Companion Homepage: Claudius Buchanan, John Claudius Loudon, Jane Wells Webb > The Claudians Chapter 4: Picturesque Gardens

Chapter 4 Picturesque gardens

Taking his professor’s advice, Loudon moves from Edinburgh to London in 1803 and sets out to make use of his mentor’s letters of introduction to famous men and famous garden owners. His aim is to introduce more of the picturesque to gardens. As a traveller, he becomes as skillful and as determined as his former professor. Though only 21 years old, he soon has a folio of professional commissions, for garden and landscape design, and sufficient material to begin publishing books on these subjects. Visiting potential clients in England, Scotland and Wales, his youthful enthusiasm for the Picturesque style of landscape improvement takes shape.

Firth of Forth and Calton Hill -

Chapel Street and St John -

James Sowerby house Mead Place -

Loudon’s Improved Furnace -

Scone Palace in Perthshire -

Hafod estate in Wales -

Leith smack -

Wapping in 1802 -

Hackney coach in 1800 -

Loudon’s first article, on public squares -

Duddingston Park, Edinburgh -

Hounslow Heath -