Southern bastion of Bridgeman’s ha-ha. The gardens at Stowe were among the first – if not the first – in England to possess a ha-ha. The ha-has installed by Charles Bridgeman and John Lee in the 1720s, under the patronage of the first Viscount Cobham, were certainly those that met with the greatest interest from visitors belonging to the landed classes with estates of their own in which to copy the design.