Stourhead House, 2013

The work of two grandsons. Henry ("the Magnificent") Hoare was the grandson of Richard Hoare, the founder of the great bank, and it was Henry who originally purchased the estate from the Stourtons--who had lived there perhaps since Anglo-Saxon times--and then built a great neo-classical mansion in the early 1700s. It was he too who more or less personally designed and built the gardens. His grandson, Richard Colt Hoare, added the library and picture wings flanking the older house, and also added much in books and art. He was a humanist, an artist, a traveller, and something of an archaeologist too, having been among the first to dig carefully at Stonehenge as well as at some 300 other nearby sites. (I'm about a mile from Silbury Hill as I write and am looking in its direction). The house at Stourhead is impressive, but the gardens are stunningly beautiful. We were there at just the right time, at the height of the bloom for the rhodos and all those other acid-loving plants.

Henry the Magnificent, obviously very
excited to be riding

Entry gate, all that remains of the original Stourton estate

Vicki poses by a pollarded Sweet Chestnut;
regular pruning leads to more vigorous growth

Stourhead House, left wing the library, right wing the picture
room, between the original mansion

Richard Colt Hoare and ? (grandson?)

In the library, a beautiful painted glass depiction of portions
of Rafael's School of Athens, which Colt Hoare no doubt saw
on his two extended grand tours

Still in the library, a Chippendale library ladder; lots of
Chippendale in this house; made by Thomas Chippendale
the Younger

Music room, set up for concerts as Colt Hoare would have
presented for guests

Game room

Looking out back toward the real obelisk

The famous "Pope's Cabinet, a 17th century
ebony and bronze piece, studded with precious
stones, crammed with secret chambers, drawers,
etc., acquired on a trip to Rome

Detail

Much British art and copies in the house; this a Jan Provost
Adoration

Poussin's The Choice of Hercules

And Murillo's Old Woman with a Distaff