Stourhead Gardens

Click here to return to the Gardening page
Built by Henry Hoare II & Henry Flitcroft in the mid 1700's in Southern England. I think it's the most beautiful garden in Great Britain. “The Stourhead park was created in a luxuriant valley, which Flitcroft made into a lake with a path around it that provided a sequence of Picturesque views and encounters with temples, statuary, springs and grotto, all involving layers of visual, literary, and even personal allusion.”

The Mansion is worth its admittance price, but if you only have time for one or the other, it's the gardens you want to see. The small path snakes around the lake and offers a new view at every bend. It just reeks of an English novel!

Most plants are marked for identification, so it's a good learning experience.

Back to the top