Background
Henry Hawkins Tremayne was born in 1741, the second son of John Tremayne and Grace Hawkins.
Henry Hawkins Tremayne was born in 1741, the second son of John Tremayne and Grace Hawkins.
He was baptized at Street Ewe on 17 July 1741, and was educated at Blundell"s School in Tiverton. He attended Balliol College of the University of Oxford, where he matriculated in May 1759 and graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in 1763.
He is credited as initiating the creation of the set of gardens around House that are now well known as the Lost Gardens of He took up the post of curate at Lostwithiel. Henry"s older brother Lewis died shortly after Henry"s ordination, leaving Henry the unexpected role of heir to the estate. As a consequence, he inherited a third share of the extensive Hearle estates and mining industry.
In 1808 a further inheritance brought him the Tremayne estates at Sydenham in Devon.
He was a Tory and was elected mayor of Penryn on several occasions. In 1791 he chaired a protest meeting of those involved in the pilchard fisheries.
Henry died at on 10 February 1829. Henry aspired to create a great garden at He started by planting protective shelter belts of conifers on the western and eastern boundaries of his planned extensive gardens.
In 1785, he undertook a tour of southern England, visiting many of the significant gardens of the time, including those of Blenheim, Park Place, Stowe and Hestercombe.
He removed the earlier parterres, and laid out the northern gardens, building walled gardens, greenhouses, and a pineapple pit. Two estate plans, dating respectively from 1777 and sometime before 1810, show the changes wrought to the estate during Henry"s ownership. The first plan shows a predominantly parkland estate, with the site of today"s Northern Gardens occupied by a field
The second plan shows the development of shelter belts of trees surrounding the gardens, and the main shape of the Northern Gardens, the Mellon Yard and the Flower Garden are all readily discernable.
