Capt. Philip Southcote (1698–1758) created an early example of the
English landscape garden at
Woburn Farm (sometimes Wooburn), near
Addlestone
Addlestone ( or ) is a town in Surrey, England. It is located approximately southwest of London. The town is the administrative centre of the Runnymede (borough), Borough of Runnymede, of which it is the largest settlement.
Geography
Addlesto ...
,
Surrey
Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...
. It was the original ''
ferme ornée
The term ''ferme ornée'' as used in English garden history derives from Stephen Switzer's term for 'ornamental farm'. It describes a country estate laid out partly according to aesthetic principles and partly for farming. During the eighteenth ce ...
'' ("decorative farm"), a term invented by
Stephen Switzer in 1741
Life
Philip Southcote, a young army captain, was the fourth son of Sir Edward Southcote. Southcote had a long affair with the notorious courtesan
Teresia Constantia Phillips
Teresia Constantia Phillips or Con Phillips (1700/1703 – 2 February 1765) was a British courtesan and bigamist who married at least five times and published a scandalous autobiography. The case is narrated in Lawrence Stone, 'Uncertain union ...
which started in 1727. Southcote bought the small property called ''Woburn Farm'' in 1735. He married the wealthy Duchess of Cleveland. They wanted a country home and Woburn Farm had 150 acres, 35 acres of which Philip used to create a beautiful garden; the rest was used as a farm. The gardens were contained within a weaving ornamental walk, remains of which can be seen between the Philip Southcote school for children with special needs and Gerry Cottle's Circus headquarters.
Philip Southcote School about the grounds shared with St George's College
Woburn Farm's grotto
A grotto or grot is a natural or artificial cave or covered recess.
Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or often flooded at high tide.
Sometimes, artificial grottoes are used as garden fea ...
and architectural garden follies, arches and gateways, some features designed by 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, b ...
, including the existing rusticated entrance that marks the entrance from the public road, soon attracted stylish visitors who made the serpentine circuit of the garden, passing from feature to feature: "all my design at first was to have a garden on the middle high ground and a walk all round my farm, for convenience as well as pleasure" Southcote wrot
A feature of Woburn Farm was a walk planted with Broom (shrub), broom, rose
A rose is either a woody perennial plant, perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred Rose species, species and Garden roses, tens of thousands of cultivar ...
s, lilac
''Syringa'' is a genus of 12 currently recognized species of flowering woody plants in the olive family or Oleaceae called lilacs. These lilacs are native to woodland and scrub from southeastern Europe to eastern Asia, and widely and commonly ...
, columbine, peonies
The peony or paeony () is any flowering plant in the genus ''Paeonia'', the only genus in the family Paeoniaceae. Peonies are native to Asia, Europe, and Western North America. Scientists differ on the number of species that can be distinguishe ...
and sweet william
Sweet William may refer to:
* '' Dianthus barbatus'', a species of flowering plant
* '' Mustelus antarcticus,'' a species of shark
* ''Sweet William'' (novel), a 1975 novel by Beryl Bainbridge
* ''Sweet William'' (film), a 1980 British drama fil ...
, which wound its way through the fields, for it remained a working far
Like William Shenstone
William Shenstone (18 November 171411 February 1763) was an English poet and one of the earliest practitioners of History of gardening#Picturesque and English Landscape gardens, landscape gardening through the development of his estate, ''The ...
's Arcadian garden, the Leasowes
The Leasowes is a 57-hectare (around 141 acre) estate in Halesowen, historically in the county of Shropshire, later (from 1844) Worcestershire, England, comprising house and gardens. The parkland is now listed Grade I on English Heritage's Reg ...
, Woburn Farm was highly influential in disseminating the landscape garden
The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (, , , , ), is a style of "Landscape architecture, landscape" garden which emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, r ...
; it received an extended description in Thomas Whateley's ''Observations on modern gardening''. In a letter in 1751, Horace Walpole
Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (; 24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English Whig politician, writer, historian and antiquarian.
He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, southwest London ...
wrote rather peevishly of Capability Brown
Lancelot "Capability" Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783) was an English gardener and landscape architect, a notable figure in the history of the English landscape garden style.
Unlike other architects ...
's landscaping at Warwick Castle
Warwick Castle is a medieval castle developed from a wooden fort, originally built by William I of England, William the Conqueror during 1068. Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England, situated on a meander of the River Avon, Warwic ...
, "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
Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
and Mr. Southcote." Later in life, summing up his thoughts in his ''Essay On Modern Gardening'', Walpole divided types of gardens in the "modern" naturalistic style into three: "into the garden that connects itself with a park, into the ornamented farm, and into the forest or savage garden". To Southcote, Walpole gives the credit for the idealized farm
Southcote was a friend of leading writers and gardeners of his day, including Alexander Pope, Pope, Lord Burlington
Earl of Burlington is a title that has been created twice, the first time in the Peerage of England in 1664 and the second in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1831. Since 1858, Earl of Burlington has been a courtesy title used by the duk ...
, Lord Petre, and 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, b ...
. His house is now occupied by St. George's College, and some features survive.
Subsequent owners Woburn Park owners included:
* 1783 Lord Petre
* 1816 Vice Admiral Charles Stirling, listed in deeds as Admiral Stirling but Vice-Admiral
* 1834 Lord and Lady King, later Lord (Earl of and Countess of) Lovelace
* 1862 Lord (2nd Earl of) Kilmorey
Later in life Philip married the widowed dowager the 1st Duchess of Southampton Anne Fitzroy.
Coat of arms
References
*Christopher Hussey, ''English Gardens and Landscapes 1700-1750''.
*Mark Laird, 1999. ''The Flowering of the Landscape Garden: English Pleasure Grounds 1720-1800'' (Penn Studies in Landscape Architecture) University of Pennsylvania
Addlestone Town Trail:
Photographs of surviving Georgian entrance lodge and gatepiers
* ttp://www.gardenvisit.com/t/c3s3.html GardenVisit:The Serpentine Style
{{DEFAULTSORT:Southcote, Philip
1698 births
1758 deaths
English gardeners
English landscape architects
Philip
Philip, also Phillip, is a male name derived from the Macedonian Old Koine language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominen ...