Athelhampton was purchased in 1891 by Alfred Cart de Lafontiane, a young Victorian gentleman with a passion of architecture, antique furnishings and gardens. Lafontaine employed the garden designer Francis Inigo Thomas to design and construct the four walled gardens. Over the last century the gardens have been enlarged beyond the walled garden 'rooms', each garden featuring a pond and fountain, exquisite planting and a labyrinth of gravel paths to lead you through. An Edwardian Kitchen Garden provides produce for the on site restaurant.