Professor M gardens on the greensand ridge in Bedfordshire and tells me she is plagued by rabbits.
Tag: Langley Bucks. (Page 1 of 2)
In my last (note 213), I offered to my companions at the Tatler’s Waste-bin a list of all those landscapes of that fine man and lord-lieutenant of Huntingdon, Capability Brown, for which I had records of an active deer park.
Throw out the gripes of Stephen Switzer, and that much respected Reverend, William Gilpin, as well as his confrère Thomas Hale, who regarded it as ‘not very picturesque’, because it presented too uniform a surface. Let us sing the praises of the common lime.
Returning from a refreshing afternoon in Slough to a fresh delivery of correspondence on the hall table, I was just in time to catch a note from the Tyne as it slid from the top of the pile onto the floor. It was Mr O with news from Northumberland, and a question: did Capability Brown ever plant avenues?

This apple tree, growing from a rootstock in the pleasure ground at Langley, Bucks., is something of a rarity
Arising from certain lucubrations last evening, the Brown Advisor recognises that overmuch time has been devoted to the very specific questions of a very insistent few. The Advisor therefore dedicates the next notes to continuing our account of particular plants and their place in landscape (notes 92-95, 100, 107, 110, 111, 137, 146, et al.).
The ever-gracious Lady C writes from Hampshire to ask if Capability Brown, that special signor of sensibility, used mound planting at Langley, Bucks.

Horse-chestnut and Plane planted on small mounds at Langley Park, Bucks.
300 frequently asked questions about Brown, your queries answered, copyright The Brown Advisor.
I have in hand a response to my note 98, naturally concerning the landscapes of that non-pareil Capability Brown. The excellent Professor M of the Home Counties, close-shaven himself, takes the view that these were altogether smooth and had no wildness in them.
Monsieur B of Orléans has touched again on the subject of old trees, and whether Capability Brown saved them or even modified his work to take account of them. Well, well, well. The questions are good, and the short answers are yes and yes, but then again, simple decency bids me add, also no and no.
I hear the question, did the gardener, Capability Brown, build race-courses?
M. de Braun (no relation) writes from Paris to point out that besides Versailles, André Le Nôtre laid out the Champs Elysée.