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Petworth
Park (Photo courtesy Michael Lancaster) - a classic Brownian
scene.
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The Landscape Style, named the Transition Style in the first
edition of this book, is arguably the greatest in the history of
British garden and landscape design: it combined the best of
eighteenth century landscape practice into one magnificent
conception. The theory on which the style rests is often described
as the 'picturesque theory' because it requires the composition of
landscape scenery 'like a picture' into:
- a foreground: regular, geometrical and designed
for human use
- a middleground: a serpentine park in the manner of
Lancelot Brown
- a background: natural scenery, as little affected
by man as possible
The idea was applied to country estates by making a terrace as a
'Beautiful' foreground, and then forming a 'transition' to a
'Picturesque' park, and beyond to a 'Sublime' background which
could be a mountain range, an ocean, a river, a forest or a distant
view.
[Note on typography
of the two meanings of picturesque: as explained below, in this chapter 'Picturesque' spelt with a
capital P is used in a special eighteenth century sense to mean
'intermediate between Beautiful and Sublime].
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The Landscape Style is also the chief support for the claim that
British designers made a unique
contribution to western culture during the eighteenth century.
Several proponents of the claim were mentioned in the Preface.
Nikolaus Pevsner's name can be added
to their number. In his 1955 Reith Lectures Pevsner identified an
'English picturesque theory' which 'lies hidden in the writings of
the improvers from Pope to Uvedale Price, and Payne Knight ', as the foundation for an 'English
national planning theory'. Pevsner asserted that the theory gave
English planners 'something of great value to offer to other
nations', and asked whether 'the same can be said of painting, of
sculpture, and of architecture proper?'. His answer was that
Henry Moore and other contemporary
sculptors had 'given England a position in European sculpture such
as she has never before held', but that painting and architecture
were of a lower order of excellence. A large body of design theory
was developed to support the Landscape Style and its influence
outside the realm of garden design has been amazing.
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The first and most obvious application of the theory was to
architecture. It provided a rationale
for irregular planning to suit with a building's functional
requirements, and for the design of buildings as a pictorial
contribution to the scenery. When applied to urban design, the
theory led to the picturesque planning of streets to create a
sequence of visual experiences as Nash did in London's Regent
Street.
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When applied to planning, the
theory produced the idea that there should be a grand transition
from an urbane city centre, through healthy suburbs and a green
belt, through a rural landscape which is protected from urban
sprawl, and finally to the National Parks, undeveloped coasts and
other natural places. From the perspective of the 1980s the
picturesque theory can be seen as a precursor of the conservation
movement: it provided sound reasons for preserving ancient
buildings, for conserving natural vegetation and for designing new
buildings which fit well with their surroundings. These
developments are further discussed in City as Landscape: a
post-Postmodern view of planning and design (Turner, T. 1996) and Landscape Planning
and Environmental Impact Design (Turner, T., 1998).
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In geometrical terms the Landscape Style made use of elements which derive
from four earlier styles of British garden design: the foreground
terrace came from the Enclosed style, the taste for extensive
prospects from the Forest style, the middleground park from the
Serpentine style, and the background scenery from the Picturesque
Style. The first hint that these ideas could be combined came from
William Gilpin. He included the
following observation in his Remarks on Forest Scenery
(1791):
As the park is an appendage of the house, it follows, that it
should participate of it's neatness, and elegance. Nature, in all
her great walks of landscape, observes this accommodating rule. She
seldom passes abruptly from one mode of scenery to another; but
genrally connects different species of landscape by some third
species, which participates of both. A mountainous country rarely
sinks immediately into a level one; the swellings and heavings of
the earth, grow gradually less. Thus as the house is connected with
the country through the medium of the park; the park should partake
of the neatness of the one, and of the wildness of the other.
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Gilpin's remark was taken up and developed by the 'three squires' of landscape theory: Sir
Uvedale Price,, Richard Payne Knight and Humphry Repton. Their writings look back on the
literature and practice of the eighteenth century and form the
starting point from which all nineteenth century theorists began
their consideration of the subject.
Price and Knight were wealthy landowners, old friends and
neighbours in Herefordshire. Repton came from Norfolk and met the
other two as a result of an invitation to design an estate at
Ferney Hall in Herefordshire which belonged to a friend of
Knight's. The three friends were each preparing to publish books on
landscape design in the year 1794. Knight was first off the mark
and hurried the others into print. Repton succeeded in getting his
book printed in 1794 but did not manage to publish until early in
the following year because he required the services of a small army
of women and children to colour up the illustrations. The measure
of agreement between the opinions expressed by the three men was
considerable and a modern textbook editor might have persuaded them
to put their names to a single treatise. The sparkle of
individuality would have been lost but the three would surely have
agreed if they had had any conception of how seriously readers were
going to overstate their differences and misunderstand their
writings. It has been blown into a 'picturesque controversy'.
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Many of the differences between Price, Knight and Repton can in
fact be removed by distinguishing between the specialised and
ordinary meanings of the words beautiful, sublime and picturesque.
In the remainder of this book the words will be written with a
capital letter when they are used in a special eighteenth century sense. Thus 'Beautiful'
will refer to smoothness, delicacy and gradual variation, 'Sublime'
to the great, terrible and awe-inspiring, and 'Picturesque' to the
intermediate aesthetic category of roughness, wildness and
irregularity. When using the words in their modern sense they will
be written with the first letter in the lower case. The Concise
Oxford Dictionary defines beautiful as 'delighting the eye',
sublime as 'so distinguished by elevation or size or nobility or
grandeur or other impressive quality as to inspire awe or wonder',
and picturesque as 'fit to be the subject of a striking picture'.
The meaning of sublime has undergone the least change.
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| Repton wrote: The aspect of a house requires
the first consideration, since no beauty of prospect can compensate
for the cold exposure to the north, the glaring blaze of a setting
sun, or the frequent boistrous winds and rains from the west and
south-west'. He often recommended sites on rising ground, but well
below the crest of a hill, as in this proposal for Bayham Abbey in
Kent. |
Repton's sketch of Prospect Hill at Longleat
where 'parties are permitted to bring their refreshments; which
circumstance tends to enliven the scene .. and to mark the
liberality of its noble proprietor |
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'Let us have a small temple in the park where we can join
you.. on hot summer days'. At Hatchlands, Surrey, there is a transition from the
terrace to the temple. Both were designed in the 1920s - though
Repton produced a Red Book for the estate c 1797. It is a polite
and picturesque scene of the typehe admired and
recommended |
In order to bring out the points
of agreement between the three men and avoid the anachronism of
a technical editor we can consider the advice which they might have
given to a friend who had recently inherited a country seat. Knight
and Price occasionally gave advice to their friends but did not
make a charge for it. Repton was an impoverished squire who asked a
fee for his advice and summarised his opinion in beautiful hand
written volumes illustrated with his own water-colours and bound in
red morocco leather. They were known as Red Books. Let us assume
then that having come into possession of a 500 hectare estate in
1795, we have asked the three literary squires for their opinion on
how to improve the estate in the modern taste. Their collective
advice can can be expressed in modern English except for the words
Beautiful, Sublime and Picturesque:
Good morning. We have completed a thorough study of your estate
and Mr Repton has made sketches from numerous points of view in
order to fully appraise its present character. The changes which we
propose will be designed to fit in with the existing site and to
make improvements which will create a landscape which is both
useful and beautiful.
It is highly desirable that there should be a smooth transition
between your house and the natural landscape. We can best explain
this idea by referring to the work of the great landscape painters
from whom we have learnt our aesthetics. The foreground of the view
from your house should be a terrace garden with a profusion of
flowers. It should be Beautiful and well-kept for your family's
use, with something of the character of a garden scene by Watteau or, if you decide to have a lake, a
Claudian seaport. The middleground of the view should be a noble
park, laid out with a view to Picturesque effect but available for
agricultural use. Claude and Poussin often show how Picturesque scenes
can be when they contain sheep and herdsmen. The background of your
view should be Sublime and we recommend felling some trees to open
up the view of the waterfall and the forest scenery. You have the
makings of a Salvator Rosa on the edge
of your estate and should most certainly keep the ancient oak and
shepherd's cottage which lie at the foot of the hill.
Each of the three grounds in the scene can contain more than one
of the aesthetic qualities but the Beautiful should predominate in
the foreground, the Picturesque in the middleground and the Sublime
in the background. Nature shows us how to combine the qualities
when we see the Beauty of a rose set off by the Picturesque setting
of its sharp thorns and serrated leaves. We can also learn from
nature and from the landscape painters how best to combine unity
with variety. New planting will unify the scene, like the light of
the setting sun. It will also provide shelter from the harsh north
easterly winds.
You will require a new mansion and it should be very carefully
sited to have a good microclimate and to command fine views. The
house should dominate the foreground but should only be an incident
in the background which contributes to the scenery. Lancelot
Brown was too much interested in the
middleground but he had excellent taste in the selection of sites
and in the composition of land and woods to make a middleground for
the view. It is very important that a balance should be achieved
between the competing demands of prospect and aspect: a good view
is pleasant but a good microclimate is essential. A well designed
garden will lengthen the summer by catching the winter sun and
keeping out cold winds. It should also contain shady groves in
which the family can relax on hot afternoons.
The principle of association which has helped us to plan the
grounds should also be used to guide the design of your house. It
should look like a building which belongs to the age, country and
place in which it will be built. The materials should be of a
colour and texture which suits the style and the site - preferably
a local stone. Since all the rooms and outbuildings should be
planned to meet the needs of your family and servants we think that
an irregular floor plan is more convenient than strict symmetry.
The next task is to select an architectural style. We often
think that an Italian style is best for a Claudian site, a Grecian
style for a Poussinesque site and an English style for a typically
English site. It is also important for your house to look its part;
it should not resemble a church, a university or a temple. Since
your estate is near the Welsh Border and your house will be larger
than a manor house but smaller than a palace, we think that the
English Castle style would be a very appropriate choice.
Your estate is large and we have suggested the incorporation of
many different sources of pleasure into its layout. It would
therefore be delightful to have a circuitous carriage drive. When
driving round the estate you and your visitors will be able to
experience all the views and qualities which we have aimed to
create: congruity, utility, order, symmetry, picturesque effects,
intricacy, simplicity, variety, novelty, contrast, continuity,
association, appropriation, animation, grandeur and the
ever-changing effects the seasons, the weather and the times of
day.
Finally, let us have a small Palladian temple in the park where
we can join you for an outdoor meal or drink on hot summer days. It
should be sited on the brow of the hill which can be seen from your
drawing room window and we suggest that you inscribe it with the
famous lines by Alexander Pope which
have guided us in the design of your estate:
To build, to plant, whatever you intend,
To rear the Column, or the Arch to bend,
To swell the Terras, or to sink the Grot;
In all, let Nature never be forgot.
Consult the Genius of the Place in all
That tells the waters or to rise, or fall....
Joins willing woods, and varies shades from shades
Now Breaks, or now directs, th'intending
Lines; Paints as you plant, and as you work,
Designs.
There are eleven key ideas embodied in the above advice on
estate layout: existing character, nature, utility, the transition,
landscape painting, planting, unity in variety (etc), the balance
of prospect and aspect, appropriation, irregular architecture and
the principle of association. If the three squires views were set
out individually and then compared, we would find some cases of
complete agreement, some of differing emphasis and some of near
disagreement.
They would have been in complete agreement over the importance
of existing character, nature, planting, irregular architecture and
the combination of unity with variety.
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Cases of differing emphasis
would be found over prospect and aspect, appropriation, the
transition and the principle of association. Repton and Price give
the fullest accounts of how to form a transition between the
terrace and wild nature. Repton was the first of the three to
propose the reintroduction of terraces to English gardens but the
demand for a paved area near the house had been growing since the
1750s. In 1771 even the Encyclopaedia Britancia had advised
that 'regularity is required in that part of a garden which joins
the dwelling house', but the paved area was recommended for purely
utilitarian reasons. Price and Knight were the first to argue on
visual grounds that a terrace would be an asset in composing
the foreground of the view. Repton originally recommended terraces
for utility but came to agree with his friends on this point.
From 1794 onwards each of the three advocated the transition
from regularity to wildness. As shown on the diagram, the
transition runs from a 'regular' terrace beside the house, through
a serpentine park to a wild forest or other sublime feature.
Repton, as the only professional designer in the trio, has the best
advice on how to achieve a balance between a good prospect and a
good microclimate. He was also, perhaps for the same reason, the
only one to recommend the idea of appropriation.
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| Knight persuaded the owner of Powis Castle, Powys, to keep
the terraces which step down the hillside. Knight believed
that a terrace creates a foreground can have the same
role in a real landscape as it does in a landscape
painting. |
Knight, as the most philosophically able, gives most attention
to the principle of association which underlies each of the
author's aesthetic views. Knight believed that our aesthetic
judgement of phenomena is governed by our understanding of their
associations, history and symbolic significance. For example:
Ruined buildings, with fragments of sculptured walls and broken
columns, the mouldering remnants of obsolete taste and fallen
magnificance, afford pleasure to every learned beholder,
imperceptible to the ignorant, and wholly independent of their real
beauty .
Knight was a great collector of Greek and Roman coins and
thought their vivid sexual imagery gave them a greater interest
than they would have had merely as abstract designs.
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The cases of near
disagreement between Repton, Price and Knight would have arisen
over their interpretation of utility and landscape painting. These
disagreements have received considerable attention from
commentators but are of much more philosophical than practical
consequence. They turn on the precise meaning and significance
given to the words 'picturesque' and 'utility'.
Price wished to restrict the word 'Picturesque' to the sense
which we have distinguished by a capital P, and to use it to
describe the aesthetic pleasure which we receive from rough, shaggy
and irregular scenes. Knight disagreed with this restriction and
believed that 'picturesque' should be used to describe a scene
which resembled a landscape painting. Repton misunderstood both the
Herefordshire squires. He thought that Price advocated the
Picturesque in preference to the Sublime and the Beautiful, and
that Knight advocated the picturesque in disregard of utility.
Neither charge is substantiated by a close reading of Price and
Knight - but it is easy to see how the mistakes arose. Price
does concentrate on the Picturesque and Knight has very
little to say about utility. Price's reason for giving more
attention to the Picturesque was that earlier writers, especially
Burke, had given it insufficient
attention. He insisted that he was 'by no means bigotted to the
Picturesque or insensible to the charms of Beauty'. His favourite
instance of the Picturesque was a river with rocky banks,
overhanging trees, rushing water and reedy swamps.
The difference between the three squires over utility also arose
because Repton misunderstood his friends' books. Repton thought
that Price's Essay of 1794 had advocated a wild, rugged and
Picturesque area near the house, and that this idea was
preposterous. When Price wrote in favour of terraces in his 1795
Letter, Repton declared the dispute settled. Price's
remarks, he wrote, 'left no room for further controversy'.
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| The lake at Wingerworth, Derbyshire, was designed by Repton
as 'an object of beauty' to be 'so managed as to admit of being
occasionally drawn down two or three feet to supply canals, and
other circumstances of advantage, in this populous and commercial
part of the kingdom; exclusive of the increased supply of fish,
where such food is in constant requisition'. It is a good example
of Repton's admiration for a landscape which is useful as well as
beautiful. |
Repton criticised Knight for disregarding utility in his
advocacy of the picturesque. In fact Knight's position was close to
Burke's: he believed that utility and aesthetic pleasure are both
good things but unconnected. Of the qualities which a herdsman and
a poet see in a field of grass, Knight asks 'who shall presume to
decide that the one are more truely and properly beauties than the
other?'. His dispute with Repton was over what to say, not over
what to do. They agreed that there should be a terrace between the
house and the fields. Indeed Price tells us that the owner of
Powis Castle was persuaded by Knight not to destroy the great terraces
which step down the hillside in front of the castle.
Repton did not see the estate's profitability as the primary
objective of his work. He aimed to produce 'a harmony of parts to
the whole' and lamented the fact that he often had to 'contend with
the opposition of stewards, the presumption and ignorance of
gardeners and the jealousy of architects and builders'. To accept
that profit rather than harmony was his objective would have been
to give way to one or other interested party. For this reason
Repton preferred to see profit as a 'collateral prop' for his
views. When beauty and profit did coincide he was delighted. For
example the lake which he designed at Wingerworth was beautiful and
also served to supply a canal with water and his client's table
with fish. Repton also liked the idea of a belt of copse woodland
which could provide pleasant walks, shelter the corn, protect the
cattle, supply cover for game, and provide the framework for his
landscape design. He was however sorry to note that 'pecuniary
advantage and ornament are seldom strictly compatible', and he
criticised Shenstone's
ferm ornee for failing to unite ornament with profit.
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| 'The mouldering remains of obsolete taste and
fallen magnificence' The quote is from Knight, but the drawing of a
Picturesque ruin comes from the 1842 edition of Price's
essays. |
John Ruskin's drawing of Abstract Lines
(from The Stones of Venice, Vol 1, 1851) was used to show
that all the most beautiful curves derive from nature. |
Repton, Price and Knight each
put the 'transition' theory into practice. Little is known of
Price's design for his own estate at Foxley. The foundations of the house and of
what appears to have been a terraced garden can be detected but the
estate has been ruined by planting the open spaces with poplars.
Knight's estate at Downton Castle is
not open to the public but it remains in excellent condition and is
one of the most romantic designed estates in England. In 1806
Repton wrote that Downton provided 'consumate proof' of Knight's
good taste but that 'it is impossible by description to convey an
idea of its natural charms, or to do justice to that taste which
has displayed these charms to the greatest advantage'. Its very
completeness as a work of art invites comparison with Rousham, Stourhead and Prior
Park. Knight appears to have laid out the park wholly in the
Picturesque Style during his youth and to have converted it to the
Landscape Style by adding a neat terrace and a modest serpentine
park. Comfort and convenience assume greater importance in middle
age.
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| Price's estate at Foxley, Herefordshire, lay in an
attractive valley. It has since been marred by ill-considered
poplar planting. |
Repton lived in a cottage and treated the garden as the
foreground to a Picturesque view of the village of Hare Street.
There was even an Irregular woodland on the hill in the background.
The Landscape Style also formed the basis of Repton's extensive
practice. He was most unfortunate in that the prime years of his
professional career, between the publication of his first book in
1793 and the collapse of his health in 1815, coincided with the
Napoleonic Wars. The number and geographical extent of his
commissions was extraordinary for a country involved in a major
European war but the scope of the works his clients wished to have
executed was modest by peacetime standards. Repton was highly
skilled in the design of forests, parks and lakes but in most cases
his clients did little more than enrich the foreground of an
existing scene with a garden.
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| Repton's cottage in Hare Street - a small scale example of a
transition from a Beautiful foreground, to a Picturesque Village to
a Sublimely wooded hill. |
Once the fashion for sweeping the agricultural land up to the
living room windows had passed, there was a considerable demand for
a cheerful 'dressed' area near the house. At Ashridge, which
Repton considered one of his major
works, a Beautiful foreground was added to a park designed by
Brown. At Sherringham Repton had a rare
opportunity to lay out a completly new estate, though a modest one
by peacetime standards. Repton also designed the house with the
help of his sons and preferred this project 'over every other in
which I have been consulted'. The foreground at Sheringham is
occupied by a small terrace garden which is separated from the park
by one of Repton's favourite devices, the balustrade. The
middleground is most interesting: a straightforward Serpentine park
which might have been designed by Brown. The North Sea forms a
Sublime background to the park but cannot be seen from the house.
Repton would have liked it to be visible but he was disuaded from
choosing a building site in full exposure to the north wind by
climatic considerations. The North Sea, he observed, 'is not like
that of the Bay of Naples'.
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| Sherringham in Norfolk. The house
and garden were designed by Repton and it is a fine example of the
Landscape Style. The North Sea provides a Sublime background; the
terrace in front of the house provides a Beautiful foreground and
the agricultural landscape is a Picturesque middleground. |
The best account of the way in which nineteenth century
designers interpreted the transition idea is to be found in Charles
M'intosh's Book of the Garden
(1853):
Sir Uvedale Price clearly recognises a threefold dividion of the
domain, which we have already referred to - namely, the
architectural terrace and flower-garden , in direct connection with
the house, where he admits the formal style; the shrubbery or
pleasure-ground, a transition between the flowers and the trees,
"which we would hand over", says the writer in the Quarterly
Review already quoted , "to the natural style of Brown and his
school"; and thirdly, the park, which he considers the proper
domain of his own system.
The sketches from T H Mawson's
The Art and Craft of Garden Making (1900) show how this idea
was interpreted at the end of the century, but by this time it had
become involved with the Italian style.
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| The Landscape Style, as represented by T. H. Mason in 1900.
He wrote that 'any artist when painting a landscape, fills in,
leaves out, or alters details, until he obtains his ideally
balanced picture showing nature as he conceives it ought to be ...
the gardener wishes to recompose the landscape itself, and this
mainly by the help of trees'. The landscape transition runs from a
Beautiful terrace, through a Picturesque middle ground to a Sublime
background. |
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| A nineteenth century transition from house to lake to lawn
at Biddulph. The transition was included as one element in the
Mixed Style. |
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