Benjamin Carter's Sphinx

Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire.

In 1755 Squire John Ivory Talbot had the new hall built and some old chimneys were moved into the grounds as a garden ornament. The Squire got a mason called Benjamin Carter to carve him a sphinx to go atop his renovated Tuscan columns (formerly his chimneys).
There is a myth that when there is a full moon at midnight, the sphinx jumps down from her resting place and walks across the park to drink from the river.

200mm f/4 Meyer-Optik Orestegor lens on a Canon EOS 30D camera.