Painswick Rococo Garden, Thomas Robins the Elder 1748

Benjamin Hyett (1708–1762) of

Painswick House Painswick House is a grade I listed house in Painswick, Gloucestershire, England. It is surrounded by a Grade II* listed rococo garden. The house and a range of outbuildings were built in the 1730s by Charles Hyett to escape the smog of Glouces ...

, Gloucestershire, was an eighteenth-century garden creator.

Life

He was born 17 December 1708, the eldest son of Charles Hyett (d. 1738), a leading citizen of

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

. He was educated at

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located at Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale, and was named after ...

and the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

, becoming a barrister in 1731. In 1733 his father bought an estate in

Painswick Painswick is a town and civil parish in the Stroud District in Gloucestershire, England. Originally the town grew from the wool trade, but it is now best known for its parish church's yew trees and the local Rococo Garden. The village is mainly ...

and built a house as a country residence. In 1741 he unsuccessfully stood as MP for Gloucester in the Tory interest. Shortly after he married Frances (d. 1768), the only child of Sir Thomas Snell, a London merchant who had settled in

Upton St Leonards Upton St Leonards is a village in the English county of Gloucestershire. Forming part of the district of Stroud, it is a mile or so north of the A46 road between Stroud and Cheltenham. Facilities The village has two four-star hotels (Hatton Co ...

. He died without any surviving children in 1762 and his estate passed to his brother Nicholas.

Gardens

By 1740 Hyett had created a

Rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

garden at Marybone House, Gloucester, incorporating an eclectic range of features and buildings including a pagoda in approximately 6 acres. A few years later he created a slightly larger garden at his Painswick house, known then as Buenos Aires. It incorporated a statue of Pan by Jan van Nost, which presided over the garden. The main features of the garden were preserved into the 20th century and have now been preserved and opened to the public as the Painswick Rococo Garden. Visual records of both gardens when newly created were preserved in paintings by Thomas Robins the Elder.

References

External links

Burial vault discovered 'accidentally' at Gloucester Cathedral
BBC, 2 November 2015 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hyett, Benjamin Hyett family 1708 births 1762 deaths