Stowe House

The south or garden front of Stowe from Jones' Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen (1829). Apart from an increase in the size of some of the basement windows (which in this context means ground level, as the first floor is a piano nobile) the facade is unchanged today. All of the top floor windows in the earlier version of this front were sacrificed for the sake of architectural effect. The remaining top floor rooms all face sideways.
The north or entrance front in 1750. Major alterations were made after that date.
Stowe circa 1880

Stowe House is a Grade I listed country house located in Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England. It is the home of Stowe School, an independent school and is owned by the Stowe House Preservation Trust who have to date (March 2013) spent more than £25m on the restoration of the house. Stowe House is regularly open to the public and can be explored by guided tour all year round or during the school holidays you can explore at your own pace with a multimedia guide. The gardens (known as Stowe Landscape Gardens), a significant example of the English garden style, along with part of the Park, passed into the ownership of The National Trust in 1989 and are open to the public. The parkland surrounding the gardens is open 365 days a year. National Trust members have free access to the gardens but there is a charge for all visitors to the house which goes towards the costs of restoring the building.

History

Sir George Gifford MP and Knight born 1495 to aft Dec 27 1557 owed Stowe Manor and Rectory. He willed it to his son Thomas Gifford born abt 1542-aft Feb 16 1593. His will as dated Nov 20 1556 and Proved Jan 19 1557/58 and again in Nov 21, 1562 The Temple family fortune was based on sheep farming, they were first recorded as such at Witney in Oxfordshire. Later from 1546 they had been renting a sheep farm in Burton Dassett in Warwickshire. The Stowe estate was leased from Thomas Gifford in 1571 by Peter Temple, his son John Temple bought the manor and estate of Stowe in 1589 and it became the home of the Temple family. In the late 17th century, the house was completely rebuilt by Sir Richard Temple, 3rd Baronet, (c.1683) on the present site. This house is now the core of the mansion known today. The old medieval stronghold was located near Stowe Parish Church that is about 100 yards to the south-east of the current house. Having been redesigned subsequently over the years, the whole front is now 916 feet (279 m) in length and can be seen as you approach from the direction of Buckingham. A long, straight driveway ran from Buckingham all the way to the front of the house, passing through a 60-foot (18 m) Corinthian arch on the brow of the hill on the way. The driveway approach to the house is still in use today, although it no longer runs through the arch.

British and foreign aristocrats and royalty frequently stayed at the house throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1725 The 3rd Earl of Carlisle and his wife stayed for a fortnight. The 1730s and 1740s saw visits by Henrietta, Countess of Suffolk, and The 1st Earl of Bath; The Prince Frederick, Prince of Wales, along with other friends of Lord Cobham (see the Temple of Friendship), were also frequent guests. In 1750, The 1st Earl of Bristol attended a reception at the house. In 1754 Count Stanisław August Poniatowski (the future King of Poland) visited the gardens. The 1760s saw two visits by Leopold III, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau, as part of his tours of English gardens in preparation for the creation of the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm. 1768 saw the visit of King Christian VII of Denmark. In July 1770[1] there was a house party lasting several days whose guests included Princess Amelia, The Hon. Horace Walpole, Lady Mary Coke and The 2nd Earl of Bessborough. The Prince Regent (the future King George IV) came in 1805 and 1808. King Louis XVIII came in January 1808 for several days, his party including: the Comte d'Artois, Louis's brother and successor as King of France; the Duc d'Orléans (who would be France's last ever King); and the Prince of Condé.

1810 saw the visit of King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden. Tsar Alexander I of Russia visited in 1810 and in 1814 Grand Duke Michael of Russia also visited. 1816 saw a visit by Hermann Graf Pückler. The Graf, a famous travel writer from Upper Lusatia, was later elevated in the Prussian peerage as Hermann, Fürst von Pückler-Muskau. Then in 1818 Grand Duke Nicholas (the future Tsar of Russia) visited. The same year saw the first of many visits by The Duke of Clarence (the future King of Great Britain and Ireland). Following King William IV's death, his widow Queen Adelaide stayed in 1840. That year also saw visits by The Duke of Cambridge and his son Prince George. In 1843 there were several visits by German royalty, with the British-born King Ernest Augustus I of Hanover and his wife, Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, staying at the house. Later that year, both Crown Prince Johann of Saxony and Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (later the first German Kaiser) would stay at Stowe. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert stayed at the house for several days in 1845. Due to financial problems, the family let the estate to the Comte de Paris from 1889 to 1894. The Comte died that year in the house; his body was laid in state in the Marble Saloon, during which period The Prince Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII), paid his respects.

The Death of the Comte de Paris, Stowe House, England, 1894. by Tinayre, Louis (1861-1941)

Famous non-royal visitors included: Alexander Pope, a frequent visitor from 1724 onwards, who, in 1726, visited in the company of Dean Jonathan Swift and John Gay; another writer and friend to Lord Cobham who visited in the 1720s was William Congreve; in 1730 James Thomson wrote the poem The Seasons after visiting the gardens; in 1732 Gilbert West a nephew of Lord Cobham's, wrote his poem Stowe after visiting the gardens; 1750 saw the first of eight visits by Sanderson Miller; the 1750s also saw visits by Jean-Jacques Rousseau; in 1770 Thomas Whately wrote an extensive description of the gardens; François-Joseph Bélanger visited in 1777-8 and drew the gardens. In April 1786 John Adams (the future second President of the United States on tour with Thomas Jefferson—who would serve as his vice president before becoming President himself) visited Stowe and other notable houses in the area, after visiting them he wrote in his diary "Stowe, Hagley, and Blenheim, are superb; Woburn, Caversham, and the Leasowes are beautiful. Wotton is both great and elegant, though neglected".[2] However, in his diary he was also damning about the means used to finance the large estates, and he did not think that the embellishments to the landscape, made by the owners of the great country houses, would suit the more rugged American countryside.[2] William Crotch visited in 1805, as did Charles James Fox in the party that included the Prince Regent.

The Temple-Grenville family

The propensity to marry heiresses is shown by the family name being changed to Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville by the late 18th-century. The following family members were the owners of the estate and creators of the house & gardens as they now exist:

John Temple was the first member of the family to serve as High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire and also Justice of the Peace.

Sir Thomas Temple first purchased a Knighthood in 1603 from James I then purchased from the same monarch the baronetcy in 1611. He was the first member of the family to serve as a Member of Parliament in 1588-9.

Sir Peter Temple was a supporter of Oliver Cromwell and served as a colonel in the parliamentary army during the English Civil War.

When the War of the Spanish Succession broke out in 1702 the 4th Baronet was appointed a colonel by William III, he was later promoted to Lieutenant General. First created Baron Cobham in 1714 by King George I, then in 1718 Viscount Cobham by the same king. In 1715 he married Anne Halsey an heiress of a rich London brewer. She brought a dowry of (equivalent to £2,820,000 as of 2015).[3][4] He was a member of the Kit-Cat Club where he probably first met fellow members John Vanbrugh and Joseph Addison whose writings on garden design influenced the development of the gardens at Stowe. Cobham was the centre of the Whig party grouping of Cobhamites. His sister Hester was created Countess of Temple in her own right in 1749 by King George II, from which her son, heir to the estate inherited his title as 2nd Earl Temple.

Richard Grenville the future 2nd Earl Temple, married Anna Chamber in 1737, an heiress with a £50,000 fortune.[5] He was leader of the Whig group known as the Grenvillites. King George II made Earl Temple a Knight of the Garter in 1760. Earl Temple was an active supporter of John Wilkes. When the Earl's cousin George Dodington, 1st Baron Melcombe died in 1762 he left his Vanbrugh designed house Eastbury Park and estates in Dorset to Earl Temple. He attempted to sell the house, but as no buyer could be found, he demolished most of the building using the marble from the house in the Marble Saloon at Stowe. The Eastbury estate was finally sold in 1806.

The 2nd Earl Temple's sister Hester married William Pitt the Elder who became Prime Minister of Great Britain. Their son William Pitt the Younger also served as Prime Minister. George Grenville the brother of the 2nd Earl Temple was also to serve as Prime Minister. William Grenville youngest brother of the 1st Marquess of Buckingham also served as Prime Minister, and it was during his premiership that the Atlantic slave trade was abolished. The final family member to be Prime Minister was William Ewart Gladstone. He married Catherine Glynne the granddaughter of Catherine sister of the 1st Marquess of Buckingham. Other notable politicians in the family included Thomas Grenville the brother of the 1st Marquess, Robert Nugent, 1st Earl Nugent the father-in-law of the 1st Marquess, Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford brother of William Pitt the elder, George Nugent-Grenville, 2nd Baron Nugent brother of the 1st Duke and the 1st Marquess's nephew Richard Griffin, 3rd Baron Braybrooke.

George Nugent-Temple-Grenville undertook the grand tour in 1774. In 1775 he married a Catholic heiress Mary Nugent, who had an income of £14,000 a year.[5] He was created 1st Marquess of Buckingham in 1784 by King George III. On the death in 1788 of the Marquess's father-in-law Robert Nugent, 1st Earl Nugent he inherited the Earl's Irish (8,900 acres (3,600 ha)) and Cornish estates.

The 2nd Marquess of Buckingham married in 1796 Anna Eliza Brydges the daughter and heiress of James Brydges, 3rd Duke of Chandos who had died in 1789. He thus acquired this wife's estates in Hampshire and Middlesex. Up until 1822 the family had been staunch Whigs, but in order to obtain the long sought Dukedom the family became Tories. The Dukedom was bestowed in 1822 by King George IV on Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville 2nd Marquess who became the 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. The deal was to support the then Prime Minister Lord Liverpool's administration. The family spent a great deal of money to control several rotten boroughs, including Old Sarum, whose M.P.s switch their support to the prime minister, although the 1832 Reform Act would end this practice. The 1st Duke was a Colonel in the Royal Buckinghamshire Militia (King's Own), he led his battalion in 1814 to France under the command of The Duke of Wellington.

The Grenville Armorial was produced between 1822 and 1839 for Richard Temple-Grenville, Marquess of Chandos, the son of the first Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. The armorial shows 719 quarterings of the family.

The 2nd Duke through his mother Anna was descended from the House of Plantagenet and was an active member of the Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry. His support of which added to the debts of £1,464,959 (well over £100,000,000 in 2003 terms) he had accrued by 1845. He was called the Greatest Debtor in the world.[6] The Duke left to live abroad in August 1847 to escape his creditors. That year saw the sale of the family's London home Buckingham House[7] in Pall Mall. In March 1848 the family estates in Ireland, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Cornwall, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire & Middlesex some 36,000 acres (15,000 ha) of land, were sold. Followed by the most valuable of the paintings, furniture and other art works at Stowe, over 21,000 bottles of wine and over 500 of spirits in the wine cellars below the Marble Saloon, were all sold from 15 August to 7 October 1848 by Christie's. The auction was held in The State Dining Room, but only raised £75,400.[8] At the end of the sales the estate had contract to the core 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) in Buckinghamshire. The garden staff were cut from 40 to 4.

Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (10 September 1823 – 26 March 1889), usually shortened to Richard Temple-Grenville, was a British statesman of the 19th century, and a close friend and subordinate of Benjamin Disraeli. He was styled Marquess of Chandos until the death of his father in 1861.

With the death of the third Duke of Buckingham and Chandos in 1889, there remained no heirs-male to the dukedom, so it became extinct. After which ownership of the estate was separated from the title Earls Temple of Stowe which passed by special remainder in the letters patent, creating it through the female line to a nephew of the 3rd Duke William Temple-Gore-Langton, the son of Lady Anna Eliza Mary Grenville sister of the 3rd Duke. The fall of the family engendered Lord Rosebery's comment "The glories of the House, built up with so much care and persistence, vanished like a snow wreath".

After the death of her father the 3rd Duke, Lady Mary Morgan-Grenville tried to sell house and estate for £200,000, but nobody wished to buy it. It was then rented until 1894 after which the house remained unoccupied until 1901 when Lady Mary returned as a widow, her husband Major Luis Morgan-Grenville having died in 1896 and she lived in the house until 1908 when she passed it onto her unmarried son as he came of age at 21.

The last inheritor of the estate, Rev. Luis C.F.T. Morgan-Grenville, due to prodigious debts, sold the house, gardens and part of the park in 1921 to a Mr Harry Shaw for £50,000[9] who intended to present the house to the nation. But being unable to pay for an endowment to maintain the building it was sold again in 1922 to the governors of what became Stowe School. This opened on 11 May 1923. The rest of the estate was sold as separate lots. Clough Williams-Ellis purchased the Grand Avenue to prevent its felling to create building plots. Later he gave it to the school. The gardens remained in the ownership of the School until 1989 when an anonymous donor provided funds for an endowment and the National Trust assumed ownership. In 1997 the ownership of the house passed to the Stowe House Preservation Trust, the major aim of which is to restore the building.

House

Architectural history

The house is the result of four main periods of development[10] these are:

The centre of the North Facade

The exterior of the house has not been significantly changed since 1779, although in the first decade of the 19th century, the Egyptian Hall was added beneath the North Portico as a secondary entrance.

Stowe Library

In 1793 George, 1st Marquess of Buckingham, converted The East Gallery into The Large Library and, in the first decade of the 19th century, on the ground floor created the Gothic Library to the designs of Sir John Soane. This is a rare example of Soane using the Gothic style.

The 1st Duke inherited the library of Lord Grenville, his uncle, described in 1824 as

in history, philosophy, political economy, mathematics, diplomatic state papers, both printed and manuscript, is the most perfect collection in this country. [11]

Following the bankruptcy of the 2nd Duke, much of the valuable collection was sold. The library has provided provenance to many valued manuscripts [12] including the Stowe 2 Psalter, Stowe 54, the Stowe Breviary and the "Stowe manuscripts".

The south facade

The South Facade
The centre of the South Facade
Medici lion

The showpiece of the House is the south facade overlooking the gardens. This is one of the finest examples of neoclassical architecture in Britain. The main front stretches over 460 feet (140 m). Divided into five major sections, these are: the central block around 130 feet (40 m) in width, the lower linking sections 75 feet (23 m) wide that contain on the west the State Dining Room and on the east The Large Library, then at the ends the two pavilions the same height as the central block about 90 feet (27 m) in width. The central block and the end pavilions are articulated at piano nobile level with unfluted Corinthian pilasters over 35 feet (11 m) tall which becomes a hexastyle portico supporting a pediment in the middle of the facade, there is a minor order of 48 Ionic columns over 20 feet (6.1 m) high that runs the length of the facade. The portico fronts a loggia that contains the doorway to the Marble Saloon, this is flanked by large niches that used to contain ancient Roman statues, between the columns of the portico used to be the marble sculpture of Vertumnus and Pomona by Laurent Delvaux now in the V&A. Above the niches is a large frieze on a Bacchic theme, this is based on an engraving in James Stuart's and Nicholas Revett's Antiquities of Athens of the frieze on the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates. There is a flight of thirty three steps the full width of the portico which descends to the South Lawn. The staircase has solid parapets either side that end in sculptures of Medici lions standing and resting a paw on a ball. These are the original lions dating from the late 1700s. They were sold in 1921 to Blackpool Corporation and had been standing in Stanley Park in Blackpool but were reinstated in 2013 in a swap deal that saw copies going to Blackpool. Either side of the portico are two tripartite windows separated and flanked by Ionic columns. These are enclosed with an arch that contains a carved Portland stone tondo in the tympanum with carvings of The four seasons, and is in turn flanked by twin Corinthian pilasters the same size as the columns of the portico. The facade is surmounted by a balustraded parapet, in the centre of the parapet of the east pavilion is a sculpture of two reclining figures of Ceres and Flora the corresponding figures on the west pavilion are of Liberty and Religion. The end pavilions each have three tripartite windows matching those on the central block, the tondos of which are each carved with a sacrificial scene. The ground floor is lower than the floor above, about 15 feet (4.6 m) in height and visually acts as a base to the facade, it is of banded rustication with simple arched windows beneath each window on the upper floor. In 1790 a balustrade was added parallel to the façade that ran from the bottom of the steps the full length of the house and then returned at both ends, there are a series of 30 pedestals along the balustrade, that until their sale in 1921 were topped by bronze urns. These were replaced by replicas in 2013. This was probably added to keep visitors from the lower windows of the house, and formal flower beds were laid out in the area.

The major interiors

During the sales of 1921 & 1922 all the remaining furnishing and art works not sold in 1848 were auctioned, as were several fittings including chimneypieces. Some of the family portraits and other items associated with the house have been bought back and are now on display in the House. Several owners of Stowe undertook the Grand Tour, Earl Temple spent 1729-33 in France, Switzerland & Italy, the 1st Marquess in 1774 visited Italy, the 2nd Duke before he inherited his title in 1817, and the 1st Duke in 1827-29 toured the Mediterranean aboard his yacht the Anna Eliza named after his wife. Many of the art works that adorned the house were acquired both during these trips and through the 1st Duke inheriting his father-in-law's art collection. The 1st Duke, before he inherited Stowe, also bought paintings at the sale of the Orleans Collection in 1798 and continued to buy paintings for another twenty years as well as books, engravings and the Stowe Service of Worcester Porcelain, as well as archaeological specimens. The main rooms are mainly located on the 1st floor (referred to in the USA as the 2nd floor) Piano nobile, a few are on the ground floor (referred to in the USA as the 1st floor).

The piano nobile of Stowe. The front entrance is at D. The Marble Saloon is B. Rooms P and Q also served as the state dressing room and bedroom at times. For scale, rooms O and L are each 75 feet (23 m) long. There are service wings to either side which are not shown.

The major rooms are:

One of Piranesi vases sold in 1848

located behind the north portico this is the main entrance hall of the house and the least changed of the rooms dating from the 1730s. The ceiling has a deep cove, and was painted by William Kent in grisaille on gold background imitating mosaic. There are six classical deities depicted in the cove, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Apollo and Diana. There are also nine of the signs of the zodiac. The flat centre of the ceiling is enclosed in a plaster beam, which in turn encloses a square with a circle within which encloses a painting of Mars. The south wall has in its centre a large set of doors which lead into The Marble Saloon, either side of these doors are portraits by Sir William Beechey of on left Richard, first Duke of Buckingham & Chandos on the right Anna Eliza, First Duchess of Buckingham & Chandos she is depicted with her son later the 2nd Duke. The west wall has above the fireplace Thomas Banks's white marble relief of Caractacus before the Emperor Claudius in its centre which is flanked by two doors. The east wall has above a small staircase leading to the ground floor, Christophe Veyrier's white marble relief of The family of Darius before Alexander the Great in its centre flanked by two doors. Works of art sold in 1848 that used to be in this room include Anthony van Dyck's portrait of the Marquess of Vienville, and among other sculpture two marble vases bought as Ancient Roman but actually the work of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, one of these is now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

The dome of The Marble Saloon
Woman at her Toilette School of Fontainebleau, now in the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts

Other areas of the house

The house contains over 400 rooms. The ground floor rooms to the east of the Gothic Library were used by the family as personal rooms including the Billiard room, Sitting room, Water closet, Manuscript room, Gun room and Plunge pool. The rest of the ground floor was given over to the service areas. The house has low wings that are set back and project from the east and west pavilions of the south front. These extend north before projecting even further east and west. The full length of the house is over 900 feet (270 m). These wings to the east included the riding school, coach houses and at the extreme east the stables designed by Vanbrugh. The west area includes the kitchen (still used as such by the school), the laundry, the dairy and at the extreme west the 138-foot-long (42 m) orangery, designed by Vanbrugh. Although the Central Pavilion of the south front appears to be only two floors high, there are in fact bedrooms over the State Music & Drawing rooms, these are lit by windows facing respectively east and west. The centre is filled by the Marble Saloon which rises to the full height of the building. There are more bedrooms on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors of the north front, and the west and east pavilions of the south front, where the 2nd floor is disguised in the same way as in the central pavilion.

The restoration of the house and gardens

Boy with Bagpipes by Caius Gabriel Cibber c.1680, formerly in the gardens at Stowe now in the Victoria and Albert Museum
Sunna by John Michael Rysbrack, 1728, formerly in the gardens at Stowe, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum
Thuner by John Michael Rysbrack, 1728, formerly in the gardens at Stowe, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum

Since the 1848 sale the maintenance of the house and gardens was neglected. Though the school tried its best it was obvious by the 1980s that a major restoration was needed. On taking over ownership of the gardens the National Trust commissioned a survey on which to base a restoration strategy. Individual trees, boundaries, buildings, lakes, paths and fences were mapped. The first principle was to keep all buildings and planted features that were in existence by the time the last plan of the garden in 1843 was created. Another was to restore the main views and axes of the garden. The process was greatly helped by the Stowe Papers, some 350,000 documents that are now in the collection of the Huntington Library, containing extensive and detailed information on the creation of both the house and gardens.

The Ha-Ha surrounding the gardens

The first large-scale operation was to dredge the lakes and other water features. 320,000 tonnes of silt had to be removed. The wall of the ha-ha had largely collapsed and had to be rebuilt by hand. It was also found that very few trees survived before the 3rd Duke's time; he had all the mature trees felled to sell for their timber in order to raise cash. There had been a few plantings of commercial softwood, including a spruce plantation on the site of the Saxon Deities (largely by John Michael Rysbrack placed 1728-1730). These were felled. Further thinning was carried out, including reopening views between the various buildings and monuments. Replanting of 20,000 trees and shrubs followed, using species present in the original garden. Paths which had become overgrown were re-excavated and eventually covered in gravel from local pits.

Over 100 pieces of statuary had been sold from the gardens in 1848, 1921 and 1922, so it was decided to replace them gradually with replicas as and when funds could be raised. In 1989-90 Peter Inskip assessed the condition of the buildings. Work on the restoration of the buildings, based on this survey, was then prioritised. The major restorations have been the Grenville Column (1991), the Temple of Ancient Virtue (1992), the Oxford Gates and Lodges (1994), the Temple of Venus (1995) and the Temple of Concord & Victory (1996). This last had been severely compromised when 16 columns had been removed to build the new school chapel in 1926. Replacement columns were carved and the building re-roofed at the cost of £1,300,000. The cost of this first stage was £10,000,000, the money coming from several sources: a public appeal, the Heritage Lottery Fund and grants from English Heritage as well as private donors and other grant-giving bodies. The restoration process adopted an approach where each building, or element of the gardens was informed by archaeology. In order to make informed decisions about what to restore and why, archaeological techniques such as geophysics, excavation, building recording and monitoring in the form of an archaeological watching brief were all utilised.

In 2002 the World Monuments Fund placed Stowe House on its List of Most Endangered Sites. The school had done its best to keep the house in good repair, including re-roofing the State Dining Room in 1990, repair of the north elevation of the West Pavilion in 1992 and the repair of the Marble Saloon's oculus skylight in 1994. On taking over ownership of the house in 1997, the Stowe House Preservation Trust commissioned a survey in order to scope the problem and come up with a restoration plan. The result was a six-phase plan, starting with the most urgent work. The estimated cost in 2002 for all six phases was nearly £40 million.

The phases are: Phase 1, the restoration of the North Front and Colonnades, started in the summer of 2000 and completed in July 2002, much of the money coming from the Heritage Lottery Fund, English Heritage, the Getty Grant Programme and Shanks First Fund. Phase 2, the restoration of the Central Pavilion and South Portico, took place from July 2003 to July 2006, thanks to funding by an anonymous U.S. philanthropist; the interior of the Marble Saloon was also undertaken. Phase 3, the restoration of the South Front, commenced in the autumn of 2009 and has been divided into sub-phases A, The Large Library roof, facades and ceiling completed July 2010; B, The Eastern Pavilion roof, facades and garden, completed July 2010; C, The Western Pavilion roof, and facades; D, The State Dining room, roof, facades, ceiling and garden. If the funds can be raised it is hoped to complete Phase 3 in 2011 or 2012. Phase 4, the restoration of the West court and building range. Phase 5, the restoration of the Eastern court and building range. Phase 6, the restoration of the State Rooms (the Marble Saloon, Ante-Library and Large Library have been restored, as were the Music Room and Egyptian Hall in 2012).

Stowe Landscape Gardens

The history of the gardens

In the 1690s, Stowe had a modest early-baroque parterre garden, owing more to Italy than to France, but it has not survived, and, within a relatively short time, Stowe became widely renowned for its magnificent gardens created by Lord Cobham. The Landscape Garden was created in three main phases, showing the development of garden design in 18th-century England (this is the only garden where all three designers worked):

After Brown left, Earl Temple, who had inherited Stowe from his uncle Lord Cobham, turned to a garden designer called Richard Woodward,[5] who had been gardener at Wotton House, the Earl's previous home. The work of naturalising the landscape started by Brown was continued under Woodward and was accomplished by the mid-1750s. At the same time Earl Temple turned his attention to the various temples and monuments. He altered several of Vanburgh's and Gibbs's temples to make them conform to his taste for Neoclassical architecture. To accomplish this he employed Giovanni Battista Borra from 1752 to 1756. Also at this time several monuments were moved to other parts of the garden. Earl Temple made further alterations in the gardens from the early 1760s. This is when several of the older structures were demolished and this time he turned to his cousin Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford who was assisted by Borra, whose most notable design was the Corinthian Arch.

Aerial view south over the gardens 1978

The next owner of Stowe, the Marquess of Buckingham, made relatively few changes to the gardens. He planted the two main approach avenues, added 28-acre (11 ha) to the garden east of the Cobham Monument and altered a few buildings. Vincenzo Valdrè was his architect and built a few new structures such as The Menagerie with its formal garden and the Buckingham Lodges at the southern end of the Grand Avenue, and most notably the Queen's Temple. He also created the formal gardens within the balustrade he added to the south front of the house and demolished a few more monuments in the gardens.

The last significant changes to the gardens were made by the next two owners of Stowe, the 1st and 2nd Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos. The former succeeded in buying the Lamport Estate in 1826, which was immediately to the east of the gardens, adding 17 acres (6.9 ha) to the south-east of the gardens to form the Lamport gardens. This work was overseen by the head gardener, James Brown, who remodelled the eastern arm of the Octagon Lake and created a cascade beyond the Palladian Bridge. From 1840 the 2nd Duke of Buckingham's gardener Mr Ferguson created rock and water gardens in the new garden. The architect Edward Blore was also employed to build the Lamport Lodge and Gates as a carriage entrance, and also remodelled the Water Stratford Lodge at the start of the Oxford Avenue.

View north over the eastern branch of the Octagon Lake
View south over the Octagon Lake towards the Corinthian Arch

As Stowe evolved from an English baroque garden into a pioneering landscape park, the gardens became an attraction for many of the nobility, including political leaders. Indeed, Stowe is said to be the first English garden for which a guide book was produced. Wars and rebellions were reputedly discussed among the garden's many temples; the artwork of the time reflected this by portraying caricatures of the better-known politicians of history taking their ease in similar settings. Stowe began to evolve into a series of natural views to be appreciated from a perambulation rather than from a well-chosen central point. In their final form the Gardens were the largest and most elaborate example of what became known in Europe as the English garden. The main gardens, enclosed within the ha-has (sunken or trenched fences) over four miles (6 km) in length, cover over 400 acres (160 ha),[36] but the park also has many buildings, including gate lodges and other monuments.

Many of the temples and monuments in the garden celebrate the political ideas of the Whig party and include quotes by many of the writers who are part of Augustan literature, also philosophers and ideas belonging to the Age of Enlightenment.

The fame of the gardens was spread by various means.

Alexander Pope who first stayed at the house in 1724, wrote the following passage celebrating the design of Stowe as part of a tribute to Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington. The full title of the 1st edition (1731) was An Epistle to the Right Honourable Richard Earl of Burlington, Occasion'd by his Publishing Palladio's Designs of the Baths, Arches, Theatres, &c. of Ancient Rome. This passage consists of lines 47-70 of the poem.

To build, to plant, whatever you intend,
To rear the Column, or the Arch to bend,
To swell the Terras, or to sink the Grot;
In all, let Nature never be forgot.
But treat the Goddess like a modest fair,
Nor over-dress, nor leave her wholly bare;
Let not each beauty ev'ry where be spy'd,
Where half the skill is decently to hide.
He gains all points who pleasingly confounds
Surprises, varies, and conceals the Bounds.

Consult the Genius of the Place in all;
That tells the Waters or to rise, or fall,
Or helps th' ambitious Hill the heav'n to scale,
Or scoops in circling theatres the Vale,
Calls in the Country, catches opening glades,
Joins willing woods, and varies shades from shades,
Now breaks or now directs th' intending Lines;
Paints as you plant, and, as you work, designs.

Still follow Sense, of ev'ry Art the Soul,
Parts answ'ring parts shall slide into a whole,
Spontaneous beauties all around advance,
Start ev'n from Difficulty, strike from Chance;
Nature shall join you, Time shall make it grow
A Work to wonder at—perhaps a STOWE.''

In 1730 James Thomson published his poem Autumn, part of his four works The Seasons, these are lines 1033-81, which are about Stowe:

Oh! bear me then to vast embowering shades,
To twilight groves, and visionary vales,
To weeping grottoes, and prophetic glooms!
Where angel forms athwart the solemn dusk
Tremendous sweep, or seem to sweep along;
And voices more than human, through the void
Deep-sounding, seize the enthusiastic ear.

Or is this gloom too much? Then lead, ye powers
That o'er the garden and the rural seat
Preside, which shining through the cheerful land
In countless numbers blest Britannia sees,
Oh lead me to the wide-extended walks,
The fair majestic paradise of Stowe!
Not Persian Cyrus on Ionia's shore
E'er saw such sylvan scenes; such various art
By genius fired, such ardent genius tamed
By cool judicious art – that in the strife,
All-beauteous Nature fears to be outdone.
And there, O Pitt, thy country's early boast,
There let me sit beneath the sheltered slopes,
Or in that temple where, in future times,
Thou well shalt merit a distinguished name;
And with thy converse blest, catch the last smiles
Of Autumn beaming o'er the yellow woods.
While there with thee the enchanted round I walk,
The regulated wild, gay fancy then
Will tread in thought the groves of Attic land;
Will from thy standard taste refine her own,
Correct her pencil to the purest truth
Of Nature, or, the unimpassioned shades
Forsaking, raise it to the human mind.
Or if hereafter she, with juster hand,
Shall draw the tragic scene, instruct her thou,
To mark the varied movements of the heart,
What every decent character requires,
And every passion speaks – oh! through her strain
Breathe thy pathetic eloquence! that moulds
The attentive senate, charms, persuades, exalts,
Of honest zeal the indignant lightning throws,
And shakes corruption on her venal throne.
While thus we talk, and through Elysian vales
Delighted rove, perhaps a sigh escapes;
What pity, Cobham, thou thy verdant files
Of ordered trees shouldst here inglorious range,
Instead of squadrons flaming o'er the field,
And long embattled hosts! when the proud foe,
The faithless vain disturber of mankind,
Insulting Gaul, has roused the world to war;
When keen, once more, within their bounds to press
Those polished robbers, those ambitious slaves,
The British youth would hail thy wise command,
Thy tempered ardor, and thy veteran skill

In 1732 Lord Cobham's nephew Gilbert West wrote a lengthy poem, The Gardens of the Right Honourable Richard Viscount Cobham, that is actually a guide to the gardens in verse form. Charles Bridgeman commissioned 15 engravings of the gardens from Jacques Rigaud which were published in 1739. In 1744 Benton Seeley published A Description of the Gardens of Lord Cobham at Stow Buckinghamshire. In 1748 William Gilpin produced the Views of the Temples and other Ornamental Buildings in the Gardens at Stow followed in 1749 by A Dialogue upon the Gardens at Stow. Unlicensed copies of all three books were published in 1750 by George Bickham as The Beauties of Stow. To cater to the large number of French visitors, a French guidebook, Les Charmes de Stow, was published in 1748. In the 1750s Jean-Jacques Rousseau had visited the gardens and his writings about the gardens helped spread their fame and influence throughout Europe. He had this to say[37] 'Stowe is composed of very beautiful and very picturesque spots chosen to represent different kinds of scenery, all of which seem natural except when considered as a whole, as in the Chinese gardens of which I was telling you. The master and creator of this superb domain has also erected ruins, temples and ancient buildings, like the scenes, exhibit a magnificence which is more than human'. Georges-Louis Le Rouge published in 1777 Détails de nouveaux jardins à la mode that included engravings of buildings at Stowe as well as at other famous gardens in Britain. In Germany Christian Cay Lorenz Hirschfeld published Theorie der Gartenkunst in 5 volumes in Leipzig 1779–1785, that included Stowe. The last edition of the Seeley guide was published in 1827. In 1805-9 John Claude Nattes painted 105 wash drawings of both the house and gardens.

Plan of gardens, 1910

The main divisions of the garden are:

The approaches

The Oxford Avenue, looking south-west toward Water Stratford
The Grand Avenue looking north towards the Corinthian Arch

There are two main entrances to the Park, the Grand Avenue, from Buckingham to the south and the Oxford Avenue from the south-west, which leads to the forecourt of the house. The Grand Avenue was created in the 1770s, 100 feet (30 m) in width and one and half miles in length, lined originally with elm trees. The elms succumbed in the 1970s to Dutch elm disease and were replaced with alternate beech & chestnut trees. The Grand Avenue by the Corinthian Arch turns to the west to join the Queen's Drive that connects to the Oxford Avenue just below the Boycott Pavilions. The Oxford Avenue was planted in the 1790s, and sold to the National Trust in 1985 by the great-great grandson of the 3rd Duke, Robert Richard Grenville Close-Smith (1936-1992), a local landowner. Close-Smith was the grandson of the Honourable Mrs. Caroline Mary Close-Smith, who was the 11th Lady Kinloss's daughter. This was one of the first acquisitions of the Trust at Stowe.

The buildings in this area are:

One of the Buckingham Lodges
The Corinthian Arch
The New Inn
The Water Stratford Lodge
Oxford Gates
The Boycott Pavilion, as built to Gibbs's design
The Oxford Bridge & The Western Boycott Pavilion in the background
The Eastern Boycott Pavilion

The forecourt

The Statue of George I

Located in front of the north facade of the house, this has in its centre:

The south vista

South vista, looking north

This includes the tree-flanked sloping lawns to the south of the House down to the Octagon Lake and a mile and a half beyond to the Corinthian Arch beyond which stretches the Grand Avenue of over a mile and a half to Buckingham. This is the oldest area of the gardens. There were walled gardens on the site of the south lawn from the 1670s that belonged to the old house. These gardens were altered in the 1680s when the house was rebuilt on the present site. They were again remodelled by Bridgeman from 1716. The lawns with the flanking woods took on their current character from 1741 when 'Capability' Brown re-landscaped this area.

The buildings in this area are:

The Doric Arch

Crevere Vires, Famaque & Imperi
Porrecta Majestas ad ortum
Solis ab Hesperio Cubili
Custode rerum Cæsare
GEORGIO AUGUSTO.
(Under the care of Cæsar's scepter'd hand,
With strength and fame increas'd, this favour'd Land
The Majesty of her vast Empire spread,
From the Sun rising to his Western bed.)

The Western Lake Pavilion

The Elysian fields

The Elysian Fields is to the immediate east of the South Vista; designed by William Kent, work started on this area of the gardens in 1734. The area covers about 40 acres (16 ha). There is a series of buildings and monuments surrounding two narrow lakes, called the river Styx, that step down to a branch of the Octagon Lake. The adoption of the name alludes to Elysium, and the monuments in this area are to the virtuous dead of both Britain and ancient Greece. The main species of trees originally planted included alder, elm, chestnut and pine also ivy was planted and encouraged to grow over dead tree-trunks to create a suitable melancholy mood. The buildings in this area are:

Saint Mary's Church, interior looking east into the chancel
Saint Mary's Church
The Temple of Ancient Virtue
Interior, the Temple of Ancient Virtue

* The Temple of Ancient Virtue[47] built in 1737 to the designs of Kent, in the form of a Tholos, a circular domed building surrounded by columns. In this case they are unfluted Ionic columns, 16 in number, raised on a podium. There are twelve steps up to the two arched doorless entrances. Within are four niches one between the two doorways. They contain four life size sculptures (plaster copies of the originals by Peter Scheemakers sold in 1921). They are Epaminondas (general), Lycurgus (lawmaker), Homer (poet) and Socrates (philosopher).

The Temple of British Worthies
The busts in the Temple of British Worthies, with the inscription in English on a stone tablet above each one just under each pediment
Sir Isaac Newton

Whom,
the God of Nature made to comprehend his Works;
and from simple Principles, to discover the Laws never known before,
and to explain the Appearance never understood,
of this Stupendous Universe.

 

Sir Walter Raleigh

A valiant Soldier, and an able Statesman;
who endeavouring to rouze the Spirit of his Master,
for the Honour of his Country, against the Ambition of Spain,
fell a Sacrifice to the Influence of that Court,
whose Arms he had vanquish'd, and whose Designs he oppos'd.

 

John Locke

Who, best of all Philosophers,
understood the powers of the human mind:
the nature, end, and bounds of civil government;
and with equal courage and sagacity, refused
the slavish systems of usurped authority
over the rights, the consciences, or the reason of mankind.

 

John Hampden

Who with great Spirit, and consummate Abilities,
begun a noble Opposition to an arbitrary Court,
in Defence of the Liberties of his Country;
supported them in Parliament,
and died for them in the Field.

 

Sir Francis Drake

Who, through many Perils, was the first of Britons
that adventur's to sail round the Globe;
and carried into unknown Seas and Nations;
the Knowledge and Glory of the English Name.

 

King William III

Who by his Virtue and Constancy,
having saved his Country from a foreign Master,
by a bold and generous Enterprize,
preserv'd the Liberty and Religion of Great Britain.

 

Queen Elizabeth I

Who confounded the Projects, and destroy'd the Power
that threaten'd to oppress the Liberties of Europe;
took off the Yoke of Ecclesiastical Tyranny;
restor'd Religion from the Corruptions of Popery;
and by a wise, moderate, and a popular Government,
gave Wealth, Security, and Respect to England.

 

The Black Prince

The Terror of Europe, the Delight of England;
who preserv'd, unalter'd, in the Height of Glory and Fortune,
his natural Gentleness and Modesty.

 

King Alfred

The mildest, justest, most beneficent of Kings;
who drove out the Danes, secur'd the Seas, protected Learning,
establish'd Juries, crush'd Corruption, guarded Liberty,
and was the Founder of the English Constitution.

 

Sir Francis Bacon

Who by the Strength and Light of a superior Genius,
rejecting vain Speculation, and fallacious Theory,
taught to pursue Truth, and improve Philosophy
by a certain Method of Experiment.

 

William Shakespeare

Whose excellent Genius open'd to him the whole Heart of Man,
all the Mines of Fancy, all the Stores of Nature;
and gave him Power, beyond all other Writers,
to move, astonish, and delight Mankind.

 

John Milton

Whose sublime and unbounded Genius equal'd a Subject
that carried him beyond the Limits of the World.

 

Alexander Pope

Who uniting the Correctness of Judgement to the Fire of Genius,
by the Melody & Power of his Numbers
gave Sweetness to Sense, & Grace to Philosophy.
He employ'd the pointed Brilliancy of Wit to chastise the Vices,
and the Eloquence of Poetry to exalt the Virtues of human Nature;
and being without a Rival in his own Age,
imitated and translated, with a Spirit equal to the Originals,
the best Poets of Antiquity.

 

Sir Thomas Gresham

Who by the honourable Profession of Merchant,
having enrich'd himself, and his Country,
for carrying on the Commerce of the World,
built the Royal Exchange.

 

Inigo Jones

Who, to adorn his Country,
introduc'd and rival'd the Greek and Roman Architecture.

 

Sir John Barnard

Who distinguish'd himself in Parliament by an active & firm
Opposition to the pernicious and iniquitous Practice of Stock jobbing;
at the same Time exerting his utmost Abilities to encrease the Strength
of his Country by reducing the Interest of the National Debt; which
he proposed to the House of Commons in the Year 1737, and, with
the Assistance of Government, carried into Effect in the Year 1750; on
Terms of equal Justice to Particulars & to the State; notwithstanding
all the Impediments which
private Interest could oppose to publick Spirit.

 

Goddess of the silver wave,
To thy thick embower'd cave,
To arched walks, and twilight groves,
And shadows brown, which Sylvan loves
When the sun begins to fling
His flaring beams, me, Goddess, bring.

The Grotto
The Grenville Column
The Cook Monument

The Hawkwell Field

Stowe Gardens, The Hawkwell Field, with the Palladian Bridge on the right and the Gothic Temple on the rising ground straight ahead. Beyond, the Queen's Temple and Lord Cobham's Monument are just visible.

Is to the east of the Elysian Fields, also known as The Eastern Garden. This area of the gardens was developed in the 1730s & 1740s, an open area surrounded by some of the larger buildings.

The buildings in this area are:

The Gothic Temple
The Pebble Alcove
Congreve's Monument

Vitae imitatio Consuetudinis speculum Comoedia
(Comedy is the imitation of life, and the glass of fashion)

Ingenio Acri, faceto, expolito, Moribusque Urabnis
candidis, facillimis, Gulielmi Congreve, Hoc Qualecunque
desiderii sui Solamen simul & Monumentum Posuit
(In the year 1736, COBHAM erected this poor consolation of
as well as Monument of, his loss of the piercing, elegant, polished
Wit and civilized candid most unaffected Manners of William Congreve)

The Temple of Friendship
The Palladian Bridge

This is a copy of the bridge at Wilton House. The main difference is that the Stowe version is designed to be used by horse-drawn carriages so is set lower with shallow ramps instead of steps on the approach. It was completed in 1738 probably under the direction of Gibbs. Of five arches, the central wide and segmental with carved keystone, the two flanking semi-circular also with carved keystones, the two outer segmental. There is a balustraded parapet, the middle three arches also supporting an open pavilion. Above the central arch this consists of colonnades of four full and two half columns of unfluted Roman Ionic order. Above the flanking arches there are pavilions with arches on all four sides. These have engaged columns on their flanks and ends of the same order as the colonnade which in turn support pediments. The roof is of slate, with an elaborate plaster ceiling. It originally crossed a stream that emptied from the Octagon Lake, and when the lake was enlarged and deepened, made more natural in shape in 1752, this part of the stream became a branch of the lake.

The Queen's Temple
The original Thuner, now in the V&A Museum
Friga

The Lamport Gardens

Lying to the east of the Eastern Gardens, and named after the vanished hamlet of Lamport, the gardens were created from 1826 by Richard Temple-Grenville, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos and his gardener James Brown, from 1840 2nd Duke of Buckingham's gardener Mr Ferguson and the architect Edward Blore as an ornamental rock and water garden. The buildings in this area are:

The Chinese House

The Grecian valley

The Grecian Valley looking towards the Temple of Concord and Victory

Is to the north of the Eastern Garden. Designed by Capability Brown and created from 1747 to 1749, this is Brown's first known landscape design. An L-shaped area of lawns covering about 60 acres (24 ha), was formed by excavating 23,500 cubic yards (18,000 m3) of earth by hand and removed in wheelbarrows with the original intention of creating a lake. Mature Lime and Elm trees were transplanted from elsewhere on the estate to create a mature landscape. Other tree species that Brown used in this and other areas of the gardens include: Cedar, Yew, Beech, Sycamore, Larch & Scots Pine. The buildings in this area are:

The Temple of Concord and Victory

The designer of this the largest of the garden buildings is unknown, both Earl Temple and Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford have been suggested as the architect. Built from stone, between 1747 and 1749, the building is located where the two legs of the valley meet. It is raised on a podium with a flight of steps up to the main entrance, the cella and pronaos is surrounded by a peristyle of 28 fluted Roman Ionic columns, ten on the flanks and six at each end. The main pediment contains a sculpture by Peter Scheemakers of Four Quarters of the World bringing their Various Products to Britannia, there are six statues acroterion of cast lead painted to resemble stone on both the east and west pediments. In the frieze of the entablature are the words CONCORDIAE ET VICTORIAE, the sculpture on the building dates from the 1760s when it was converted into a monument to the British victory in the Seven Years' War. The ceiling of the peristyle is based on an engraving by Robert Wood of a ceiling in Palmyra. Within the pronaos and cella are 16 terracotta medallions commemorating British Victories. The wooden doors are painted a Prussian blue with gilded highlights on the moldings. Above the door is an inscription by Valerius Maximus:

Quo Tempore Salus eorum in ultimas Ausustias deducta
nullum Ambitioni Locum relinquebat

(The Times with such alarming Dangers fraught
Left not a Hope for any factious Thought)

The Temple of Concord and Victory

The interior end wall of the cella has an aedicule containing a statue of Liberty. Above is this inscription:

Candidis autem animis voluptatem praebuerint in
cinspicuo posita qua cuique magnifica merito contigerunt

(A sweet sensation touches every breast of candour's generous sentiment possest,
When public services with honour due, are gratefully marked out to public view)

When the School built its Chapel in the late 1920s, 16 of the 28 columns from this Temple were moved to the new building, being replaced with plain brickwork. One of the earliest National Trust restoration works was to create replacement columns with which to restore the Temple.

The Fane of Pastoral Poetry
The Cobham Monument

The western garden

The Eleven-Acre Lake

Is to the immediate west of the South Vista, including the Eleven-Acre Lake. This area of the gardens was developed from 1712 to 1770s when it underwent its final landscaping. The Eleven-acre lake was extended and given a natural shape in 1752. The buildings in this area are:

The Rotondo from across the Eleven Acre Lake
The Rotondo
The Statue of Queen Caroline
Temple of Venus

Nunc amet qui nondum amavit:
Quique amavit, nunc amet.
(Let him love now, who never lov'd before:
Let him, who always lov'd, now love the more.)

The Hermitage
Dido's Cave
The Artificial Ruins & The Cascade

Demolished buildings and monuments

As the design of the Gardens evolved many changes were made. This resulted in the demolition of many monuments. The following is a list by area of such monuments.

The Approaches

The forecourt

Nelson's Seat

The western garden

Lamented Vanbrugh! This thy last Design,
Among the various Structures, that around,
Form'd by thy Hand, adorn this happy Ground,
This, sacred to thy Memory shall stand:
Cobham, and grateful Friendship so command.

The Vanbrugh Pyramid
The Temple of Bacchus

The Elysian fields

The Eastern Garden

The Grecian Valley

Several of the sculptures have ended up at Trent Park, purchased by Philip Sassoon in 1921, these are:

The park

Stowe Woods, showing an avenue or riding
Stowe Woods, The riding looking towards the Wolfe Obelisk

Surrounding the Gardens it originally covered over 5,000 acres (2,000 ha) and stretched north into the adjoining county of Northamptonshire. There is a cascade of 25 feet (7.6 m) high leading out of the Eleven Acre Lake by a tunnel under the Warden Hill Walk on the western edge of the garden, into the Copper Bottom lake that was created in the 1830s just to the south-west of the gardens. The lake was originally lined with copper to waterproof the porous chalk into which the lake was dug. The copper was replaced by butyl sheeting when the Trust restored the lake. The rivers and lakes of both the park and gardens have many species of fish including: carp, perch, pike, roach, rudd & tench. The house's kitchen garden, extensively rebuilt by the 2nd Duke, was located at Dadford about 2/3 of mile north of the house. Only a few remains of the three walled gardens now exist, but originally they were divided into four and centred around fountains. There is evidence of the heating system: cast iron pipes used to heat greenhouses, which protected the fruit and vegetables, including then-exotic fruits, like peaches. About a mile and half north of the house lies Haymanger pond, which is a haven for wildlife and attracts grebes, snipe, buzzards and grass snakes, as well as other species. In what used to be the extreme north-east corner of the park, about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) from the house over the county border lies Silverstone Circuit. This corner of the park used to be heavily wooded, known as Stowe Woods, with a series of avenues cut through the trees, over a mile of one of these avenues (or riding) still survives terminated in the north by the racing circuit and aligned to the south on the Wolfe Obelisk though there is a gap of over half mile between the two. It is here that one can find the remains of the gardener's treehouse, an innovative design comprising wood and textiles. The National Trust have reintroduced Longhorn cattle to graze the park north of the house.

The school had given the National Trust a protective covenant over the gardens in 1967, but the first part they actually acquired was the 28 acres (11 ha) of the Oxford Avenue in 1985, purchased from the great-great-grandson of the 3rd Duke, Robert Richard Grenville Close-Smith, a local landowner. The National Trust has pursued a policy of acquiring more of the original estate, only a fraction of which was owned by the school, in 1989 the school donated 560 acres (230 ha) including the gardens. In 1992 some 58 acres (23 ha) of Stowe Castle Farm located to the east of the gardens was purchased and in 1994 part of New Inn Farm to the south of the gardens was bought. Then 320 acres (130 ha) of Home Farm to the north and most of the 360-acre (150 ha) fallow deer-park to the south-west of the gardens were acquired in 1995, this was restored in 2003 there are now around 500 deer in the park. In 2005 a further 9.5 acres (3.8 ha) of New Inn Farm including the Inn itself were acquired. The Trust now owns 750 acres (300 ha) of the original park. In the mid-1990s the National Trust replanted the double avenue of trees that surrounded the ha-ha to the south and south-west including the two bastions that project into the park on which sit the temples of Friendship at the south-east corner and Venus at the south-west corner, connecting with the Oxford Avenue by the Boycott Pavilions, the Oxford Avenue then continues to the north-east following the ha-ha and ends level with the Fane of Pastoral Poetry at the north-east corner of the gardens.

The buildings in the Park include:

Distant view of Stowe Castle
Interior showing former farmworkers cottages, Stowe Castle
The Bourbon Tower prior to restoration
The Wolfe Obelisk

Listed status

Stowe has one of the largest concentrations of grade I listed buildings in England. There are separate grade I listings in place for:

  • The house
  • The arches at each end of the north front of the house
  • Dido's Cave
  • The equestrian statue of George I to the north of the house
  • Lord Cobham's Column
  • Queen Caroline's Monument
  • The Boycott Pavilions
  • The Cascade
  • The Congreve Monument
  • The Corinthian Arch
  • The Doric Arch
  • The Gothic Temple
  • The Grenville Column
  • The Hermitage
  • The Lake Pavilions
  • The Oxford Bridge
  • The Oxford Gate
  • The Palladian Bridge
  • The Queens Temple
  • The Rotondo
  • The Shell Bridge and Captain Cook's Monument
  • The Temple of Ancient Virtue
  • The Temple of British Worthies
  • The Temple of Concord and Victory
  • The Temple of Friendship
  • The Temple of Venus
  • The Wolfe Obelisk

This is nearly 0.5% of the approximately 6,000 grade I listings in England and Wales. The other historic buildings in the garden and park are listed grade II* or grade II.[73] The extensive parks and gardens are listed Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.[74]

Stowe on film

The house and gardens have also featured in documentary films:

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ page 134, Temples of Delight: Stowe Landscape Gardens by John Martin Robinson, 1999, George Philip Publishers
  2. 1 2 Adams & Adams 1851, p. 394.
  3. ↑ UK Consumer Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Gregory Clark (2016), "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)", MeasuringWorth.com.
  4. ↑ page 60, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  5. 1 2 3 page 68, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  6. ↑ page 81, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  7. ↑ London's Mansions The Palatial Houses of the Nobility, p144, by David Pearce, Batsford 1986
  8. ↑ pages 82, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  9. ↑ page 82, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  10. ↑ pages 11-13, Stowe House, Michael Bevington, 2002, Paul Holberton Publishing
  11. ↑ The Times, "The health of the Duke of Wellington", 26 April 1824
  12. ↑ The Morning Post, "SALE OF THE STOWE LIBRARY", 20 January 1849
  13. ↑ pages 39-42, Stowe House, Michael Bevington, 2002, Paul Holberton Publishing
  14. ↑ pages 36-38, Stowe House, Michael Bevington, 2002, Paul Holberton Publishing
  15. ↑ pages 51-55, Stowe House, Michael Bevington, 2002, Paul Holberton Publishing
  16. ↑ pages 48-51, Stowe House, Michael Bevington, 2002, Paul Holberton Publishing
  17. ↑ pages 54-57, Stowe House, Michael Bevington, 2002, Paul Holberton Publishing
  18. ↑ pages 57-59, Stowe House, Michael Bevington, 2002, Paul Holberton Publishing
  19. ↑ pages 60-61, Stowe House, Michael Bevington, 2002, Paul Holberton Publishing
  20. ↑ pages 62-65, Stowe House, Michael Bevington, 2002, Paul Holberton Publishing
  21. ↑ pages 45-48, Stowe House, Michael Bevington, 2002, Paul Holberton Publishing
  22. ↑ pages 31-33, Stowe House, Michael Bevington, 2002, Paul Holberton Publishing
  23. ↑ pages 33-34, Stowe House, Michael Bevington, 2002, Paul Holberton Publishing
  24. ↑ pages 67-68, Stowe House, Michael Bevington, 2002, Paul Holberton Publishing
  25. ↑ pages 78-80, Stowe House, Michael Bevington, 2002, Paul Holberton Publishing
  26. ↑ pages 75-76, Stowe House, Michael Bevington, 2002, Paul Holberton Publishing
  27. ↑ pages 42-43, Stowe House, Michael Bevington, 2002, Paul Holberton Publishing
  28. ↑ pages 43-45, Stowe House, Michael Bevington, 2002, Paul Holberton Publishing
  29. ↑ page 106, Charles Bridgeman and the English Landscape Garden, Peter Willis, 1977, A. Zwemmer Ltd, ISBN 0-302-02777-7
  30. ↑ page 210, Sir John Vanbrugh: Storyteller in Stone, Vaughan Hart, 2008, Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-11929-9
  31. ↑ page 179, James Gibbs, Terry Friedman, 1984, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-03172-6
  32. ↑ page 208, William Kent, Architect, Designer, Painter, Gardener, 1685-1748, Michael I. Wilson, 1984, Routledge & Kegan Paul, ISBN 0-7100-9983-5
  33. ↑ page 52, Capability Brown, Dorothy Stroud, 1984, Faber and Faber, ISBN 0-571-13405-X
  34. ↑ page 55, Capability Brown, Dorothy Stroud, 1984, Faber and Faber, ISBN 0-571-13405-X
  35. ↑ page 153, Landmark: A History of Britain in 50 Buildings, Anna Keay & Caroline Stanford, 2015, Quitessence Editions Ltd, ISBN 978-0-7112-3645-5
  36. ↑ Page 89, English Gardens and Landscapes 1700-1750, Christopher Hussey, Country Life 1967
  37. ↑ page 111, Temples of Delight: Stowe Landscape Gardens, John Martin Robinson, 1990, George Philips
  38. ↑ page 8, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  39. ↑ page 9, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  40. 1 2 page 10, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  41. ↑ page 10-11, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  42. ↑ page 12, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  43. ↑ page 23, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  44. ↑ page 24, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  45. ↑
  46. ↑
  47. ↑ page 26, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  48. ↑ pages 28-30, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  49. ↑ page 31, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  50. ↑ pages 31-32, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  51. ↑ page 32, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  52. ↑ pages 32–33, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  53. ↑ page 33, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  54. ↑ pages 36-37, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  55. ↑ page 102, Temples of Delight: Stowe Landscape Gardens, John Martin Robinson, 1990, George Philips
  56. ↑ page 37, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  57. 1 2 page 38, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  58. ↑ pages 38-40, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  59. ↑ pages 40-42, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  60. ↑ pages 42-43, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  61. ↑ pages 43-44, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  62. ↑ Pages 45, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  63. ↑ "Chinoiserie Garden". hamiltongardens.co.nz. Hamilton Gardens. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  64. ↑ Pages 47-50, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  65. 1 2 Page 50, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  66. ↑ Pages 13-15, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  67. ↑ Pages 15-16, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  68. ↑ Pages 16-17, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  69. ↑ Pages 19-20, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  70. ↑ Page 19, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  71. ↑ Pages 20-21, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  72. ↑ Page 21, Stowe Landscape Gardens, James Shurmer, 1997 National Trust
  73. ↑ Images of England.
  74. ↑ Historic England, "Stowe (1000198)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 5 February 2016

References

Coordinates: 52°01′50″N 1°01′03″W / 52.0306°N 1.0175°W / 52.0306; -1.0175

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