Enfilade

Jacques Rigaud and Bernard Baron, View of the House from the Equestrian Statue, Stowe Gardens in Buckinghamshire; Plate 6: View of the South Façade, 1739, etching, published by Sarah Bridgeman (London: The British Museum, Q,7.42).

◊    ◊    ◊    ◊    ◊

From the Call for Applications:

George Clarke Biennial Award | Research Relating to Stowe House and Collection

Applications due by 30 September 2026

The Hall Bequest Trust is pleased to announce its sixth biennial award of £2,000 to provide funding for the best proposal for new research relating to Stowe House and Collection. Applicants must be studying, or intending to study, for an MA, PhD, post-doctoral, or independent research in the field of architecture, landscape design, collecting, or fine and decorative arts. The award is open to UK and international applicants. The award winner will have the opportunity to work with the collections as well as the library and archive at Stowe House. The award may also be used to carry out research at the Huntington Library in Los Angeles, which holds the Stowe Collection Archive.

Applicants must provide
• Brief CV including evidence of previous research
• Description of your research/project (no longer than 2 sides of A4) including an indication of where you intend to do most of the work.

The successful applicant undertakes to begin the research within six months of receiving the award, to give a lecture at Stowe House before September 2028, and subsequently publish a report, preferably in an academic journal. We ask the successful applicant to acknowledge our support in any publicity, conference or workshop talks, promotional material, or publications associated with the research funded by The Hall Bequest Trust.

The closing date is 30 September 2026. The successful applicant will be notified by 1 November 2026, following the October Trustees Meeting. For further information, please email Anna McEvoy (House Custodian, Stowe House) at amcevoy@stowe.co.uk. Please submit your completed application with covering letter to Elizabeth Jamieson (Chair of Trustees, Hall Bequest Trust) at elizabeth.jamieson@attinghamtrust.org, copied to Anna McEvoy amcevoy@stowe.co.uk.

The award is named after George Clarke, who was associated with Stowe for over more than 60 years—first as a teacher at the school and later as a historian of the building and temples. As editor of The Stoic for seven years, he published definitive articles on the history of the gardens and its buildings. In 1990, the Bucks Record Society published his edition of Descriptions of Lord Cobham’s Gardens at Stowe 1700–1750. He established a close working relationship with the Huntington Library, where the 350,000 Stowe papers are. He is a founding trustee and past Chairman of the Hall Bequest Trust, which was established in 1983 with three aims of: purchasing and displaying historic and cultural items relevant to Stowe, to support educational projects, and to provide bursaries for pupils at Stowe. The previous five recipients are Dr Ralph St Clair Wade, Rhiannon Clarricoates ACR, Dr Amy Boynton, Dr Myles Campbell, and Dr William Aslet.