In 1788 Humphry Repton embarked on a career as a “landscape gardener”. As the self-appointed heir to Lancelot “Capability” Brown, he introduced a more painterly approach to over 400 commissions. In every sense the country was changing: physically and financially as a result of the agrarian and nascent industrial revolutions (see our essay on enclosures), and changing politically through the loss of the American colonies and the fear that would be engendered by the imminent French Revolution and then, after 1799, the Napoleonic threat. Under Repton’s influence, flower gardens that had been banished by Brown to walled or other enclosed areas were reintroduced around houses to provide a polite setting, colourful, sc

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First published 26 November 2004

Citation: Holmes, Caroline. "Humphry Repton". The Literary Encyclopedia. 26 November 2004.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3750, accessed 21 November 2009.]