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Wentworth Castle Gardens
The folly - but that hardly describes the place
Minutes before I saw a giant (well, very large hare) pass me but a few feet away
Barnsley
January 2012

Wentworth Castle Gardens
On a cold January morn
Barnsley 2012

Taken from Wentworth Castle Gardens and looking over the Parkland
Barnsley
January 2012

I was rather taken with the acorn at the top of this plant frame as I was strolling through the gardens
Wentworth Castle Gardens
Barnsley
January 2012

The Sun Monument was erected by William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford, and later dedicated to the achievements of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, a renowned author, traveller and eccentric. It was the first landscape monument to pay homage to a living woman who was neither a monarch nor a goddess.

Lady Mary lived in Constantinople from 1716 where she discovered the technique of inoculating against smallpox; a practice which she subsequently introduced to Britain. As an early feminist writer, she attracted scorn from the likes of Horace Walpole and Alexander Pope who felt she transgressed their acceptable bounds of femininity.

Although no record of its design has survived, we do know that originally, the monument had a gleaming bronze disc mounted on the spike on the top of the obelisk. Apparently it could be seen for many miles around the estate and beyond.