Stowe, in Buckinghamshire, was the most celebrated English landscape garden of the eighteenth century. "Much visited and publicized, it had enormous influence on garden design, especially after experiments there in 'natural' gardening in the 1730s. It is historically important because it remained at the growing point of taste throughout the 18th c., exhibiting every stage of the garden revolution. Its final phase of idealized landscape survives relatively intact." (OXFORD COMPANION TO GARDENS, page 537). Stowe's fame brought it many visitors, and Benton Seeley, a local bookseller and engraver, published its first guide book in 1744. Seeley's guides went through several editions, being continually revised and enlarged over the course of the century, and did much to spread the influence of…
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Stowe, in Buckinghamshire, was the most celebrated English landscape garden of the eighteenth century. "Much visited and publicized, it had enormous influence on garden design, especially after experiments there in 'natural' gardening in the 1730s. It is historically important because it remained at the growing point of taste throughout the 18th c., exhibiting every stage of the garden revolution. Its final phase of idealized landscape survives relatively intact." (OXFORD COMPANION TO GARDENS, page 537). Stowe's fame brought it many visitors, and Benton Seeley, a local bookseller and engraver, published its first guide book in 1744. Seeley's guides went through several editions, being continually revised and enlarged over the course of the century, and did much to spread the influence of Stowe as a model for the English landscape garden. Jefferson owned at least two of them. In 1797 Seeley's son completely revised the work, including a new and different series of plates.
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STOWE: A DESCRIPTION OF THE MAGNIFICENT HOUSE AND GARDENS
Of The Right Honourable Richard Grenville Temple, Earl Temple... Embellished with a General Plan of the Gardens, and also a separate Plan of each Building, with Perspective Views of the same.
