Thursday 24th February 1977
James Lees-Milne in Through Wood And Dale, Diaries, 1975-1978, writes:
Thursday 24th February 1977
At Lord Bath’s request, I went to Longleat this afternoon, to express my opinion of a pair of fountains he has had built immediately in front of the south elevation of the house. They are pretty bad. In the first place I consider he has made the mistake of laying the pools too close together and not in line with the end bays, also projecting from instead of parallel to the front. They are of vertical shape, not horizontal as they should be. The fountains in themselves are ungainly; thin, too tall and attenuated. They have dolphins on brackets on all four sides. On the top of a second attenuated, chimney-like plinth he has put basins with spindly feet, their brims encrusted with lesser dolphins, like sugar icing on a wedding cake. Of course the whole thing ought to be scrapped, but obviously can’t be. So I advised strongly that the chimneys be reduced by two courses of stone (incidentally they are of pre-cast Bath stone, not the real thing), the dolphins and the whole of the basin and stem (of white fibre-glass that does not match the yellow imitation stone) be removed. In their place, put a cluster of balls, and let the water flow through and over them. Lord B. is rather disarming. He wanted to tip me when I left. I said in no circumstances whatsoever would I accept payment. Nice of him, all the same. Christopher Thynne was present in the Green Library when we had our discussion. Twice he called me ‘Sir’, which made me wonder if he were being deliberately derisive, or deferential, or what, considering he is Caroline’s brother whom I frequently meet at the Somersets’ house.
Through Wood And Dale, Diaries, 1975-1978, by James Lees-Milne, was first published by John Murray in 1998. ISBN 0-7195-5599 X.