Lancelot Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783), more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English gardener and

landscape architect A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manage ...

, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the

English landscape garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

style. He is remembered as "the last of the great English 18th-century artists to be accorded his due" and "England's greatest gardener". Unlike other architects including

William Kent William Kent (c. 1685 – 12 April 1748) was an English architect, landscape architect, painter and furniture designer of the early 18th century. He began his career as a painter, and became Principal Painter in Ordinary or court painter, bu ...

, he was a hands-on gardener and provided his clients with a full turnkey service, designing the gardens and park, and then managing their landscaping and planting. He is most famous for the landscaped parks of

English country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

s, many of which have survived reasonably intact. However, he also included in his plans "pleasure gardens" with flower gardens and the new

shrubberies A shrubbery, shrub border or shrub garden is a part of a garden where shrubs, mostly flowering species, are thickly planted. The original shrubberies were mostly sections of large gardens, with one or more paths winding through it, a less-remem ...

, usually placed where they would not obstruct the views across the park of and from the main facades of the house. Few of his plantings of "pleasure gardens" have survived later changes. He also submitted plans for much smaller urban projects, for example the college gardens along The Backs at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

. Criticism of his style, both in his own day and subsequently, mostly centres on the claim that "he created 'identikit' landscapes with the main house in a sea of turf, some water, albeit often an impressive feature, and trees in clumps and shelterbelts," giving "a uniformity equating to authoritarianism" and showing a lack of imagination and even taste on the part of his patrons. He designed more than 170 parks, many of which survive. He was nicknamed "Capability" because he would tell his clients that their property had "capability" for improvement. His influence was so great that the contributions to the English garden made by his predecessors

Charles Bridgeman Charles Bridgeman (1690–1738) was an English garden designer who helped pioneer the naturalistic landscape style. Although he was a key figure in the transition of English garden design from the Anglo-Dutch formality of patterned parterres an ...

and

are often overlooked; even Kent's champion

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whig politician. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twi ...

allowed that Kent "was succeeded by a very able master".

Early life and Stowe

Lancelot Brown was the fifth child of a

land agent Land agent may be used in at least three different contexts. Traditionally, a land agent was a managerial employee who conducted the business affairs of a large landed estate for a member of the landed gentry, supervising the farming of the prop ...

and a

chambermaid A maid, or housemaid or maidservant, is a female domestic worker. In the Victorian era domestic service was the second largest category of employment in England and Wales, after agricultural work. In developed Western nations, full-time maids ...

, born in the village of Kirkharle,

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

, and educated at a school in Cambo until he was 16. Brown's father, William Brown, had been Sir William Loraine’s land agent and his mother, Ursula (née Hall), had been in service at Kirkharle Hall. His eldest brother, John, became the estate surveyor and later married Sir William's daughter. His older brother George became a mason-architect. After school Lancelot worked as the head gardener's apprentice at Sir William Loraine's kitchen garden at Kirkharle Hall until he was 23. In 1739 he journeyed south to the port of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

. Then he moved further inland, where his first landscape commission was for a new lake in the park at Kiddington Hall,

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primaril ...

.. He moved to Wotton Underwood House,

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-e ...

, seat of Sir Richard Grenville. Berrington Hall - geograph

In 1741 Brown joined Lord Cobham's gardening staff as undergardener at

Stowe Gardens Stowe or Stowe Gardens, formerly Stowe Landscape Gardens, are extensive, Grade I listed gardens and parkland in Buckinghamshire, England. Largely created in the eighteenth century the gardens at Stowe are arguably the most significant example o ...

, where he worked under

, one of the founders of the new English style of

landscape garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

. In 1742, at the age of 26, he was officially appointed Head Gardener, earning £25 () a year and residing in the western Boycott Pavilion. Brown remained at Stowe until 1750. He made the Grecian Valley at Stowe under William Kent's supervision. It is an abstract composition of landform and woodland. Lord Cobham let Brown take freelance work from his aristocratic friends, thus making him well known as a landscape gardener. As a proponent of the new English style Brown became immensely sought after by the landed families. By 1751, when Brown was beginning to be widely known,

wrote somewhat slightingly of Brown's work at Warwick Castle: :''The castle is enchanting; the view pleased me more than I can express, the River Avon tumbles down a cascade at the foot of it. It is well laid out by one Brown who has set up on a few ideas of Kent and Mr. Southcote.'' By the 1760s, he was earning on average £6,000 () a year, usually £500 () for one commission. As an accomplished rider he was able to work fast, taking only an hour or so on horseback to survey an estate and rough out an entire design. In 1764, Brown was appointed

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great B ...

's Master Gardener at

Hampton Court Palace Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chie ...

, succeeding John Greening and residing at the Wilderness House. In 1767 he bought an estate for himself at

Fenstanton Fenstanton is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England, south of St Ives in Huntingdonshire, a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire and historic county. Fenstanton lies on the south side of the River Ouse. Known as ''S ...

in Huntingdonshire from the

Earl of Northampton Earl of Northampton is a title in the Peerage of England that has been created five times. Earls of Northampton, First Creation (1071) * Waltheof (d. 1076) * Maud, Queen of Scotland (c.1074–1130/31) *Simon II de Senlis (1103–1153) *Simon II ...

and was appointed High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire for 1770, although his son Lance carried out most of the duties.

Landscape gardens

It is estimated that Brown was responsible for more than 170 gardens surrounding the finest country houses and estates in Britain. His work endures at Belvoir Castle,

Croome Court Croome Court is a mid-18th-century Neo-Palladian mansion surrounded by extensive landscaped parkland at Croome D'Abitot, near Upton-upon-Severn in south Worcestershire, England. The mansion and park were designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown fo ...

(where he also designed the house),

Blenheim Palace Blenheim Palace (pronounced ) is a country house in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough and the only non- royal, non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace, ...

, Warwick Castle,

Harewood House Harewood House ( , ) is a country house in Harewood, West Yorkshire, England. Designed by architects John Carr and Robert Adam, it was built, between 1759 and 1771, for Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood, a wealthy West Indian plantation ...

, Highclere Castle,

Appuldurcombe House Appuldurcombe House (also spelt Appledorecombe or Appledore Combe) is the shell of a large 18th-century English Baroque country house of the Worsley family. The house is situated near to Wroxall on the Isle of Wight, England. It is now managed ...

Milton Abbey Milton Abbey school is an independent school for day and boarding pupils in the village of Milton Abbas, near Blandford Forum in Dorset, in South West England. It has 224 pupils , in five houses: Athelstan, Damer, Hambro, Hodgkinson and Tregonw ...

(and nearby

Milton Abbas Milton Abbas is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England, lying around southwest of Blandford Forum. In the 2011 Census the civil parish had a population of 755. This planned community was built after the old Town was demolished in the ...

village) and in traces at Kew Gardens and many other locations. His style of smooth undulating grass, which would run straight to the house, clumps, belts and scatterings of trees and his serpentine lakes formed by invisibly damming small rivers were a new style within the English landscape, a 'gardenless' form of landscape gardening, which swept away almost all the remnants of previous formally patterned styles. His landscapes were at the forefront of fashion. They were fundamentally different from what they replaced, the well-known formal gardens of England which were criticised by

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...

and others from the 1710s. Starting in 1719, William Kent replaced these with more naturalistic compositions, which reached their greatest refinement in Brown's landscapes. At

Hampton Court Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chi ...

Brown encountered

Hannah More Hannah More (2 February 1745 – 7 September 1833) was an English religious writer, philanthropist, poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, who wrote on moral and religious subjects. Born in Bristol, she taught at a ...

in 1782 and she described his "grammatical" manner in her literary terms: ''"'Now ''there said he, pointing his finger, 'I make a comma, and there' pointing to another spot, 'where a more decided turn is proper, I make a colon; at another part, where an interruption is desirable to break the view, a parenthesis; now a full stop, and then I begin another subject'".'' Brown's patrons saw the idealised landscapes he was creating for them in terms of the Italian landscape painters they admired and collected, as Kenneth Woodbridge first observed in the landscape at

Stourhead Stourhead () is a 1,072-hectare (2,650-acre) estate at the source of the River Stour in the southwest of the English county of Wiltshire, extending into Somerset. The estate is about northwest of the town of Mere and includes a Grade I liste ...

, a "Brownian" landscape (with an un-Brownian circuit walk) in which Brown himself was not involved.

Criticism

Perhaps Brown's sternest critic was his contemporary

Uvedale Price Sir Uvedale Price, 1st Baronet (baptised 14 April 1747 – 14 September 1829), author of the ''Essay on the Picturesque, As Compared with the Sublime and The Beautiful'' (1794), was a Herefordshire landowner who was at the heart of the ' Picturesq ...

, who likened Brown's clumps of trees to "so many puddings turned out of one common mould."

''An Essay on the Picturesque''
J. Robson, London, 1796. Page 268. (In th
1794 edition
this is on page 191.)

Russell Page Montague Russell Page (1 November 1906 – 4 January 1985) was a British gardener, garden designer and landscape architect. He worked in the UK, western Europe and the United States of America. Biography Montague Russell Page was born in Linc ...

, who began his career in the Brownian landscape of

Longleat Longleat is an English stately home and the seat of the Marquess of Bath, Marquesses of Bath. A leading and early example of the Elizabethan era, Elizabethan prodigy house, it is adjacent to the village of Horningsham and near the towns of War ...

but whose own designs have formal structure, accused Brown of "encouraging his wealthy clients to tear out their splendid formal gardens and replace them with his facile compositions of grass, tree clumps and rather shapeless pools and lakes."

Richard Owen Cambridge Richard Owen Cambridge (14 February 1717 – 17 September 1802) was a British poet. Life Cambridge was born in London. He was educated at Eton and at St John's College, Oxford. Leaving the university without taking a degree, he took up residen ...

, the English poet and

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or ...

author, declared that he hoped to die before Brown so that he could "see heaven before it was 'improved'." This was a typical statement reflecting the controversy about Brown's work, which has continued over the last 200 years. By contrast, a recent historian and author, Richard Bisgrove, described Brown's process as perfecting nature by "judicious manipulation of its components, adding a tree here or a concealed head of water there. His art attended to the formal potential of ground, water, trees and so gave to English landscape its ideal forms. The difficulty was that less capable imitators and less sophisticated spectators did not see nature perfected... they saw simply what they took to be nature." This deftness of touch was recognised in his own day; one anonymous

obituary An obituary ( obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Ac ...

writer opined: "Such, however, was the effect of his genius that when he was the happiest man, he will be least remembered; so closely did he copy nature that his works will be mistaken." In 1772, Sir William Chambers (though he did not mention Brown by name) complained that the "new manner" of gardens "differ very little from common fields, so closely is vulgar nature copied in most of them."

Architecture

Capability Brown produced more than 100 architectural drawings, and his work in the field of architecture was a natural outgrowth of his unified picture of the

in its setting:

"In Brown's hands the house, which before had dominated the estate, became an integral part of a carefully composed landscape intended to be seen through the eye of a painter, and its design could not be divorced from that of the garden"

Humphry Repton Humphry Repton (21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818) was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown; he also sowed the seeds of the more intricate and eclectic styles of ...

observed that Brown ''"fancied himself an architect"'', but Brown's work as an architect is overshadowed by his great reputation as a designer of landscapes. Repton was bound to add: ''"he was inferior to none in what related to the comfort, convenience, taste and propriety of design, in the several mansions and other buildings which he planned".'' Brown's first country house project was the remodelling of

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

, (1751–52) for the

6th Earl of Coventry 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second smal ...

, in which instance he was likely following sketches by the gentleman amateur Sanderson Miller. Fisherwick, Staffordshire, Redgrave Hall, Suffolk, and Claremont, Surrey, were classical, while at Corsham his outbuildings are in a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

vein, including the bathhouse. Gothic stable blocks and decorative outbuildings, arches and garden features constituted many of his designs. From 1771 he was assisted in the technical aspects by the master builder Henry Holland, and by Henry's son Henry Holland the architect, whose initial career Brown supported; the younger Holland was increasingly Brown's full collaborator and became Brown's son-in-law in 1773.

Subsequent reputation

Brown's reputation declined rapidly after his death, because the English Landscape style did not convey the dramatic conflict and awesome power of wild nature. A reaction against the harmony and calmness of Brown's landscapes was inevitable; the landscapes lacked the sublime thrill which members of the Romantic generation (such as

Richard Payne Knight Richard Payne Knight (11 February 1751 – 23 April 1824) of Downton Castle in Herefordshire, and of 5 Soho Square,History of Parliament biography London, England, was a classical scholar, connoisseur, archaeologist and numismatist best ...

and

) looked for in their ideal landscape, where the painterly inspiration would come from

Salvator Rosa Salvator Rosa (1615 –1673) is best known today as an Italian Baroque painter, whose romanticized landscapes and history paintings, often set in dark and untamed nature, exerted considerable influence from the 17th century into the early 19t ...

rather than

Claude Lorrain Claude Lorrain (; born Claude Gellée , called ''le Lorrain'' in French; traditionally just Claude in English; c. 1600 – 23 November 1682) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in It ...

. During the 19th century he was widely criticised, but during the twentieth century his reputation rose again. Tom Turner has suggested that the latter resulted from a favourable account of his talent in Marie-Luise Gothein's
History of Garden Art
' which predated Christopher Hussey's positive account of Brown in ''The Picturesque'' (1927).

Dorothy Stroud A memorial at Croome Park Dorothy Nancy Stroud MBE (11 January 1910 – 27 December 1997) was an English museum curator and biographer. After Stroud died in 1997 her ashes went to Croome Park. A plaque by the statue of Capability Brown L ...

wrote the first full monograph on Capability Brown, fleshing out the generic attributions with documentation from country house estate offices. Later landscape architects like William Gilpin would opine that Brown's 'natural curves' were as artificial as the straight lines that were common in French gardens. Brown's portrait by

Nathaniel Dance Sir Nathaniel Dance (20 June 1748 – 25 March 1827) was an officer of the East India Company who had a long and varied career on merchant vessels, making numerous voyages to India and back with the fleets of East Indiamen. He was already awar ...

, c. 1773, is conserved in the National Portrait Gallery, London. His work has often been favourably compared and contrasted ("the antithesis") to the œuvre of

André Le Nôtre André Le Nôtre (; 12 March 1613 – 15 September 1700), originally rendered as André Le Nostre, was a French landscape architect and the principal gardener of King Louis XIV of France. He was the landscape architect who designed the gard ...

, the French ''jardin à la française'' landscape architect. He became both "rich and honoured and had 'improved' a greater acreage of ground than any landscape architect" who preceded him. A festival to celebrate the tercentenary of Brown's birth was held in 2016. Th
Capability Brown Festival 2016
published a large amount of new research on Brown's work and held over 500 events across Britain as part of the celebrations. Royal Mail issued a series of Landscape Stamps in his honour in August 2016. The Gardens Trust with support from

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

, published ''Vulnerability Brown: Capability Brown landscapes at risk'' in October 2017 to review the issues facing the survival of these landscapes as well as suggested solutions. A commemorative fountain in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

’s cloister garth was dedicated for Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown after Evensong on Tuesday 29 May 2018 by the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall. The fountain sits over an old monastic well in the garth. It was designed by

Ptolemy Dean Ptolemy Hugo Dean (born 1968) is a British architect, television presenter and the 19th Surveyor of the Fabric of Westminster Abbey. He specialises in historic preservation, as well as designing new buildings that are in keeping with their histo ...

, the Abbey's Surveyor of the Fabric, and was developed with the assistance of gardener

Alan Titchmarsh Alan Fred Titchmarsh HonFSE (born 2 May 1949) is an English gardener, broadcaster, TV presenter, poet, and novelist. After working as a professional gardener and a gardening journalist, he established himself as a media personality through a ...

. The fountain was made in lead by sculptor Brian Turner.

Personal life

On 22 November 1744 he married in Stowe parish church, Bridget Wayet (affectionately called Biddy) from

Boston, Lincolnshire Boston is a market town and inland port in the borough of the same name in the county of Lincolnshire, England. Boston is north of London, north-east of Peterborough, east of Nottingham, south-east of Lincoln, south-southeast of ...

. Her father was an

alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members ...

and landowner while her family had surveyors and engineers among its members. They had eight children: Bridget in 1746, Lancelot (known as Lance), William (who died young), John in 1751, a son in 1754 who died shortly afterwards, Anne who was born and died in 1756, Margaret (known as Peggy) in 1758 and Thomas in 1761. In 1768 he purchased the manor of Fenstanton in

Huntingdonshire Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire and a historic county of England. The district council is based in Huntingdon. Other towns include St Ives, Godmanchester, St Neots and Ramsey. The popu ...

in East Anglia for £13,000 from Lord Northampton. This came with two manor houses, two villages and 2,668 acres of land. The property stayed in the family until it was sold in lots in 1870s and 1880s. Ownership of the property allowed him to stand for and serve as High Sheriff of Huntingdonshire from 1770 to 1771. He continued to work and travel until his sudden collapse and death on 6 February 1783, on the doorstep of his daughter Bridget Holland's house, at 6 Hertford Street, London while returning after a night out at Lord Coventry's.

wrote to

Lady Ossory Anne FitzPatrick, Countess of Upper Ossory (née Liddell, also known as Anne FitzRoy, Duchess of Grafton; c. 1737 – 1804) was an English noblewoman and the first wife of Augustus Henry FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton. Grafton divorced her while s ...

: ''"Your dryads must go into black gloves, Madam, their father-in-law, Lady Nature’s second husband, is dead!"''. Brown was buried in the churchyard of St. Peter and St. Paul, the parish church of Brown's small estate at

Manor. He left an estate of approximately £40,000, which included property in Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Lincolnshire. His eldest daughter Bridget married the architect Henry Holland. Brown sent two of his sons to Eton. One of them, Lancelot Brown the younger, became the MP for

Huntingdon Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by John, King of England, King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver Cr ...

. His son John joined the Royal Navy and rose to become an admiral.

Gardens and parks

Many of Capability Brown's parks and gardens may still be visited today. A partial list of the landscapes he designed or worked on includes: * Adderbury House, Oxfordshire (designs not thought to be implemented) * Addington Place, Croydon * Alnwick Castle, Northumberland * Althorp, Northamptonshire * Ampthill Park,

Ampthill Ampthill () is a town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, between Bedford and Luton, with a population estimate of 8,100 (Mid year estimate 2017 from the ONS). It is administered bAmpthill Town Council The ward of Ampthill which also ...

, Bedfordshire * Ancaster House, Richmond, Surrey *

, Isle of Wight *

Ashburnham Place Ashburnham Place is an English country house, now used as a Christian conference and prayer centre, five miles west of Battle, East Sussex. It was one of the finest houses in the southeast of England in its heyday, but much of the structure was d ...

, East Sussex * Ashridge House, Hertfordshire * Aske Hall, North Yorkshire * Astrop Park, Northamptonshire *

Audley End Audley End House is a largely early 17th-century country house outside Saffron Walden, Essex, England. It is a prodigy house, known as one of the finest Jacobean houses in England. Audley End is now one-third of its original size, but is sti ...

, Essex * Aynhoe Park, Northamptonshire * The Backs, Cambridge *

Badminton House Badminton House is a large country house and Grade I Listed Building in Badminton, Gloucestershire, England, which has been the principal seat of the Dukes of Beaufort since the late 17th century. The house, which has given its name to th ...

, Gloucestershire *

Ballyfin House Ballyfin ( or alternatively "town of Fionn") is a small village and parish in County Laois, Ireland. Located in the Slieve Bloom Mountains, the village is in the midlands of Ireland. It is located on the R423 regional road midway between the ...

, Ireland *

Basildon Park Basildon Park is a country house situated 2 miles (3 kilometres) south of Goring-on-Thames and Streatley in Berkshire, between the villages of Upper Basildon and Lower Basildon. It is owned by the National Trust and is a Grade I listed build ...

, Berkshire * Battle Abbey, East Sussex * Beaudesert, Staffordshire * Beechwood, Bedfordshire * Belhus, Essex * Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire * Benham, Berkshire * Benwell Tower, near Newcastle upon Tyne *

Berrington Hall Berrington Hall is a country house located about north of Leominster, Herefordshire, England. During the 20th century it was the seat of the Cawley family. It is a neoclassical country house building that Henry Holland designed in 1778-81 f ...

, Herefordshire *

, Oxfordshire *

Boarstall Boarstall is a village and civil parish in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire, about west of Aylesbury. The parish is on the county boundary with Oxfordshire and the village is about southeast of the Oxfordshire market town of Bic ...

, Buckinghamshire (unknown if work carried out) *

Bowood House Bowood is a Grade I listed Georgian country house in Wiltshire, England, that has been owned for more than 250 years by the Fitzmaurice family. The house, with interiors by Robert Adam, stands in extensive grounds which include a garden designe ...

, Wiltshire * Branches Park, Cowlinge, Suffolk *

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings wh ...

, Ealing *

Brightling Park Brightling Park (previously known as Rose Hill) is a country estate which lies in the parishes of Brightling and Dallington in the Rother district of East Sussex, England. It is now the home of Grissell Racing, who have operated a racehorse tra ...

, Sussex * Broadlands, Hampshire * Brocklesby Park, Lincolnshire *

Burghley House Burghley House () is a grand sixteenth-century English country house near Stamford, Lincolnshire. It is a leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house, built and still lived in by the Cecil family. The exterior largely retains its Elizabet ...

, Lincolnshire *

Burton Constable Hall Burton Constable Hall is a large Elizabethan country house in England, with 18th- and 19th-century interiors and a fine 18th-century cabinet of curiosities. The hall, a Grade I listed building, is set in a park designed by Capability Brown wi ...

, East Riding of Yorkshire *

Burton Park Burton Park is a 19th-century country house in the civil parish of Duncton in West Sussex, and is situated 1/2 a mile to the east of the village of Duncton, within its own estate. It is a Grade I listed building, now converted into multiple occup ...

, Sussex *

Burton Pynsent House Burton Pynsent House is a historic country-house in the parish of Curry Rivel, Somerset, England. It is a Grade II* listed building. The house was built in stages between 1565 and 1765, when it was bequeathed to William Pitt, 1st Earl of Cha ...

, Somerset * Byram, West Yorkshire * Cadland, Hampshire *

Capheaton Hall Capheaton Hall, near Wallington, Northumberland, is an English country house, the seat of the Swinburne Baronets and a childhood home of the poet Algernon Swinburne. It counts among the principal gentry seats of Northumberland. It is a Grade ...

, Northumberland *

Cardiff Castle Cardiff Castle ( cy, Castell Caerdydd) is a medieval castle and Victorian Gothic revival mansion located in the city centre of Cardiff, Wales. The original motte and bailey castle was built in the late 11th century by Norman invaders on top ...

, Cardiff *

Castle Ashby House Castle Ashby House is a country house at Castle Ashby, Northamptonshire, England. It is one of the seats of the Marquess of Northampton. The house, church, formal gardens and landscaped park are Grade I listed. The original castle, a manor ho ...

, Northamptonshire * Caversham, Berkshire * Chalfont House, Buckinghamshire * Charlecote, Warwickshire * Charlton, Wiltshire * Chatsworth, Derbyshire *

Chilham Castle Chilham Castle is a Jacobean manor house and keep in the village of Chilham, between Ashford and Canterbury in the county of Kent, England. The keep is of Norman origin and dates to 1174; the manor house was completed in 1616 for Sir Dudley Di ...

, Kent *

Chillington Hall Chillington Hall is a Georgian country house near Brewood, Staffordshire, England, four miles northwest of Wolverhampton. It is the residence of the Giffard family. The Grade I listed house was designed by Francis Smith in 1724 and John Soane ...

, West Midlands * Church Stretton Old Rectory, Shropshire *

Clandon Park Clandon Park House is an early 18th-century grade I listed Palladian mansion in West Clandon, near Guildford in Surrey. It stands in the south east corner of Clandon Park, a agricultural parkland estate which has been the seat of the Earls o ...

, Surrey * Claremont, Surrey * Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire * Compton Verney, Warwickshire *

Coombe Abbey Coombe Abbey is a hotel which has been developed from a historic grade I listed building and former country house. It is located at Combe Fields in the Borough of Rugby, roughly midway between Coventry and Brinklow in the countryside of Warwicks ...

, Coventry *

Corsham Court Corsham Court is an English country house in a park designed by Capability Brown. It is in the town of Corsham, 3 miles (5 km) west of Chippenham, Wiltshire, and is notable for its fine art collection, based on the nucleus of paintin ...

, Wiltshire *

Croome Park Croome Court is a mid-18th-century Neo-Palladian mansion surrounded by extensive landscaped parkland at Croome D'Abitot, near Upton-upon-Severn in south Worcestershire, England. The mansion and park were designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown f ...

, Worcestershire * Dodington Park, Gloucestershire * Danson Park, Bexley Borough of London * Darley Abbey Park,

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

Ditchingham Hall Ditchingham Hall is an English country house, near the village of Ditchingham in south Norfolk, England, which is set in about of parkland landscaped by Capability Brown. The Hall is about northwest of Ditchingham off the B1332 road between B ...

Ditchingham Ditchingham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is located across the River Waveney from Bungay, Suffolk.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS Explorer Map OL40 - The Broads''. . History Ditchingham's name is of Anglo-Sa ...

, Norfolk *

Euston Hall Euston Hall is a country house, with park by William Kent and Capability Brown, located in Euston, a small village in Suffolk located just south of Thetford, England. It is the family home of the Dukes of Grafton. The Hall Euston first appears ...

, Suffolk *

Farnborough Hall Farnborough Hall is a country house in Warwickshire, England near to the town of Banbury, (). Owned by the National Trust, but administered by the Holbech family; the house is a Grade I listed building. History Ambrose Holbech acquired the ...

, Warwickshire * Fawley Court, Oxfordshire *

Gatton Park Gatton Park is a country estate set in parkland landscaped by Capability Brown at Gatton, near Reigate in Surrey, England. Now owned by The Royal Alexandra and Albert School, Gatton Park comprises of manor and parkland. The property is Gr ...

, Surrey * Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire *

, Surrey *

, Leeds * Heveningham Hall, Suffolk * Highclere Castle, Hampshire *

Highcliffe Castle Highcliffe Castle, situated on the cliffs at Highcliffe, Dorset, was built between 1831 and 1835 by Charles Stuart, 1st Baron Stuart de Rothesay in a Gothic Revival style near the site of High Cliff House, a Georgian Mansion designed for the 3rd ...

, Dorset *

Himley Hall Himley Hall is an early 17th-century country house situated in Staffordshire, England. It is situated in the south of the county in the small village of Himley, near to the town of Dudley and the city of Wolverhampton. Himley Hall is a Grade I ...

, Staffordshire *

Holkham Hall Holkham Hall ( or ) is an 18th-century country house near the village of Holkham, Norfolk, England, constructed in the Neo-Palladian style for the 1st Earl of Leicester,The Earldom of Leicester has been, to date, created seven times. Thomas ...

, Norfolk *

Holland Park Holland Park is an area of Kensington, on the western edge of Central London, that contains a street and public park of the same name. It has no official boundaries but is roughly bounded by Kensington High Street to the south, Holland Road to ...

, London * The Hoo, Hertfordshire * Hornby Castle, North Yorkshire * Howsham, near York * Ickworth, Suffolk * Ingestre, Staffordshire * Ingress Abbey, Kent * Kelston, Somerset * Kew Gardens, South West London * Kiddington Hall, Oxfordshire * Kimberley, Norfolk *

Kimbolton Castle Kimbolton Castle is a country house in Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire, England. It was the final home of King Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Originally a medieval castle but converted into a stately palace, it was the family seat of t ...

, Cambridgeshire *

King's Weston House Kings Weston House () is a historic building in Kings Weston Lane, Kingsweston, Bristol, England. History It was built between 1712 and 1719 was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh for Edward Southwell on the site of an earlier Tudor house, remode ...

, Bristol * Kirkharle, Northumberland * Kirtlington, Oxfordshire * Knowsley, near Liverpool *

Kyre Kyre is a small village and civil parish in the Malvern Hills district of the county of Worcestershire, England, and shares its parish council with neighbouring Stoke Bliss and Bockleton. Kyre Minor and Kyre Wyard were both in the upper divis ...

Park, Herefordshire * Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire * Laleham Abbey, Surrey * Langley, Berkshire * Langley Park, Buckinghamshire * Langley Park, Norfolk * Latimer, Buckinghamshire *

Leeds Abbey Leeds Priory, also known as Leeds Abbey, was a priory in Leeds, Kent, England, that was founded in 1119 and dissolved in 1539. A mansion was later built on the site of the priory; it was demolished in the late 18th century. The site of the f ...

, Kent * Littlegrove, Barnet, London *

Lleweni Hall Lleweni Hall ( Welsh: ''Plas Lleweni''; sometimes also referred to as Llewenny Palace) was a stately home in Denbighshire, northeast Wales, around north-east of Denbigh on the banks of the River Clwyd. It was the principal seat of the Salus ...

, Clwyd * Longford Castle, Wiltshire *

, Wiltshire *

Lowther Lowther may refer to: Places *River Lowther, Cumbria, England *Lowther, Cumbria, civil parish in Cumbria, England *Lowther, New Zealand, township in Southland, New Zealand *Lowther, New South Wales, locality in Australia *CFS Lowther, military in ...

, Cumbria * Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire *

Madingley Hall Madingley is a small village near Cambridge, England. It is located close to the nearby villages of Coton and Dry Drayton on the western outskirts of Cambridge. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 210. The village was k ...

, Cambridgeshire * Maiden Earley, Berkshire *

Mamhead House Mamhead House, Mamhead, Devon, is a country house dating from 1827. Its origins are older but the present building was constructed for Robert William Newman, an Exeter merchant, in 1827–1833 by Anthony Salvin. The house is Grade I listed as D ...

, Devon * Melton Constable Hall, Norfolk *

, Dorset *

Moccas Court Moccas Court is an 18th-century country house which sits in sloping grounds overlooking the River Wye north of the village of Moccas, Herefordshire, England. It is now a luxury guest house and function venue. The house was built in 1775–81 by t ...

, Herefordshire * Moor Park, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire * Mount Clare, Roehampton, South West London * Navestock, Essex * Newnham Paddox, Warwickshire * Newton Park, Newton St Loe, Somerset *

New Wardour Castle New Wardour Castle is a Grade I listed English country house at Wardour, near Tisbury in Wiltshire, built for the Arundell family. The house is of Palladian style, designed by the architect James Paine, with additions by Giacomo Quarenghi ...

, Wiltshire * North Cray Place, near Sidcup, Bexley, London * North Stoneham Park, Eastleigh, Hampshire *

Nuneham Courtenay Nuneham Courtenay is a village and civil parish about southeast of Oxford. It occupies a pronounced section of the left bank of the River Thames. Geography The parish is bounded to the west by the River Thames and on other sides by field boun ...

, Oxfordshire * Oakley, Shropshire *

Packington Park Packington is a village and civil parish in the district of North West Leicestershire.OS Explorer Map 245: The National Forest :(1:25 000) : It is situated close to the A42 road and the towns of Ashby de la Zouch and Measham. The population ...

, Warwickshire * Paddenswick Manor, West London * Patshull Hall, Staffordshire * Paultons Park, Hampshire * Peper Harow House, Surrey * Peterborough House, Hammersmith, London * Petworth House, West Sussex *

Pishiobury Pishiobury, sometimes spelled Pishobury, was a manor and estate in medieval Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire. Its denomination as "Pishiobury" only emerged in the mid to late 19th century. History This sub-manor of Pishiobury originated in a gran ...

, Hertfordshire * Porter's Park, Hertfordshire *

Prior Park Prior Park is a Neo-Palladian house that was designed by John Wood, the Elder, and built in the 1730s and 1740s for Ralph Allen on a hill overlooking Bath, Somerset, England. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building. The house was bu ...

, Somerset * Ragley Hall, Warwickshire * Redgrave Park, Suffolk * Roche Abbey, South Yorkshire *

Sandleford Sandleford is a hamlet and former parish in the English county of Berkshire. Since at least 1924, the settlement has been within the civil parish of Greenham, and is located approximately south of the town of Newbury. Landscape Sandleford ...

, Berkshire * Savernake Forest, Wiltshire *

Schloss Richmond Richmond Castle (german: 'Schloss Richmond') is a castle built from 1768 to 1769 in Braunschweig, Germany for Princess (later Duchess) Augusta, wife of Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand. It lies near the Oker river in the south of the city. The architect w ...

(Richmond Palace) in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

, Germany *

Scampston Hall Scampston Hall is a Grade II* listed country house in North Yorkshire, England, with a serpentine park designed by Charles Bridgeman and Capability Brown. It is located on the north side of the A64 Leeds/Scarborough road, 4 miles (6 km) ea ...

, North Yorkshire * Sheffield Park Garden, Sussex * Sherborne Castle, Dorset * Sledmere House, East Riding of Yorkshire *

Southill Park Southill Park contains the site of late medieval Gastlings or Gastlyns Manor House and is the name given to a country house in Southill, Bedfordshire and its adjoining privately owned gardens and separate public parkland; it includes a lake and wo ...

, Bedfordshire *

South Stoneham House South Stoneham House is a Grade II* listed former manor house in Swaythling, Southampton; the former seat of the Barons Swaythling before the family moved to the nearby Townhill Park House. The building is owned by the University of Southampto ...

, Southampton, Hampshire * Stoke Park, Buckinghamshire *

Stowe Landscape Garden Stowe or Stowe Gardens, formerly Stowe Landscape Gardens, are extensive, Grade I listed gardens and parkland in Buckinghamshire, England. Largely created in the eighteenth century the gardens at Stowe are arguably the most significant example o ...

Syon House Syon House is the west London residence of the Duke of Northumberland. A Grade I listed building, it lies within the 200-acre (80 hectare) Syon Park, in the London Borough of Hounslow. The family's traditional central London residence h ...

, West London * Temple Newsam, Leeds * Thorndon Hall, Essex * Trentham Gardens, Staffordshire *

Ugbrooke Park Ugbrooke House is a stately home in the parish of Chudleigh, Devon, England, situated in a valley between Exeter and Newton Abbot. The home of the Clifford family, the house and grounds are available for guided tours in summer and as an event ven ...

, Devon * Wallington, NorthumberlandPevsner, N., et al. 1992, The Buildings of England: Northumberland * Warwick Castle, Warwick * Wentworth Castle, South Yorkshire * West Hill, Putney, South London * Weston Park, Staffordshire *

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Sq ...

, London *

Whitley Beaumont Whitley Beaumont was an estate in the county of West Yorkshire, England, near Huddersfield. Whitley Hall (now demolished) was the seat of the Beaumont family. A part of the former estate is now in use as a Scout camp-site. History In around 1 ...

, West Yorkshire * Widdicombe Park, near Slapton, Devon * Wimbledon House, South West London * Wimbledon Park, South West London * Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire * Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire * Wolterton Hall, Norfolk * Woodchester, Gloucestershire *

Woodside Woodside may refer to: Places and buildings Australia * Woodside, South Australia, a town * Woodside, Victoria, a town Canada * Woodside National Historic Site, the boyhood home of William Lyon Mackenzie King *Woodside, Nova Scotia, a neighbo ...

, Berkshire * Wootton Place Rectory, Oxfordshire * Wotton, Buckinghamshire *

Wrest Park Wrest Park is a country estate located in Silsoe, Bedfordshire, England. It comprises Wrest Park, a Grade I listed country house, and Wrest Park Gardens, also Grade I listed, formal gardens surrounding the mansion. History Thomas Carew ...

, Bedfordshire *

Wrotham Park Wrotham Park (pronounced , ) is a neo-Palladian English country house in the parish of South Mimms, Hertfordshire. It lies south of the town of Potters Bar, from Hyde Park Corner in central London. The house was designed by Isaac Ware in 1754 ...

, Hertfordshire *

Wycombe Abbey , motto_translation = Go in faith , established = 1896 , type = Independent boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Headmistress , head = J. Duncan , chair_label = Ch ...

, Buckinghamshire * Wynnstay, Clwyd, Wales * Youngsbury, Hertfordshire More than 30 of the gardens are open to the public.

Notes

References

* . * * * . * . * * 2nd edition, Phillimore, Chichester (1999) , . *Wickham, Louise, ''Gardens in History: A Political Perspective'', 2012, Windgather Press, ISBN 1905119437
Amazon preview

External links

* * * * *
Capability Brown and his Account Book
Occasional Papers from the RHS Lindley Library, volume 14, October 2016.
Capability Brown's unfinished garden
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Capability Architects from Northumberland English landscape architects Landscape architects English Landscape Garden designers English gardeners 1716 births 1783 deaths High Sheriffs of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire People from Fenstanton