Stourhead: Round and Round We Go

Stourhead: Round and Round We Go
12 July 2002

Location	Stourhead, Wiltshire Stourhead is one of the most famous examples of the seventeenth century, Romantic English style of gardens that was conceived as a contrast to the rigid French and Dutch gardens of the time. I spent an overcast afternoon there on my way back to London. Stourhead used to be called Stourton, and the village is still called that. It had belonged to the family of the same name for 700 years when it was purchased by the banker Henry Hoare I in 1717. It was his son, Henry Hoare II who created the gardens. It now belongs to the National Trust.

Weather	Cloudy with a shower or two.

Click on the images to see larger versions.


	The mansion at Stourhead isn't what attracts visitors. Frankly it looks a bit naff. It also wasn't open during weekdays.

What draws people to Stourhead are the gardens. They're huge, as befits an English mansion but what's special about them is the layout. There is a large, artificial lake in the middle and paths take you around the lake. The landscape is studded with Classical follies such as this temple to Apollo.

	Less Classical but in fact much older, is this medieval parish church.

The neo-classical follies are positioned so that as you walk around the lake, they magically appear and disappear from your view. It's a landscape created by a dramatist. The temples were all erected in the eighteenth century. This is the Pantheon.

	Near the church is what used to be a coaching inn, the Spread Eagle. Nowadays they serve food to tourists.

The inn has been called the Spread Eagle for a while, as this stone plaque shows.

	These cottages house people who work on the estate. Nowadays the whole shebang is owned by the National Trust.

As I walk along the lake, the Pantheon appears on the other side, mirrored in the calm water.

	One of the natives was keeping me company for a spell.

Although famous as a garden, Stourhead doesn't actually have a lot of bright colour. Most of the ground is taken up by shrubs and trees. I'm told the rhododendrons are magnificent in spring. But at the time of my visit, this Hypericum was one of the few things that livened up the scenery.

	Having recently visited an exhibition of the Dutch, seventeenth-century painter Aelbert Cuyp at the National Gallery, this scene felt very familiar, right down to the cow in the water on the right. Of course if Cuyp had painted it, the whole image would have been suffused with a benevolent, yellow light. I would have preferred that to the grey.

At one end of the lake, there is a bridge. What doesn't show in this picture is that this piece of lawn by the lakeside was a favourite haunt for a gaggle of Canada geese. I had to step carefully to avoid soiling my boots when taking this picture. Canada geese are a non-native nuisance.

	Gunnera manicata is also a non-native but a much better behaved one. This close to the water, it gets to be huge. I love the way the parasols are mirrored in the water below.

At the far end of the lake, there is a series of artificial grottoes. This is the view from one of them across the lake to the bridge.

	In one of the caverns, is a copy of a sculpture called 'Sleeping Ariadne'. In the marble that rings the pool, there's a Latin poem translated by Alexander Pope: "Nymph of the Grot, these sacred springs I keep And to the Murmur of these waters sleep. Ah! Spare my slumbers; gently tread the cave And drink in silence or in silence lave."

In another side-grotto, there's a male deity. It looks to me as if he is missing his trident.

	Outside, in the fresh air again, we can see most of the features on the other side of the lake. From left to right it's Flora's temple, the Bristol High Cross, the church and the Palladian bridge. The medieval cross used to stand in Bristol and was originally gilded. It came to Stourhead in 1768 as a gift to Henry Hoare.

Walking further along, we see the Temple of Flora nestled in the greenery. It's probably the smallest of the follies. To the left is one of the islands in the lake.

	This Corinthian capital with its stylised acanthus leaves crowns a column on the Pantheon. The temples at Stourhead were all built back when people still thought that the Classical temples were white. As you can see the temple is in need of renovation.

On the outside of the Pantheon, there are niches for sculptures. This scantily dressed nymph occupies one of them.

	The other houses this bacchant, a follower of Bacchus. Inside the Pantheon, there are sculptures of Greek deities.

A swan is crossing the lake in front of the bridge and the cross.

	The National Trust has laid out a platform for the swans to rest and preen on. You can see the white feathers floating on the still, green water.