Stourhead

Stourhead is an estate in southwest Wiltshire where the River Stour rises. It covers 1,072 hectares and stretches into Somerset. The grounds include an 18th-century Neo-Palladian mansion, the village of Stourton, famous gardens, farmland and woodland. The National Trust has owned part of the estate since 1946. The house replaced an older manor in the 1720s under Colen Campbell’s design and Nathaniel Ireson’s building work. The house and its art collection belong to the Hoare family’s long history at Stourhead. After a fire in 1902 many heirlooms survived and the mansion was rebuilt. The art collection features hand-coloured prints once mistaken for oil paintings, attributed to Giacomo Van Lint. Other architects shaped the estate over time, including William Benson, Francis Cartwright and Nathaniel Ireson. Several garden buildings were added by Henry Flitcroft and John Carter in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The gardens centre on a large artificial lake created by damming a stream. A path around the lake evokes Aeneas’s journey to the underworld, framed by temples and monuments. The Temple of Ceres, Temple of Hercules, Temple of Apollo and Alfred’s Tower stand among plantings arranged to shift moods. A Palladian Bridge, Rockwork Bridge, grotto and Gothic Cottage summerhouse line the water’s edge. Views from King Alfred’s Tower and the Temple of Apollo take in rhododendrons, cascades and distant hills.