Building record 0420802019 - TEMPLE OF BRITISH WORTHIES, Elysian Fields

Detailed description (B4).
Brief description in c.1862 (B5).
Description, location plan & photo (B7).
Grade I. Garden monument of circa 1735 by Kent. Curved wall with a series of pedimented niches with rusticated arches each enclosing a portrait bust of a 'Worthy'. In the centre a high stepped pyramid with oval niche. Busts by Rysbrack and Scheemakers (B14).
The National Trust's Survey of Stowe undertaken in 1989 notes that the empty niche in the pyramid held a head of Mercury until the 1922 estate sale. There is a large niche in the back of the central block. There was also an amusing inscription to a greyhound on the back of the temple. The busts of Queen Elizabeth, William III, John Locke, John Hampden, Sir Issac Newton, John Milton and Sir Francis Bacon were carved by Rysbrack and were originally positioned around the Gibbs Building (i.e. the Fane of Pastoral Poetry when in its original position). The busts represent the 1688 spirit of the 'Glorious revolution'. To these busts were addded King Alfred, Edward the Black Prince, Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh, Sir Thomas Gresham, Sir John Barnard and Alexander Pope by Scheemaker and Inigo Jones by Rysbrack. Inscriptions above the busts describe each character's individual qualities (B13).