Beds and breakfast in Capability Brown’s garden
NICKNAMED ‘Capability’ because of his tendency to inform prospective employers with optimism that their project held ‘great capabilities’, Lancelot Brown was at the beginning of a new 18th Century idea: designing gardens as part of the wider landscape and the wider landscape as a garden.
To mark the 300th anniversary of the great man’s birth, VisitEngland designated 2016 the Year of the English Garden – and a wealth of delights still awaits.
Brown was born in Northumberland, and after being apprenticed to a head gardener around 1738 he rode the length and breadth of England, pushing himself to the limits as he transformed parkland in 200 great estates, including Alnwick, Stowe, Burghley and Blenheim. While it’s possible you might never own a stately home yourself, you can certainly stay in one and stroll in the soothing landscapes created by Brown or his contemporaries.
My friend Sandy and I first experienced the Capability-effect at Stapleford Park, near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire.
At this comfortable, welcoming hotel, 500 acres of landscape influenced by Brown surround a Grade I listed house.
Next we visited Hartwell House near Aylesbury, a restored 18th Century stately home set in 90 acres of parkland laid out by Brown’s rival, Richard Woods.
French king Louis XVIII and his court were exiled here until the defeat of Napoleon – the king even kept chickens on the terrace. If those hotels have Capability Brown accents, Luton Hoo in Bedfordshire is his signature landscape, with belts of woodland growing around 1,000 acres of parkland.
The vast neo-classical mansion has uninterrupted views of the gardens and two irregular lakes.
We were shown around by head gardener Keith Hersey, who is as passionate and driven as Brown.
The present house, a Grade I listed mansion, was built in 1767 for the 3rd Earl of Bute, himself a keen plantsman, and is very opulent. The Queen spent part of her honeymoon here.
Inside it is magnificent, and outside the natural grandeur is breathtaking. Capability Brown manipulated entire landscapes, creating valleys and vistas with earth, trees and water. When the
sun shines, a copper beech he planted as a sapling gleams like a beacon.
After supper of halibut and samphire puree, we watched the sun set on Brown’s graceful sweeps and slopes, looking as if nature alone did it all.
He dispensed with formality and created an idealised countryside that’s still infinitely satisfying today. As Keith Hersey says: ‘What an office!’
The hotels are members of Pride Of Britain hotels (prideofbritainhotels.com, 0800 089 3929). A double room with breakfast costs from £180 at Stapleford Park, £230 at Hartwell House, and £260 at Luton Hoo Hotel Golf and Spa.