Historische aanleg, Leidseweg 221

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, in Dutch. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTRY ESTATE. In the current development of Berbice two phases can be distinguished. The majority of the historical garden and park development consists of a late 18th or early 19th century development in landscape style in which fragments of an older formal development are incorporated.

An important element of this formal development is the sight axis projected perpendicularly from the centre of the rear facade of the house in a northerly direction, which until 1969 extended to the dunes, but which nowadays ends at the tree planting on the northwest border: on this section the axis has become overgrown for a large part. The axis, which directly behind the house is approximately the width of the middle five window bays of the rear facade of the house, is bounded on either side by oaks planted in quincunx or cross pattern, some of which date from the 18th or from the end of the 17th century. The oaks planted in quincunx pattern provided the development with a rich number of diagonal sight axes, which interrupted the strongly northwest-southeast directed axis arrangement of the development behind the house. The effect of these diagonal sight axes is less pronounced nowadays, because the number of rows of oaks was originally greater and because at the end of the 18th or beginning of the 19th century, on either side of the oaks, beeches, oaks and chestnuts were planted in irregular pattern, to increase the enclosure of the development behind the house. Furthermore, during this period some oaks may have been felled here and there to break the geometric regularity of the planting pattern of the oaks; this regularity stands directly opposed to the stylistic principles of landscape style. The oaks to the northeast of the sight axis located in the extension of the driveway, which are laid out in the said planting pattern give an impression of the original width of the rows planted in quincunx pattern along the ditch on the grounds of the former silver factory of Van Kempen & Begeer. Also to the northwest of the pond in landscape style, which is situated approximately halfway along the development behind the house, some oaks of this older development remain. An originally formal development of trees planted in quincunx pattern is rare in the Netherlands. Elsewhere in the park too, older tree planting was used in the landscape style development, some of which old oaks, lindens and possibly beeches have been preserved.

Notable is a monumental oak on the southwestern border of the park development at the former coach house, coachman's cottage and stable. This oak visually forms a striking beacon of the boundary of the historical park development with the surrounding area.

From the formal development the southwestern half of an extended linden pergola remains on the rear side of Leidseweg 219. The pergola laid out in an east-west direction probably originally provided the walker with a view in an easterly direction onto a garden sculpture at the pond, of which nowadays only the hard stone plinth in Louis XIV style has been preserved. Also dating from the time of the formal development is the partly enclosed by orangery and masonry rectangular plot in the north of the park, on which the orchard and the vegetable garden were situated. Also from this time dates the retrenched wall and the rectangular space bounded by the beech hedge located along the ditch along the Nicolaespad in the northeast of the park, on which an orchard was situated. Both the said masonry and the orangery as well as both rectangular plots were probably realized by Pieter de la Court van der Voort, who probably inhabited the country estate from 1688 to 1716. The orchard by the orangery was felled around 1963 (here and in the place of the former vegetable garden a star-shaped rosary inspired by 17th century garden parterres from 1969). The orchard by the retrenched wall has also largely disappeared; some fruit trees still stand from the orchard. Before 1835, perhaps still in the 18th century, the said development in landscape style was realized on Berbice; on the Cadastral Minute Plan Municipality Voorschoten section A from 1835 the pond development in landscape style is indicated, however without an island. The island came into being around 1900, when the country estate was in the possession of the Van Kempen family, by extending the most southwestern meander of the pond. The irregular course of the shoreline suggests that it is a relatively early development in landscape style, which perhaps dates from the 18th century. Simultaneously with the excavation of the pond the bottom profile of the terrain around it was made undulating. From the time of the development in landscape style a number of beeches, oaks and chestnuts in the park date.