English Garden - The Great Age of The English Garden - Capability Brown

Capability Brown

The most influential figure in the later development of the English landscape garden was Lancelot "Capability" Brown (1716–1783) who began his career in 1740 as a gardener at Stowe under Charles Bridgeman, then succeeded William Kent in 1748.

Brown's contribution was to simplify the garden by eliminating geometric structures, alleys, and parterres near the house and replacing them with rolling lawns and extensive views out to isolated groups of trees, making the landscape seem even larger. "He sought to create an ideal landscape out of the English countryside." He created artificial lakes and used dams and canals to transform streams or springs into the illusion that a river flowed through the garden.

He compared his own role as a garden designer to that of a poet or composer. "Here I put a comma, there, when it's necessary to cut the view, I put a parenthesis; there I end it with a period and start on another theme."

Brown designed 170 gardens. The most important were:

• Petworth (West Sussex) in 1752;
• Chatsworth (Derbyshire) in 1761;
• Bowood (Wiltshire) in 1763;
• Blenheim Palace (Oxfordshire) in 1764.