Monument record 0420802039 - Kings Pillar, SOUTH LAWN, Stowe Landscape Gardens

The Kings pillar was one of two monuments (one depicting Prince of Wales, later King George II, and the other his wife, Queen Caroline) commissioned to demonstate Lord Cobham's loyalty to the new Hanoverian regime. The monument was was a simple Corithinian column with a lead statue probably by John Michael Rysbarack on top. A description is given by Viscount Perceval in 1724 and the account for the monument's construction appears in the household accounts in October 1726. In 1839 the column was dismantled and the statue erected on the former site of Nelson's seat to the north-west of the house. Richard Wilson was employed to re-use the stone for a new pedestal between 25 January and 19 February 1839 and a month later to resite the statue itself. In May 1989, a large fragment of the inscribed stone from the column base was found in the 'horse field' north of the entrance to Stowe Home Farm. In 1922, the statue was sold and is now at Port Lympe in Kent. A survey carried out in October 1998 used resistivity to locate the surviving foundations of the statue and two gravel paths. The survey found that the foundations were in good condition and also located a low drystone wall which may have been part of Charles Bridgeman's earlier scheme for this part of the garden. (18)