Stourhead Gardens

Henry Hoare II was a very wealthy banker who inherited Stourhead's Palladian manor house from his father in 1725 aged just 19. By the early 1740's Henry had created perhaps the most beautiful and picturesque manor house garden of its kind. He had dammed the river Stour in several places and raised up a magnificent artificial lake. With the assistance of the architect Henry Flitcroft, Hoare commissioned and constructed exquisite garden buildings and monuments, inspired by landscape paintings in his private collection by Claude Lorrain and Nicholas Poussain, to be dotted around his lake. He excavated and planted rare trees and shrubs, and employed Capability Brown's landscaping skills in the 1750's. Henry died in 1785, but the garden continued to flourish. Many varieties of Rhododendrons and Azaleas were added later by Henry's grandson Richard Colt Hoare in the 1790's.

Beyond Belief

The result was a park so perfect it is still one of the most breathtaking and visually stunning landscape gardens to be seen in England today. It is now owned by the National Trust, who continue to conserve and preserve its beauty, attracting visitors from all over the world. It really does have to be seen to be believed. The National Trust also looks after another of the great English Gardens, Stowe in Buckinghamshire.

Visiting

National Trust Stourhead Gardens Web site for admission details.