News from Athelhampton House & Gardens.

Today is the anniversary of the death of William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley, 4th Earl of Mornington, which is something that plenty of people would have had cause to celebrate (including his wife, if he hadn't arguably caused her death!). William Pole Tylney Long Wellesley Notorious for his dissolute lifestyle, William was many things, but nice doesn't seem to have been one of them. Nephew of the Duke of Wellington, William was a big spender, drinking and gambling heavily to

A recent visit to Sherbourne Castle, another member of our Dorset Garden Trail, showed off the grounds beautifully. Sherbourne New Castle With its dramatic lake and naturalistic landscaping courtesy of Capability Brown, the grounds give an impression of simply having grown without any outside help or intervention. The natural calmness and harmony of the landscape Brown created belies the reality of the planning and the hard manual labour that had to go into creating the artif

On this day in 1685, the King James II had been on the throne for four months and five days. After the chaos and bloodshed of the Civil War, England wanted to try to stick to having a hereditary monarchy again, and not interrupt the line of succession. James had inherited the throne from his brother Charles, who had had plenty of children - the problem being that none of them were legitimate. Charles II However, there was a bit of a problem with James II. He was Catholic. In