Description

ROUSHAM ROUSHAM PARK GARDENS
SP4724
14/230 Retaining walls to The Cold
27/08/57 Bath, Octagon Pool and Watery
Walk
(Formerly listed under The
Cold Bath and small adjoining
pavilion...)
GV II*
Retaining walls. c.1738-40, by William Kent. Squared and coursed limestone.
Surround octagonal Cold Bath with ashlar rim and larger Octagon Pond in Venus'
Vale. Serpentine stream of channelled limestone runs from spring near Temple of
Echo (q.v.) through Cold Bath to Octagon Pond. The serpentine stream is of great
importance as the earliest example of the Rococo "line of beauty" applied to
garden design and is the embodiment of Kent's dictum that "Nature abhors a
straight line": it is known as both the Watery Walk and The Rill. Part of the
landscape gardens laid out by William Kent between 1733-40.
(Rousham Park is included in the H.B.M.C. Register of Parks and Gardens at Grade
I; Buildings of England: Oxfordshire: pp745-6; M.I. Wilson, William Kent
1685-1748, 1984, p214)

Listing NGR: SP4775524500

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17531376

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)