Posted on 05/07/2022 4:59:11 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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10 Facts About ‘Capability’ Brown
Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown is one of Britain’s most celebrated landscape architects.
His natural eye for the ‘capabilities’ of an estate would develop a garden style now recognised as the quintessential English landscape.
His work would be praised by Earls, paid for by Dukes and discussed by royalty across the world. Yet the Northumbrian upbringing of the young Lancelot Brown was far from grand.
1. He had a relatively simple childhood
William, his father, was a yeoman farmer; Ursula, his mother, worked as a chambermaid at Kirkharle Hall. Brown attended the village school in Cambo, along with his five siblings.
After leaving school at 16, Brown kicked off his career as the head gardener’s apprentice at Kirkharle Hall. Flourishing in this world of horticulture, he left the comfort and bucolic safety of his childhood home, and headed south to make a name for himself.
2. He made his name at Stowe
Brown’s big break came in 1741 when he joined Lord Cobham’s gardening staff on the estate at Stowe. He worked under the guidance of William Kent, who had rejected the rigid formality of garden design from Versailles, which asserted man’s dominance over nature.
Kent famously ‘leapt the fence and saw that all nature was a garden’, thus introducing the natural landscape garden which Brown would later perfect.
Brown clearly made a great impression at Stowe, officially appointed as Head Gardener in 1742, a post he held until 1750. Whilst at Stowe he married Bridget Waye, with whom he would have nine children.
3. He knew how to network
As his work at Stowe became more well-known, Brown started to take freelance commissions from Lord Cobham’s aristocratic friends, creating a name for himself as an independent designer and contractor.
Through word of mouth, Brown’s work soon became the height of fashion for the crème-de-la-crème of British landed families.
4. His work was all about natural landscapes
Following in Kent’s path of rejecting French formality, Brown sort to embrace and enhance the appearance of the natural landscape to match the romantic visions of painters like Claude Lorrain, whilst providing practically for the needs of a great estate.
To achieve this aesthetic and practical ideal, Brown moved huge amounts of earth and redirected vast bodies of water to create a ‘gardenless’ form of landscape gardening. The result was smooth, uninterrupted lawns, sprawling woods, quaint farms linked by carriage drives and flowing lakes linked by serpentine rivers.
5. He adopted pioneering techniques
Brown adopted a number of new techniques in this ‘place-making’. For example, in order to mark boundaries without compromising aesthetics, Brown developed the sunk fence or ‘ha-ha’. Different areas of parkland, whilst being managed and stocked totally differently, could appear as one uninterrupted space – both practical and elegant.
Whilst walking in the grounds of Hampton Court in 1782, Brown pointed at different landscape features and explained his ‘grammatical’ technique to a friend, saying:
‘Now there, I make a comma, and there, where a more decided turn is proper, I make a colon, at another part, where an interruption is desirable to break the view, a parenthesis, now a full stop, and then I begin another subject.’
6. His nickname stemmed from his visionary mind
As an accomplished rider, Brown would take about an hour to survey a new garden or landscape, and rough out an entire design. The ‘great capabilities’ in the estates he saw earnt him the nickname ‘Capability’ Brown.
Contemporaries noted the irony in Brown’s work – his ability to mimic nature was so remarkable that his meticulously crafted landscapes were taken as organic. This was noted in his obituary:
‘where he is the happiest man he will be least remembered, so closely did he copy nature his works will be mistaken’.
7. He was extremely successful
By the 1760s, Brown was earning the modern equivalent of £800,000 a year, receiving over £60,000 per commission. In 1764 he was appointed as George III’s Master Gardener at the palaces of Hampton Court, Richmond and St James, and resided in the magnificent Wilderness House.
His work was renowned across Europe, including in the state rooms of Russia. Catherine the Great wrote to Voltaire in 1772:
‘I am presently madly in love with English gardens, with curved lines, gentle slopes, lakes formed from swamps, and archipelagos of solid earth’.
8. His work can be found across Britain
Over his lifetime, Brown was associated with around 260 landscapes, including those at Belvoir Castle, Blenheim Palace and Warwick Castle. All those who could afford his services wanted them, and his work transformed the landscapes of estates and country houses across Europe.
9. He was not universally loved
However, Brown’s work was not universally admired. The most vocal contemporary critic, Sir Uvedale Price, condemned his landscapes as results of a mechanical formula, reproduced thoughtlessly with little consideration for individual character. The clumps of trees were ‘as like each other as so many puddings turned out of one common mould’.
By favouring wide, flowing lines, Price argued the ‘improvers’ ignored the true picturesque qualities of roughness, sudden variation and irregularity, naming Brown’s work as dull, formulaic, unnatural and monotonous.
10. His ideals live on to this day
Soon after his death, Brown’s reputation declined rapidly. Victorian appetites favoured the sublime, which delighted in extreme emotions and the thrilling but terrifying power of nature. As Turner popularised ferocious sea storms, rocky crags and rushing torrents, Brown’s picturesque pastoral idylls failed to cut the mustard.
In modern times, Brown’s reputation has revived. A series of restorations to mark his tercentenary have revealed impressive feats of engineering and sustainable water-management which have adapted impressively to modern demands.
With the popularity of recent ‘Capability’ Brown festivals and conservation initiatives, it seems that Brown will retain his position as a ‘genius’ of landscape architecture.
I’m on the fly today, so will catch up with you all this evening. :)
Wow that was an interesting read! We are definitely in his school of thought on landscaping. We see the fruits of 38 years here starting from scratch and a low budget with picking the right plants which have spread, plus bringing up the natural ones from the woods. Yes, we made a few mistakes along the way but overall we are happy. Finally the real warm up starts today and we’ll be prepping for planting. Have a great weekend everyone and Happy Mothers Day to all out there.
That was a fun and interesting read. Europe has amazing estate and public gardens.
and woo hoo! my beans are up
It looks like what I would picture the Shire to look like in Middle Earth.
My tomatoes have gotten so over crowded in their starter trays that I divided them into bigger pots.
It’s still a bit early to put them out. The forecast for the next 10 days is great, but we’re not out of the danger zone yet for last frost date and I really don’t relish the thought of covering up ~40 individual tomato plants.
Good Morning!
:-)
Just lovely! I think I really like Brown’s ‘style’.
Major downpours yesterday afternoon & evening. The last was about 10:30 pm & the rain on the roof was a “roar”. Plenty of thunder ‘rolling’ through the skies, but no close strikes. I haven’t been out to see my little herbs yet - hope they’re not pounded into the dirt.
Next 2 days will be cool, damp & wet. We’re starting at a high of 60 & dropping all day into the 50’s. The heat is back on in the house. Here was an interesting tidbit in the local weather forecast:
“Today we may also have a few rumbles of thunder mainly south/southeast and the chance for some graupel to mix in for a few of us.”
Graupel?? First time I’ve ever seen it in a forecast - we’ve had it here a few times in years past.
Graupel: The wintry precipitation you’ve never heard of
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/12/05/graupel-the-wintry-precipitation-youve-never-heard-of/
“Graupel, which is a kind of hybrid frozen precipitation, is sometimes referred to as “snow pellets.” The National Weather Service defines graupel as small pellets of ice created when super-cooled water droplets coat, or rime, a snowflake.
Graupel pellets are cloudy or white — not clear like sleet — and often are mistaken for small hail. The most critical necessity for the formation of graupel is extremely cold air at the cloud level. This creates the super-cooled water (liquid water that exists below the freezing point), which adheres to the snowflakes.”
Graupel in May? Our weird spring weather continues!
Hello my friends!
Still un the middle of packing and preparing for my move to Texas.
I have worked my last shift at present employer and have a Monday morning meeting to turn in gear, equipment, and my duty weapon, the off to HR to sign papers making my leaving employment official and begin my “retirement.”
At the end of next week I drive to Texas with my daughter who will be living in Austin.
I will be renting from a friend for a month before moving to another rental when my wife and son arrive.
Our house is almost ready to go in the market.
My well was finally drilled and we have 20+ GPM at 480 ft. When I get down there I will be meeting with my contractor and the well driller to finalize where the storage tank and pump house will be.
I start my new career on thr 23rd.
Things are happening!
CLICK ON THE PICTURE CONTAINING A SUNKEN GARDEN!
Ern! Good deal! Congratulations!
Are you going to figure out if there are any fruit trees you can start growing now and get them going? Olives? Grape vines? Fig trees? (I have no feel for Central TX conditions....like KS, Hot in summer.... Presumably below zero at times in the winter?
Fascinating read! If you like this sort of thing, try Andrea Wulf’s “Founding Gardeners.” It’s about our Founding Fathers and their various gardening projects and enthusiasms. Lots of plates (many in color) and maps to study. Naming a boy “Capability” probably gives him a bit of a leg up in life. Remember when we finally learned Insp. Morse’s given name was Perseverence? (If I remember correctly. . . ) Just think if he’d been named Pusillanimity or Poofter.
Qiviut, what is your growing zone??
7a
Morning fellow gardeners
Qiviut, ugh, Snow pellets! (Sleet) you have my sympathy. I am in 6B and I think summer is about to begin!
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