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Capability Brown And The Eighteenth-Century English LandscapeEditions
Review"We have reached the peak of perfection. We have given the true model of gardening to the world; let other countries mimic or corrupt our taste." So wrote Horace Walpole, and indeed, few, if any, of Britain's achievements in the visual arts are as great as the landscape garden of the 18th century. Before that the gardens had a mixed inheritance of Tudor, Dutch and French traditions. The influence of Italy was added to these as landowners returning from the Grand Tour wanted to include recollections of the architecture of Rome and the wonders of Palladio from Venice and the Veneto. Lord Burlington's villa at Chiswick was the seminal building of the new English Palladianism and it was in the grounds of the villa that William Kent set in motion the idea of a new style of gardening. Under Lancelot Brown, Kent's greatest protegé, the English landscape garden reached its apogee. The progress of "Capability" Brown from his obscure origins in Northumberland to fame and success as Master Gardener to Geroge III is a fascinating story, but ultimately this book's heart - and Brown's lasting memorial - is in the great landscapes at Petworth, Grimsthorpe, Burghley, Claremont and others, where Roger Turner guides us and reports on their current state. It is remarkable to think that only now is some of Brown's greatest work reaching its maturity. This is an update of a 1985 book, and in the absence of a guided tour, it will serve us very well. - review by Stewart Grimshaw |
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