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 “ Capability 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.” 1 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. 
1 Loudon, Encyclopedia 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. 
