Written towards the end of his life, Humphry Repton’s Fragments on the theory and practice of landscape gardening (1816) is a personal reflection on his career, recalling dozens of the garden projects that he undertook, both great and small, some completed and others unfinished.

Liberated, perhaps, by a sense that he had not much longer to live, Repton is candid about garden styles – and clients – providing us with some interesting insights:

‘Twenty years have now passed away and it is possible that life may be extended twenty years longer, but from my feelings more probable that it will not reach as many weeks; and therefore I may now perhaps be writing the last Fragment of my Labours.  I have lived to see many of my plans beautifully realized, but many more, cruelly marred; sometimes by false economy; sometimes  by injudicious extravagance.  I have also lived to reach that period, when the improvement of Houses and Gardens is more delightful to me, than that of Parks or Forests, Landscapes or distant prospects.’

In the concluding chapter Repton returns to his cottage and garden at Hare Street, his home in Essex for thirty years and his retreat from ‘the pomp of palaces, the elegancies of fashion, or the allurements of dissipation’.

Two illustrations of his garden are provided – one as it was when he acquired the property and another after improvements.  By extending the garden at the front of the house, he is able to frame the view of the village which he finds more pleasing than extensive parkland.  Repton explains:

‘.. it stood originally within five yards of a broad part of the high road: this area was often covered with droves of cattle, of pigs, or geese.  I obtained leave to remove the paling twenty yards farther from the windows; and by this Appropriation of twenty-five yards of Garden, I have obtained a frame to my Landscape; the frame is composed of flowering shrubs and evergreens; beyond which are seen the cheerful village, the high road, and that constant moving scene, which I would not exchange for any of the lonely parks, that I have improved for others;’

A closer inspection of the improved garden reveals the detail of the planting.  Repton has retained two mature trees which he has set within a semi-circular lawn, helping to frame the outlook.  The view of the butcher’s shop is obscured with an iron structure supporting climbing roses and a low rose hedge hides ‘the dirt of the road, without concealing the moving objects which animate the Landscape.’  The practical watering can and simple kitchen chair reinforce the humility of this country residence.

Repton concludes:

‘The most valuable lesson now left me to communicate is this: I am convinced that the delight I have always taken in Landscapes and Gardens, without any reference to their Quantity or Appropriation, or without caring whether they were Forests or Rosaries, or whether they were Palaces, Villas, or Cottages, while I had leave to admire their beauties, and even to direct their improvement has been the chief source of that large proportion of happiness which I have enjoyed through life,’

As we currently spend more time at home than usual – and in our gardens if we are fortunate enough to have them – Hare Street is a reminder of the importance of gardens as a refuge from the world outside whatever their size, and that constructing them is a source of great contentment in our lives.

Humphry Repton 1752 – 1818

Further reading:

Fragments on the theory and practice of landscape gardening

Humphry Repton on Wikipedia

The English landscape designer Humphry Repton (1752 – 1818) is generally celebrated for his work on large country estates, so while reading Fragments on the theory and practice of landscape gardening I was intrigued to find plans for a model workhouse and garden.  Produced with his son John Adey Repton and published in 1816, this book was  written towards the end of Repton’s life, as a survey of his career.  Amongst flagship projects like Woburn Abbey and Longleat, his own garden in Essex is featured, together with designs he believes to have had merit, but were never actually implemented.

In some ways, looking through this book is a bit like viewing a modern landscape designer’s website.  Just as today’s designers use plans and concept boards to illustrate how gardens will look, and photographs showing the final result, Repton uses coloured ‘sketches’, both to enable clients to visualise his designs and to illustrate completed gardens.  His theories on using the ‘borrowed landscape’ (which he calls ‘appropriation’) and using contrasts between the forms of plants sound very similar to techniques used by designers today.

The work house project came about at the instigation of another son, the Rev Edward Repton, who wanted to improve conditions for his parishioners in Kent.  The existing work house occupied a piece of land that was waterlogged, so the first priority was to relocate it to drier ground.  Unfortunately, the new work house was never actually built.  As Repton explains,

‘This Plan was at first highly approved by the leading persons in the Parish, till it was discovered that the Situation proposed was so desirable, that the Site occupied in private houses would produce more profit, and therefore the Poor for the present continue in their former unwholesome abode;’

His detailed sketch explains how the workhouse community might function.  (For convenience, I’ve divided the image in half, so as to examine it more clearly.)  At the top of the picture is the work house building where the residents would have lived and taken their meals, flanked on either side by accommodation for the governor and matron.  The south facing terrace has seating for the ‘aged and infirm’ and is also used as an outdoor classroom.  Grape vines were to be planted on the walls of the building – if you look very closely you can see a wooden trellis structure on the roof supporting the plants.

Below this is the garden with neat rows of crops, intended to be sold to the public as well as for use by the residents.  On both sides of the sketch are neat tables covered with white cloths, where passers-by are purchasing fruit and flowers.  The pond would have provided a water source for the institution.

Repton is concerned that the children of the work house should be taught practical skills, giving special value to gardening (as we might expect) and to military service:

‘This might be considered as the reward of good conduct: the Children, supplied with spades, and hoes, and tools, proportioned to their strength, should be taught and exercised in the cultivation of the Garden, and perhaps drilled to become the future defenders of their Country.’

On one side of the sketch we can see children hoeing rows of vegetables, while on the other side, boys in military uniform stand to attention.

The workhouse project also reveals the ambivalence towards the poor in England at this time.  On the one hand Repton encourages generosity from local people to fund the new building – pointing out that with changing fortunes, they might one day have need of such a place themselves.  However, his design enshrines the idea that the poor should deserve the help given to them – while the sunny, south facing garden with the view of the Dover road rewards co-operative residents, the contrasting north facing courtyard at the back of the building is designed to punish them:

‘Let the back-yard be considered as a sort of punishment for misbehaviour and refractory conduct, where, shut up between four buildings nothing can be seen to enliven the prospect.’

Do read the book for yourselves via the link below.  It makes fascinating reading for anyone interested in social history of this period as well as those interested in Repton’s ideas about design, and the importance he attached to access by ordinary people to England’s parks and gardens.

Further Reading:

Fragments on the theory and practice of landscape gardening

Humphry Repton (Wikipedia)