27-624: Prospect Tower is a folly on the Cotehele Estate . It has three sides and is 60ft high. When the National Trust was given the Cotehele Estate in 1947 the Trust renovated the tower and constructed a wooden spiral staircase inside, to allow visitors. The Tower was last renovated in 2018 and is still open to the public. Prospect Tower was built by the 2nd Earl of Mount Edgcumbe in celebration of
54-487: A grotto , a Gothic "temple", "ruins" of a Gothic abbey, a Roman mausoleum , and a Gothic tower with a view of the countryside. All these still exist and have been restored, and the hermitage (for which a "hermit" was hired on a seven-year contract, but soon dismissed for absenteeism) and Turkish tent have been recreated. The crystal grotto was restored in 2013, and re-opened by Lady Lucinda Lambton . The Roman "Temple of Bacchus" has been reconstructed (2018), though there
81-421: A different place within the park. The house was later extended in the 19th century by architect Decimus Burton and is now a grade II* listed building. Henry Luttrell, 2nd Earl of Carhampton (7 August 1743 – 25 April 1821) bought Painshill in 1807 from William Moffat . Luttrell lived at Painshill having fled from the ancestral Luttrellstown Castle near Clonsilla outside Dublin , where his role in crushing
108-478: A general term, "folly" is usually applied to a small building that appears to have no practical purpose or the purpose of which appears less important than its striking and unusual design, but the term is ultimately subjective, so a precise definition is not possible. The concept of the folly is subjective and it has been suggested that the definition of a folly "lies in the eyes of the beholder". Typical characteristics include: Follies began as decorative accents on
135-526: A use which was lost later, such as hunting towers. Follies are misunderstood structures, according to The Folly Fellowship , a charity that exists to celebrate the history and splendour of these often neglected buildings. Follies ( French : fabriques ) were an important feature of the English garden and French landscape garden in the 18th century, such as Stowe and Stourhead in England and Ermenonville and
162-471: Is in accord with the general meaning of the French word folie ; however, another older meaning of this word is "delight" or "favourite abode". This sense included conventional, practical buildings that were thought unduly large or expensive, such as Beckford's Folly , an extremely expensive early Gothic Revival country house that collapsed under the weight of its tower in 1825, 12 years after completion. As
189-596: Is now a cast of the Roman statue of Bacchus which it housed, among other antiquities bought on Hamilton's Italian tours. It was sketched in 1770 by the Swedish artist Elias Martin ; he went on to illustrate the 1783 book Bacchi Tempel ("The Temple of Bacchus") by Sweden's national bard, Carl Michael Bellman . Among the original plantings are a number of important specimens including fine examples of Cork Oak , Yew , Beech , Silver Birch and three Cedars of which one, known as
216-460: Is one of the finest remaining examples of an 18th-century English landscape park . It was designed and created between 1738 and 1773 by Charles Hamilton . The original house built in the park by Hamilton has since been demolished. Painshill is owned by Elmbridge Borough Council and managed by the Painshill Trust. Painshill, which is open to the public (with entry charge), is Grade I listed on
243-508: The Great Cedar is 120 feet (37 m) high and is thought to be the largest Cedar of Lebanon in Europe. In 2010, a conference at Painshill brought together elements of the restoration of this eighteenth-century Landscape Garden. The landscape garden has been a location for film and television production, such as for the grounds of "Bridgeford University" in the 2009 ITV2 series Trinity and
270-618: The Great Famine in Ireland, were built as a form of poor relief , to provide employment for peasants and unemployed artisans. In English, the term began as "a popular name for any costly structure considered to have shown folly in the builder", the Oxford English Dictionary 's definition. Follies are often named after the individual who commissioned or designed the project. The connotations of silliness or madness in this definition
297-724: The Irish Rebellion in 1798 made it unsafe to stay. (His ancestor Colonel Henry Luttrell had been assassinated in Dublin in 1717 for betraying the Irish to King William III of England .) After his death in 1821, Luttrell's wife Jane lived at Painshill until her death in 1831 when it was sold it to Sir William Cooper, High sheriff of Surrey . Sir William Cooper and his wife, later his widow, lived there until 1863, and installed Joseph Bramah 's suspension bridge and water wheel , and planted an arboretum designed by John Claudius Loudon . In 1873,
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#1733085251931324-672: The Register of Historic Parks and Gardens . In 1998 Painshill was awarded the Europa Nostra Medal for the "Exemplary restoration from a state of extreme neglect, of a most important 18th-century landscape park and its extraordinary buildings." In May 2006, Painshill was awarded full collection status for its John Bartram Heritage Collection, by the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens (NCCPG). Charles Hamilton
351-503: The gardens of Versailles in France. They were usually in the form of Roman temples, ruined Gothic abbeys, or Egyptian pyramids. Painshill Park in Surrey contained almost a full set, with a large Gothic tower and various other Gothic buildings, a Roman temple, a hermit's retreat with resident hermit , a Turkish tent, a shell-encrusted water grotto and other features. In France they sometimes took
378-495: The naturalist John Bartram . The garden was open to respectable visitors, who were shown round by the head gardener for a tip, and was visited by many well-known figures including two visits by William Gilpin , pioneer of the Picturesque , Thomas Jefferson with John Adams , and Prince Franz of Anhalt-Dessau separately, on special tours of gardens, and the important landscape garden author Thomas Whately . Then as now, there
405-590: The English poet, literary and social critic, Matthew Arnold , rented Pains Hill Cottage from Mr. Charles J. Leaf and lived there until his death in 1888. In 1904 Charles Combe of Cobham Park purchased and lived in Painshill Park, his son having moved into Cobham Park . Until World War II Painshill Park was held by a succession of private owners. In 1948 the estate was split up and sold in separate lots for commercial uses. The Park's features fell into decay. By 1980
432-516: The River Mole by a 19th-century beam engine powered by a water wheel. Hamilton enhanced the views of hills and lake by careful plantings of woods, avenues and specimen trees to create vistas and separate environments including an amphitheatre , a water meadow and an alpine valley . As focal points in the vistas and as sympathetic elements to be discovered in the landscape, Hamilton placed a number of follies , small decorative buildings, which include
459-537: The benefit of the public." There is a wealth of 18th-century images of the main features of Painshill to help the process. The restoration of this Grade I continued, in 2013 work was completed on the restoration of the Crystal Grotto, further restoration work in the park is dependent on the availability of funding. The park now borders the A3 road , which allows easy access. Today Painshill comprises 158 acres (64 ha) of
486-465: The changing fashion in garden design prompted by the Landscape Movement, which started in England in about 1730. Hamilton used what today are called organic gardening and organic lawn management techniques. It represented the move away from geometric formality in garden design to a new naturalistic formula. Many of the trees and shrubs planted by Hamilton were sent to him from Philadelphia by
513-511: The form of romantic farmhouses, mills and cottages, as in Marie Antoinette 's Hameau de la Reine at Versailles. Sometimes they were copied from landscape paintings by painters such as Claude Lorrain and Hubert Robert . Often, they had symbolic importance, illustrating the virtues of ancient Rome, or the virtues of country life. The temple of philosophy at Ermenonville, left unfinished, symbolised that knowledge would never be complete, while
540-482: The great estates of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, but they flourished especially in the two centuries which followed. Many estates had ruins of monastic houses and (in Italy) Roman villas; others, lacking such buildings, constructed their own sham versions of these romantic structures. However, very few follies are completely without a practical purpose. Apart from their decorative aspect, many originally had
567-465: The local authority, Elmbridge Borough Council, had bought 158 acres (64 ha) of Hamilton's original estate and the work of restoring the landscape garden and its many features could start. In the following year, the Painshill Park Trust was founded as a registered charity with the remit "to restore Painshill as nearly as possible to Charles Hamilton's Original Concept of a Landscaped Garden for
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#1733085251931594-577: The needy for work on useful projects would deprive existing workers of their jobs. Thus, construction projects termed "famine follies" came to be built. These included roads in the middle of nowhere, between two seemingly random points, screen and estate walls, piers in the middle of bogs, etc. Follies are found worldwide, but they are particularly abundant in Great Britain . Painshill Park Painshill (also referred to as "Pains Hill" in some 19th-century texts ), near Cobham , Surrey , England ,
621-409: The original more than 200 acres (81 ha) owned by Charles Hamilton in the 18th century. The landscape garden stretches along the banks of the winding River Mole on land that has a number of natural hills and valleys. The central feature is a serpentine lake of 14 acres (5.7 ha) with several islands and spanned by bridges and a causeway. The water for the lake and the plantings is pumped from
648-952: The royal visit of King George III . This article about a building or structure in Cornwall is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Folly In architecture , a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. Eighteenth-century English landscape gardening and French landscape gardening often featured mock Roman temples , symbolising classical virtues. Other 18th-century garden follies imitated Chinese temples , Egyptian pyramids , ruined medieval castles or abbeys , or Tatar tents, to represent different continents or historical eras. Sometimes they represented rustic villages, mills and cottages, to symbolise rural virtues. Many follies, particularly during times of famine, such as
675-452: The temple of modern virtues at Stowe was deliberately ruined, to show the decay of contemporary morals. Later in the 18th century, the follies became more exotic, representing other parts of the world, including Chinese pagodas , Japanese bridges, and Tatar tents. The Great Famine of Ireland of 1845–1849 led to the building of several follies in order to provide relief to the poor without issuing unconditional handouts. However, to hire
702-643: Was a particular route round the park recommended, designed to bring the visitor upon the successive views with best effect. Views from Painshill were painted on some pieces of the Frog Service commissioned by Catherine the Great of Russia from Wedgwood . Hamilton eventually ran out of money and sold the estate in 1773 to Benjamin Bond Hopkins, who held the estate until his death in 1794. In 1778 Hopkins commissioned architect Richard Jupp to rebuild Painshill House in
729-449: Was born in 1704 in Dublin , the 9th son and 14th child of James Hamilton, 6th Earl of Abercorn . He was educated at Westminster School and Oxford , and went on two Grand Tours , one in 1725 and a further one in 1732. In 1738 Hamilton began to acquire land at Painshill and, over the years, built up a holding of more than 200 acres (81 ha). His creation was among the earliest to reflect
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