"The Temple of Flora stands above a natural spring known as Paradise Well. It is dedicated to the Roman goddess of flowers and spring. Henry Hoare II 'the Magnificent' erected this, his first garden building, in 1744 to designs by his favourite architect Henry Flitcroft. Flitcroft took inspiration from a temple dedicated to the river god Clitumnus in Spoleto, Umbria.
"Over the temple's door is an inscription of a line from Virgil's Aeneid, the ancient epic of the founding of Rome. The line is spoken by the Cumaean Sybil to Aeneas, Rome's founder, as he enters the underworld: 'Procul, O procul este, profani' -- 'Begone, you who are uninitiated! Begone!' Henry Hoare is asking you to enter his garden in the right spirit."
