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A beginner's guide to Humphry Repton, landscape genius

Bridget Davey’s shot of The Rockery at Woburn Abbey, highly commended in the IGPOTY Repton competition - Bridget Davey
Bridget Davey’s shot of The Rockery at Woburn Abbey, highly commended in the IGPOTY Repton competition - Bridget Davey

1 Why Repton and why now?

This year marks the bicentenary of Humphry Repton’s death in 1818. The Gardens Trust is co-ordinating a programme of exhibitions, talks, walks and conferences called Repton200 (visit thegardenstrust.org). Over a 30-year career, Repton designed more than 400 gardens including Longleat (Wiltshire), Woburn Abbey (Bedfordshire) and Russell Square (London). His signature style comprised rolling parkland and decorous clumps of trees, with the addition of flower gardens, conservatories, formal terraces and shrubberies near the house.

Such ornamental elements had been missing in the gardens of Capability Brown. Repton believed that this allowed for a gentler transition from house to garden, arguing that a clear separation between the agricultural landscape and the house was a necessity. Repton suggested that more formal garden areas created a kind of “buffer zone” between a house and its garden or park. This became a key tenet of Regency garden style.

A beautiful photograph of Warley Woods in Smethwick, captured by Simon Lea, winner of the IGPOTY Repton competition - Credit: Simon Lea
Warley Woods in Smethwick, by Simon Lea, winner of the IGPOTY Repton competition Credit: Simon Lea

2 Repton the Entrepreneur

Repton only decided to move into landscape design when he was 36, following several false starts in other businesses. He successfully established himself as both a theorist and as a practical landscape designer, marketing himself as the “heir” to Brown and distributing business cards that advertised his services as a “landscape gardener” (he was the first to “brand” himself in this way).

Unlike Brown, who never wrote any books and was notoriously reticent about explaining the ideas behind his work, Repton published several important books which remained influential long after his death – notably in the United States, where these publications provided a key to the “landscape style” for the many designers who could not come to England to see “the picturesque” at first hand.

Repton’s writings betray a confidence which could be interpreted as arrogance or bumptiousness, especially by those clients who were implicitly criticised in print for failing to realise or maintain his design ideas as he had envisaged.

3 The Red Books

Probably Repton’s greatest innovation was not a landscape feature, but a way of selling his ideas to potential clients. He devised a way of presenting his plans using unique “before and after” watercolour images, beautifully bound in red leather (hence the term Red Book).

A single or double-page would depict a “before” scene of a particular part of the estate. However, on closer inspection the reader would find that the watercolour incorporated a flap of paper that could be pulled back to reveal the designer’s proposed changes painted beneath – whether that be the addition of a picturesque lake and bridge, the serpentining of an entrance drive or the inclusion of a clump of trees for dramatic effect.

The Red Book was probably the most original “selling tool” ever devised by a landscape designer. Many English houses still have a Red Book on the shelves of the library – whether the family ultimately employed Repton to carry out the work or not.

The Duchess of Bedford and garden manager Martin Towsey with Repton's Red Book for Woburn Abbey - Credit:  Mark Ivkovic
The Duchess of Bedford and garden manager Martin Towsey with Repton's Red Book for Woburn Abbey Credit: Mark Ivkovic

4 Repton versus capability Brown

Landscape consultant and historian John Phibbs is best placed to make a judgment on the relative merits of the two designers. He published a pair of books about Brown in 2016 (his tercentenary year) and is currently working on two books about Repton, which will appear in 2020 and 2021. “Brown’s landscapes can be described as rational,” he explains. “They were all about forms and shapes.

Repton’s landscape style was endeavouring to elicit an emotional response, especially as his career went on. By the time you get to Endsleigh [in Devon], you have the Dingle, which is really a garden of sound – with all the cascades around you, it’s like a sound organ. It’s a very atmospheric place. The same is true of Repton’s use of ‘the burst’: whenever he could, he arranged it so that the way you first saw the house was immediately after coming through an area of dark woodland. This was designed to build up an emotional response. Brown never did anything like that.”

Busts of Brown, left, and Repton, right, for the garden. Alan Titchmarsh is a great admirer of Repton and has a bust of the designer in his own garden. Anyone who wants to emulate him might like to consider a new Repton bust which has been produced by Haddonstone, £399. A bust of Capability Brown is also available for the same price (haddonstone.com).

5 Repton on his own Style

“The perfection of landscape gardening consists in the four following requisites. First, it must display the natural beauties and hide the defects of every situation. Secondly, it should give the appearance of extent and freedom by carefully disguising or hiding the boundary.

Thirdly, it must studiously conceal every interference of art. However expensive by which the natural scenery is improved; making the whole appear the production of nature only; and fourthly, all objects of mere convenience or comfort, if incapable of being made ornamental, or of becoming proper parts of the general scenery, must be removed or concealed.” Observations on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening (1803).

Far-seeing: theodolite at Woburn Abbey - Credit: Mark Ivkovic
Far-seeing: theodolite at Woburn Abbey Credit: Mark Ivkovic

6 No ‘e’, please

It is the most common mistake made in gardening history: writing “Humphrey” instead of Humphry. It’s one quick way of ascertaining whether a self-described “garden historian” knows what they are talking about. The Gardens Trust even considered making promotional badges reading, “It’s Humphry – without an E”. Humphry was a common spelling in the 18th and 19th centuries: the chemist Humphry Davy, for example.

rhododendrons at Sheringham Park, Norfolk, below right - Credit: Alamy
Rhododendrons at Sheringham Park, Norfolk Credit: Alamy

7 Repton and Austen

The novelist was well aware of the activities of the celebrated landscape gardener, not least because he had been commissioned to produce a Red Book for Stoneleigh Abbey, in Warwickshire, the seat of her mother’s family. The plans were never executed. In chapter six of Mansfield Park, Jane Austen treats of the Repton style in customarily ironic vein.

Mr Rushworth tells of the effects of an “improver” on a neighbouring estate and how his own estate at Sotherton suffers by comparison: “It wants improvement, ma’am, beyond anything. I never saw a place that wanted so much improvement in my life; and it is so forlorn that I do not know what can be done with it.” “Your best friend upon such an occasion,” said Miss Bertram calmly, “would be Mr Repton, I imagine.”

8 Best Repton Gardens to visit

While some of the detail of Repton’s designs – the flower gardens near the house, the shrubberies – have perhaps inevitably been lost in most cases, we can still appreciate the broader sweeps of his vision: the tree plantings, the siting of lakes, the dramatic routing of entrance drives and the sudden vistas. Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, is perhaps the most intact Repton landscape open to the public. Sheringham Hall, Norfolk, is a memorable maritime garden. Endsleigh, Devon, is now a secluded and exclusive hotel. Port Eliot, Cornwall, hosts a well-heeled music and literary festival.

Outdoor theatre: a winding drive at Uppark House was a Repton signature - Credit: Alamy
Outdoor theatre: a winding drive at Uppark House was a Repton signature Credit: Alamy

9 Repton Events in 2018

  • Humphry Repton: Art & Nature for the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey (until Oct 28) is an exhibition documenting Repton’s work for the Russell family (who also commissioned his work at Endsleigh). The Woburn Red Book (1804) was the most elaborate he ever produced and will be on display for the first time. (woburnabbey.co.uk).

  • Repton Revived, an exhibition of Red Books, designs and watercolours by Humphry Repton, is at the Garden Museum, London from Oct 17-Feb 3, 2019. The exhibition brings together the greatest number of Red Books for more than 30 years.

  • Rethinking Repton is an exhibition at the RHS Lindley Library in London, May 3-June 22, a collaboration with third year students on Writtle University College’s Landscape Architecture and Garden Design course, that looks afresh at his gardening principles.

  • Repton Rides, led by Tatton Park’s head gardener, Simon Tetlow, is a unique opportunity to see Repton’s design of 1792 by guided cycle ride at Tatton Park, Cheshire on April 18.

  • The Celebrating Repton Family Picnic, with Northamptonshire Gardens Trust at Wicksteed Park, Northamptonshire, is on June 30.

  • Winners of the 2018 International Garden Photographer of the Year Repton Competition will be on show at Sheringham, Norfolk, from Sept 2 to Oct 29 (igpoty.com).