Fall/Falling garden
History
In 1789 Thomas Sheridan defined a fall as a “declivity” or “steep descent.” In American gardens, these inclines were commonly either slopes (located between terraces) or flats, as at Mount Clare in Baltimore. A garden composed of a series of falls and terraces was often called a falling garden. Level areas were generally connected by ramps or, more rarely, by stairs [Fig. 1]. In order to prevent erosion, steep falls had to be carefully constructed and either covered with turf or reinforced with masonry. The turfed fall seems to have been the predominant means of constructing a falling garden in America. Even so, evidence exists of gardens that had a single retaining wall between two levels, such as those at Rivers- dale in Maryland [Fig. 2], and examples of far more elaborate falling gardens with
retaining walls were illustrated by Michael van der Gucht [Fig. 3]. As a reference to a descent of water, “fall” is discussed in this study as a specialized water feature (see Cascade).
The geographic distribution of falls appears to have been relatively localized, and the use of the term fairly short-lived. Citations that include the term “fall” or “falling garden” generally come from usage in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in the mid-Atlantic/Chesapeake region. Examples range from Nazareth, Pa., to the north, to Williamsburg, Va., to the south. Extant sites, such as Middleton Place, near Charleston [Fig. 4], suggest the falling garden’s wider geographic distribution. Yet, when utilized in written accounts, the term appears to have had more limited usage. The related term “slope” appears to have been used more broadly, with examples ranging
from New England to Georgia and was applied to longer, gradual descents, including natural hillsides, the sides of mounds, and raised terrace walks (see Terrace).1
Citations suggest that treatise writers, with the exception of Thomas Whately (1770), usually used the term “slope” rather than “fall” in general discussions of rising and falling ground. By contrast, the term “fall” was used more specifically to describe the descents between level areas of a terraced garden. For example, George Washington used “slope” and “fall” interchangeably to describe the same feature in his kitchen garden, but “fall” was used to describe the short descent between a series of terraces that formed a falling garden.
The concentration of falling gardens in the Chesapeake watershed area may have been due, in part, to their appropriateness to the estuarial topography in the region. Houses commonly were sited upon more protected, elevated knolls, or along the banks of many rivers and streams that fed the Chesapeake (see Eminence, Prospect, and View). Terracing these natural hillsides not only created level ground for planting beds or parterres but also enhanced views to and from the house. For instance, when looking out from the top of the garden, each terrace below was not fully visible because of the drop in elevation. The effect was a foreshortened view, often creating the impression, as Mary M. Ambler noted in
1770, that the garden at Mount Clare incorporated the broader landscape. By varying the widths of the terraces, garden designers created the illusion of a greater or lesser distance than what actually existed. For instance, by making the terraces near the house wider, as at the garden of William Paca in Annapolis, Md., the view from the top terrace to the summerhouse appeared more distant than it was, thus elongating the limited space of its urban lot. Research has highlighted the geometrically complex work of anonymous falling garden designers
who often based the dimensions of terraces and slopes on measurements of the dwelling house.2
Recent scholarship about the Chesapeake landscape argues that the series of terraces connected by grass ramps or stairs (much like the series of rooms and halls in a dwelling), created a sequence of social barriers through which one navigated, with the final destination determined by one’s social status.3 Without using the term “falling garden,” John Adams, succinctly described in 1777 the effect of the impressive sequence of plateaus as he walked through the “splendid seat” of a barrister, Mr. Carroll, at Mount Clare: “It is a large and elegant house; it stands fronting looking down the river into the harbor; it is one mile from the water; there is a descent not far from the house;— you have a fine garden; then you descend a few steps and have another fine garden; you go down a few more and have another.”4
In addition to their popularity among planter gentry, falls or slopes were also incorporated in campus landscape designs, as in the plan of Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., by Joseph Jacques Ramée, and of the University of Virginia, designed by Thomas Jefferson [Fig. 5]. In these settings, the declivity created a separation of space, as in the formation of the series of forecourts in the Ramée plan, without imposing visual barriers. In the case of Union College, the visual effect was enhanced by its “telescopic shape, with spaces that progressively narrowed as they mounted the hill, heightening the sense of perspective depth.”5
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