Bishop's letters: May 04 +James : Gardens and God

My maternal grandmother died many years ago but I still have vivid memories of her funeral. In particular, I remember the reading of her favourite poem: ‘The Glory of the Garden’ by Rudyard Kipling.


She was a keen and highly accomplished gardener and, even as a child, I enjoyed the glories of her various flower-beds and shrubberies. So Kipling’s words seemed very apt as we recalled her horticultural labours:

“Oh England is a garden, and such gardens are not made.
By singing: ‘Oh how beautiful!’ and sitting in the shade”.

Admittedly, I’m no great expert. As Kipling put it:

“And some can pot begonias and some can bud a rose,
And some are hardly fit to trust with anything that grows”.

I fear these last words may apply to me! So there is a slight irony in the fact that I now find myself Chairing a Committee whose task is to restore the amazing ‘Mawson Garden’ at Rydal Hall. It is a wonderful project and the end result will be superb, attracting (we hope) many visitors and greatly enhancing the viability of the Hall itself. But should a mere ‘hacker and slasher’ be entrusted with such a great responsibility?

Fortunately, Kipling offers some comfort here:

“Oh, Adam was a gardener, and God who made him sees
That half a proper gardener’s work is done upon his knees”.

At least I can be half a proper gardener! And that mention of Adam reminds me that the whole Biblical story of salvation takes place in gardens.

First, there is the Garden of Eden, in which Adam and Eve fall from grace by eating the forbidden fruit. Then comes the Garden of Gethsemane, in which Jesus prays for ‘this cup’ of suffering - to be taken away; ‘and yet, not my will but yours be done’. Finally, there is the garden in the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, created by the river of life as it flows through the middle of the street in John’s extraordinary vision of ‘a new heaven and a new earth’. It grows the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit; “and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations”.

The Fall; Atonement, and our Future Hope, all set in gardens. No wonder some people feel closest to God when they are mowing the lawn or pruning the buddleia. It isn’t just that God is Creator and that the growth of plants and trees and flowers is part of his creation. “The Glory of the Garden” (to quote Kipling again) “lies in more than meets the eye”.

The stones which make digging so difficult remind us of the stones on which Jesus knelt as he prayed. They are a token or our Redemption. And those leaves, so tiresome in the autumn as they carpet the ground, are a symbol of the peace for which we long.
Gardens are part of today’s ‘zeitgeist’. Gardening programmes are hugely popular; gardening magazines are booming; Garden Centres are flourishing. Charlie Dimmock is a public idol. The ‘glory of the garden’ has been well and truly ‘made over’.

And Mawson would, I think, be delighted because he of all people recognised the spiritual dimension of his work. In his designs, not least at Rydal, he wanted others to come close to their maker and saviour. So, as we rediscover his inspiration, we know - like him - that the true glory of the garden is nothing less than the Glory of God.

James Newcome

(Further details of the Mawson Garden Project are available from Mr Peter Mawby, Lowhill, Haverbreaks Road, Lancaster, LA1 5BJ).