Humphry Repton: Landscape Gardening And The Geography Of Georgian England

S Daniels

Editions

Review

Humphry Repton began his career in landscape architecture in 1788, only five years after the death of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, who had, in a remarkable series of large projects, altered the 18th century attitude to the urban landscape.

Repton, in an extraordinary career spanning 30 years, had fewer grand commissions but over 400 smaller projects which, unlike Brown's, were seldom for a whole estate, and usually related to a small area or an individual feature.

One of his greatest skills, and thereby a strong factor in his success, lay in his abilities as a draughtsman, and the Red Books,  with their before and after plans and overlays and flaps, in which he presented his proposals, must have given the home owners as much pleasure as pop-up books do to the tots of today, or the interactive computer games do to the would-be Silicon Valley millionaires of tomorrow.

This beautifully illustrated book charts Repton's career from his early days days in Norfolk where glimpses from Red Books show us delights from Sheringham, Holkham and Felbrigg.  In his later work, as well as helping salvage the reputation of Brown from imitators and corruptions, he went on to the greatest ventures of his career at Woburn and Welbeck for the Dukes of Bedford and Portland respectively.  The wonderful visual and archival material from these projects is the highlight of this volume.

Repton never quite achieved the giddy heights of Capability Brown's social success, George III never conferred on him the title 'Gardener Royal', with its annuity of £1000, but Royal patronage under the Prince of Wales gives us a tantalising glimpse of what might have been, in the rejected proposals for the Brighton Pavilion.

This is an altogether satisfactory survey of the life and work of one of England's greatest visionary landscape gardeners. - review by Stewart Grimshaw