The Dowager Marchioness of Salisbury, who has died aged 94, was regarded as the “high priestess” of historic __garden design, best known for her triumphant restoration of the gardens at Hatfield House, the Cecil family’s Jacobean seat in Hertfordshire.
She also designed gardens for the Prince of Wales at Highgrove and to the delight of satirists encouraged him to talk to his plants. “Don’t all gardeners do that?’’ she enquired innocently. “If you love and care for your plants, it makes such a difference.”
The former Mollie Wyndham-Quin first applied her interest in historic plants and __garden design at Cranborne Manor, the family home for some 30 years of her husband, then styled Viscount Cranborne, son and heir of the 5th Marquess of Salisbury.
The garden designer Arne Maynard recalled that his own passion for gardening was sparked by a childhood visit to the Cranborne gardens, where he spotted...
