Ascott

In Victorian times the Rothschild family owned so many great houses and so many scores of thousands of acres in Buckinghamshire that it was referred to as "Rothschildshire." (The patriarch Rothschild had five sons, each of whom was as skilled in money-making as his father, and they dispersed to the major capitals of Europe, including London, to make even more money). Two of the houses, Ascott, and Waddesdon, have come to the National Trust, and both warrant a visit. Ascott was a "hunting lodge," still very much in the family--no fotos inside the house--but the gardens were most impressive...19th-20th century gardens, all about landscape, but all about plants too. We were impressed, and I'll just post the pix without much comment.

The "Hunting Lodge"

Stowe Gardens: Don't Sweat The Plants

In the decline of the estate, Stowe's magnificent landscape park fared no better than the house. (The gardens are now in the best of hands, however, with the National Trust.) I doubt anyone would characterize Stowe as among Britain's greatest gardens. But Stowe, IMHO, is certainly Britain's most historic garden. This is where it began: the English landscape garden, the first garden to warrant a guidebook, the first garden so extravagantly celebrated in poetry and prose, a garden that was as much about politics and philosophy as about plants, the place where Culpability Brown served first as journeyman and then as master gardener before heading on to scores of gigs as one of history's most celebrated consultants. If you're interested in the history of landscaping and gardens, British history, the history of this most garden-oriented of peoples, don't miss Stowe. The good news is that you don't have to know anything at all about plants. We spent several hours walking in the gardens. The pix below are the merest sampling of the scores of follies, temples, monuments, water features, lanes, etc.

A fraction of its former size, but still formidable

Looking over the Octagonal Lake to the Gothic Temple

A closer up of the Corinthian Arch, at one of the main entrances

One of the two Doric temples astride the avenue

The Hermitage

Queen Caroline monument

Temple of Venus

The Rotondo

Said to be the inspiration for Ian Fleming's Goldfinger...

The Grenville Column

Artsy-fartsy view from the Artificial Ruins and Cascade

Temple of British Worthies (we'd heard of most of them)

The Temple of Ancient Virtue; said to have been the inspiration for the Jefferson
monument; TJ visited Stowe and liked it

The Palladian Bridge

The Queen's Temple

The Pebble Alcove

Stowe House: Sic Transit, Gloria

In its day, spanning the Georgian to Victorian periods, Stowe was one of England's greatest houses, rivaling Blenheim and the other greatest specimens. The Temple...Grenville family accumulated great wealth via military and political service, and lusted after the highest of titles, that of duke. This they finally achieved in 1823, from George IV, flip-flopping for his benefit from Whig to Tory. By the mid-1840s, the 2nd duke had run up debts of 100 million pounds, was called "the greatest debtor in the world," and Stowe, as well as the many other houses and estates of the Temple...Grenville family was slowly sinking beneath the waves. In 1848, everything not bolted nor cemented down was sold. The forests of one of England's grandest and most historic landscape gardens were logged. In 1922, the last family owner of Stowe sold it for 50,000 pounds to an individual who simply wished to avoid seeing the great house turned into a quarry. From him, it passed to the incipient Stowe School, which has spent most of the past century valiantly seeing to the preservation and renovation of the place. The vast gardens came to the National Trust in 1989, and are being returned to their former majesty. Recounting Stowe's history more than this is beyond my skill or time, but the interested reader--and it is an interesting story--can refer easily to one of Wikipedia's longest entries, "Stowe House."

Stowe House, southern view

From the house looking to the great Corinthian Arch and beyond to the town of
Stowe; don't miss the flanking Doric temples

Closer up, south side

Closer up of the north side and one of its colossades

Viscount Cobham, owned Stowe 1697-1749, and was chiefly responsible for its
building

2nd Earl Temple, owner, 1749-1779

The place is now a fairly elite coed private school (US private), you understand;
we were fortunate to be there between sessions and to enjoy a fairly full tour of
the house

In the library; Stowe's vast collection of books and manuscripts was sold in 1848;
this is the school library!

In one of the renovated great rooms

Oculus in the Grand Saloon, modeled after the Pantheon

Thus; perhaps the most opulent of all the great halls; Queen Victoria is said to have
been repulsed (repelled?) by Stowe's opulence

Look in the center and you'll see a tennis ball left in place as a memorial to the
time when the schoolboys had a fuller run of the place

Augustus now presides over the bar (an event of some sort had
occurred the previous evening)

In the lunchroom

Cafeteria service area

We couldn't help notice one of the school's honored graduates, Christopher Robin
Milne, whose life at Stowe was one of relentless torment from his schoolmates,
we were told; I've been reading a good bit of the Pooh-corpus to Penelope and
have often thought of Dorothy Parker's famous review of Milne ("Tonstant weader
fwowed up"); Christopher Robin went on to Cambridge, we see

Notice of sale of Stowe's contents

More; thus passes the glory of the world, Gloria