Only towards the end of the century did the English landscape garden, as developed by Brown, come into fashion there, with both George Washington at Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson at Monticello devising distinctive versions of the genre.

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Ideally situated between San Francisco and San Jose, it's 15 minutes from four 18-hole golf courses, a short drive from Purisima Creek Open Space Preserve and five miles from tourable Filoli one of the finest remaining country estates of the early 20th century, boasting a 36, 000-square-foot Georgian country house and a spectacular 16-acre English Renaissance garden.

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At the end of a meal Mr Loiseau's guests could recall the pleasures of the tummy while strolling in an English-style garden.

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Not so far from Great Dixter, at Sissinghurst Castle, lay the epitome of English taste in Vita Sackville-West's White Garden, surrounded by equally soothing beddings in blue, lilac and mauve.

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In the 17th century the English had picked up on the idea with the Oxford Botanical Garden.

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Because Cox favors techniques and plantings gleaned from many epochs, cultures and movements, he has a bigger, more flexible design vocabulary than garden designers known specifically for their modernist, French-formal or romantic English leanings Cox likes it all.

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An old English sheepdog only 20 months old was picked as the runner-up on the green carpet of the Garden.

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Instead of rows of identical houses, each with a garage and a slice of garden at the front, the houses at Trinity Mead look like they have been transplanted from an English village.

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