88 A BOOK OF ENGLISH GARDENS 



is unknown. He is supposed to have improved the 

 Park, but fortunately it retains its characteristic wild 

 beauty and the splendid Beech and Oak trees. 



When Humphrey Repton was asked to make 

 alterations in these historic Gardens he was an old 

 man, and had discovered the errors of his ways. 



Repton's career was of a rather dilettante nature. 

 Designed for a merchant's office, he worked but 

 half-heartedly at acquiring the knowledge necessary 

 to gain him a good position in the firm. Learning 

 French and German was to him only a means of 

 enabling him to discover the views held by other 

 nations upon Gardens and Garden design. Directly 

 his father died, he threw up his work in the office 

 and retired to the country, where he cultivated his 

 Garden at Sustead, and unfortunately helped to 

 design other people's. In those days Repton was 

 an enthusiastic admirer and imitator of Brown, 

 speaking of him as " Master." 



Fortunately, before every delicious old Formal 

 Garden in England had been uprooted, a reaction 

 set in against the Landscape school. After the 

 correspondence between Sir Uvedale Price and 

 Repton, the latter was forced to moderate his views, 

 and the Gardens at Ashridge were undertaken, 

 when he brought to bear on their alteration very 

 different ideas to those he had held in earlier days. 

 " Few subjects," he wrote, " excited so much 

 interest as Ashridge. When no longer able to 



