Druid's Temple | folly, interesting place, historic remains

 folly, interesting place, historic remains

This folly was built in the 1820s.

New Swinton Hall is a mile or so to the west of Masham, near Ilton. It was built by the owner himself, William Danby (1752 - 1833), with a little help from James Wyatt, John Foss and Robert Lugar. Building went on for a remarkable fifty years, well into the 1820s, and Swinton's central tower, by Lugar, can almost be counted as a folly in its own right. Danby was a good example of the English eccentric. From the Hall he saw several of his literary works published, mostly written in his old age. They consist of four illuminating volumes of Thoughts: Travelling Thoughts, Thoughts chiefly on Serious Subjects, Thoughts on Various Subjects and Ideas and Realities, with an additional Extracts from Young's Night Thoughts, with Observations upon them, published a year before his death. It wasn't only his literary ambitions that flowered late; by the time Danby took to crenellating his mansion his thoughts also turned on relieving the unemployment in the area.
www.heritage.co.uk/follies/ffny18.html