LANDSCAPE GARDENING 251 



referred to, which was perhaps the most admired garden of 

 this type. Goldsmith and others, who had seen the place 

 during the lifetime of its poet-possessor, lamented the changes 

 and decay which marred it, only a few years after Shenstone's 

 death. Wright was another designer of this landscape-school, 

 who succeeded Kent. He planned and sketched designs, 

 but did not himself superintend the carrying out of the 

 works. 



The name which stands out most conspicuously in connection 

 with landscape-gardening is that of Brown, From his habit 

 of saying of any place he was asked to improve, or lay out 

 afresh, that it " had great capabilities," he became known by 

 the name of " Capabihty Brown." For a time he was the 

 most popular of all designers. He was born in Northumber- 

 land in 1715, and began as a kitchen-gardener, first at a small 

 place near Woodstock, and then at Stow. He remained with 

 Lord Cobham, in that capacity, until 1750, and it was not until, 

 as head-gardener to the Duke of Grafton, he planned and 

 executed a lake at Wakefield Lodge, that he attempted any 

 designing. This brought him into notice, and through the 

 influence of Lord Cobham, he was appointed Royal Gardener 

 at Hampton Court, " and it was he who planted the celebrated 

 vine there in 1796."^ He was next employed at Blenheim, 

 and the way in which he made the lake there established 

 his reputation, and soon everyone who wished to alter their 

 grounds, or lay out new ones, employed Brown. He laid out 

 Croome, Luton, Trentham, Nuneham, Burghley, and many 

 other places, and altered in some way or the other half the 

 gardens in the country. He became the fashion, and was con- 

 sulted by nearly everyone in England who had a garden of any 

 consideration. Had Brown confined himself to creating new 

 landscapes and gardens, posterity could not have borne such 

 a grudge against him. As it is, in studying the designs he 

 carried out, it is difficult to look with an unprejudiced eye at 

 his work, for before the results he produced can be admired, 

 one is filled with regret for the beauties he swept away. 



^ Loudon, Encyclopcsdia of Gardening. The parent of the Hampton 

 Court vine was a Black Hamburgh planted by Mr. Eden at Valentine 

 House, Essex, 1758. Phillips, Pomarium, 1820. 



