The Shell Bridge

It felt like summer today, and we decided on an outing. We chose to visit the gardens at Stowe (an NT property), where we had been once before, but on a cold and misty day in late autumn some years ago.

As the slogan at Stowe puts it, the site exhibits "gardening on the grandest scale". The gardens were created by the very wealthy Lord Cobham in the 18th century, and you would surely need riches of the highest order (at one stage, the Cobham family was richer than the king). The special feature of the gardens is that, although landscaped in the sense of layout and providing unobstructed views, it all looks pretty natural.

My photograph is of the "Shell Bridge", which is not actually a bridge but, instead, a façade for the dam dividing the upper and lower parts of the river. It was designed and executed by William Kent in 1738.

We spent three hours or more in the park, walking round and looking at the many vistas, temples and lakes. The sun shone much of the time, but there was a pleasant breeze. What a change from the weather of recent weeks!

There were many beezles (aka sheep) in the park, making a lot of noise 'speaking' to each other. Some even used the shade under a huge old tree to make the scene look really summery. I particularly liked the animal on the left that was using the great tree trunk as a comfy bed ...

There was a 'land train' to convey us to and from the car park, and there was a Hurricane flying around above us a couple of times. Warm sun, wild flowers, and the sound of a Merlin engine: summer indeed!

I have mounted here a selection of the photographs that I took yesterday .