Rousham - A William Kent Garden

Your Rousham Hotel

Five minutes away by car

The house, built in 1635 by Sir Robert Dormer, is still in the ownership of the same family. Kent added the wings and the stable block.

Don't miss the walled garden with its herbacious borders, small parterre, pigeon house and espalier apple trees.

Rousham and its landscape garden should be a place of pilgrimage for students of the work of William Kent (1685-1748). Rousham represents the first phase of English landscape design and remains almost as Kent left it, one of the few gardens of this date to have escaped alteration, with many features which delighted eighteenth century visitors to Rousham still in situ, such as the ponds and cascades in Venus' Vale, the Cold Bath, and seven arched Praeneste, Townsend's Building, the Temple of the Mill, and, on the skyline, a sham ruin known as the 'Eyecatcher'.

A fine herd of rare Long-Horn cattle are to be seen in the park. Rousham is uncommercial and unspoilt with no tea room and no shop. Bring a picnic, wear comfortable shoes and it is yours for the day.

Watch out for ITV's Lewis in the spring,
 A battle scene from The Secret Knot was filmed here in November 2009