Stourhead
— — the landscape painted before it was planted.
Not only on a wall.
“An eighteenth-century landscape garden in west Wiltshire, designed by the banker Henry Hoare II from 1741. The lake was made by damming the Stour at its source; around it Hoare placed a Pantheon, a Temple of Apollo, a Palladian bridge, and a grotto, each set so the visitor sees the next one only on turning. The maples and tupelos go scarlet in late October. The path runs about three kilometres.
Stourhead, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Stourhead is a Palladian house and landscape garden near the village of Mere in west Wiltshire, England, held by the National Trust since 1946. The garden was laid out between 1741 and 1780 by the London banker Henry Hoare II on the grounds of his family's country seat, drawing on the landscape paintings of Claude Lorrain and Gaspard Dughet. The lake was formed by damming the springs that are the source of the River Stour. The estate covers about 1,072 hectares and the garden circuit runs roughly three kilometres.
The Pantheon, completed in 1754 by the architect Henry Flitcroft, is a domed rotunda modelled on the Roman original and set across the lake to be seen from the entrance walk. The Temple of Apollo, finished in 1765, stands on a hill above the south bank and faces the Pantheon across the water. The Palladian five-arched bridge was built in 1762, modelled on Andrea Palladio's design for the Rialto. The stone is local Chilmark and Tisbury limestone, the same beds used at nearby Salisbury Cathedral.
Stourhead is best known for two seasons. The rhododendrons, azaleas, and Japanese maples around the lake peak in mid-May, with the air heavy and the water still cold. Late October into early November turns the tupelos, liquidambars, and Japanese maples scarlet and bronze against the Pantheon's stone. The garden is open year-round; winter mornings often hold a low mist over the lake that the eighteenth-century planters seem to have planned for. Admission is free to National Trust members.