'Capability' Brown Landscapes from the Air

Lancelot Brown

Lancelot Brown was England's leading and most influential landscape designer of the mid- to late 18th century.

He was baptized at the Church of St Wilfred in Kirkharle, Northumberland on 30 August 1716. Following an education at neraby Cambo village school, he began work laying out the grounds at Sir William Loraine's house at Kirkharle.

Stowe, Buckinghamshire

Brown's reputation grew and in 1741 he was taken on as head gardener for Lord Cobham at Stowe in Buckinghamshire, where he was exposed to the landscapes and architecture of William Kent and James Gibbs.

While at Stowe, Brown began to work independently, undertaking numerous commissions. He left Stowe in 1750 to set up his own landscape practice.

Royal patronage

In 1764 Brown received royal patronage when he was appointed Master Gardener at Hampton Court and Gardener at St James's, and soon began to take on various assistants to aid his work.

From 1764 Brown lived at his official residence, Wilderness House, at Hampton Court.

'Capability' Brown

Between 1750 and 1760, Brown had undertaken over forty large commissions. His reputation was such that he became known by his nickname 'Capability'. This stemmed from his ability to realize the capabilities or possibilities of the landscapes he worked with.

Brown's signature features included gently rolling parkland, groups of trees, ha-has, ornamental walks and sinuous lakes, formed in a seamless fashion, and which took into account the working needs of an estate.

Brown worked on well over two hundred estates during his career. This selection of images from the Historic England Archive illustrates some of his work, much of which is discernible despite the changes and interventions to the designed landscapes over the past two and a half centuries.

1. Stoke Park, Buckinghamshire

Stoke Park was one of Brown's first commissions. He landscaped the park in around 1750 for Lady Anne Cobham who had moved there from Stowe, where Brown had worked for ten years.

Included in Brown's plan was the creation of a serpentine lake out of five existing rectangular ponds, and a landscape park centred on the Elizabethan manor house. The house was later superseded by a new house on a different site in the park.

The parkland is now dominated by Stoke Poges golf course, which was created in 1908, and Stoke Poges Gardens of Remembrance.

Read the List entry for Stoke Park.

2. Stoke Place, Slough

Lieutenant-General George Howard bought Stoke Place in 1764. The following year, Brown began work here to improve the landscape.

Brown laid out an informal lake with islands and pleasure grounds near the house. His account book records he was paid £800 over three seasons between 1765 and 1767 for the work.

After the last family member died in 1962, Stoke Place became a nursing home and then a hotel.

Read the List entry for Stoke Place.

3. Wakefield Lodge Park, Northamptonshire

Brown was engaged to landscape the park at Wakefield Lodge following the death of William Kent in 1748. It was was one of Brown's earliest major landscape commissions and one of his first to lay out water.

Other features that became associated with his style of landscaping, including the clumping of trees and views to distant landmarks, appeared in his design for Wakefield Lodge.

A vista created by Brown involved the cutting through of a coppice to focus on the spire of the medieval Church of St James the Great at the nearby village of Hanslope.

Read the List entry for Wakefield Lodge Park

4. Hewell Grange, Worcestershire

The park around the Earl of Plymouth's house at Hewell was created from the mid-18th century, with advice from William Shenstone and then Brown.

It is thought that Brown was responsible for remodelling the lake and tree planting.

In the early 19th century, landscape designer Humphry Repton produced one of his Red Books for the estate and made changes to the house and the park.

After the Second World War, the house became a Borstal and then an adult prison.

Read the List entry for Hewell Grange.

5. Peper Harow Park, Surrey

In the mid-18th century, Viscount Midleton demolished the old house at Peper Harow and commissioned plans for a new house and for the landscaping of the parkland.

While undertaking the landscaping, Brown was asked to submit a design for the house but this was rejected.

It is thought that Brown was responsible for landscaping the river running through the estate, which included the removal of earth to create a view of the river from the house.

Read the List entry for Peper Harow Park.

6. Ampthill Park, Central Bedfordshire

In 1769 the Earl of Upper Ossory engaged the architect Sir William Chambers to remodel Park House at Ampthill. Following this, Brown was employed to landscape the park.

At Ampthill, Brown used mounds of earth to break up the the line of the hill overlooking the house, and which offered a number of fixed viewing points that he marked with plantings of trees.

Brown established a drive at Ampthill, which passed a lodge, curved up the hill and provided views of woodland, the site of Ampthill Castle, the house and the landscape beyond.

Read the List entry for Ampthill Park.

7. Corsham Court, Wiltshire

Brown worked at Corsham Court, then known as Corsham House, between 1760 and 1780, as an architect and landscape gardener.

It is not known exactly which of Brown's proposals were executed but it is thought that a small lake was created from existing ponds, a ha-ha was built around a pleasure ground and that a series of walks and rides were laid out around the park. Brown also designed a Gothick-style bath house that gave views to the pleasure grounds from its first-floor dressing room.

Brown's work that enlarged the house between 1760 and 1766 included the addition of a picture gallery and a Palladian-style front.

Read the List entry for Corsham Court.

8. Fawley Court, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire

The estate at Fawley was bought by the Freeman family in the early 1680s. In the mid-18th century, Sambrooke Freeman considerably enlarged the estate, including the purchase of land to the east of the River Thames, and remodelled the house and grounds. Freeman engaged Brown to undertake the landscaping in the 1770s.

Brown's work included creating a principal vista to Temple Island to the north-east of the house, upon which James Wyatt had built an ornamental temple in 1771.

Read the List entry for Fawley Court.

9. Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire

Successive owners of Wimpole commissioned well-known landscape designers to create schemes for the park, including Charles Bridgeman, Robert Greening, Lancelot Brown, William Emes and Humphry Repton.

Brown advised the second Earl of Hardwicke from the mid-1760s to the mid-1770s. He extended the park to the north, and created a series of serpentine lakes out of existing fishponds and added a ha-ha and perimeter drive.

Read the List entry for Wimpole Hall.

10. Dodington Park, South Gloucestershire

Brown's accounts reveal that he undertook work at Dodington for 'lakes and fine contouring in a narrow Cotswold valley'. For two contracts, between 1761 and 1764 and 1765 and 1768, Brown received £738 and £630.

Brown added clumps of trees to enhance the rises and falls in the landscape. He also created two lakes out of existing ponds, and his plans indicate the inclusion of a further lake to create the impression of a serpentine river.

In later years, designers William Emes and John Webb made further improvements to the landscape.

Read the List entry for Dodington Park

11. Wotton House, Buckinghamshire

During his career, Brown worked for six prime ministers. At Wotton, Brown worked for George Grenville, who served as prime minister between 1763 and 1765. It is said that William Pitt the Elder, who married Grenville's daughter and who served twice as prime minister, contributed to the designs.

At Wotton, Brown worked with existing geometric designs, including tree-lined avenues. To these he added a number of visually-linked buildings and structures.

Read the List entry for Wotton House.

12. Temple Newsam, Leeds

The estate at Temple Newsam was acquired by the Ingram family in 1622. The grounds were redesigned by William Etty of York between 1710 and 1715. In 1762 Brown was engaged to again redesign the landscape, although not all of his ideas were fully implemented.

Brown adapted some of Etty's work, for example by creating a clearing in woodland and diverting the drive to create an oblique view of the house when approaching it.

Brown's foreman at Temple Newsam, Thomas White, went on to become a successful landscape designer in his own right.

Read the List entry for Temple Newsam.

Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul, Fenstanton, Cambridgeshire

Lancelot 'Capability' Brown died on 6 February 1783 and was buried at the Church of St Peter and St Paul in Fenstanton, an estate he had acquired in 1767.

Brown's reputation is such that one biographer has written: 'every landscape gardener since, both in Britain and across the developed world, has been influenced in one way or another by him.' [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]

Read the List entry for the Church of St Peter and St Paul.

You can find out more about 'Capability' Brown landscapes at Historic England and explore more designed landscapes from the air.