Gardens
Gardens
Photographs STOWE IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE © NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/ANDREW BUTLER
The Temple of Concord and Victory in the Grecian Valley at Stowe, in Buckinghamshire, where Brown cut his teeth as an undergardener
CHANGING
landscapes This year celebrates the tercentenary of the birth of the great landscape designer Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. Stephanie Mahon looks back at the legacy left by the man who moved hills and called forth lakes while altering the face of 18th-century English estates
98 JANUARY 2016 periodliving.co.uk
to do more than tend fruit in a kitchen garden, and soon made his way south. In 1741, he was lucky enough to be accepted as an undergardener at Stowe in Buckinghamshire, which, as the first garden to have a guidebook, was already well known as an extraordinary landscape of temples, monuments and views. When Brown arrived, there were more projects afoot, and he excelled in managing the works, soon being promoted to head gardener, and then clerk of works. With his newfound position, he was able to marry Bridget Wayet, a fellow dedicated Christian, and proved to be a doting father to their nine children.
GREAT CAPABILITIES
Together with Stowe’s owner Lord Cobham, Brown created the Grecian Valley, a 60-acre area with facing temples. He originally planned to fill the resulting valley with water, but when
LEFT This portrait of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, c.1770–75, was painted by Richard Cosway (1742–1821) ABOVE Brown landscaped the deer park of Newton House at Dinefwr Park in Carmarthenshire OPPOSITE TOP At Weston Park in Shropshire, a team has spent 15 years restoring its Brown-designed grounds in time for the 300-year anniversary OPPOSITE BOTTOM A haze hangs over a still lake at Croome Park in Worcerstershire, notable as Capability’s first full landscape project as an independent garden maker
Photographs NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/JOHN HAMMOND, PRIVATE COLLECTION/
E
ngland is famed as a green and pleasant land, with mighty oaks and peaceful lakes – a vision of pastoral beauty. But the greatest secret of these symbolic ‘natural’ landscapes is that many are essentially ‘fakes’; they were created by man, and one man in particular: Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, who in the 18th century changed the face of the nation’s countryside. Born in 1716 in Kirkharle, Northumberland, the fifth child of six, and son of a yeoman farmer, Brown was to rise from these humble beginnings to become the respected King’s Master Gardener. His style of landscaping was likely influenced by his childhood walks to school through stunning natural scenery. He stayed in education until he was 16, which was unusual for the time, and then became an apprentice gardener; but Brown was driven
BRIDGEMAN IMAGES, WESTON PARK, NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/DAVID NOTON
Gardens
Lord Cobham died, Brown had to move on. Thankfully, while he was alive, Cobham had ‘lent’ Brown out to friends to create works on their estates, as he knew the young man would need introductions in society. Many influential people had seen his work at Stowe and followed his career, eventually asking him to come and see their land and suggest improvements. He would survey the scene and tell them their estate had ‘great capabilities’, earning him his famous nickname, ‘Capability’ Brown. And so, in 1751, he began his solo career as an independent garden maker. He moved his family from Stowe to Hammersmith, the centre of the gardening world at that time, but it was an unreliable existence. Money was in short supply, and frequent long bouts of travel in all weathers often set off the asthmatic attacks that plagued Brown all his life. In these first few years, however, through recommendations, he was invited to improve three important country seats: Croome Park in Worcestershire; Petworth in Sussex; and Burghley in Lincolnshire. As time went on and his name became more widely known, he won contracts periodliving.co.uk JANUARY 2016 99
Gardens
THE YEAR OF CAPABILITY
Throughout 2016, the 300th anniversary of Brown’s birth is being marked with the Capability Brown Festival. ‘He was the Shakespeare of gardening, and we want to place him back in the pantheon of important people who made Britain great, and recognise what he achieved,’ says festival director Ceryl Evans. To find a Brown property near you, go to the festival website and search the interactive map. Events will be periodically added, so keep checking capabilitybrown.org and nationaltrust.org.uk.
100 JANUARY 2016 periodliving.co.uk
landscape.’ Another typical Brownian device used here was the framing of the property by screening around the boundary with trees, creating a new horizon and blocking blemishes in the distance. The sheer scale of Brown’s operations is mindboggling. He made about 150 ornamental lakes over his career; moved whole villages; dammed and flooded valleys; removed millions of tons of earth; and planted millions of trees – at Longleat alone, in one winter, he planted 91,000 specimens. Researchers believe Brown performed his magic at up to 270 properties, and his account details from Drummonds Bank reveal he may have worked on even more. His clients included Dukes and Duchesses, six Prime Ministers and half the House of Lords. His biographer, Jane Brown, believes one reason he was so successful was simply good timing: ‘In the 1750s, the young heirs had nearly all been on the Grand Tour, and they had all discovered “taste”. Their instinct was to make their own mark on the future.’ The 18th century was a time of boom, of the East India Company and the British Empire.
OPPOSITE TOP The haha, like this one at Burton Constable, East Yorkshire, was a hidden drop, used for separating livestock from the grounds around the house, without having to use fences OPPOSITE MIDDLE It is believed that Brown, who incorporated bodies of water within his designs, created this exciting cascade at Sherborne Castle in Dorset OPPOSITE BOTTOM The great painter JMW Turner immortalised Brown’s landscape at Harewood House in 1798
Photographs ASHRIDGE ESTATE, BURTON CONSTABLE,
to work at Chatsworth in Derbyshire, and Longleat, Bowood and Corsham in Wiltshire. He would walk the land on foot or on horseback, and then create drawings of suggested schemes. If these plans went ahead, they involved many years, sometimes decades, of labour and toil to achieve. His schemes appear simple – green landscapes with plantings of trees dotted here and there, bodies of water, and paths leading to framed views of features such as follies or sculptures. The great men before him strived for Elysium, an other-worldy paradise, but Brown’s focus was on creating Arcadia, a heaven on earth. He also wanted this scene to come as close to the house as possible, and so used the ha-ha, or ‘fosse’, a hidden ditch to keep livestock away from the windows without the visual disturbance of fences, so that the view from the house was pleasing to behold. ‘Audley End in Essex is typical of his work,’ says Emily Parker, landscape advisor with English Heritage. ‘There he swept away the formal garden and changed it to a meandering informal
HAREWOOD HOUSE TRUST, SHERBORNE CASTLE
Ashridge Estate in Hertfordshire is an ambassador site for the Landscape Institute CB300 project, part of the Capability Brown Festival 2016
• Berrington Hall, Herefordshire: The original Brown design of the park is being restored and reinstated to reveal lost views (National Trust) • Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire: An exhibition, Capability Brown and the Landscape Created for Blenheim Palace, runs from 13 February to 2 May. Visit blenheimpalace.com for tickets • Uppark, West Sussex: Watch sculptor Jon Edgar work on a bust of Brown, 6 March, 10am–5pm. capabilitybrownsculpture.wordpress.com • Ashridge, Hertfordshire: Ashridge Garden History Summer School will host a series of lectures about Brown and visits to his landscapes, 5–7 August (NT) • Wimpole Estate, Hertfordshire: There will be a series of events including a NEON art exhibition, talks, walks and concerts. On 27–28 August enjoy the anniversary weekend celebrations, with Georgian dancing and ‘Capabili-Tea’ (NT) • Robinson College, Cambridge: Cambridgeshire Gardens Trust will host a special conference with lectures and a visit to Brown’s manor at Fenstanton; 2–4 September, robinson.cam.ac.uk • Croome, Worcestershire: A series of lectures will be running throughout the year, plus an exhibition (24 September to 18 December) and guided tour of the grounds on 15 September (NT) • Sheffield Park, Sussex: The team is planning on moving and planting a semi-mature tree back into the landscape by the same means used by Brown 300 years ago (see page 102) (NT)
periodliving.co.uk JANUARY 2016 101
Gardens
MAGNIFICENT MOVING MACHINES
Apart from planting new saplings, Brown also, incredibly, transplanted mature trees from one area to another, creating an instant copse where before there had been nothing. This was a difficult, laborious and costly exercise, however, and the trees did not always survive. Many other gardeners before and after him also attempted this feat, with a range of intriguing methods and contraptions. Brown invented a ‘Transplanting Machine’ – a long pole attached to cartwheels. The pole was attached to the tree while vertical, then lowered horizontally with ropes, wrenching the tree out. It was then moved using horses or oxen. Others advised ‘trenching’ the roots of the tree for a season or two first, for greater chance of success. Brown advised pruning or even hacking back the branches, and not trying to move trees taller than 36ft. Nowadays you can achieve the instant look with ease, thanks to new technology, with even larger mature trees growing happily in ‘Air-Pots’, ready to be popped in.
ROYAL WRANGLINGS
When the young King George III and his new Queen, Charlotte, took over Buckingham House (now Buckingham Palace) in 1761, Brown was summoned to create plans for its garden. Unfortunately, the Queen’s love of animals meant these improvements never happened – she used the gardens for her goats, elephant and zebra instead. Brown consoled himself by taking on Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, but still desired a royal appointment. In June 1764, he expressly asked to work at Windsor, and not a month later it was announced that he had been awarded a Royal warrant and the title of Master Gardener – not at Windsor, but at Hampton Court Palace. The king had no intention of residing there, so Brown’s role 102 JANUARY 2016 periodliving.co.uk
Photographs BLENHEIM PALACE, NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/RUPERT TRUMAN,
Those who commissioned Brown wanted to express their intellectual and political prowess through their estates. With Brown’s salesmanship and keen powers of persuasion, it was only a matter of time before he set his sights on the highest reaches of society.
BOWOOD HOUSE, LANCELOT BROWN AND NATIONAL TRUST/GEREMY BUTLER
The gardens he designed hold pride of place within the English landscape garden style of the time and inspired eminent figures
was really that of a caretaker, and he continued to work for other clients. His new position was well paid and also came with a cottage, Wilderness House, where he installed his growing family. Ironically he never got to create a garden for himself, and he died on 6 February 1783 at his daughter’s house in London, after collapsing in the street. He worked ceaselessly up until the end, and the gardens he designed hold pride of place within the English landscape garden style of the time (known as le jardin anglais in Europe), and inspired eminent figures across the globe – both Ermenonville in France and the English Grounds of Wörlitz were influenced by Stowe; and Catherine the Great of Russia ordered a set of Wedgwood decorated in Brownian scenes. That his designs have endured throughout the centuries speaks to their genius. His landscapes were practical as well as pretty – you can harvest wood from the trees, keep sheep on the land and use it for shooting. ‘They have impact and drama, and became the epitome of the English country house,’ says Emily Parker. Brown did create one design in France, but never otherwise strayed from the land that he loved, even when the Duke of Leinster tried to tempt him to Ireland. He could not come, he wrote, as he had ‘not yet finished England’.
OPPOSITE TOP The Doric Temple at Petworth House, West Sussex, one of the first country seats Brown ‘improved’ OPPOSITE BOTTOM Brown was commissioned
by the 4th Duke of Marlborough in 1763, to transform the landscaped parkland of Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire ABOVE A key element of the landscape at Bowood,
in Wiltshire, is Brown’s sinuous lake, with a large dam situated north-east of the house BELOW An original drawing of Brown’s plans for Wimpole Hall
periodliving.co.uk JANUARY 2016 103
Photographs STOWE IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE © NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/ANDREW BUTLER
The Temple of Concord and Victory in the Grecian Valley at Stowe, in Buckinghamshire, where Brown cut his teeth as an undergardener
CHANGING
landscapes This year celebrates the tercentenary of the birth of the great landscape designer Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. Stephanie Mahon looks back at the legacy left by the man who moved hills and called forth lakes while altering the face of 18th-century English estates
98 JANUARY 2016 periodliving.co.uk
to do more than tend fruit in a kitchen garden, and soon made his way south. In 1741, he was lucky enough to be accepted as an undergardener at Stowe in Buckinghamshire, which, as the first garden to have a guidebook, was already well known as an extraordinary landscape of temples, monuments and views. When Brown arrived, there were more projects afoot, and he excelled in managing the works, soon being promoted to head gardener, and then clerk of works. With his newfound position, he was able to marry Bridget Wayet, a fellow dedicated Christian, and proved to be a doting father to their nine children.
GREAT CAPABILITIES
Together with Stowe’s owner Lord Cobham, Brown created the Grecian Valley, a 60-acre area with facing temples. He originally planned to fill the resulting valley with water, but when
LEFT This portrait of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, c.1770–75, was painted by Richard Cosway (1742–1821) ABOVE Brown landscaped the deer park of Newton House at Dinefwr Park in Carmarthenshire OPPOSITE TOP At Weston Park in Shropshire, a team has spent 15 years restoring its Brown-designed grounds in time for the 300-year anniversary OPPOSITE BOTTOM A haze hangs over a still lake at Croome Park in Worcerstershire, notable as Capability’s first full landscape project as an independent garden maker
Photographs NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/JOHN HAMMOND, PRIVATE COLLECTION/
E
ngland is famed as a green and pleasant land, with mighty oaks and peaceful lakes – a vision of pastoral beauty. But the greatest secret of these symbolic ‘natural’ landscapes is that many are essentially ‘fakes’; they were created by man, and one man in particular: Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, who in the 18th century changed the face of the nation’s countryside. Born in 1716 in Kirkharle, Northumberland, the fifth child of six, and son of a yeoman farmer, Brown was to rise from these humble beginnings to become the respected King’s Master Gardener. His style of landscaping was likely influenced by his childhood walks to school through stunning natural scenery. He stayed in education until he was 16, which was unusual for the time, and then became an apprentice gardener; but Brown was driven
BRIDGEMAN IMAGES, WESTON PARK, NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/DAVID NOTON
Gardens
Lord Cobham died, Brown had to move on. Thankfully, while he was alive, Cobham had ‘lent’ Brown out to friends to create works on their estates, as he knew the young man would need introductions in society. Many influential people had seen his work at Stowe and followed his career, eventually asking him to come and see their land and suggest improvements. He would survey the scene and tell them their estate had ‘great capabilities’, earning him his famous nickname, ‘Capability’ Brown. And so, in 1751, he began his solo career as an independent garden maker. He moved his family from Stowe to Hammersmith, the centre of the gardening world at that time, but it was an unreliable existence. Money was in short supply, and frequent long bouts of travel in all weathers often set off the asthmatic attacks that plagued Brown all his life. In these first few years, however, through recommendations, he was invited to improve three important country seats: Croome Park in Worcestershire; Petworth in Sussex; and Burghley in Lincolnshire. As time went on and his name became more widely known, he won contracts periodliving.co.uk JANUARY 2016 99
Gardens
THE YEAR OF CAPABILITY
Throughout 2016, the 300th anniversary of Brown’s birth is being marked with the Capability Brown Festival. ‘He was the Shakespeare of gardening, and we want to place him back in the pantheon of important people who made Britain great, and recognise what he achieved,’ says festival director Ceryl Evans. To find a Brown property near you, go to the festival website and search the interactive map. Events will be periodically added, so keep checking capabilitybrown.org and nationaltrust.org.uk.
100 JANUARY 2016 periodliving.co.uk
landscape.’ Another typical Brownian device used here was the framing of the property by screening around the boundary with trees, creating a new horizon and blocking blemishes in the distance. The sheer scale of Brown’s operations is mindboggling. He made about 150 ornamental lakes over his career; moved whole villages; dammed and flooded valleys; removed millions of tons of earth; and planted millions of trees – at Longleat alone, in one winter, he planted 91,000 specimens. Researchers believe Brown performed his magic at up to 270 properties, and his account details from Drummonds Bank reveal he may have worked on even more. His clients included Dukes and Duchesses, six Prime Ministers and half the House of Lords. His biographer, Jane Brown, believes one reason he was so successful was simply good timing: ‘In the 1750s, the young heirs had nearly all been on the Grand Tour, and they had all discovered “taste”. Their instinct was to make their own mark on the future.’ The 18th century was a time of boom, of the East India Company and the British Empire.
OPPOSITE TOP The haha, like this one at Burton Constable, East Yorkshire, was a hidden drop, used for separating livestock from the grounds around the house, without having to use fences OPPOSITE MIDDLE It is believed that Brown, who incorporated bodies of water within his designs, created this exciting cascade at Sherborne Castle in Dorset OPPOSITE BOTTOM The great painter JMW Turner immortalised Brown’s landscape at Harewood House in 1798
Photographs ASHRIDGE ESTATE, BURTON CONSTABLE,
to work at Chatsworth in Derbyshire, and Longleat, Bowood and Corsham in Wiltshire. He would walk the land on foot or on horseback, and then create drawings of suggested schemes. If these plans went ahead, they involved many years, sometimes decades, of labour and toil to achieve. His schemes appear simple – green landscapes with plantings of trees dotted here and there, bodies of water, and paths leading to framed views of features such as follies or sculptures. The great men before him strived for Elysium, an other-worldy paradise, but Brown’s focus was on creating Arcadia, a heaven on earth. He also wanted this scene to come as close to the house as possible, and so used the ha-ha, or ‘fosse’, a hidden ditch to keep livestock away from the windows without the visual disturbance of fences, so that the view from the house was pleasing to behold. ‘Audley End in Essex is typical of his work,’ says Emily Parker, landscape advisor with English Heritage. ‘There he swept away the formal garden and changed it to a meandering informal
HAREWOOD HOUSE TRUST, SHERBORNE CASTLE
Ashridge Estate in Hertfordshire is an ambassador site for the Landscape Institute CB300 project, part of the Capability Brown Festival 2016
• Berrington Hall, Herefordshire: The original Brown design of the park is being restored and reinstated to reveal lost views (National Trust) • Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire: An exhibition, Capability Brown and the Landscape Created for Blenheim Palace, runs from 13 February to 2 May. Visit blenheimpalace.com for tickets • Uppark, West Sussex: Watch sculptor Jon Edgar work on a bust of Brown, 6 March, 10am–5pm. capabilitybrownsculpture.wordpress.com • Ashridge, Hertfordshire: Ashridge Garden History Summer School will host a series of lectures about Brown and visits to his landscapes, 5–7 August (NT) • Wimpole Estate, Hertfordshire: There will be a series of events including a NEON art exhibition, talks, walks and concerts. On 27–28 August enjoy the anniversary weekend celebrations, with Georgian dancing and ‘Capabili-Tea’ (NT) • Robinson College, Cambridge: Cambridgeshire Gardens Trust will host a special conference with lectures and a visit to Brown’s manor at Fenstanton; 2–4 September, robinson.cam.ac.uk • Croome, Worcestershire: A series of lectures will be running throughout the year, plus an exhibition (24 September to 18 December) and guided tour of the grounds on 15 September (NT) • Sheffield Park, Sussex: The team is planning on moving and planting a semi-mature tree back into the landscape by the same means used by Brown 300 years ago (see page 102) (NT)
periodliving.co.uk JANUARY 2016 101
Gardens
MAGNIFICENT MOVING MACHINES
Apart from planting new saplings, Brown also, incredibly, transplanted mature trees from one area to another, creating an instant copse where before there had been nothing. This was a difficult, laborious and costly exercise, however, and the trees did not always survive. Many other gardeners before and after him also attempted this feat, with a range of intriguing methods and contraptions. Brown invented a ‘Transplanting Machine’ – a long pole attached to cartwheels. The pole was attached to the tree while vertical, then lowered horizontally with ropes, wrenching the tree out. It was then moved using horses or oxen. Others advised ‘trenching’ the roots of the tree for a season or two first, for greater chance of success. Brown advised pruning or even hacking back the branches, and not trying to move trees taller than 36ft. Nowadays you can achieve the instant look with ease, thanks to new technology, with even larger mature trees growing happily in ‘Air-Pots’, ready to be popped in.
ROYAL WRANGLINGS
When the young King George III and his new Queen, Charlotte, took over Buckingham House (now Buckingham Palace) in 1761, Brown was summoned to create plans for its garden. Unfortunately, the Queen’s love of animals meant these improvements never happened – she used the gardens for her goats, elephant and zebra instead. Brown consoled himself by taking on Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, but still desired a royal appointment. In June 1764, he expressly asked to work at Windsor, and not a month later it was announced that he had been awarded a Royal warrant and the title of Master Gardener – not at Windsor, but at Hampton Court Palace. The king had no intention of residing there, so Brown’s role 102 JANUARY 2016 periodliving.co.uk
Photographs BLENHEIM PALACE, NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/RUPERT TRUMAN,
Those who commissioned Brown wanted to express their intellectual and political prowess through their estates. With Brown’s salesmanship and keen powers of persuasion, it was only a matter of time before he set his sights on the highest reaches of society.
BOWOOD HOUSE, LANCELOT BROWN AND NATIONAL TRUST/GEREMY BUTLER
The gardens he designed hold pride of place within the English landscape garden style of the time and inspired eminent figures
was really that of a caretaker, and he continued to work for other clients. His new position was well paid and also came with a cottage, Wilderness House, where he installed his growing family. Ironically he never got to create a garden for himself, and he died on 6 February 1783 at his daughter’s house in London, after collapsing in the street. He worked ceaselessly up until the end, and the gardens he designed hold pride of place within the English landscape garden style of the time (known as le jardin anglais in Europe), and inspired eminent figures across the globe – both Ermenonville in France and the English Grounds of Wörlitz were influenced by Stowe; and Catherine the Great of Russia ordered a set of Wedgwood decorated in Brownian scenes. That his designs have endured throughout the centuries speaks to their genius. His landscapes were practical as well as pretty – you can harvest wood from the trees, keep sheep on the land and use it for shooting. ‘They have impact and drama, and became the epitome of the English country house,’ says Emily Parker. Brown did create one design in France, but never otherwise strayed from the land that he loved, even when the Duke of Leinster tried to tempt him to Ireland. He could not come, he wrote, as he had ‘not yet finished England’.
OPPOSITE TOP The Doric Temple at Petworth House, West Sussex, one of the first country seats Brown ‘improved’ OPPOSITE BOTTOM Brown was commissioned
by the 4th Duke of Marlborough in 1763, to transform the landscaped parkland of Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire ABOVE A key element of the landscape at Bowood,
in Wiltshire, is Brown’s sinuous lake, with a large dam situated north-east of the house BELOW An original drawing of Brown’s plans for Wimpole Hall
periodliving.co.uk JANUARY 2016 103
