Editing Blickling Hall (section)

== The Blickling estate ==
[[File:Blickling Hall Fountain 2022.jpg|thumb|280px|The fountain and east side of the mansion]]
The estate covers {{convert|4777|acres}} and includes: {{convert|500|acres}} of woodland, {{convert|450|acres}} of parkland and {{convert|3500| acres}} of farmland. Much of it is classified as Grade 2 and 3 agricultural land which is actively managed by the National Trust to provide income to support the house, gardens, park and woods.<ref name=Bli/>
The estate is listed Grade II* on the [[Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England|Register of Historic Parks and Gardens]].<ref name=NHLEGarden>{{NHLE|num=1000154|desc=Blickling Hall (garden)|access-date=23 December 2016|mode=cs2}}</ref>

===Garden history===
A house and garden existed at Blickling before the estate was purchased by the [[Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire|Boleyn]] family in the 1450s, but no records survive to give an indication of their appearance. After [[Sir Henry Hobart]] acquired the estate in 1616, he remodelled the gardens to include ponds, a [[Wilderness (garden history)|wilderness]] and a [[parterre]]. A garden mount– an artificial hill in Blickling's flat landscape, was made to provide views of the new garden. With the accession of [[John Hobart, 1st Earl of Buckinghamshire|Sir John Hobart]] (later the 1st Earl of Buckinghamshire) in 1698 the garden was expanded to add a new wilderness and the temple was constructed.{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}}

In the latter half of the 18th century John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire, embarked on works that would radically change the appearance of the gardens. All traces of formality were removed, and naturally arranged clumps of trees were planted to create a [[landscape garden]]. By the 1780s an [[orangery]] had been built to overwinter tender [[citrus]] trees. Following the 2nd Earl's death in 1793, his youngest daughter Caroline, Lady Suffield, employed landscape gardener [[Humphry Repton]] and his son [[John Adey Repton]] to advise on garden matters. John Adey Repton went on to provide designs for many garden features. The estate was inherited by nine-year-old William Schomberg Robert Kerr, 8th Marquess of Lothian in 1840. He re-introduced the formality and colour schemes of the parterre. After his death at the age of 38, responsibility for the gardens rested with Lady Lothian and her head gardener Mr Lyon. [[Philip Henry Kerr]], 11th Marquis of Lothian, inherited the estate in 1930. After disparaging comments in [[Country Life (magazine)|''Country Life'']], Lothian engaged gardener [[Norah Lindsay]] to remodel the gardens. In the parterre she replaced the jumble of tiny flower beds with four large square beds planted with a mixture of herbaceous plants in graduated and harmonious colours. Other changes included removal of a line of [[conifers]] in the Temple walk, which were replaced with plantings of [[azaleas]].<ref name=Bli>Newman, J.''The National Trust, Blickling Estate'' pp56-65, p69 {{ISBN|0-7078-0086-2}}</ref>