Model of a Gothic Bridge

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Designed by William Stukeley (1687 - 1765), 1745

102 cm wide; 62.5 cm deep; 89 cm high

The original design which survives in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, is dated 10 July 1745 and inscribed 'A view of the Duke of Montagu's bridg in Boughton park design'd by W. Stukeley 1744'. It is thought to be the only eighteenth-century model of a garden building to survive. A letter from Revd Michael Broughton to Charles, 2nd Duke of Richmond on 26 February 1744-5 notes 'The Revd & learned antiquary Dr. Stukeley from Stamford...has given great satisfaction by his Invention and Draught of a Gothick bridge 3 Arches & a square open tower with pinnacles on it for the Passage of the Brook in the Park where the old bridge was tumbling. It has quite hit my Duke's fancy, who after some improving touches of his own, has delivered it to his Joyner for a model, I believe is quite fixed in his resolution of having it executed.' (Lord March, A Duke and his Friends, 1911, vol. 2, p. 243)