The Hermitage was built by William Kent at about the same time as he built the Temple of Venus, just to the west on Pegg's Terrace, in 1731.
Both Bevington and the Guide to the Gardens suggest that Kent was experimenting with a romantic style of architecture in this building: it is faced with rough stone, one of its two towers was built as a deliberate ruin, and a set of pan pipes was carved on the pediment above the door.
The Survey suggests that the Hermitage at Stowe was a copy of the one in Richmond in which Queen Caroline displayed the busts of a number of English philosophers.
The position of the Hermitage close to the Temple of Venus and across from the Rotunda allowed for Gilbert West in his poem about the gardens to suggest that the Hermitage was the final habitation for Malbecco, the elderly and miserly husband of Hellenore from the story in Book III of Spenser's The Faerie Queene. This story was depicted in paintings in the interior of the Temple of Venus.. After Hellenore rejected Malbecco and chose instead to spend her life with a band of satyrs, Spenser explains that Malbecco went mad from jealousy and lived out the rest of his miserable life in a cave.
faculty.bsc.edu/jtatter/hermit.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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The Hermitage, Stowe Gardens

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

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