Sezincote II

Sezincote have their own website with a decidedly Indian slant to their photographs - click the first word - but the garden is not well represented.   I'm also going to have to dig out my dissertation and see what else I have forgotten.........   Thinking about it, after certain elements in the garden were stolen (I had a hand in their return) this is hardly surprising.

These pictures are from the now seemingly defunct www.bethdow.com

Again, train of thought takes over and I've noticed that snake - that's not to say I hadn't spotted it before - but it reminds me of this pair of snakes in bronze that I viewed yesterday at Sothebys about which I have a theory

They are, uncatalogued, the newel posts of a staircase......   Basically the bannister would have run through the middle of the curled tail and come to rest in the pit above the eyes of the snakes head.

Sezincote

This table courtesy of Christies and a forth coming sale leads me to this

The spectacular and truly unexpected Gloucestershire pile built by Samuel Pepys Cockerell in the early 19th century.   Onion domes, jali screens and nandi bulls abound - my absolute favourite house on the island.

It sits perfectly on a rise with a perfect dropping hill into which Humphrey Repton designed an Indian (ish) landscape.   The drawings and watercolours of the Daniell brothers were definitely referred too as they were for the design of the house itself.   Not content with such greats of the period, Mrs Eleanor Coade was also employed to supply statuary for the gardens.   Joy and rapture.   More pics are promised.