Proposals by Humphry Repton for Improving Port Eliot, Cornwall

Architectural proposals for improving Port Eliot from Humphry Repton's book, 'Observations on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening', published in 1803. Repton writes, 'In the modern rage for removing to a distance all those objects which were deemed appendages to the ancient style of gardening, such as terraces, lofty walls, almshouses, quadrangular courts, &c. a mistaken idea has prevailed, that the house should stand detached from every surrounding object: this injudicious taste has, in many parts of the Kingdom, destroyed towns and villages, to give a solitary importance to the insulated mansion. The situation at Port Eliot is apparently oppressed by its vicinity to St Germain's and its stupendous cathedral, whose magnitude and lofty forbid its being made subordinate to the mansion. Under such circumstances, instead of shrinking from this powerful neighbour, it will rather be advisable to attempt such a union as may extend the influence of this venerable pile to every part of the mansion. This I purpose to effect by a narrow building, or cloister, to connect the house with the abbey, as described in the annexed view...'