As the excerpt from Part I explains, the gardens around the manor of Stowe consisted of approximately four hundred acres. Like the house, with its rooms finished in different styles, the gardens were also distinguished by different scenes and character.
One fascinating monument is the Temple of British Worthies, a semi-circular structure by the upper lake, containing the busts of notable people including: Alexander Pope, Sir Thomas Gresham, Ignatius Jones, John Milton, William Shakespeare, John Locke, Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Francis Bacon, King Alfred, Edward Prince of Wales, Queen Elizabeth, King William III, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, John Hampden and John Barnard.
Constructed between 1734 and 1735, the structure is built of stone and centers around a bust of Mercury in the middle. Situated in the Elysian Fields at Stowe, the structure was designed by William Kent. The National Trust has a detailed page on Stowe and many of the restorations underway here: History of Stowe | National Trust
The park also has a monument to Captain Greville, Lord Cobham’s tribute to his nephew Captain Thomas Greville.
Excerpts from The New British Traveller, 1819.
Jonathan Myles-Lea, a painter of historic houses and gardens, was commissioned by the National Trust to create a map of all the monuments and temples in the Stowe Landscape Gardens:
There are many lovely pictures online of the modern Stowe gardens and house, which I highly recommend viewing.
The Georgian era was really the primary time period for work in the gardens, including those designs by William Kent and later Capability Brown, who served as head gardener from 1741 until 1751. Brown added the Palladian Bridge, expanded the lake into a more natural shape, and developed the Grecian Valley which was really a woodland area.
Following Brown’s departure, Richard Woodward continued Brown’s work of naturalising much of the landscape, so that by the Regency era the gardens were fairly finished. In 1826, the Lamport Estate east of the gardens would be purchased and folded in, and in 1840 new rock and water gardens would be added.
The gardens, throughout the Georgian to Victorian era, were a destination and attraction for nobility, political leaders, and other fashionable people. It was the first English garden to have a guidebook produced, would have poems and other tomes dedicated to its magnificence, and was undoubtedly a sight to behold during the Regency era.
