House and Garden 
THE SMALL DRAWING-ROOM 
a vast treasure-house of priceless objects of artistic 
merit. But the Duke was ruined by his reckless 
extravagance. Soon followed the famous sale of 
all these treasures. Christie & Manson were the 
auctioneers. Much happily was saved and repur¬ 
chased by tbe family; many treasures never left 
tbe bouse, and when the improvident Duke died 
in 1861, his son, the last Duke of Buckingham 
and Chandos, bravely faced all difficulties, bought 
back many of the f amily heirlooms, and endeavored 
to revive the glories of Stowe. Having no son, 
the dukedom died with him, and his widowed 
daughter, the Baroness Kinloss, now owns and 
resides at the famous mansion. 
Nigh the ancient county town of Buckingham 
stands Stowe, redolent with the memories of its 
former greatness. You walk or drive along a long 
straight avenue of somewhat meagre trees, which 
leads you to a Corinthian arch, sixty feet high, 
designed by Thomas Pitt, Lord Camelford. The 
southeast front of the house now appears in sight, 
a grand facade, nearly a thousand feet in length, 
consisting of a central portion faced with a portico 
and flanked by two wings. Forty stone steps lead 
up to tbe portico, and on each side stand two lions 
guarding the entrance, which are a reproduction 
of those to be 
seen at the 
Villa Medici 
in Rome. As 
I have said, 
th is front was 
the work of 
Viscount Cob- 
ham. Its style 
is Italian 
throughout, 
founded on 
the models 
of Palladio’s 
work, a style 
that dethron¬ 
ed the old 
English tradi¬ 
tions of do¬ 
mestic archi¬ 
tecture, and 
substituted for 
its pleasing 
features a for¬ 
eign grandiose 
design unsuit¬ 
ed to our En¬ 
glish ideas of 
comfort and 
convenience, 
and harmon¬ 
izing little 
with our English landscape. Porticoes, colonnades 
and other majestic features characterise the palaces 
of Anglo-Palladianism, and these are abundantly 
exemplified in the mansion of Stowe. The portico 
or loggia is formed of six Corinthian columns and 
two pilasters. There are some colossal female 
figures in the loggia from the Braschi collection. 
Two groups remain out of several designed by 
Scheemakers, Delorme and others which once 
adorned the spaces between the columns. 
As we view this noble front, we cannot discover 
any traces of an upper storey. The large win¬ 
dows of the ground floor gaze at us. Above them 
there is a lofty parapet, and behind this are con¬ 
cealed rows of chambers arranged in blocks 
perpendicular to the side of the house. If you 
Have the good fortune to stay at Stowe, you will 
not, therefore, be able to gaze at the beauties of 
the historic gardens from your bedroom window. 
This rather bears out the truth of Lord Chester¬ 
field’s witticism on an Anglo-Palladian house; he 
advised the owner, who found it so inconvenient 
within, in spite of its exterior beauty, to hire a 
lodging over the way and spend his days in look¬ 
ing at his house. The usual entrance to the house 
is at the northwest front, which somewhat resembles 
22 
