The effort was rewarded in 2007 when it was named Historic Houses Association and Christie’s Garden of the Year. Yew hedges divide the space into a formal grid of discrete areas or "rooms", each intending to provoke a different interest and mood. The hedges, some cut in swags, give height and form. The garden rooms include an Italian enclosure with box parterres; a formal rose garden laid out in a pattern based on one of the William Kent ceilings in the house; a French garden of pleached limes and plum trees which have been underplanted with spring bulbs; and a croquet lawn. Danish artist Jeppe Hein created a "Water Flame" sculpture/fountain for this garden. In all seasons, this jet of water surmounted by a ball of flame illustrates a 21st century folly on a smaller scale than the contemporary pieces outside the garden walls. In 2015, James Turrell created an artistic illumination of Houghton House as part of the LightScape festival celebrating the house and gardens. Horse trials The Houghton International Horse Trials have been held in the park annually in May since 2007. National events run alongside the three-day international event. Model soldiers The stable block at Houghton Hall houses the Cholmondeley Collection of Model Soldiers, previously at Cholmondeley Castle and moved to Houghton Hall in 1980 soon after it was opened to the public. The collection was started in 1928 by the 6th Marquess, expanded throughout his life, and now includes about 20,000 figures. In media Treasure Houses of Britain, a TV documentary series first shown on PBS in 1985, has considerable detail on the house its second episode. Noble Households by Tessa Murdoch has transcriptions of Houghton Hall inventories of 1745 and 1792. Notes References Conan, Michael. (2005), Baroque Garden Cultures: Emulation, Sublimation, Subversion. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection Michaelis, Adolf (1882), translated by Charles Augustus Maude Fennell, Ancient marbles in Great Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Moore, Andrew W. (1996), Houghton Hall: The Prime Minister, The Empress and The Heritage. London: Philip Wilson Publishers Whyte, Ian D. (2002), Landscape and History Since 1500. London: Reaktion Books Further reading Cornforth, John (2004), Early Georgian Interiors. New Haven, CT.; London: Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, pp. 20–3, 89–91, 131–2, 150–68, 258–9 Murdoch, Tessa (ed.), Noble Households: Eighteenth-Century Inventories of Great English Houses. A Tribute to John Cornforth.