Description
The gardens are located to the northwest of the village of Rainow. They are approximately triangular in shape and occupy an area of about 0.8 hectares (2 acres). The gardens are entered through a gate on Sugar Lane. The areas in the gardens, and the features they contain, are intended to represent the journey through the life of Christian in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. [1] Before entering the garden, the visitor is in their own City of Destruction. The first area is the Slough of Despond, originally a swampy area in Mellor's vegetable garden, now drained, paved, and used as a visitors' car park. The visitor then passes through the Wicket Gate to pass along the side of the house to the House of the Interpreter, formerly Mellor's stables. [lower-alpha 1] The path goes up a slope between dry stone walls to represent the Wall called Salvation, and passes on to become the Holy Way. This takes the visitor to the former mill pond that represents the Pool of Siloam. [lower-alpha 2] The path leads to a former cross, now a broken pillar, and the Cave of the Holy Sepulchre, where Christian loses the burden of his sin through the overflow hole of the mill pond. By the pond is a summerhouse bearing a plaque describing it as "Bethel or the House of God".
Here Christian is confronted with a choice between three paths, Difficulty, Danger, or Destruction. He is intended to choose the uphill path through the Arbour to the top of the hill of Difficulty. From the top of the hill is a view towards the Palace Beautiful, the back of Hough Hole House. The path leads over the Wobbly Bridge to a potting shed representing the Porter's Lodge, in front of which is a stone lion. Here there is also a reference to the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin , the shed representing the cabin, and the bridge representing the breaking ice of the Ohio River over which Eliza escaped with her baby. The path then leads along the side of the pond through the Valley of Humiliation and the Valley of the Shadow of Death. [1] In the pond is a terracotta fish, representing the demon Apollyon. The path passes the Mouth of Hell, a niche by the side of the path, and the Cave at the end of the Valley, an opening covered by a hatch, to Vanity Fair, an area behind the former mill. After this, it passes through the Plain of Ease, by Hill Lucre, to a black pillar representing Lot's Wife, through the Meadow by the River of God, up to a level lawn, By-path Meadow, which was formerly Mellor's tennis court. [1]
Originally the path led out of the gardens to a tenant's farmhouse, 300 metres (328 yd) away, representing Doubting Castle, the view of which is now obscured. Now the path leads down a grassy slope representing the Delectable Mountains, to a stone summerhouse, the Howling House. In the wall of this is a slot acting as an Aeolian harp, and a fireplace to produce smoke to fill the room. Next to this is the Country of Beulah, containing three pedestal tombs of members of the Mellor family. The path crosses the Dark River, goes through a sunken path representing again the Slough of Despond, and past a sundial. The path ends at the Celestial City on Mount Zion, a two-storey building standing on a ridge. The ground floor of this was a barn, and an external spiral staircase leads to the upper floor, which was used as Mellor's chapel. [1]
In addition to the Pool of Siloam, other parts of the gardens were given biblical names, including a set of steps called Jacob's Ladder, and Mounts Gerizim, Pisgah and Nebo. Mellor planted the gardens with flowers and shrubs mentioned in the Bible. He also inscribed a number of stones with biblical quotations, and details of the family history, 16 of which have survived. He also created other features, including wooden posts painted with the names of the tribes of Israel, but these have not survived. [1]
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Hough Hole House is a historic house to the northwest of the village of Rainow, Cheshire, England. It dates from about 1660, and was altered and extended in 1796. An engineering works was added in the 1850s, and incorporated into the house during the 20th century. The house is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. The gardens were created in the 19th century and are based on those described in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. These were designed by the owner, James Mellor, and are known as Mellor's Gardens. The gardens contain a number of listed buildings.
Rainow is a civil parish in Cheshire East, England. It contains 69 buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England as designated listed buildings. Of these, three are listed at Grade II*, the middle grade, and the others are at Grade II. Apart from the village of Rainow, the parish is now rural, although in the past there has been industry in the form of small mills. One of the listed buildings is a former water mill, but most are country houses and associated structures, smaller houses and cottages, and farmhouses with farm buildings. Otherwise the listed buildings are milestones, mile posts, boundary stones, weirs, a bridge, a folly, stocks, and two churches.
