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Lot Essay
This stunning Elizabethan house was built by Sir Edward Phelips at the end of the 16th Century and is one of the few examples of its type to be left largely intact from the time of its foundation. The stone pavilion and elegant balustrading that we see here are part of the original garden layout that still remains much as it was in the 17th Century.
The Phelips family lived at Montacute for over 300 years. The house, scheduled for demolition in 1931, was saved when it was purchased and donated to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. It was later transferred to the National Trust.
At the time that Rowe was painting we can see that flower beds lined the forecourt and the Irish yews, that were planted in 1834, now stand at over ten feet tall. Rowe executed another view of Montacute executed in 1908 entitled The Way to the Bowling Green (C. Wood and P. Hobhouse's Painted Gardens, English Watercolours 1850-1914, London, 1988, p. 170, pl. 102).
The Phelips family lived at Montacute for over 300 years. The house, scheduled for demolition in 1931, was saved when it was purchased and donated to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. It was later transferred to the National Trust.
At the time that Rowe was painting we can see that flower beds lined the forecourt and the Irish yews, that were planted in 1834, now stand at over ten feet tall. Rowe executed another view of Montacute executed in 1908 entitled The Way to the Bowling Green (C. Wood and P. Hobhouse's Painted Gardens, English Watercolours 1850-1914, London, 1988, p. 170, pl. 102).