoning behind its placement?” Richmond wrote.

This preparation shapes how meaning is encountered within the landscape, directing attention towards symbolism, placement, and design intent as part of movement through the garden.

Attention, Pause and Distance

Although movement is central to Rousham, moments of stillness play an equally important role.

From the house overlooking the bowling green, Richmond reflects on the Lion Attacking a Horse sculpture.

“The quiet violence of the statue makes you pause, before your focus moves to the beautiful views beyond where, if you concentrate, you can see the sham ruin or eye-catcher several miles away in the distance which forms a key element in Kent’s design.” Richmond wrote.

Attention shifts here between immediate form and distant structure. The garden operates through contrast, tension and release, proximity and depth.

These pauses became key points of photographic attention, where movement briefly resolves into still observation.

Immersion and Interpretation

When asked about her broader approach to historic landscapes, Richmond emphasises immersion.

“Rousham is best enjoyed and appreciated by immersing yourself in it. Here in the silence you will hear the echoes of the Italian Renaissance, steep yourself in the world of classical mythology and take in the beautiful vignettes as they appear while you move through the garden.” Richmond wrote.

Interpretation, in this sense, is not detached. It develops through sustained attention within the landscape itself.

Meaning is constructed gradually through movement, recognition, and accumulated knowledge.

Statue of Mercury in Bridgeman's Amphitheatre

The Praeneste Arcade overlooking the River Cherwell

Antinous and the Temple of Echo

One of the clearest expressions of this interpretive approach appears at the statue of Antinous, positioned along a shaded walk at a crossing point in the garden.

“It stands at a crossroads; you must choose your path.” Richmond wrote.

Rather than functioning as a decorative feature, the sculpture operates as a point of orientation within a wider logic of movement and decision in the garden.

The Lower Garden

One of the most sustained sequences of attention occurs in the lower garden, following the rill as it moves through shade and light.

“I think tracing the serpentine movement of the rill through the dappled shade was a truly magical experience.” Richmond wrote.

The watercourse leads gradually towards the octagonal pool before opening into a wider clearing.

“Its design leads you to the octagonal pool before pulling you onwards into the clearing as your eye is drawn to the Satyr who has probably been up to no good!” Richmond wrote.

This sense of discovery emerges through movement rather than explanation; features reveal themselves only as the visitor progresses through the garden.

Hexagonal Pool

The Vale of Venus

Stillness and Reflection

Later in the visit, Richmond reflects on the role of pause and contemplation within designed landscapes.

“All good gardens provide the visitor with opportunities to be still and absorb the views, atmosphere or specific features. Rousham excels at this; no matter where you pause there is always something to admire and contemplate.” Richmond wrote...

... Richmond also considers the Dying Gladiator sculpture and its possible connection to William Kent’s patron, General James Dormer, wounded at the Battle of Blenheim.

Whether or not such readings are conclusive, they demonstrate how historic gardens remain open to interpretation, continually reactivated through looking.

Method and Observational Approach

The photographic process was deliberately non-interventionist. No direction was given during the visit, and Richmond’s movement through the garden remained entirely self-determined.

This allowed the photographs to respond directly to patterns of engagement: where attention settled, where movement paused, and where the garden prompted reflection through its own structure.

The questions sent to Richmond afterwards were developed from this observational material, enabling her written responses to return to specific moments without the constraints of the live encounter.

Conclusion

This project explores how a garden historian reads a landscape when left entirely to their own engagement with place.

At Rousham, this process becomes visible through movement, pause, and attention. The garden is not presented as a fixed composition but encountered as a sequence of interpretations unfolding over time.

The photographs document this process of looking. Richmond’s written responses extend it.

Together, they offer an account not of Rousham as an object, but of Rousham as it is read.

As an inaugural collaboration, the project marks the beginning of an ongoing photographic series exploring how expertise is expressed through engagement with landscape.

Acknowledgements

With immense gratitude to Advolly Richmond for her generosity, insight, and collaboration throughout this project.

Thanks also to Francis Hamel and Ann Starling at Rousham for their time and support in facilitating the work, and to the Cottrell-Dormer family for their generosity and stewardship of this remarkable garden.

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Information:

• Visit Rousham Gardens https://rousham.org/

• Learn more about Advolly Richmond https://advolly.co.uk/

• Provenance and intellectual history: The work is grounded in an analogue photographic process in which negatives, contact sheets, processing records, and annotations form part of the material continuity of the project.