Service Announcement - No sooner are we back from our Rimsy-Fest (three historic venues visited 'dahnn-sahff-aahh'), than we're away again for a few days on our final winter/ spring Frank-Fest to Chester (for some Zoo Time) - so we'll be unable to provide feedback for another bit... 
In the meantime, the final (and ever so slightly late...
) images from our summer Frank-Fest featuring a brief stop-off at Stourhead (on the way back home from Guernsey), Wiltshire, England.
(Shot raw and processed using: DxO PL E/ ViewPoint, Adobe LrC/ PS with Tony Kuyper Panels and Topaz Labs Studio . Karen used our Sony RX10 IV on this trip, so you’re stuck with Phil’s images. Should you notice any non-R System exif data this post will self-destruct in 5 seconds. Sorry Tim...
).
You can find out more about Stourhead by clicking
Here.
(For those suffering with an acute sense of deja-vu, we previously posted images of Stourhead House which can be viewed
Here and the Gardens
Here).
Phil and Karen
1. In 1717, Henry Hoare I (son of Hoare's bank founder Sir Richard Hoare) purchased Stourton Manor. He commissioned the celebrated Scottish architect Colen Campbell to replace the existing building with a new Palladian-style villa - Stourhead House.
2. Unfortunately, Henry died just before his new home was completed. However, his widow Jane continued to live on the estate until her death in 1741, when the couple's son, Henry Hoare II, inherited it.
3. Henry Hoare II, also known as 'Henry the Magnificent’, made a number of changes to the house, including rebuilding the West Front to accommodate the Saloon. Henry's love of the arts didn’t stop at architecture, and he also had a great passion for paintings and sculpture. The collection he gathered included works by famous artists such as Poussin, Rysbrack and Bampfylde.
4. In 1902, a fire gutted the central part of Stourhead House, resulting in all the contents of the upper floors being lost. However, the house was reconstructed remarkably quickly, with the restoration being completed by 1907.
5. When Stourhead first opened in the 1740s, a magazine described it as ‘a living work of art’.
6. In 1946 Sir Henry Hugh Arthur Hoare, who had devoted his life to Stourhead gave it to the National Trust in order to keep the estate intact. (His son, Harry Hoare, was to be heir to the estate, but was killed in the First World War).
(Source: The National Trust).
