Chapter 22: Thames Valley: Stowe Gardens

Cindy, Gary and I are spending a few days in Caversfield before visiting London. I suggest we visit Stowe House and Stowe Gardens in Buckinghamshire. Started in the 1600s, but mostly developed by Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham, in the 1700s, Stowe House is now a school and Stowe Gardens a world renowned display of monuments & temples set into verdant parkland.
It is a gorgeous late summer day, and Mary takes us while Sammy is in school and Steve is busy working. Stowe is vast, and visitors can enter through these gates, and then cross the ornamental bridge to approach the first monuments, the Pavilions.

Originally built in 1677, then known as Stowe Palace, the House was designed as the principal temple in the renowned Landscape Gardens, echoing the Greek and Roman styles revived during the 18th century. The creation of the Gardens as a formal stage set was aided by the foremost architects and garden designers of the time - Vanbrugh, Bridgeman, Gibbs and Kent. I gradually understand that two things must be borne in mind to appreciate Stowe: the first is that the content or subject matter of some of the temples and monuments is what matters.
From 1733, Viscount Cobham’s dislike of the current politics under Robert Walpole led Cobham to retire from politics. At Stowe he used the Gardens to unleash his opposition to the government by creating a political landscape full of hidden meaning and a tirade against his opponents. The sweeping away of the Gardens' formality by 'Capability’ Brown in the 1740's created the landscape that was visited by tourists in the 18th century and that we still see today. The Temple-Grenville family entertained people from William Pitts to Victoria and Albert & included Tsar Alexander I of Russia & the future Tsar Nicholas I. Under Viscount Cobham, Stowe was a political hotbed and writers, poets, & politicians were invited. The visitors reflected the ebb and flow of the support Cobham received, depending upon who was in power at the time. The family’s aim now was to wine and dine the monarchy of Europe and the estate was the perfect setting for this endeavour. As one set of VIP guests came and went, the word spread that Stowe was the place to be and the Temple-Grenville family as the people to know.

Richard Temple-Grenville (his mother had married into the Grenville family from nearby Wotton), later Earl Temple, always knew he would inherit Stowe from his uncle, Viscount Cobham, and was primed for the task. He undertook the remodelling of the House in the 1770's - it was said that during his entire life at Stowe he lived amongst a building site - and added the colonnades to the North Front, framing designer Vanbrugh's portico.
His son, the 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, had inherited his father's extravagant tastes. His aim to entertain the new monarch, Queen Victoria, led to him completely rework the state rooms. This eventually contributed to the building up of large debts. The Queen arrived with the Prince in early 1845 and stayed for three days. The 2nd Duke’s spiralling debts, particularly due to his love of furniture and art, led to the first Great Sale of Stowe contents in 1848 where the selling of all the moveable contents raised a mere £75,000 pounds against his owed £1.5 million. As a result the House was closed up. His death in 1861 brought the 3rd Duke, his son, back to Stowe. He tried to restore the family's name and fortune - he consolidated much of the parkland and building work - and while he was successful, his early death in 1889 without a son meant that Stowe was once again closed up.
Queen Victoria, painted by the studio of Franz Xaver Winterhalter 1842. Presented to commemorate her visit with Prince Albert in 1845.

Andrew Carpenter's statue of King George I, cast in 1723.

In 1922, with the risk of the estate breaking up, a commission was set up to create a new public school. Its future was secure as Stowe School was created. In 1923, 99 boys came with the first Headmaster, J.F. Roxburgh, growing to 500 by the time he retired in 1949. Influenced by his surroundings, Roxburgh declared that 'if we do not fail in our purpose, every boy who goes out from Stowe will know beauty when he sees it all the rest of his life.' There are many wonderful School tales, most of which are still recounted by 'Old Stoics' –as the alumni are called—who often return to the influential place of their youth. The landscape was their adventure playground with endless haunts and hiding places. Famous old boys include David Niven, George Melly, Sir Richard Branson, Lord Sainsbury and Lord Cheshire, VC. There are now over 800 students, girls (since 1974) & boys. Because Stowe is a fully operation school, it is not often open for tours. The Stowe House Preservation Trust was established in 1997 with a six-phase restoration plan to raise enough money to restore Stowe to the 18th century masterpiece which led HRH Prince Charles to call it "one of Britain's finest 18th century houses..." Because it is a school, tours make way for students, and some state rooms now incorporate areas like the cafeteria & library.

We arrive on a day that a tour is available and I urge the others to take the time to view Stowe House on the inside. It turns out to be a bad choice: the tour guide presents the most boring, hour-long tour that one could imagine. However, the inside is worth seeing, but not hearing about in a long-winded, droning monotone. There are eight stunning State Rooms decorated in a lavish Neo-Classico style. Ceilings are especially beautiful.

The beautiful ceiling in the Music Room, followed by other examples.

Ceiling of the Marble Saloon.

The Marble Saloon with its magnificent, newly restored dome.

Wall & mirror in the Music Room.

In one of the rooms is this glass bowl, slowly revolving, upon which are etched images of the 40 or so monuments/temples/buildings in the Stowe Landscape Gardens.

Students must be impressed to go to school amongst works of art & beauty, which reflects the vision of the first headmaster, that students should see beauty every day.

Although Stowe House was emptied of its contents during two great sales, earlier contents are either being returned or replaced with appropriate period items.

Looking from the South Portico towards the Corinthian Arch, far out in the Parkland.
The Queen's Temple. Note the presence of fences. Sheep and cattle wander through parts of the Gardens, leased to local farmers. If nothing else, they help with keeping the grass short!

The Temple of Concorde & Victory.

Temples such as this had fallen into such a state of disrepair during the last century, that there were doubts Stowe Garden could be preserved, but fundraising has succeeded and offers hope that no other monuments will ever fall into ruins.

Captain Grenville's Column is a rostra column, so-called because of the ship's prows protruding from the shaft. It is sited in Elysian Fields. The Captain died while commanding the DEFIANCE. He was Lord Cobham's nephew.

Captain Grenville's Column.

Captain Cook's Monument.

Temple of Friendship. Part of this temple includes a section designed to look like ruins.

The Season's Fountain.

Looking towards the Palladian Bridge, with the Gothic Temple and Lord Cobham's Pillar in the distance.

The Palladian Bridge.

Ornate ceilings over the Bridge.

Mary & Cindy take a much needed break. To see the Gardens means a LOT of walking.

The triangular-shaped Gothic Temple is great for photos. It dates from 1741. It is not a church.

It takes people a while to understand that the "buildings" in the Gardens are meant to be visual representations, created and laid out for dramatic effect. In one sense they are good examples of the English "folly" but at Stowe they had serious purpose. Here, for example, there is no access to the interior. It is the outer shell that is to be admired.

It was a scorchingly bright day, tough for good photos, but I do like this effect.

(Actually, I took this one on December 26th 2007 while at Stowe for the Boxing Day Hounds & Fox event. I have had this photo enlarged into a 16 x 20 and it hangs on my wall.)

"Greetings, Friend." One of the sheep relaxing next to the Gothic Temple.

In the garden of the Saxon Deities one finds the carvings of Sunna, Mona, Tiw, Woden, Thuner, Friga and Seatern. (These are the Germanic names of the days of the week.)

The Saxon Deity for Friday.

The Cascade & Artificial Ruins.

The Chinese House.

Across the pond, the Temple of British Worthies.

Close-up view of the Worthies.
Amongst the Worthies are Alexander Pope, Inigo Jones, Milton, Shakespeare, John Locke, Newton, Bacon, King Alfred, Elizabeth I, Sir Walter Raleigh & Sir Francis Drake.

One of the Worthies, Edward, Prince of Wales.

The Rotunda, its gilded occupant, the Venus de Medici.

Mary at Shell Bridge.

One of the Boycott Pavilions in the Parkland.

Mary at Dido's Cave.

Eastern Lake Pavilion.

Lord Cobham's Pillar. Some come to Stowe Gardens thinking they will see flowers. No so. It is a precisely landscaped garden of fields and trees and water in which are carefully placed temples and monuments. These provide accents and vistas for the gazing eye. In ways that I am slowing starting to understand, some monuments furthered Lord Cobham and his family's Whig politics.

Another iconic structure, popping up often in these blogs.

Gary & Dave find another British icon in the parking lot. An old Triumph, it brings out nostalgia for the candy-apple red Triumph TR4-IRS my family owned for a short time in the 1960s, before Mom slid under an 18-Wheeler with it!

I first visited Stowe last Christmas. We had heard there would be a running of the hounds and we thought it would be worth watching. It was not hard to find the beagles!

While we waited for the hounds to be set free to follow the fox, we enjoyed sherry and mince pies. Of course, hounds are no longer allowed to run down real foxes, so fox scent on some fox-like object is carried across the countryside for the hounds to pursue. We could not keep up last Christmas, but enjoyed what we had seen.
Stowe Gardens attracts people who enjoy a quiet, reflective place to visit, and I now consider it one of my favourite English places.