Painshill Park

L2 Day3. A walk in Painshill Park with a friend on a lovely sunny day with nice autumn colours still. Also see the xtra. Painshill is an 18th century landscape garden created by the Hon Charles Hamilton between 1738 and 1773. He lived in Painshill House but this is now divided into private apartments. He went on two Grand Tours of Europe before acquiring the land at Painshill and his vision was to create ‘living paintings’ in a magical garden. He created a sequence of breathtaking vistas into which he placed follies for dramatic effect. Interestingly one of his contemporaries at Westminster School was Henry Hoare who went on to create Stourhead gardens which have some similarities. The gardens include a Gothic Tower, a Gothic temple, a ruined Abbey and a man made Grotto as well as several decorative bridges.