Great British Landscape Gardens

overview

The typical aristocratic, English landscaped estate in the first half of the 18th century was a riot of temples, statues, grottos, follies, ha-has, bridges, lakes and canals, which spoke to universal themes of power, love and grief.

Join garden historian Mike Turner for a visually spectacular lecture which explores three of these impressive gardens - including Stowe in Buckinghamshire, Rousham in Oxfordshire and Stourhead in Wiltshire - which each have an extraordinary tale to tell. 

As this lecture explores, the grounds of  Stowe, Rousham and Stourhead were engineered and designed by some of the great architects and designers of the time, including Sir John Vanbrugh, Charles Bridgemen and William Kent. Yet the choice of decoration, and thus the message that these extraordinary gardens ultimately conveyed, undoubtedly reflected the unique whims of the owners themselves, including Sir Richard Temple at Stowe, General James Dormer at Rousham and Henry Hoare at Stourhead.