Monumental Landscape
Enjoy extensive walks along terraces or besides water and view the buildings and sculpture in the landscape, most of which were built in the 18th-century .
The Temple Of The Four Winds
Early in 1724 Vanbrugh sent Lord Carlisle some designs for a pavilion for the south-east corner of Ray Wood, and shortly afterwards he was pleased to learn that the Earl had at last chosen the Temple with four Porticos.
Known originally as the Temple of Diana, the building - a cube with dome and porticos - is modelled in part on Andrea Palladio's famous 16th century Villa Rotonda in Vicenza. By the time of Vanbrugh's death in 1726, the Temple was unfinished and another ten years were to pass before the interiors were finally decorated with scagliola in 1738 by the stuccoist Francesco Vassalli.
Beneath the temple is a cellar where servants would have stored and prepared food before serving it to polite company above. Used as a place for refreshment and reading, it commands impressive views, and to the north, a quarter of a mile away, is the site of Hawksmoor's Temple of Venus.
This had been built in the 1730s in the form of an open rotunda of eight Tuscan columns under an octagonal entablature and dome, but it collapsed in the 1940s. Vanbrugh's Temple narrowly avoided a similar fate before it was restored in 1955, one of the first of the major restoration projects undertaken by George Howard after the Second World War. In 2001 the Hon Simon Howard held his marriage ceremony with Rebecca Sieff in the Temple.
It is hoped that Hawksmoor's lost temple can be rebuilt. In 2001 the base of the Temple of Venus was cleared revealing a low octagonal plinth and surrounding walkway. The original statue of Venus has survived and is today located in the Venus Rose Garden.
Fountains, Lakes & Waterways
All of the lakes and ponds at Castle Howard are artificial. The South Lake, below the Temple Terrace, was fashioned in the early 1720s; New River, beyond, was widened from a natural stream a decade later, prior to the construction of New River Bridge in the 1740s. Plans for a lake to the north of the House (first mooted by Hawksmoor) did not materialise until the 1790s, when the Great Lake was finally built by the 5th Earl.
The Atlas Fountain, carved by the sculptor John Thomas, was installed at the same time as Nesfield's parterre in the early 1850s. The five figures are carved from Portland stone and, after being exhibited at the Great Exhibition, were transported to Castle Howard railway station by steam train. At the same time the South Lake was re-fashioned by Nesfield prior to the installation of a second fountain, known as the Prince of Wales Fountain. Both fountains were turned on for the first time in October 1853.
Ten years later the empty area between the lake and New River was also formalised with the construction of the Cascade, Temple Hole Basin and the Waterfall. These features remained after the 9th Countess swept away Nesfield's plantings around the South Lake but, neglected, they fell into disrepair during the 20th century.
In the late 1980s Nesfield's two fountains, the South Lake and the Waterways beyond were all restored, cleared and put into proper working order for the first time in a hundred years. The fountains are gravity fed from Ray Wood Reservoir and the overflow from the Atlas Fountain feeds the subsidiary jets, or Feathers, for the Prince of Wales Fountain.
Lead Statue Collection
The collaboration between Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle, and his two architects, Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor, at the beginning of the 18th century, gave birth to a sublime landscape at Castle Howard. It became filled with mazy walkways, rivers, lakes, waterworks, mock fortifications, temples, obelisks, pyramids and a grand mausoleum. Often overlooked however, is the fact that Lord Carlisle also purchased great quantities of lead sculpture to fill the grounds.
The commercial production of lead sculptures in England in the early 18th century meant that statues could be purchased plentifully and relatively cheaply, unlike figures that had to be specially commissioned. A profusion of figures poured from the London yards of John van Nost, Andrew Carpenter, John Cheere all of whom supplied Castle Howard.
By 1710 the gardens contained a dozen figures, and further purchases in the 1720s and 1740s meant that at one point nearly thirty figures inhabited the grounds at Castle Howard, divided between Ray Wood, the Temple Terrace, and the South Parterre. Among the figures that survive today are Apollo, Venus, Bacchus, Hercules, Meleager, Antinous, a Gladiator, a Dancing Faun, Silenus, a Faun and a Kid, Spinario, and four Roman Empresses, all recently restored.
There were also two large double compositions that dominated the South Parterre, Hercules and Antaeus, and Pluto and Proserpine, located on large pedestals designed by Hawksmoor. These figures vanished in the 19th century, but as the climax to the sculpture restoration programme it was decided to commission new copies, modelled on existing versions elsewhere in England. These figures, each captured in a pose of vigorous struggle, act as a dramatic focal point to the southern end of the Parterre.
Repaired, reassembled and cleaned, today a total of eighteen lead figures once more command the eye and present a spectacle every bit as dramatic as when they first populated the grounds in the 18th century.
The Mausoleum
In the 1720's the 3rd Earl announced his decision to build a grand funeral monument for himself and his family. Initially he consulted Vanbrugh, but following his death in 1726, the Earl turned to Nicholas Hawksmoor to realise his dream. The result is one of the finest, free-standing mausolea in northern Europe.
Begun in 1729, the Mausoleum took just over twelve years to build. Hawksmoor's initial design for a cylindrical structure sitting on a square plinth was, modified by a triumvirate of gentleman architects, the young 4th Earl, his brother-in-law Sir Thomas Robinson, and their colleage Lord Burlington, the patron of the new style of Palladian architecture. These alterations included the steps on the eastern side and the surrounding bastion wall built by Daniel Garrett in the 1740s.
Ill-health, and pressure of work in London prevented Hawksmoor from visiting often, and by the time of his death in 1736, the building had reached the height of the principle windows; the 3rd Earl died two years later, and was temporarily buried in St Martin's Church, Bulmer, three miles away, before being interred in the Mausoleum in 1741
Beneath the chapel is the crypt, which contains 63 loculi, or niches, for receiving coffins.The Mausoleum is still the burial place of the Howard family.
Monuments in the Wider Landscape
As you approach Castle Howard from York the route is marked by many monuments and buildings.
7th Earl's Monument
The Carlisle Memorial Column is a 19th century monument located at the southern end of the Castle Howard Avenue on the edge of the Howardian Hills. Built to the memory of the 7th Earl of Carlisle after his death in 1864, the column was paid for by public subscription. Four architects submitted designs for the monument, including one by the Yorkshire-based architect Cuthbert Broderick, but the design by Frederick Pepys Cockerell was chosen.
The monument consists of a central column, over seven feet in diameter and is hollow inside. The central column rests on a square platform with steps leading up on the north side. Around the square base of the column is an inscription to the 7th Earl. At each of the four corners of the platform is a pedestal surmounted with a knight's helmet, and the outer face of each pedestal bears a heraldic shield and sword with, alternately, the arms of the Howard family and the Royal Family, in recognition of the Earl's post of Viceroy of Ireland. The top is crowned by a tripod which supports an urn with flames fashioned from gilded copper. The entire structure is 120 feet high.
The Avenue
Set in the Howardian Hills, the Avenue, which runs in a straight line from south to north, is five miles long. First laid out in the early years of the 18th century, today the Avenue is lined with Beech and Lime trees. As the road rises and falls, the approach to Castle Howard becomes an architectural panorama, with teasing glimpses of the Pyramid, Temple, Mausoleum and House in the distance. The visitor is confronted by a medley of architectural styles.
The Carrmire Gate
Built by Hawksmoor, this rubble-built arch and crenellated curtain wall with polygonal end turrets, affects a Gothic or medieval impression, even though it dates from the late 1720s. The Carrmire Gate was restored in 1999-2000, with grant aid from English Heritage.
The Gatehouse
Originally erected as a Pyramid Arch by Vanbrugh in 1719, the wings were added later in 1756-58 by Sir Thomas Robinson, after which the building became an inn.
The Pyramid
Hawksmoor's large Pyramid of 1728 is sited along the same ridge as the Gatehouse. It is hollow inside and contains a colossal bust of Lord William Howard, the 3rd Earl's great-great-great grandfather, the Elizabethan founder of the Carlisle branch of the Howard family. Two further monuments attributed to Hawksmoor lie further east in Pretty Wood a second Pyramid and The Four Faces. (Not open to the public).
The Mock Fortifications
Extending either side of the Gatehouse for a half a mile in both directions, the Mock Fortifications, (begun c. 1720), recall not just the medieval walls of York and Chester (Vanbrugh's hometown), but the walls of Rome too, which were also punctuated by turrets, bastions and pyramids.
The Obelisk
At the head of the drive stands the Obelisk, raised in 1714-15, which carries two sets of inscriptions. The first, in Latin, commemorates the victories of the 1st Duke of Marlborough. The second, on the west side is in English, and was composed in 1731, when much of the building and landscaping had been completed, it was written with posterity in mind, and is the clearest statement possible of the 3rd Earl's aspirations for his family.