Lancelot "Capability" Brown

(1716 – 6 February 1783) More commonly known as Capability Brown

English landscape architect.

He is remembered as "the last of the great English eighteenth-century artists to be accorded his due", and "England's greatest gardener". He designed over 170 parks, many of which still endure. His influence was so great that the contributions to the English garden made by Charles Bridgeman and William Kent are often overlooked; even Kent's apologist Horace Walpole allowed that Kent had been followed by "a very able master". (Walpole, On Modern Gardening, 1780)

Family History and Biographical Notes

born in Kirkharle, Northumberland in 1715. Young Lancelot was educated at Cambo School, before serving as a gardener's boy in the service of Sir William Loraine. From there he moved on to Wotton, owned by Sir Richard Grenville.

From Wotton he joined the gardening staff of Lord Cobham, at Stowe, Buckinghamshire. There he served under William Kent, one of the founders of the new English style of Landscape Gardening. The men became close, and Brown married Kent's daughter.

At Stowe, Brown was responsible for actually implementing Kent's designs, but it seems clear that Lord Cobham also allowed Brown to take on work for his aristocratic friends while he was still employed at Stowe.

Lord Cobham died in 1749, and Brown left Stowe to set up his own gardening practice based in London two years later. To say that Brown was successful in his profession is an understatement of the highest order.

He became immensely sought after by the aristocracy, and it is estimated that he was responsible for some 170 gardens surrounding the finest country houses and estates in Britain. So numerous are his designs, and so widespread was his influence, that it is almost harder to find a prominent country house that did not have a garden designed by Capability Brown.

Lancelot Brown soon acquired the peculiar nickname "Capability" from his habit of telling clients that their gardens had "great capabilities". In his talented hands, they certainly did.

Brown has been criticized, with some justification, for destroying the works of previous generations of gardeners to create his landscapes. He worked with a grand vision, and preferred to sweep away the past and create a fresh garden to his own standards.

What were those standards? The English landscape garden under Capability Brown was a place of wide green undulating lawns with sinuous bands and clumps of trees, planted with the utmost care to give the impression of a romantic natural scene.

The trees opened up to give carefully planned glimpses of interest points, often classical temples, bridges, or monuments. Everything was meticulously contrived to give a sense of informality, of natural beauty, though of course nothing in the garden was "natural" at all.

In later life Brown was appointed head gardener at Hampton Court Palace in 1761, though he continued his private practice.

Capability Brown died Feb. 6, 1783, in London, leaving behind himself a legacy unparalleled in the history of English gardening.

References and Links

http://www.capability-brown.org.uk/ http://www.britainexpress.com/History/bio/brown.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancelot_%22Capability%22_Brown

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It is estimated that Brown was responsible for over 170 gardens surrounding the finest country houses and estates in Britain.

   * Adderbury House, Oxfordshire (designs not thought to be implemented [8])

   * Addington Place, Croydon

   * Alnwick Castle, Northumberland

   * Althorp, Northamptonshire

   * Ampthill Park, Ampthill Bedfordshire

   * Ancaster House, Richmond, Surrey

   * Appuldurcombe, Isle of Wight

   * Ashburnham Place, East Sussex

   * Ashridge House, Hertfordshire

   * Aske Hall, North Yorkshire

   * Astrop Park, Northamptonshire

   * Audley End, Essex

   * Aynhoe Park, Northamptonshire

   * Badminton House, Gloucestershire

   * Basildon Park, near Reading

   * Battle Abbey, East Sussex

   * Beaudesert, Staffordshire

   * Beechwood, Bedfordshire

   * Belhus, Essex

   * Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire

   * Benham, Berkshire

   * Benwell Tower, near Newcastle on Tyne

   * Berrington Hall, Herefordshire

   * Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire

   * Boarstall, Buckinghamshire (unknown if work carried out [9])

   * Bowood House, Wiltshire

   * Branches Park, Cowlinge, Suffolk

   * Brentford, Ealing

   * Brightling, Sussex

   * Broadlands, Hampshire

   * Brocklesby Park, Lincolnshire

   * Burghley House, Lincolnshire

   * Burton Constable Hall, East Riding of Yorkshire

   * Burton Park, West Sussex

   * Burton Pynsent

   * Byram, West Yorkshire

   * Cadland, Hampshire

   * Cambridge, The Backs

   * Capheaton, Northumberland

   * Cardiff Castle

   * Castle Ashby, Northamptonshire

   * Caversham, Berkshire

   * Chalfont House, Buckinghamshire

   * Charlecote, Warwickshire

   * Charlton, Wiltshire

   * Chatsworth, Derbyshire

   * Chilham Castle, Kent

   * Chillington Hall, West Midlands

   * Church Stretton Old Rectory, Shropshire

   * Clandon Park, Surrey

   * Claremont, Surrey

   * Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire

   * Compton Verney, Warwickshire

   * Coombe Abbey, Coventry

   * Corsham Court

   * Croome Park

   * Dodington Park, Gloucestershire

   * Euston Hall

   * Fawley Court, Oxfordshire

   * Gatton Park, Surrey

   * Grimsthorpe Castle

   * Hampton Court Palace, Surrey

   * Harewood House Leeds

   * Highclere Castle

   * Himley Hall, Staffordshire

   * Holkham Hall, Norfolk

   * Holland Park, London

   * The Hoo, Hertfordshire

   * Hornby Castle, North Yorkshire

   * Howsham, near York

   * Ickworth, Suffolk

   * Ingestre, Staffordshire

   * Ingress Abbey

   * Kelston, Somerset

   * Kew Gardens, SW London

   * Kiddington, Oxfordshire

   * Kimberley, Norfolk

   * Kimbolton Castle, Cambridgeshire

   * King's Weston House, Bristol

   * Kirkharle, Northumberland

   * Kirtlington, Oxfordshire

   * Knowsley, Liverpool

   * Kyre Park, Herefordshire

   * Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire

   * Laleham Abbey, Surrey

   * Langley, Berkshire (was Buckinghamshire)

   * Langley Park, Norfolk

   * Latimer, Buckinghamshire

   * Leeds Abbey, near Leeds Castle, Kent

   * Littlegrove, Barnet, London

   * Lleweni Hall, Clwyd

   * Longford Castle, Wiltshire

   * Longleat, Wiltshire

   * Lowther, Cumbria

   * Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire

   * Madingley, Cambridgeshire

   * Maiden Earley, Berkshire

   * Mamhead, Devon

   * Melton Constable, Norfolk

   * Milton Abbey, Dorset

   * Moccas, Herefordshire

   * Moor Park, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire

   * Mount Clare, South West London

   * Navestock, Essex

   * Newnham Paddox, Warwickshire

   * Newton Park, Newton St Loe, Somerset

   * New Wardour Castle, Wiltshire

   * North Cray Place, near Sidcup, Bexley, London

   * North Stoneham, Southampton, Hampshire

   * Nuneham Courtenay, Oxfordshire

   * Oakley, Shropshire

   * Packington Park

   * Paddenswick Manor, West London

   * Patshull, Staffordshire

   * Paultons, Hampshire

   * Peper Harow, Surrey

   * Peterborough House, Hammersmith, London

   * Petworth House, West Sussex

   * Pishiobury, Hertfordshire

   * Porter's Park, Hertfordshire

   * Prior Park

   * Ragley Hall

   * Roche Abbey, near Sheffield

   * Savernake Forest, Wiltshire

   * Schloss Richmond (Richmond Palace) in Braunschweig, Germany

   * Scampston Hall

   * Sheffield Park Garden

   * Sherborne Castle

   * Sledmere House

   * Stowe Landscape Garden

   * Syon House

   * Temple Newsam

   * Thorndon Hall, Essex

   * Trentham Gardens

   * Warwick Castle

   * Wentworth Castle, South Yorkshire

   * West Hill, Putney, South London

   * Weston Park, Staffordshire

   * Whitehall, London

   * Whitley Beaumont, West Yorkshire

   * Widdicombe, Devon, near Slapton

   * Wimbledon House, South West London

   * Wimbledon Park, South West London

   * Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire

   * Woburn Abbey. Bedfordshire

   * Wolterton, Norfolk

   * Woodchester, Gloucestershire

   * Woodside, Berkshire

   * Wootton Place Rectory, Oxfordshire

   * Wotton, Buckinghamshire

   * Wrest Park, Bedfordshire

   * Wrotham, Kent

   * Wycombe Abbey, Buckinghamshire

   * Wynnstay, Clwyd, Wales

   * Youngsbury, Hertfordshire

Brown died in 1783, in Hertford Street, London, on the doorstep of his daughter Bridget, who had married the architect Henry Holland

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Lancelot Brown (1716 – 6 February 1783), more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English landscape architect. He is remembered as "the last of the great English eighteenth-century artists to be accorded his due", and "England's greatest gardener". He designed over 170 parks, many of which still endure. His influence was so great that the contributions to the English garden made by Charles Bridgeman and William Kent are often overlooked; even Kent's apologist Horace Walpole allowed that Kent had been followed by "a very able master".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancelot_%22Capability%22_Brown