| Summary : Garden palace first documented 1165-66 comprised a spring running through a complex of pools, surrounded by claustral courts. The documentary evidence relates to works being undertaken on the well, suggesting that the complex already existed. The reconstruction of the complex rests on the surviving rectangular pool, a set of writs for buildings works , mainly of the 13th century and later, and two 17th century sketch surveys by John Aubrey, when the site was already a ruin. Aubrey recorded an arrangement of two courtyards, one within the other, entered from a noble gatehouse. The inner courtyatrd contained three rectangular pools in-line fed by a spring to the north, to the original river to the south. This would place the remaining two pools on the shoreline, or within, the later lake created by Capability Brown. Aubrey also shows the inner courtyard contained niches or seats There was also a basin between the three pools and the main gate. colvin presented the case that this arangement reflected Islamic practices, but Ashbee sees the claustral arrangement as being a native tradition borrowes from monastic practices. The use of water in this way is however an Islamic influence. |
More information : (SP 4365 1646) Fair Rosamond's Well (NR) (1)
A spring or well, known in the 16th c as Rosamund's well, is first
mentioned in 1165-6. It is associated with a group of buildings
known as Everswell (see plan), traditionally erected by
Henry II for his mistress 'Fair Rosamund' Clifford, and built
around a spring from which the water ran through a series of
rectangular pools surrounded by cloistered courts.
Some remains of the buildings and three pools apparently existed
in the 17th c. (2,3)
The spring runs into a single rectangular pond probably
reconstructed when Blenheim Palace was built. However parts of the
"bower" or labyrinth associated with Rosamund Clifford (and the
supposed secret meeting place of her and Henry II) were still
standing in the early 1700's for Vanburgh records that
visitors to the park to see the construction of Blenheim Palace
used to make a special point of visiting them. (a).
See GP. (4)
Additional reference (5)
Reasessment of the garden palaces and its Islamic influence. (6) |