Stourhead Gardens

The great lawn behind the house leads to the valley below, in which are several ponds and a lake, around which the lake walk goes, passing by half a dozen temples, cottages, grottoes, and the like, all of it beautifully landscaped with exotics and other plants. We spent nearly the whole afternoon on the walk.

In addition to his other pursuits, Colt Hoare was a skilled gardener and especially
collected pelargonia; not only collected them but created new varieties through
cross-pollination, some 600; his collection dissipated after his death, but the Trust
is attempting to restore the collection to at least a fraction of its former extent;
pelargonia are of the same genus as geraniums; about 230 varieties exist in the
world today, mostly in South Africa

Out on the lake walk now, looking across the lake's outlet to the Temple of Apollo 

A fairy ring of trees (all in a circle); that's what we'd call them in California

Exotic species department

The floor of a rhododendron wood

In the Grotto

Looking back across the lake to the Temple of Flora

The Gothic Cottage

In another rhododendron wood--reminded me of Nepal, where it's the national tree

The Pantheon

Mama Swan and babies

Another handkerchief tree

A Medieval Gothic cross Henry the Magnificent bought
from the City of Bristol in the 1760s

The beautiful little parish church on the estate; the only bummer of the day was
learning that thieves had stolen the lead roofing off this building...