The Grotto

Stowe: The Elysian Fields

The photograph below, taken in 1997, shows the Grotto presenting an external appearance quite different from both the one William Kent designed for it as well as the one it eventually took on. Though it was partially restored in 1973 and its entrances rebuilt in 1992, the Grotto is a prime candidate for full restoration. Its state of disrepair may be one reason that neither the Guide to the Gardens nor Robinson's book mentions the Grotto.

A view of the Grotto from the west side of the Alder River

Bevington explains that when it was built in 1739 the Grotto was a free-standing building with a more formal exterior. Within a few years it was flanked just to the south on both sides by small rotundas, one decorated with shells and the other with pebbles. Inside the Grotto, in a recess at the back of the central room, was a statue of Venus arising from her bath, and below her water flowed into a series 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. (For an idea of what the Hermitage at Richmond was like, see the Stowe Hermitage page.) 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 exterior to provide a rougher appearance. Below is the description in the Seeley Guidebook from 1788:

The trees which stretch across the water, together with those which back it, and others which hang over the cavern, form a scene singularly perfect in its kind. The front of it is composed of the roughest stones, with no other decoration than that of some few spars and broken flints; from the lower cavern the water flows, and from the opening above this a small stream drops into the river. The inside is finished with a variety of shells, spars, fossils, petrifactions, and broken glass, which reflect the rays of light. At the upper end is a circular recess in which are two basons of white marble: In the upper is placed a fine marble statue of VENUS rising from her bath, and from this water falls into the lower bason, from whence it is conveyed under the floor to the front, where it falls into the river. A tablet of marble contains the following lines from MILTON:

Goddess of the silver wave,
To thy thick embower'd cave,
To arched walks, and twilight groves,
And shadows brown, which Sylvan loves
When the sun begins to fling
His flaring beams, me, Goddess, bring.

Though completed almost a hundred years later, these changes mirror the directions for grotto building given by John Woolridge in his Systema Horti-Culturae: or The Art of Gardening published in 1677:

either in the side of some declive of a Hill, or under some Mount or Terrace artificially raised, may you make a place of repose, cool and fresh in the greatest heats. It may be Arched over with stone or brick, and you may give it what light or entrance you please. You may make secret rooms and passages within it, and in the outer Room may you have all those before mentioned water-works, for your own or your friends divertisements. It is a place that is capable of giving you much pleasure and delight, that you may bestow not undeservedly what cost you please on it, by paving it with Marble or immuring it with Stone or Rock-work, either Natural or Artificially resembling the excellencies of nature. The Roof may be made of the same supported with pillars of Marble, and the partitions made of Tables of the same.

The National Trust, as it considers restoring the Grotto, has some difficult but exciting decisions to make before it can begin the actual work. To which of its architectural manifestation should the Grotto be returned? As the panorama below shows, the interior of the building in its disrepair reveals layers of wall and floor decoration that will need to be preserved and replaced. The panorama will spin to the right on its own, but you may control the speed and direction of its spin by placing your cursor on the imaged and using your left mouse button to drag the view in the direction you choose.

This page was last modified on 1 August 2004.

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John D. Tatter, Birmingham-Southern College, jtatter@bsc.edu