LANCELOT BROWN 169 



Water should ever appear, as an irregular lake, or winding 

 stream. . . . 



In gardening, it is no small point to enforce either grandeur 

 or beauty by surprize; for instance, by abrupt transition from 

 their contraries but to lay a stress upon surprize only; for 

 example, on the surprize occasioned by an aha ! (Ha ! Ha !) with- 

 out including any nobler purpose ; is a symptom of bad taste, and 

 a violent fondness for mere concetto. Unconnected Thoughts on 

 Gardening. 



As a boy, entered service of Lord Cobham at Stowe and became his head LANCELOT 

 gardener. On his recommendation was appointed Royal Gardener at Hampton BROWN 

 Court in 1750 by George II. Brown, asked by the King to " improve " j" CAPABILITY") 

 the gardens at Hampton Court, declined, "out of respect to himself and his 

 profession." He probably planted the famous vine in 1769, from a slip of 

 one at Valentines, Ilford, Essex ; he resided many years at Hampton Court. 

 Chatham, who corresponded with Brown, writes of him in a letter to Lady 

 Stanhope : " The writer, Lancelot Brown, Esquire, en titre d 'office : please to 

 consider he shares the private hours of the King, dines familiarly with his 

 neighbour of Sion (Duke of Northumberland) and sits down at the tables of all 

 the House of Lords." 



I ANCELOT BROWN had the supreme control over the art 

 *~* of modern gardening for nearly half a century. He had 

 been bred as a kitchen gardener at Stowe. Having been recom- 

 mended by Lord Cobham to the Duke of Grafton at Wakefield 

 Lodge, Northamptonshire, he directed the formation of a large 

 lake, and afterwards at Blenheim, where he covered a narrow 

 valley with an artificial river, and gave a character to a lofty 

 bridge. He exultingly said, that "the Thames would never 

 forgive him ! " . . . Croome in Worcestershire and Fisherwick 

 in Staffordshire are his only works entirely new, as taken from 

 fields. But it would be barely possible to enumerate all the 

 villas and their environs which he remodelled, according to the 

 system upon which he acted, with persevering uniformity, for he 

 was a consummate mannerist. His reputation and consequent 



