Cats in the garden? There is some interesting history there

cats to a group of gardeners and the response is typically divided between cat lovers and cat ... well, let’s say others who are less enthused. Before I go further, I’d like to make it clear that I like cats. Those that are less than enamoured with these delightful furry friends are often gardeners who’ve had to contend with a daily visit by one that insists on fertilizing the same flower bed or doing a little hoeing in the vegetable garden.

Some might rank them with rabbits, but at least they don’t eat plants, other than the catmint, I suppose. But cats as fertilizer? Now this was something I learned only a couple of years ago while visiting Lyme Hall in Cheshire, northern England. Britspeak for a massive country house, the hall is set in a 550 hectare (1,359 acre) deer park and has a 6 hectare (15 acre) garden dating back to the nineteenth century.

I first visited decades ago on a bicycle trip, long before the place became a major tourist destination. I wasn’t there to see the gardens, and I don’t recall much other than eating lunch in the orangery, a large conservatory attached to the huge house. It’s where orange trees would be grown in large tubs that would be wheeled outdoors for the summer. I did see figs growing against the wall, but no oranges. It seemed a little shabby at the time, but that might have been due to the drizzly day.

Not so on my more recent visit. There were still no oranges as the stone-built greenhouse with a bright, tiled floor was now filled with tropical plants. It was springtime, the sun was shining, and gardens were waiting to be explored. Along the old riding trails that traverse the park, masses of rhododendrons, in pink, purple, magenta and red, were in full bloom. One trail crosses a stone bridge in an area known as the Killtime. We did kill a little, watching the stream below tumbling down the small ravine. In August of last year, the ravine became a river after days of heavy rain. It burst its banks, flooding low lying areas where it washed away a stretch of drystone wall. The damage was considerable, toppling trees that had stood for 300 years, and swamping the Dutch garden.

The Dutch garden, despite the name, is a large, symmetrical garden in the Italian style. It’s perfectly located in a sunken area before the house where the elaborate design can be viewed from the terrace above. This was just as well as we were unable to enter the Dutch garden as filming was taking place, not unusual at Lyme park. With immaculate gardens and a massive house dating back to the late 1500s, the location suited the BBC for a 1995 adaption of Pride and Prejudice.

The house itself is a wonderland of history, filled with artworks and furnishings from generations of the Legh family who owned Lyme Hall.

It was while touring the house that I discovered the curious story of the cat fertilizer. On a wall were framed papers and illustrations relating the life and history of the Legh family. One was an old newspaper cutting describing the arrival in Liverpool in 1890 of a ship carrying as ballast, the mummified remains of 180,000 cats.

They’d been discovered the previous year in Egypt. These cats, deified by ancient Egyptians, unfortunately had an ignominious end. When they reached Liverpool, the strange cargo was crushed and auctioned off as fertilizer. Given the care taken to preserve the old cuttings, one must assume a considerable number of cats contributed to the gardens at Lyme Park, well worth a visit if you’re ever in the area. I still like cats, really.

See Lyme Hall: davegoo.myportfolio.com/ record-column

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