Rousham House is a
JacobeanThe Jacobean style is the name given to the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James I of England, with whose reign it is associated....
style country house in
OxfordshireOxfordshire is a county in the South East England region, bordering on Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Warwickshire....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The house has been in the ownership of one family since it was built.
The manor of Rousham was purchased during the 1630s by Sir Robert Dormer. He immediately began construction of the present
mansionA mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. realtors define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
; however, work was halted by the start of the
civil warA civil war is a war between organized groups within a single nation state, or, less commonly, between two nations created from a formerly-united nation state. The aim of one side may be to take control of the nation or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies...
. The Dormers were a
RoyalistCavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I during the English Civil War . Prince Rupert, commander of much of Charles I's cavalry, is often considered an archetypical Cavalier.-Early usage:...
family, and so the house was attacked by
CromwellianOliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England into a republican Commonwealth and for his later role as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.He was one of the commanders of the New Model Army which defeated the royalists in...
soldiers who stripped the
leadLead is a main-group element with symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal, also considered to be one of the heavy metals. Lead has a bluish-white color when freshly cut, but tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed to air...
from the newly completed roofs.
In 1649 the estate was inherited by Robert Dormer's son, also Robert.
Rousham House is a
JacobeanThe Jacobean style is the name given to the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James I of England, with whose reign it is associated....
style country house in
OxfordshireOxfordshire is a county in the South East England region, bordering on Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Warwickshire....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The house has been in the ownership of one family since it was built.
The manor of Rousham was purchased during the 1630s by Sir Robert Dormer. He immediately began construction of the present
mansionA mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. realtors define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
; however, work was halted by the start of the
civil warA civil war is a war between organized groups within a single nation state, or, less commonly, between two nations created from a formerly-united nation state. The aim of one side may be to take control of the nation or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies...
. The Dormers were a
RoyalistCavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I during the English Civil War . Prince Rupert, commander of much of Charles I's cavalry, is often considered an archetypical Cavalier.-Early usage:...
family, and so the house was attacked by
CromwellianOliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England into a republican Commonwealth and for his later role as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.He was one of the commanders of the New Model Army which defeated the royalists in...
soldiers who stripped the
leadLead is a main-group element with symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal, also considered to be one of the heavy metals. Lead has a bluish-white color when freshly cut, but tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed to air...
from the newly completed roofs.
In 1649 the estate was inherited by Robert Dormer's son, also Robert. He left the house much as his father had created it, repairing only the ravages of the civil war. However, he did more to restore the family fortunes by marrying twice, each time to an heiress. His second wife was the daughter of Sir Charles Cottrell, a high-ranking courtier of King
Charles IICharles II was the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father King Charles I was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War. The English Parliament did not proclaim Charles II king at this time. Instead they passed a statute making such a...
.
It was the grandson of Rousham's builder Colonel Robert Dormer-Cottrell who after inheriting in 1719 began the huge transformations in the gardens that we see today. Initially he employed
Charles BridgemanCharles Bridgeman was an English garden designer in the onset of the naturalistic landscape style. Although he was a key figure in the transition of English garden design from the Anglo-Dutch formality of patterned parterres and avenues to a freer style that incorporated formal, structural and...
to lay out the gardens in the new and more natural style that was becoming popular. Bridgeman's layout of the garden was completed circa 1737. Rousham was then inherited by the Colonel's brother, General James Dormer-Cottrell. It was he who called in
William KentWilliam Kent was an eminent English architect, landscape architect and furniture designer of the early 18th century.-Education:...
to further enhance and carry forward the garden created by Bridgeman. This Kent did with considerable success over the following four years.
At this time Kent was also embellishing the house itself, with castellations and two wings containing a drawing room and a "delightful" library, according to Horace Walpole who said of Rousham in 1760 "it reinstated Kent with me; he has no where shewn so much taste." The interiors were altered a century later, though the hall, the principal room of the house, has survived alteration by successive generations unscathed, and remains as completed in the 17th century. Kent's exterior work is today almost as built, though in 1876 the original
octagonalOctagonal is a retired champion Thoroughbred racehorse, affectionately called 'The Big O' or 'Occy'. He was by the champion sire Zabeel, out of the champion broodmare Eight Carat, who also produced Group One winners Mouawad, Kaapstad, Diamond Lover and Marquise.Trained by John Hawkes, Octagonal...
paned glazing was replaced with innovative large sheets of plate glass, during a heavy-handed restoration of the house by the architect
James Piers St AubynJames Piers St Aubyn , often referred to simply as J. P. St Aubyn, was an English architect of the Victorian era, known for his church architecture and confident restorations.-Early life:...
. The house contains fine collections of Jacobean and 18th-century furniture, paintings and statuary, all displayed in a domestic setting.
The gardens, created by Bridgeman and then Kent, are situated in a curve of the
River CherwellThe River Cherwell is a river which flows through the Midlands of England. It is a major tributary of the River Thames.The general course of the River Cherwell is north to south and the 'straight-line' distance from its source to the Thames is about...
. Bridgeman had laid out the skeleton of the garden, with meandering walks through the woods, and
poolA pond is an inland body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is usually smaller than a lake. A wide variety of man-made bodies of water are classified as ponds, including water gardens designed for aesthetic ornamentation, fish ponds designed for commercial fish breeding, and solar...
s of varying degrees of formality. Kent's theme was to create and transform the natural landscape created by Bridgeman into an Augustan landscape to recall the glories and atmosphere of ancient
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
. Thus the
Roman ForumThe Roman Forum , sometimes known by its original Latin name, is located between the Palatine hill and the Capitoline hill of the city of Rome. It is the central area around which the ancient Roman civilization developed...
was to be recreated in the verdant English countryside. "The garden is Daphne in little," Walpole told George Montagu: "the sweetest little groves, streams, glades, porticoes, cascades, and river, imaginable; all the scenes are prefectly classic".
Away and unseen from the mansion, Kent's garden rambles past
classicalClassicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the Discobolus Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint...
templeA temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template," a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out...
s, follies and statuary representing the spirit of that era, dying gladiators, a horse being savaged by a lion and other statues depicting similar themes. Paths lead through woods where the abundant water from the Cherwell is fully utilised: small rills lead to larger ponds and formal pools, classical statuary of Roman Gods and mythological creatures are cunningly positioned to catch the eye as one progresses from a cascade to the cold bath and on to the next temple or arcade, each set in its own valley or glade, a string of picturesque events.
Among the most revealing and thought-provoking of the follies is a
grottoA grotto is any type of natural or artificial cave that is associated with modern, historic or prehistoric use by humans. When it is not an artificial garden feature, a grotto is often a small cave near water and often flooded or liable to flood at high tide...
with a small cascade with the inscription:
In Front of this Stone lie the Remains of Ringwood an otter-hound of extraordinary Sagacity:
this shows that while the English
squireThe English word squire comes from the Old French , itself derived from the Late Latin , in medieval or Old English a scutifer. The Classical Latin equivalent was , "arms bearer". One became a squire at the age of 13 or 14.A squire was originally a young man who aspired to the rank of knighthood...
who created this garden attempted to achieve
ArcadiaArcadia refers to a Utopian vision of pastoralism and harmony with nature. The term is derived from the Greek province of the same name which dates to antiquity; the province's mountainous topography and sparse population of pastoralists later caused the word Arcadia to develop into a poetic...
, his interests and loves remained hunting and
houndA hound is a type of dog that assists hunters by tracking or chasing the animal being hunted. It can be contrasted with the gun dog, which assists hunters by identifying the location of prey, and with the retriever, which recovers shot quarry....
s.
A separate garden closer to the house evokes the spirit of the
TudorThe Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII...
and
Stuart-People:*Clan Stuart of Bute, a Scottish clan*House of Stuart, a royal house of Scotland and England*Stuart , people with the surname and given name Stuart-Places:Australia*Stuart, the former name for Alice Springs, Northern Territory...
eras of
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
gardening.
BoxBox describes a variety of containers and receptacles for permanent use as storage, or for temporary use often for transporting contents....
-edged beds and borders of old
roseA rose is a perennial flower shrub or vine of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae, that contains over 100 species and comes in a variety of colours. The species form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles...
s and
herbaceousA herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...
plants are surrounded by walls of ancient red brick; here an historic circular
dovecoteA dovecote or dovecot is a building intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonholes for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in...
still retains its
dovePigeons and doves constitute the family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerine birds. In general parlance the terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably...
s and close by through a small gate is the
parishA parish is a territorial unit that was usually historically served by a local church. This administrative unit is typically found in Roman Catholic, Anglican Communion, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Church of Sweden, United Methodist, and Presbyterian churches...
church, where generations of Cottrell-Dormers are buried. One memorial in the church commemorates three sons of the family killed in the fighting of
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
.
The Cottrell-Dormer family still live at the house, and keep the garden and estate so uncommercialised that no book exists to guide the unwary tourist, and no shop sells colourful postcards or souvenirs. A visit to Rousham today is very similar to one enjoyed by a visitor in the 18th century. While the gardens and buildings are in a superb state of repair, they are not manicured, one does not feel afraid to tread on the grass or to pause for thought on a rustic bench; in such a state the spirit of the 18th century lingers on at Rousham.
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