Cobham Monument, Hawkwell Field, Stowe Landscape Gardens, Stowe

Summary

The Cobham monument is 115 ft fluted column topped by an urn, with four stone lions at the base and a staircase inside

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Description

(1) The Cobham monument is 115 ft fluted column topped by an urn, with four stone lions at the base and a staircase inside. The original pillar had a statue of Lord Cobham on top, this was designed by Gibbs and built in about 1740. The original lions designed by Valdre and made of coade stone were added later. The original lions and the statue were destroyed by lightening in 1957. Archaeological Comments - The lightening strike which destroyed the statue of Lord Cobham in 1957, necessitated the removal of the remains of the statue. Under each foot of the statue was a single penny, one minted in the year that the statue was erected. When the statue is restored to the column these pennies ought to be replaced.

(8) Lady Cobham is building a model of the Trajan Pillar to the honour of her Lord, on the Top of which is to stand a statue of him.

Lady Newdigate’s Journal, 1748 "Fittingly, ‘Lord Cobham’s Pillar’ is the tallest of Stowe’s monuments (104 feet), and the one that can be seen from the furthest distances beyond the gardens. It was built during the last two years of his life, 1747–9, by which time all the main phases of the development of the garden were complete. Despite Lady Newdigate’s observation, it bears only a passing resemblance to Trajan’s Column in Rome, and there is in fact no classical precedent for its fluted octagonal shaft. It belongs to the period of Gibbs’s second employment at Stowe, but if he provided an initial design, this was modified by Brown, who was in charge of its construction."

By means of a spiral staircase inside the column it was possible to see five counties from the little temple-belvedere, on which there stood a colossal statue of Lord Cobham in Roman armour until 1957, when it was toppled by lightning. Of this only the head and one of the hands survive; the head resembles Scheemakers’s bust for the Temple of Friendship, and was probably supplied by him.

In 1750 Brown observed, ‘The Wind has a very great effect on Buildings that stand on so small a Base’, and in 1792 four buttresses designed by Valdrè had to be added to the base. The walls between them were decorated with tablets inscribed with lines from Alexander Pope, and with a tribute to Lord Cobham. On each buttress was placed a rearing lion in Coade stone, for which Earl Temple paid £40 in 1778, and which by 1843 had been painted to resemble bronze. Three of them were also destroyed when the monument was struck by lightning in 1957, but were replaced with copies made by Christopher Hobbs.

The monument was built while the Grecian Valley was being laid out, and it is linked to both ends of the valley: to the north by Lord Cobham’s Walk, and to Concord via the Grecian Diagonal. It also looks back to the Gothic Temple.

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