The house at Trelissick was built in 1825 by Peter Frederick Robinson, who had previously designed the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly for Thomas Daniell, and was described by Nikolaus Pevsner as ‘The severest Neo-Greek mansion in Cornwall’. Daniell laid out miles of carriage rides which form the basis of many of the waterside woodland walks, overlooking Falmouth estuary and harbour, which operate today. It was John Davies Gilbert, however, a subsequent owner in 1844, and his son Carew Davies who planted much of the park landscape and introduced exotic plants into the garden. In 1913, Gilbert’s executors let and subsequently sold the house to Leonard Daneham Cunicliffe, whose step-daughter, Ida Copeland, inherited Trelissick in 1937. It is to her and her husband that the present layout and planting of the garden is largely due and in 1955 she donated the house and garden, with an endowment, to the National Trust.