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Assessment of John Claudius Loudon (by Tom Turner)

GOOD POINTS

1. He is the only polymath since the renaissance to have worked on garden design
   

2. He was the most determined advocate of the Irregular Style
   

3. He made the most magnificent Ferme Ornee in England
   

4. He appreciated the logical impasse which landscape design theory reached c1800.
   

5. He encouraged the 'return to formality' & the Italian Style.
   

6. In his writing, he opposed the rampant eclecticism of the 19th century
   

7. He played a vital role in the development of the public park
   

8. He invented the ridge & furrow glazing system later used by Paxton
   

9. He invented the Gardenesque style which developed into the Picturesque style [one could say that Irregular + Picturesque = Gardenesque]
   

10. He was instrumental in giving 'landscape architecture' its present meaning
    

BAD POINTS

1. He tried to do too much, leading to shoddy theorizing
   

2. His own version of the Gardenesque style was peculiar
   

3. Through his publications he encouraged the rampant eclecticism of the 19th  century
   

4. He failed to understand the 'landscape' or 'transition' style advocated by Repton, Price and Knight
   

5. He was instrumental in giving 'landscape architecture' its present meaning