Landscape architect

1. Humphry Repton
(21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818)
The last great English landscape
designer of the eighteenth century,
often regarded as the successor
to Capability Brown.

2. • He sowed the seeds of the more intricate and
eclectic styles of the 19th century.
• Repton was born in Bury St Edmunds, UK.
• At age twelve he was sent to the Netherlands to
learn Dutch and prepare for a career as a
merchant.
• However, Repton was befriended by a wealthy
Dutch family and the trip stimulated his interest in
sketching and gardening.
• Repton's childhood friend James Edward Smith,
encouraged him to study botany and gardening.
• He was given access to the library of Windham to
read its works on botany.

3. • In 1788, at the age of 36, he decided to take up
the profession of landscape gardener.
• With no real experience of practical
horticulture, he became an overnight success,
due to his undeniable talent, but also to the
unique way he presented his work.
• To help clients visualise his designs, Repton
produced 'Red Books' with explanatory text and
watercolours with a system of overlays to show
'before' and 'after' views.
• Clients loved the way they could visualize the
schemes, by looking at the water-colours
Repton produced to illustrate his proposals.
• Repton believed in making a transition from a
terrace near the house, through a serpentine
park to a distant view.

4. • Repton advocated a gradual transition
between house and grounds by means of
terraces, balustrades, and steps.
• He was influenced by the Picturesque
movement, which admired wild landscapes.
• Repton published three major books on
landscape gardening: Sketches and Hints
on Landscape Gardening (1795),
Observations on the Theory and Practice
of Landscape Gardening (1803), and
Fragments on the Theory and Practice of
Landscape Gardening (1816).

5. • Repton re-introduced formal terraces,
balustrades, trellis work and flower gardens
around the house in a way that became
common practice in the nineteenth century.
• He also designed one of the most famous
'picturesque' landscapes in Britain at Blaise
Castle, near Bristol.
• Repton impressed the Duke of Bedford with his
Woburn plans and he had been given the job of
designing the central garden area for Russell
Square in London, at the heart of the Duke’s
development in Bloomsbury.
• In 1811 when thecarriage he was travelling in
overturned, damaging his back and leaving
him an invalid for the rest of his life, often
confined to a wheel-chair.
• He died in 1818 and is buried at Aylsham.

6. LIST OF GARDENS
One of Repton’s drawings for
Catton Park, showing his
proposal for a new drive and
picturesque cottages.
• Antony House
• Ashridge House
• Ashton Court
• Blaise Castle
• Broke Hall
• Clumber Park
• East India Company
College now Haileybury
• Grovelands Park
• Hanslope Park
• Royal Pavilion at Brighton
• Russell Square, Bloomsbury
• St. John's Park, Ryde, Isle of Wight
• Tatton Park

7. Antony Garden Rode Hall Garden
Woburn Abbey Garden Royal Pavilion Brighton

8. Hotel Endsleigh
Gardens
It was one of Repton's last
projects before his carriage
accident - and one of his
favorites. The garden, which
has a grass terrace
overlooking the Tamar, is
being restored.

9. ASHRIDGE GARDEN
• Ashridge gardens cover 190
acres and were originally
designed by Humphry Repton
in the early 19th century.
• The gardens are made up of a
number of small gardens as
well as a large lawn area
leading on to avenues of trees
affording views out to the old
parkland.
• This is the garden for which the Mixed Style was first advocated, by
Humphry Repton in his Red Book of 1813.
• Repton described his design as the 'child of my age and declining
powers'.
• He proposed 15 different types of garden.
• After Repton's death, his proposals were adapted and implemented by
Sir Jeffry Wyatville.

10. Ashridge Gardens spire view
• The Gardens are ideal for
personal reflection and
relaxation.
• Ashridge opens its
gardens for tours for the
public during August.
• Ashridge’s chefs also
make excellent use of the
new herb garden,
fragrant with basil,
rosemary, oregano,
parsley, thyme and mint.
• The addition of new
buildings at Ashridge in
recent years has enabled
the development of more
contemporary gardens to
complement the
historical features.

11. • As Repton wished, there is a notable mixture of
features: an Italian garden, a circular Rose
Garden, a Monk's garden and Holy Well, an
Armorial Garden, a conservatory, a grotto and
an avenues of Wellingtonias leading to an
arboretum.
• Repton proposed the following elements for his
pioneering Mixed Style garden: a Lawn; a
Pleasure Ground; a Holy Well; a Pomarium; a
Monk's Garden; an Arboretum; a Magnolia and
American Garden; an Embroidered Parterre; a
Grotto and Garden for Rock Plants; a Cabinet
de verdure; a Mount Garden; a Rosarium and
Fountain; Connecting Interior Walks; an Open
Terrace and Exterior Walks.
• Many of these features became classic
elements of Victorian garden design.

12. • Work over the past ten years has led to
the restoration of the Rosary, an Armorial
Garden, the Italian Garden and the
Flower Garden.
• The Italian Garden has been restored to
its original design as has the arbour for
the Rose Garden, which is now framed
with laburnum trees.
• The designs were a mix of the sweeping
18th century landscaped garden and the
more intimate Victorian flower garden.
• Repton included an uncluttered view across
the lawn from the East Wing as this was
where the private apartments of the family
were, as well as 15 small gardens and
features beyond the chapel.
• Most of Repton’s garden design still remains
today thanks to the tireless restoration
work of our fantastic team of gardeners.

13. The Souterrein and Grotto
Repton’s tunnel of iron
armatures hung with flints
connecting his flower
garden and an amphitheatre
of a grotto in Hertfordshire
puddingstone
The Rosary
• A garden room encircled by a trellis and columns with swags devoted to the most
precious of flowers, the rose – Wyatville planted a yew hedge instead of trellis.
• There are eight radiating beds and a central water feature all of which were
restored in 1998.

14. TATTON PARK
• Located in 1,000 acres of the most
beautiful deer park, the former
Egerton family home.
• It uncovers centuries of history at the
Medieval Old Hall and has huge
glorious Gardens.
• There are very special rare breed
animals at their working Farm.

15. Japanese Garden showing the Shinto
Shrine
Tatton Park entrance

16. • Tatton Park Gardens represents over
250 years of garden design history,
with each generation of the family
adding to them, and moving the park
boundary back each time to
accommodate their designs.
• The 50 acres feature the famous
Japanese Garden, Italian, Rose and
Tower Gardens while the Walled
Kitchen Garden produces seasonal
fruit and vegetables which are sold
on-site and used in the Restaurant
menus.

17. • A nineteenth century house, by Samuel Wyatt, with park and garden.
• The estate layout has changed with many of the currents of taste in
garden design.
• A Beech avenue survives from an early-eighteenth century design,
Humphry Repton prepared a Red Book in 1791 and the transition from
house to terrace to park is fundamentally Reptonian.
• The terrace garden south of the house was designed by Joseph Paxton,
with Edward Milner in charge of the works.
• The Japanese garden and Shinto Shrine were made after 1910.
• The result is a good example of the Mixed Style.
• The 120-foot Pinery (1774) was restored and reopened in April 2007 by
the Countess of Wessex.