January | 2012 | Author, Jane Lark's stories

We visited Belton House in Lincolnshire in September 2011, and the folly there was the height of Romance. Although I discovered no grand stories about it I just loved its charm.

Set at the end of a long avenue – a room with a view – not a very tall tower but placed on a hill that proclaims to give sight of seven counties.

It is set in a beautiful aspect, at the end of an avenue, both to look at from the windows of the house, and from the folly back towards the house. There were deer grazing in the park.

Belmount Tower was built between 1749 – 1751, and originally had two further arches either side of the central arch, these were removed in the later 18^th century on the advice of Lord Brownlow’s brother-in-law, Philip Yorke.

The building is surprisingly narrow, but internally contains a spiral staircase leading to a room above, from which the views can be enjoyed.

We know that Lord Brownlow used the room for entertaining, he even dined there, having a meal transported from the house to the tower. The servants must have transported the dinner in carts. It’s quite far from the house.

It looks like a fabulous entertaining space, people must have felt very decadent sitting in a room with views from every angle as though you were up on top of the world.

I recently went to another folly used for dining, on the Rievaulx Terrace, in Yorkshire. This Palladian style folly was established as a permanent entertaining space, and better equipt, with a cellar beneath for storing wine and cooking. Its over a mile from the house so there was no chance of transporting a hot dinner.

The whole platform it’s built on could almost be called a folly.

The bank of earth was built up on a natural hill above the ruins of Rievaulx Abbey, so guests may stroll from one end to another and enjoy the view of the Abbey ruins framed by carefully planted trees.

Imagine this on a Christmas day, dusted with snow, and then taking your Christmas dinner in the folly, which was as fabulously decorated as any house.

Views from the terrace;

Jane Lark is a writer of authentic, passionate and emotional love stories.

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Stourhead house and landscaped garden was built between 1717 and 1725 by Henry Hoare, whose father, Sir Richard Hoare, had made his fortune in establishing Hoare’s Bank.

Henry Hoare obviously had a passion for the folly as the garden ornament. There are several in the garden including smaller temples, a large Pantheon like building, a tall tower, a grotto and a small Gothic Cottage. He clearly did not wish to be out done in anything.

Keira Knightley, as Elizabeth Bennett, stands in the Apollo Temple at Stourhead when she is rejecting Mr Darcy in the 2005 film of Pride and Prejudice and runs across the Palladian bridge over the lake.

I think why I love follies is for their romance, they romance the eye and the imagination, positioned in places where you can hide away and allow indiscretions or secret observation. Or in a place high up for the view, where you feel like a king, inspired, looking down on your creation and ordering the world.

Henry Hoare’s King Alfred’s tower, a crenulated, castle like tower, has 205 steps to reach the top, and stands away from the house, looking over the acres he owns. The little rustic Gothic Cottage is believed to have been built after Henry Hoare ‘the magnificent’ was inspired by a visit to Horace Walpole’s Gothick house at Strawberry Hill, in 1763. However Henry Hoare left the cottage hidden, tucked away, behind vegetation, until his grandson Richard Colt Hoare made the cottage more of a feature by adding a porch and a Gothic bow window with a seat in 1806. Now it overlooks the lake the Palladian Bridge and the Temple of Flora.

The Grotto, which you descend to surrounded by rustic jagged edges, is a tribute to the river God, with statues sunken in caves, surrounded by running water. One statue, lying on a plinth is Ariadne and before her is engraved a poem by Alexander Pope.

Nymph of the Grot these sacred springs I keep,

And to the murmur of these waters sleep;

Ah! Spare my slumbers, gently tread the cave,

And drink in silence, or in silence lave.

Whenever I walk around the garden at Stourhead I imagine how Henry Hoare’s and his later family’s guests may have used these various hideaways and vantage points. Laughing, talking and whispering as they process for an afternoons walk, or entertainment, picnic or even dinner in the Pantheon perhaps.

Jane Lark is a writer of authentic, passionate and emotional love stories.