The surviving wing of the house at Kirkharle
Mrs A of Rothbury and Mr A of Durham (no relation) are fixed to the idea that everything the master gardener Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown learnt that was worth learning he learnt at his birthplace, Kirkharle.
Dr R of Herefordshire, himself a dedicated archaeologist of the shorts, long socks and sandals school, is anxious first to categorise earthworks by the use for which they were intended (saw-pits, charcoaling sites, hill-forts etc.) and second to distinguish constructed earthworks from natural eruptions in the soil that happen to suit some purpose of man.
John Martin ‘Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion’ (1812)
The good Captain Ken and I hardly know where to put ourselves. At one moment we have Mrs L, apparently English-born, suggesting that Capability Brown was Irish (note 158), and now, out of an unusually weighty in-box, has slipped a question from Ms M.
Dr G writes from York to ask what evidence there is for Capability Brown’s having started life as a gardener.
Mrs C has written from an address close to the bed of the Solent. Her envelope is a little damp and smeared, but she assures me that hers is a marine villa, being only submarine on the highest of tides.
An appealing statue, somewhat annoyed to be discovered relieving himself in the bushes
Mrs L of Harrogate has asked me to remind her about the portrait of Capability Brown said to have been painted by Gainsborough.
A wave of correspondence has broken across the desk of the Brown Advisor on the related subjects of Brown’s social position, flies, tea and cake.
The Brown Advisor©2015
By John Phibbs