section dedicated to it in his earlier "Ode to a water nymph" (1758) which does. Horace Walpole, notoriously hard to please, wrote after a visit in 1753, "I wore out my eyes with gazing, my feet with climbing, and my tongue and vocabulary with commending". In April 1786 John Adams, while on tour with Thomas Jefferson, visited Hagley and other notable houses in the area and wrote in his diary: "Stowe, Hagley, and Blenheim, are superb; Woburn, Caversham, and the Leasowes are beautiful. Wotton is both great and elegant, though neglected". Though damning about the means used to finance these estates, he was particularly enamoured with Hagley, although he did not think that such embellishments would suit the more rugged American countryside. After many decades of neglect, restoration work has begun in the grounds, starting with the Hagley Obelisk on Wychbury Hill in 2010. Recently the Palladian Bridge was rebuilt and the vista opened up the valley to the repaired Rotunda at its head. Gunpowder plot 50 years before the construction of the Palladian mansion and just after the Gunpowder plot was discovered, two of the conspirators, Robert Wintour and Stephen Littleton, escaped arrest at Holbeche House and travelled south to ask Humphrey Littleton for his assistance. At the time Meriel Littleton, the widow of John Lyttelton who had died in prison, lived at Hagley Park. However, Humphrey had the use of the house. They were captured at Hagley Park on 9 January 1606 because the authorities had been informed of their presence by Littleton's cook - John Fynwood. He had been alarmed by the quantity of food that was being consumed by Littleton and had seen Robert and Stephen. Despite Littleton's protests that he was not harbouring anyone, a search was made and another servant, David Bate, showed where the two plotters were escaping from a courtyard into the countryside. Miscellaneous A 19th-century account of the house and park and the Lyttelton Family ghost story is available. In 1780, after the death of Thomas Lyttelton, 2nd Baron Lyttelton Hagley Hall was leased to Bernard Dewes, later of Wellesbourne, Warwickshire until 1793. The Great Western Railway built a series of 4-6-0 steam locomotives named after various halls. Locomotive 4930 was named Hagley Hall and is preserved on the nearby Severn Valley Railway. Notes References copied from Further reading External links 1760 establishments in England Country houses in Worcestershire Grade I