ROW-shum ("row" as in a shouting match or bickering)

England

Oxfordshire

Steeple Aston

51.929878

-1.31291

1635 core w/later additions

Fully Extant

Grade I

Grade I

No

XXVII, 306, 1910. XCIX, 900, 946, 1946. CIV, 384 [Furniture], 1948.

Yes

01869-347-110

01869-347-110

Individual / Family Trust

Private Home

Charles Cottrell-Dormer

General James Dormer, 18th century.

Sir Robert Dormer

The House was built in 1635 for Sir Robert Dormer and altered for General James Dormer, an old solider who served with the 1st Duke of Marlborough and had been Britain’s minister to Portugal. General Dormer liked to run with the avant-garde artistic set, and, as a result, noted personalities from this group, such as Pope and Swift, were frequent visitors to Rousham. Kent took the Dormers’ Jacobean house and created within and without a magical place that is still today (2009) in the ownership of the original family. Kent added the low wings on the Garden Façade (which includes the sublime Parlor, often cited as one of the finest 18th century rooms in England) and built the Stable Block in the 1730s; he also redid the South Facade and made interior alterations. In 1876 the architect Francis William St. Aubyn added the Jacobean style North Wing to the House. Rousham’s interiors retain some of its 17th century paneling and the original staircases.

Pevsner called the Painted Parlor at Rousham "one of the most exquisite small rooms of the 18th century in England." Candida Lycett Green, writing in “Country Life: 100 Favourite Houses”: “Rousham is ravishing in every way. It is William Kent’s masterpiece. The best of England is rolled into one here at Rousham.”

The gardens at Rousham are considered one of the best examples of the first stage of English landscape design and are today virtually as William Kent designed them in the 18th century -- a rare survival. The gardens feature ponds and cascades in Venus's Vale, the Temple of the Mill, the Cold Bath, Townsend's Building, and, on the skyline, a sham ruin known as "The Eyecatcher." There is also the Pigeon House, the Cow Castle, which features the Stables on one side and a garden seat on the other, the large walled garden, and the orchard, which features Espalier apple trees. The Park is also home to a herd of rare Long Horn cattle.

"Around the World in 80 Gardens" (2008 - TV BBC documentary, episode 1.9, "Northern Europe"). "Inspector Lewis" (2009 - TV, Series 3, in the episode "The Dead of Winter" Rousham is Lord Mortmaigne's home).