architecture, bridge, Buckinghamshire, Folly, garden, garden history, landscape, Temple

Mistress Masham’s Repose: a thinly disguised Stowe

cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Dr Richard Murray - geograph.org.uk/p/886664

The rotunda at Stowe in Buckinghamshire was designed by Vanbrugh in around 1720, and stands on a sweeping lawn in front of the grand mansion. In the middle of the 20th century author T.H. White used a little artistic licence, and for the purposes of his story moved it to an island in one of the two lakes. There it became home to a colony of tiny people, and the adventure that is Mistress Masham’s Repose began.