When it was built by William Kent in 1739, the Grotto was a free-standing building with an interior decorated with mosaics and and an external appearance similar to the Hermitage, which Kent had built in the Western Garden some eight years earlier. Within a few years the Grotto was flanked just to the south on both sides by small rotundas, one decorated with shells and the other with pebbles, and it overlooked a circular pond separated from the rest of the Alder River. Detail from the 1753 engraving below, by George Bickham, gives a sense of what the Grotto looked like in its first form, seen from the southern end of the Alder River.
Inside the Grotto, in a recess at the back of the central room, is a statue of Venus arising from her bath, and below her water flows into a pair of basins before disappearing under the floor and flowing out into the river. This design has similarities to the grotto at Stourhead, the central chamber of which also houses a statue and pools of water and looks out of a rough arched entrance onto the lake there.
The Survey underscores the Grotto's similarities to both Pope's Grotto at his villa in Twickenham and the Hermitage at Richmond in plan, elevation, and decoration. During the years 1740-43 the Grotto was decorated, glazed, altered, and planted up, but by 1752 the area behind and beside was filled and graded so that it became a building below ground. In the 1780s, even more soil was added around and atop the building, and tufa was applied to the interior and exterior to provide a rougher, more cave-like appearance. The photograph below of the Grotto, restored during 2010-2011 by the National Trust, reflects this change in the appearance of the building.
faculty.bsc.edu/jtatter/grotto.html

Sasha Taylor

May 7, 2023

At Stowe you can discover an 18th century grotto and cave set in a Grade I World Heritage Site. The grotto was designed by William Kent in the 1730s with a neo-classical appearance. It was later restyled in the eighteenth century with tufa and rockwork to give a rustic, subterranean look, as was the fashion at that time.

Lord Cobham, whose family name was Temple coincidentally, took liberty and tyranny as the two key themes reflecting his views on contemporary politics. As a result temples abound throughout the estate. In the 1730s he hired William Kent, the landscape artist to design the grotto at the head of the Serpentine River. In it a statue of Venus overlooks water flowing in to a basin and then into the river in the manner of early Roman grottoes. The finished grotto was then used as a banqueting house for light refreshment and entertainments. Within a few years the Grotto was flanked just to the south on both sides by small rotundas, one decorated with shells and the other with pebbles. Unfortunately these are now no longer there. Today the grotto is open to visitors to inspect but still needs some restoration work to the interior of the roof where rocks have become dislodged and fallen.

Source: Osborne.house

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Location: Stowe, Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire, South East England, England, United Kingdom

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