The 18th Century
Following a fall from political grace, the eminent 18th Century statesman Henry Bolingbroke handed Lydiard Park to his half brother John 2nd Viscount St.John with the expectation that John would renovate the family's ancestral home.
In 1743 Sir John St.John began remodelling the house in the Palladian style inspired by Inigo Jones. To create a complimentary setting for the new house, the formal gardens were swept away and an English landscape garden style introduced.
Softening the contours of the former ponds created a more natural looking lake that could be enjoyed from an ornamental path or 'home circuit', and provided views of the house. A large new walled garden and an ice house were also introduced.
The reordered park was recorded in a plan of 1766 and the newly styled lake in a painting by George Stubbs, a copy of which hangs in the Library at Lydiard House today.
