Bampfylde (Attributed to), Coplestone Warre (1720 – 1791) – Somerset; a view from the garden of Montacute House with St Michael’s Hill in the foreground and Glastonbury Tor in the distance. The Gothick folly on St Michael’s Hill previously unrecorded.

The stone tower that stands on St Michael's Hill today was built by Edward Phelips V (1725-1797) in 1760. The Gothick folly shown here is previously unrecorded. Edward Phelips V had come to his majority in 1750 and many of his famous improvements to Montacute House and the Estate were made in the 1760s and beyond. The Gothick folly might have been put up as an affordable, temporary structure. Or perhaps it was an idea that was never built, the design being usurped by the tower scheme; paintings like this were often made as part of a Set depicting a house and estate, and just as often showed how things were intended to look, as they did how things actually were. As was typical, the unidentified artist has taken some liberty with the topography, bringing Glastonbury and the (enlarged) Tor into closer view. But this is not simply artistic license. A figure on top of St Michael's Hill gestures towards Glastonbury Tor and sunlight breaks through the clouds highlighting Glastonbury and Somerton (the hill in the middle distance and the ancient capital of Wessex). There are deep historical, religious and political associations between the St Michael's Hill, Somerton and Glastonbury sites. These were well known to Phelips and were at the heart of his ancenstor's reason for choosing this site for the house. It is entirely natural that a painting of the Estate should celebrate this. Please contact the gallery if you would like further information.