Moreton House, in Dorset, is the seat of the Frampton family. In the middle of the eighteenth century, it was home to James Frampton who remodelled the house and created new plantations and pleasure grounds. When he died in 1784 his friend Captain John Houlton erected an obelisk on the estate to ‘perpetuate a worthy and much-lamented character’.

The designer of the obelisk is known to be James Hamilton (1748-1829) of Weymouth. Little is known of his career in the years before the monument was erected, but he went on to be highly regarded in his home town. In the 1790s he described himself as ‘Builder and Stone Mason’ and, capitalising on Weymouth’s popularity as a healthy seaside retreat, he was also a ‘Proprietor of Bathing Machines’. He designed houses and a church in Weymouth, and his name is prominent on the 1809 monument to George III in the town.

Moreton is about 11 miles north-east of Weymouth. The obelisk stands at the junction of a network of rides in Fir Hill plantation, which had been laid out by James Frampton (1769-1854) as part of his ‘various and great Improvements’. The monument is 77 feet high (23.5m) and is topped with an elegant urn, which is itself almost 10 feet (3m) tall: this was carved from a block of Portland stone ‘near 4 tons in weight’ (4064 kg). A copper bar connects the urn and the shaft to provide stability, and a lightning conductor was in place from the very start to help avert damage by thunderbolt – an occupational hazard for obelisks.

Although the obelisk carries the date of Frampton’s death, 1784, work was not completed until the autumn of 1786. A full description of the obelisk was given in the Gentleman’s Magazine in 1787, and was accompanied by ‘an accurate Engraving’.

The article also quoted in full the inscriptions on the pedestal. On the north side, facing the house, was an inscription in English:

This Obelisk was erected
In the year 1784,
By Captain JOHN HOULTON,
As a publick Teftimony
Of his Gratitude and Refpect
For the Memory
Of his much-efteemed
And lamented Friend
The late JAMES FRAMPTON Efq.
Of this Place.

On the opposite face was an inscription in Latin celebrating Frampton’s creation of the landscape and noting the site of the obelisk as one of his favourite spots on the estate.

Frampton’s children thought his estate improvements and charitable works were all the monument he needed, as detailed on the simple plaque to his memory in the church dedicated to St Nicholas. In building the obelisk Captain John Houlton clearly wished to make a more prominent statement of his admiration for his friend.

The obelisk could be seen from miles around, and was a landmark noted by tourists exploring Dorset. In the nineteenth century, like many prominent landscape ornaments, it was a meeting place for the local hunt. Although the woodland has matured, a vista to the obelisk from Moreton House is maintained.

The obelisk has been in a very poor condition for many years now, and it is listed on Historic England’s Register of Buildings at Risk (it is a scheduled monument rather than a listed building).

As the obelisk decayed, the inscribed plaques were moved to the gate of the village cemetery, a short walk from the church, to ensure their survival.

Moreton’s church, commissioned by James Frampton in the 1770s, is a delight both inside and out. After admiring the very attractive and unusual exterior one goes inside to be amazed by the extraordinary light that flows through the clear glass windows. The church was badly damaged by bombing in 1940 and during the restoration green glass panes were fitted.

These were not popular, so the enlightened congregation commissioned the glass artist Laurence Whistler (1912-2000) to design new panes of engraved glass. These were installed between 1955 and 1987, although, after some controversy about the design, the window featuring Judas was not actually installed until 2013.

James Hamilton created another landscape ornament of a very different kind. In 1808 he designed the chalk figure of George III on horseback that is a feature of the hillside at Osmington, near Weymouth.

The obelisk is on private land, but can be seen from the road into Moreton. The church is very welcoming. The Osmington horse can be seen from the A353 north-east of Weymouth (although at the time of writing it is easy to miss as the chalk has washed away and it is a grey shape on the hillside).

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Hubert Walter Wandesford Fenwick, architect turned architectural historian and writer, was a regular contributor to The Scots Magazine, a monthly publication that claims to be the oldest magazine in Britain still in publication, having been launched in 1739. In 1965 Fenwick wrote an article about ‘Features and Follies’, in Scotland, illustrated with his own very attractive colour sketches.

Fenwick (1916-2003) starts, as so many writers on architectural curiosities do, with the thorny question of how to define a folly. He quotes the Universal English Dictionary which states that a folly is a ‘useless, fantastic structure, built from foolish caprice’, but he does not think it is an accurate description. He then launches into an analogy which the Flâneuse rather likes: ‘… after all, most oil paintings are useless, unless they happen to cover a gap or a dirty mark on the wall. Most paintings are fantastic, some even foolish, but they, nevertheless, tend to make life more interesting and civilised, and they express an aspect of the human spirit.’ It is, he concludes, the same with a good folly. He is however strict about his classifications of what is a folly and what is a feature.

McCaig’s tower at Oban, for instance, is a feature, not a folly, as it was originally intended as an ’eminently practical’ museum. According to Fenwick’s rules, the Wallace Monument at Stirling is a commemorative tower, not a folly.

The buildings that do qualify as folly in Fenwick’s opinion are a particularly lovely bunch, and amongst his selection are The Whim at Blair which he describes as a ‘dummy fort’, the sham ruin on Balcarres Crag in Fife, the tower on Kinnoul Hill in Perth which was built to show that the Tay was the equal of the Rhine, Ossian’s Temple (aka the Hermitage) at Dunkeld, the Craigiehall Temple and Hume Castle which is a ‘magnificent fake’. The Pineapple at Dunmore is included for its ‘extremely clever and imaginative design’.

Fenwick wrote the piece in response to a book about follies which he had recently read. He felt cheated as it contained ‘less than a dozen Scottish examples’ (actually there are exactly twelve), and only two that ‘could legitimately be so designated’. He failed to name the book, but he does give the clue that it was produced by a ‘petrol firm’, so we can be sure it was Follies, written by Ella Hatt, beautifully illustrated by Paul Sharp, and published by National Benzole in 1963 (there’s more about that book here.) In case you are wondering, the two true follies that Fenwick approved of in the book were the sham on Balcarres Crag and the Hermitage at Dunkeld.

You can read more about the history of the Scots Magazine here.

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In March 1863 Sir Tatton Sykes, 4th baronet, died at Sledmere, his seat in Yorkshire. Almost immediately there were calls for a monument to his memory, and a committee was formed to oversee the project and solicit subscriptions. Various sites were considered, and a competition launched to find the perfect design. Early in 1865 a site high on Garton Hill was decided upon, and the chosen architect, John Gibbs, visited Yorkshire to see the location before the foundation stone was laid.

Sykes (1772-1863) was a pioneering farmer, enriching the soil of the wolds with bone manure made to his own formula. His principal passions were horse racing and fox hunting and he was known as a great host, but also as something of an eccentric. He lived a spartan lifestyle, and expected his wife and children to do the same; he drove his own sheep to market (and as a talented boxer he could fight off any rowdies along the way) and as shown below he continued to wear the costume of an earlier generation throughout his life.

The Illustrated London News began its obituary of Sir Tatton with the story that a Yorkshireman was once asked what was worth seeing in his county. His response was ‘York Minster, Fountains Abbey and Sir Tatton’. Thousands are said to have attended his funeral at Sledmere in 1863.

The competition to design the monument attracted over 150 entries of ‘obelisks, columns, and towers in great variety of style and ornamentation’. The designs were all displayed in a Driffield school-room for two weeks, during which time the committee deliberated and ‘gratified spectators’ called in to peruse the works.

The favoured entry was by John Gibbs (1826-?), an Oxford born architect who had been lauded for his design for the famous Banbury Cross, erected in 1859 to mark the marriage of the Princess Royal, Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter.

The committee was particularly impressed that Gibbs had included a carving of Sykes in his natural habitat – the hunting field. The finished design was featured in The Builder magazine in April 1865, and reached a wider general audience in the pages of the Illustrated London News. As Barbara Jones wrote in Follies and Grottoes (1953) it is ‘so encrusted with detail that description is impossible’, so the editors of both of the contemporary magazines must have been delighted to be sent an illustration.

The foundation stone was laid by Lord Hotham in May 1865, using a ceremonial trowel made for the occasion by a Hull silversmith. The contractors were Messrs Simpson and Malone of Hull, and the ‘celebrated sculptor’ William Forsyth (1833-1915) of Worcester was commissioned to model the figures. Despite gales which threatened to blow down the scaffolding, the final stone was placed on 1 December 1865, although setbacks with the sculpture delayed the inauguration ceremony until November 1866.

The principal inscription remembers that the local populace ‘loved [Sykes] as a friend and honoured him as a landlord’.

The chosen site stood on top of ancient entrenchments, and as work came to a close in 1866 the workmen levelling the ground discovered a number of skeletons. A ‘zealous architect’ by the name of Mortimer hurried to the scene to record the find, and eventually found more than forty graves.

John Gibbs continued to work as an architect and published a number of books on the subject, as well as a novel. In the early 1870s he moved to Leamington Spa and his known history seems to come to a strange end in 1880. In that year the ‘travelling architect’ was in court in Warwick on a charge of entering a property without ‘reasonable excuse’. According to the press reports he was trying to escape a man to whom he owed money, but the newspapers featured two conflicting conclusions: one stated that he was fined 3 shillings, and the other that he was acquitted. Whatever the truth of the matter, after a distinguished career Gibbs seems to disappear without trace.

The monument (grade II) was was damaged by a gale in 1982 but was quickly restored. It stands alongside the B1252 between Garton on the Wolds and Sledmere, and the exterior can be viewed at anytime. The interior can be viewed by prior arrangement with the Sledmere estate office.

Sledmere village and the grounds of Sledmere House are home to a range of wonderful ornaments built in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For more on the house, gardens and park click here.

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It is hard to find a town or village in Ayrshire that doesn’t have a monument to Robert Burns, but the little town of Mauchline has the honour of being home to the ‘National Burns Memorial’. Together with five cottage homes for ‘deserving people who have fallen on hard times’, the tower was built in 1896 as a memorial to the poet.

Burns (1759-1796) rented a farm near Mauchline from 1784 to 1791, and it was during this period that he produced many of his best-loved poems. He married a Mauchline girl, Jean Armour, who was known as ‘the Belle of Mauchline’.

Whilst living at Mossgiel Farm Burns would visit Mauchline and drink at Poosie Nancy’s tavern, which still stands today. Did he also pop into the town’s Syrian Barbers to have his trademark tousled locks attended to?

The competition to design the monument was won by architect William Fraser (1867-1922) and the foundation stone was laid on 23 July 1896. The crowd present was said to be 10,000 strong, and the procession of trades, guilds, clubs and the general public stretched a mile in length.

The ceremony was followed by a celebratory banquet for the V.I.P.s where the menu included ‘Scotch Haggis’ as an entrée and ‘Burns Tart’ as one of the sweet courses. The Flâneuse hasn’t been able to find a recipe to recreate this for a Burns Night supper, although it seems it may have been something like an Ecclefechan Tart which has nuts and fruit in a pastry case.

The tower became a museum housing Burns memorabilia, and visitors could climb to the top to admire the impressive panorama.

The museum is long gone, but for the last 12 or so years the tower has been home to Johnston Art, showing the work of Elaine Johnston, and if you visit when the gallery is open you might be lucky enough to be invited to climb up to the roof to admire the view (and the artworks en route).

This post will arrive with readers on Burns Night 2025, so best wishes to all who are celebrating this evening. The Folly Flâneuse and the Uncouth Companion will ‘take a cup of kindness’ and toast you all.

For lots more on Mauchline and the monument visit the Ayrshire History website.

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Late in 1963, a series of books was published with an eye for the Christmas market. Three of the titles featured British landmarks in the form of Bridges, Monuments, and Follies, and they were launched in time for ‘Christmas reading, New Year travelling’. Whilst Sir Hugh Casson, as editor of the series, was the big name to capture the attention of shoppers, the real heroes were Paul Sharp who provided the wonderful whimsical illustrations and bold design, and the writer E.M. Hatt, whose bright prose is a delight to read.

The books (there were eventually 8) were published by Chatto & Windus on behalf of the National Benzole Company, with the stated aim being to ‘stimulate and satisfy the curiosity of the motorist, and thus increase the pleasures of his journey’. Of course the books were the brainchild of the marketing department, and there was an ulterior motive: the more motorists explore, the more petrol they buy. The Follies volume was the first, and understandably it is Casson’s name on the cover, but although Sir Hugh writes in his introduction that the follies are ‘wittily and accurately described and affectionately depicted’, Hatt and Sharp are not mentioned by name until the acknowledgements on the final page of the book. The Folly Flâneuse hopes to give them the credit they are due here.

Ella Mary Thompson (1907-1972) was born in Bristol where her father was a newspaper reporter. She spent some time in Paris at the Sorbonne  and then in 1932 she married her father’s journalist colleague, Richard William Hatt. Hatt came from a prosperous Bath family who had been wigmakers, hairdressers and perfumers, but his career was influenced by the field of his uncle, who was Chairman of the Wessex Associated News. A son was born in July 1933, but tragically Richard died at the early age of 40 in September of the same year. After her husband’s death Ella was offered help and support by his sister, the artist Doris Hatt, and her partner Margery Mack Smith.

In 1939 Ella was working in Bristol as a proof-reader and indexer, but by 1942 she had moved to London and found employment with the publishing house Faber & Faber, working with T.S.Eliot. Alongside her work as an editor, she began to write books for children. A volume of verse, Callers at our House, illustrated by Leslie Wood, appeared in 1945, and three stories were published in 1947: Priscilla the Paddington Mouse, with illustrations by Francis Gower, The Cat with a Guinea illustrated by Leslie Wood, and The House that was No-one’s Affair with illustrations by Margaret Wolpe. The 1947 publications were well-received in the press, and recommended as Christmas gifts. She also translated a wide range of works from French and German – her eclectic list of subjects including cookery, caving, and compost.  The latter had become something of a Faber specialism, as director Richard (Dick) de la Mare was passionate about the organic movement, and this section of the list became known in-house as ‘muck’.

Mrs Hatt, as she was formally known at Faber & Faber, published under the name E.M.Hatt, seldom revealing her gender. But there was one exception: in 1962 ‘Ella Hatt’ wrote the text for the last in a series of books produced by National Benzole on the subject of ‘Our National Heritage’. The foreword to Our National Heritage: Gardens was written by Vita Sackville-West, and again the writer and illustrator were relegated to a note at the back of the book. The delightful illustrations and design were by Paul Sharp, and as Vita wrote ‘How delightful it is to come across such a series in a world which tends more and more towards cheapness and vulgarity’. The success of this publication probably led to Hatt and Sharp working together on the Follies series the following year. Hatt’s text for Follies is lively and engaging (the Barwick Park follies are ‘the jolliest collection of frolics’), probably because she had a genuine interest in the subject: her grandson recalls car journeys being interrupted to investigate nearby curiosities.

The visual side of the book was the work of Paul Spencer Sharp (1921-1998). He was born in Sowerby Bridge in Yorkshire, and would have been familiar with follies from a young age, as the mighty Wainhouse Tower dominates the view towards Halifax. Sharp studied at Wakefield School of Arts and Crafts, where in 1939-40 he won an award for designing the school Christmas card. His prize was a copy of the recently published High Street by J.M.Richards with the now-famous illustrations by Eric Ravilious – which must have influenced the young artist. He went on to Leeds College of Art before serving with the RAF in the Second World War. He finished his education at the Royal College of Art and then taught at Farnham School of Art, where he rose to become head of the Department of Design. He left teaching in 1960 to concentrate on graphic design, and would go on to work for clients including the Paul Mellon Centre, the National Gallery, Sothebys, Royal Doulton, Spink and the Mermaid Theatre.

The series of books for National Benzole was a major project for Sharp, and his obituary in The Independent reveals that he drove over 150,000 miles ‘to visit some of the most obscure corners of the British Isles’ whilst researching and sketching. The obituary was written by Paul Atterbury, a specialist in 19th and 20th century art, now recognised from his appearances on TV’s Antiques Roadshow. His father, Rowland, ran the Westerham Press where Sharp was a favoured designer and friend, and where the National Benzole books were printed. Paul Atterbury’s draft obituary (not published in its entirety) remembered his ‘calm and well-ordered graphic style’, and his ability to ‘catch in a few lines and a few minutes, the essence of a building […] he could draw through the car window, or under an umbrella in a howling gale. Nothing could stop him’.

In 1967 the three books on follies, castles, and monuments were reissued in a single volume by The Reprint Society, a book club. Top marks to them for righting the wrong and giving Hatt and Sharp full credit on the cover.

The Folly Flâneuse was delighted to be introduced to the work of artist Doris Hatt, whose work often features Cabot Tower and Walton Castle in Bristol as a backdrop https://www.courtgallery.com/artists/210-doris-hatt/biography/

There’s a short film about Sharp’s work here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxMRRKXsJfg

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