Named for the Doric order that forms its architectural style, this small monument was erected in 1767 in honor of Princess Amelia (1711-86), second daughter of George II and sister of George III, who was a frequent visitor to Stowe and a close friend of Lady Temple. A small attic storey is embellished on the east side by a medallion and a quotation from Horace: O colenda semper & culta!, ("O, thou worthy of every honor, and ever honored"), and on the west by the dedication Amaeliae Sophiae Aug. Horace Walpole reported in a letter to George Montague that the Princess was so delighted with her Arch that she visited it four or five times a day when both she and Walpole were at Stowe during July 1770. Such behavior might seem egocentric, but it is important to remember that all of the garden buildings take on a different aspect in different light and weather. The Doric Arch, for example, receives the morning light on one side and the afternoon and evening light on the other.
Walpole himself was impressed with the Arch, describing the view pictured above in the same letter as follows: "You come to [the Arch] on a sudden, and are startled with delight on looking through it: you at once see through a glade the river winding at the bottom; from which a thicket rises, arched over with trees, but opened, and discovering a hillock full of haycocks, beyond which in front is the Palladian bridge, and again over that, a larger hill crowned with the castle. It is a tall landscape, framed by the arch and the overbowering trees, and comprehending more beauties of light, shade, and buildings, than any picture of Albano I ever saw." Walking through the Arch from this direction allows the visitor to enter the Elysian Fields from the southwest.

When the Arch was built, it also served to frame a group of statues just inside the Elysian Fields, Apollo and the Nine Muses. Looking back through the Arch to the west, one would see the statues of Princess Amelia's parents, King George II and Queen Caroline just across the parterre. Although the Queen's monument was subsequently moved to the western side of the Home Park, the King's Pillar has been restored to its original place and form.....
faculty.bsc.edu/jtatter/doric.html

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Elevation 150 m

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

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