Hugo’s house in Jersey, Marine Terrace, had a long conservatory in which the Hugo family spent much time and where many of the famous photographs of that period were taken. Hugo’s garden at Marine Terrace, however, was virtually bare. He was happy, he said, with a few marigolds; let nature have her way; as his daughter Adèle recorded in her journal, he withstood the exhortations of his family and friends to make more of it. When Englishwoman Gertrude Tennant holidayed in Guernsey in 1862, she was a frequent visitor to Hauteville House. On her first visit to the by then celebrated residence she was accompanied by Hugo’s old friend, Hennett de Kesler. She noted with dismay that the garden had hardly anything in it. Kesler read her the description of the garden at the rue Plumet twice, in a significant tone of voice. In fact, the garden had flowers, enough for Juliette Drouet to remark that she saw departing visitors cut bouquets to take home with them. The garden is described by Hugo’s son Charles as full of plants, flowering shrubs and trees in 1861; it was partially remodelled in 1864 following a storm. Hugo’s conservatory, and of course his famous glass lookout, allowed him to be close to nature while still indoors. He grew luscious grapes he was very proud of and would give as gifts. The Guernsey photographer Arsène Garnier wrote of the many types of flower Hugo cultivated – the scent of geraniums, heliotrope, mignonette and so on from his conservatory are said to have perfumed the house. That commentators would remark on his liking for perfumed flowers is not surprising; their scent not only reminded him of times past, but was also symbolic: flowers have their roots in the material, the earth, but let their perfume out to the air and light, the immaterial world of the Ideal to which all Nature, including humanity, aspires. The house itself is decorated throughout with motifs and designs taken from nature, while the garden, as if it were an extension of the inside space, features inscriptions engraved on stone, as can be found in the house.
Hugo brought with him from his previous house in Paris a fountain in terracotta which he placed in the middle of Hauteville House garden. It served as a place for taking portraits and was the subject of one of his poems. This pre-Revolution rococo fountain and pond echo the garden at the Feuillantines, which had a well in which he and his brothers had fun pretending there was a monster. The fountain takes its proper place as an important element in Hugo’s mystic garden; but it is interesting to note that this monarchical fountain was known as ‘The Fountain of Serpents’. Evil was always present, even in this Garden of Eden.