Name: The Seasons Fountain, Stowe Gardens
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The Seasons Fountain, Stowe Gardens

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United Kingdom

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South East England

Buckinghamshire

Aylesbury Vale

Stowe

The Seasons Fountain, Stowe Gardens

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

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Best Hikes to The Seasons Fountain, Stowe Gardens

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1. Palladian Bridge at Stowe – Palladian Bridge, Stowe loop from Mount Pleasant

5.17km

01:21

40m

Easy hike. Great for any fitness level. Easily-accessible paths. Suitable for all skill levels.

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4.9

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2. Palladian Bridge at Stowe – Temple of Friendship loop from Dadford

8.81km

02:18

60m

Intermediate hike. Good fitness required. Easily-accessible paths. Suitable for all skill levels.

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Intermediate

5.0

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3. Palladian Bridge at Stowe – Palladian Bridge, Stowe loop from Mount Pleasant

4.18km

01:06

30m

Easy hike. Great for any fitness level. Easily-accessible paths. Suitable for all skill levels.

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Tips

Stephen

January 25, 2022

If you're going for all the monuments it's a great place to sit down

Sasha Taylor

May 7, 2023

A small classical facade of carrara marble probably built about 1800, perhaps part of a reused chimneypiece with a dolphin head spout and a stone basin below. Probably built about 1800.

The Seasons Fountain is a small classical facade of carrara marble, perhaps part of a reused chimneypiece with a dolphin head spout and a stone basin below. Probably built about 1800 for the Marquis of Buckingham. This feature uses the water supply of the Temple of Contemplation which included a cold bath and stood slightly to the north of this feature.

Circa 1800 small classical facade of Carrara marble, evidently made up of the parts of a chimneypiece, with lines from Thompson's 'Seasons' inscribed. Lionhead spout and stone basin.

Among the last additions to the garden, the Seasons Fountain is thought to be one of the monuments erected in honour of the visit of the Prince of Wales to Stowe in 1805. It is named after James Thomson’s The Seasons (1746), one of the most influential and universally popular poems of the eighteenth century, and inscribed with extracts from it. The fountain is unusual in being constructed in statuary marble, a material all too obviously unsuited to English gardens and to the iron-rich spring water it dispenses, and its origin as an eighteenth-century chimneypiece is not hard to discern (it is not known whether it came from Stowe or another house). Originally the façade of the fountain was decorated with Wedgwood plaques of the Four Seasons, and silver drinking cups were suspended on either side from chains.

Source: nationaltrust.org.uk

Edvard

April 29, 2018

This small monument on the northeast side of the Alder River commemorates James Thomson's poem of the same name, an excerpt of which is engraved on a brass plaque above the jet of water. The excerpt is from a passage describing Hagley Park, the seat of Sir George Lyttelton, a cousin of Earl Temple. In the poem, Thomson describes the gardens at both Stowe and Hagley as the perfect combination of nature and art, places that encourage contemplation. It is appropriate, therefore, that the Fountain was erected on the site of the former Temple of Contemplation.

Bevington says that "although it was erected by 1805, the detailed carving of the white marble, unique among the temples at Stowe, suggests that it is a relatively late construction, perhaps re-using a mantlepiece from the house."

This is not the only garden building to celebrate pastoral poetry, of which Thomson's poem is a prime example. In the northeast corner of the Grecian Valley, perhaps the least apparently contrived section of the garden, stands the Fane of Pastoral Poetry.

faculty.bsc.edu/jtatter/seasons.html

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Elevation 170 m

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Saturday 4 October

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Max wind speed: 30.0 km/h

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

The Seasons Fountain, Stowe Gardens

1. Palladian Bridge at Stowe – Palladian Bridge, Stowe loop from Mount Pleasant

2. Palladian Bridge at Stowe – Temple of Friendship loop from Dadford

3. Palladian Bridge at Stowe – Palladian Bridge, Stowe loop from Mount Pleasant

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