The Chinese Bridge at Croome

George 6th Earl of Coventry, Robert Adam and Lancelot 'Capability Brown. When three driven and creative young men are mixed with an inexhaustible amount of money and a desire to surpass the old with the new, the result is a house and garden of such style and elegance that nothing quite like it would have been seen before. Even now, far fallen from its former glory through circumstance and time it still resonates in its perfect proportions and grand vistas.
Croome Court is managed by the National Trust and despite the dull chilly weather was buzzing with visitors, walking the ha-ha perimetre and round the long, hand-dug landscaped Lake, and standing looking from or at the Chinese bridge; an aesthetic talking point both in the 1700's and today.
Maybe, poor Maria Gunning, George's first wife, stood there looking at the  reflection of her beautiful and fashionable lead-painted face before she dissolved into death, poisoned  by her cosmetics.. 
Since then, RAF Service men and women sat on the lake shore between duties during the War. Later, lively boarding-school lads played tag, escaping from Nuns and lessons. Now it's a pleasure ground again for the thousands of ordinary people that visit every year.
And being close to the Motorway, it's a much nicer place to make a stop off point on a journey than in a service station.