Seasons Fountain, The Four Seasons Fountain
Category
Architecture / Features & Decoration
Date
c. 1800
Materials
Marble (Carrara) & Stone
Collection
Stowe, Buckinghamshire
NT 91970
Summary
Seasons Fountain, The Four Seasons Fountain. A small fountain with a classical façade of Carrara marble with water cascading from a central lionhead spout into a series of three basins. It takes is name from the poem 'The Seasons' by James Thomson (1700-1748) with an extract quoted on a brass plaque.
Full description
The Seasons Fountain was constructed around 1800 for George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, the Marquess of Buckingham (1753–1813). It is named after James Thomson's poem 'The Seasons', published in 1730, with its themes of nature and pastoralism, it was one of the most popular and influential poems of the eighteenth-century. The 1817 Seeley Guide to Stowe describes the Seasons Fountain as: ‘A Fountain of white marble from whence flows a Spring of purest water. On a tablet is placed the following inscription: Here pause in silence, while beneath the shade Of solemn Oaks, that tuft the swelling mounts, You pensive listen to the plaint of rills. That purling down their dewy murmurs shake On the sooth’d ear.’ This quote, from Spring, part of the Seasons cycle, is inscribed on a small brass plaque to the top of the fountain. The façade was also originally decorated with four Wedgewood plaques showing the Seasons, now missing, these are shown in an 1805 sketch by Jean Claude Nattes. It is likely that silver drinking cups were originally suspended from chains on either side of the fountain. The Seasons Fountain is the only garden monument at Stowe to have been constructed from marble and may possibly contain elements of a reused mantlepiece, although it is not known if this is from Stowe or another of the families houses. James Thompson (1700-1748) was one of Richard Temple, first Viscount Cobham (1675–1749) ‘political poets’ and, following his European tour, likely wrote his ambitious poem on Liberty when visiting Stowe in c.1734/35.
Provenance
Commissioned in c.1800 by George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, the Marquess of Buckingham (1753–1813). Listed for sale but not sold in: ‘The Ducal Estate of Stowe, near Buckingham […]’, 1921, the Eighteenth Day’s Sale, lot 3791, p. 226: ‘A fountain in white marble, with inscription from Thomson, on brass tablet.' Also unsold in ‘The Ducal Estate of Stowe, near Buckingham […]’, 1922, the Second Day’s Sale, lot 82, page 13: ‘An old carved stone 2-tier fountain on circular pillar supports, lower basin 5’ diameter, lined with lead.' One of the monuments transferred to the National Trust along with the gardens in 1989 by Stowe School.