Fodor's Expert Review Stourhead
Close to the village of Stourton lies one of Wiltshire's most breathtaking sights—Stourhead, a Palladian mansion whose gardens are the most celebrated example of the English 18th-century taste for "natural" landscaping. Both house and grounds have few parallels for beauty anywhere in Europe. Stourhead was built between 1721 and 1725 by wealthy banker Henry Hoare, popularly known as "Good Henry" (he died the same year as the mansion's completion), with his descendants adding the portico and wings (a fire gutted the building in 1902 shortly after restoration, but it was able to be largely reconstructed unaltered). Henry's grandson added a wing for the elegant Regency library and a picture gallery built to house his collections of paintings and books. There are also significant collections of Chippendale furniture and Chinese and French porcelain collected by the early Hoares on their Grand Tours, comprising some 8,000 objects in total. Still, Stourhead's greatest masterpiece is its gardens,... READ MORE
Close to the village of Stourton lies one of Wiltshire's most breathtaking sights—Stourhead, a Palladian mansion whose gardens are the most celebrated example of the English 18th-century taste for "natural" landscaping. Both house and grounds have few parallels for beauty anywhere in Europe. Stourhead was built between 1721 and 1725 by wealthy banker Henry Hoare, popularly known as "Good Henry" (he died the same year as the mansion's completion), with his descendants adding the portico and wings (a fire gutted the building in 1902 shortly after restoration, but it was able to be largely reconstructed unaltered). Henry's grandson added a wing for the elegant Regency library and a picture gallery built to house his collections of paintings and books. There are also significant collections of Chippendale furniture and Chinese and French porcelain collected by the early Hoares on their Grand Tours, comprising some 8,000 objects in total. Still, Stourhead's greatest masterpiece is its gardens, designed by Henry Hoare II and open to visitors since the 1740s. Influenced by the neoclassical dream landscapes of 17th-century painters Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin, Henry "the Magnificent" used hills, water (notably the central lake), and a remarkable collection of trees and shrubs—interspersed with classically inspired temples, grottoes, follies, and bridges—to create the effect of a three-dimensional oil painting. Discover the changing vistas on a walk around the artificial lake (1½ miles; walk counterclockwise for the best views).
The best times to visit are early summer when the massive banks of rhododendrons are in full bloom or mid-October for autumn color, but the gardens are beautiful at any time of year. You can get a fine view of the surrounding area from King Alfred's Tower, a 1772 folly (a structure built for picturesque effect).
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