William Danby (writer)

William Danby (1752 – 4 December 1833) was an English writer[1] who rebuilt his family home of Swinton Park, near Masham in the North Riding of Yorkshire (now in North Yorkshire), in Gothick taste and recreated Stonehenge on his estate, as the "Druids' Temple".

[2] His house is now a hotel and his Stonehenge a picnickers' spot on nearby Forestry Commission land at Ilton.

It included a handsome library and a richly furnished museum of minerals.

Describing a tour which he made in 1829, the poet Robert Southey remarked, "The most interesting person whom I saw during this expedition was Mr. Danby of Swinton Park, a man of very large fortune, and now very old.

"[5] Danby was an accomplished scholar and wrote some works of personal philosophy that include: Thoughts, Chiefly on Serious Subjects (1821), Ideas and Realities, or, Thoughts on Various Subjects (1827), Extracts from and observations on Cicero's dialogues De senectute and De amicitia, and a translation of his Somnium Scipionis, with notes (1829), and Thoughts on Various Subjects (1831).