Rousham House & Gardens

Rousham, England, United Kingdom

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Rousham House & Gardens is a renowned 17th-century country estate in Rousham, Oxfordshire, England, featuring one of the finest surviving examples of early 18th-century landscape gardens designed by William Kent in the 1730s-1740s.

The house, built around 1635 for Sir Robert Dormer and later remodeled in a Gothic style, remains privately owned by the Cottrell-Dormer family, while the gardens—overlooking the River Cherwell—retain Kent's pioneering naturalistic vision with features like Praeneste Terrace, the Cold Bath, Venus's Vale cascades, classical temples, sham ruins, and meandering walks evoking ancient Roman grandeur.

Largely unaltered since creation, this intimate 30-acre paradise has inspired generations of designers and draws visitors for its poetic, painterly beauty amid sweeping lawns and wooded glades.