Mr Hamilton's Elysium : The Gardens of Painshill

Charles Hamilton was one of those extraordinary 18th-century gentlemen who, like Lord Cobham at Stowe and Henry Hoare at Stourhead, turned their gardens into works of art. Inspired by his time in Italy, Hamilton set out to transform the "accursed hill" at Painshill into a picturesque landscape complete with a serpentine lake and water wheel, Turkish tent, Chinese bridge, ruined abbey, grotto, and hermitage with hermit.