Saturday, on our way to Bournemouth, Jeff and I visited the gardens at Stourhead. The place is a spectular National Trust property near Mere, Wiltshire.We took a miss on the Palladian mansion and just did the grounds.
The Stourton family had lived in the Stourhead estate for 700 years when they sold it to Henry Hoare I, son of wealthy banker Sir Richard Hoare in 1717. Henry Hugh Arthur Hoare, gave the Stourhead house and gardens to the National Trust in 1946. His sole heir and son, Captain "Harry" Henry Colt Arthur Hoare, had died of wounds received in World War I 
The gardens are home to a large collection of trees and shrubs from around the world. The gardens were designed by Henry Hoare II and laid out between 1741 and 1780 in a classical 18th-century design set around a large lake achieved by damming a small stream. (The place gets it name from the River Stour!)
The inspiration behind their creation were the painters Claude Lorrain, Poussin and, in particular, Gaspar Dughet, who painted Utopian-type views of Italian landscapes. In the garden are a number of temples
. On one hill overlooking the gardens there stands an obelisk and King Alfred's Tower (a 50-metre-tall, brick folly designed by Henry Flitcroft in 1772);On another hill the temple of Apollo provides a vantage point to survey the lake and temples.
The Pantheon , the largest of the temples would be a great place to have a picnic.
The Grotto was entertaining and was very popular in Italian Renaissance gardens and a cool place to
escape the heat. 
I loved the Palladian Bridge and the Bristol High Cross.
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