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Ichnographia Rustica: Stephen Switzer and the Designed Landscape

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Ichnographia Rustica: Stephen Switzer and the Designed Landscape Ichnographia Rustica One of the most significant occurrences in the history of design was the creation of the English Landscape Garden. Accounts of its genesis – the surprising structural change from the formal to the seemingly informal – are numerous. But none has ever been quite convincing, and none satisfactorily placed the contributions of Stephen Switzer. Unlike his contemporaries, Switzer – an 18th century author of books on gardening and agricultural improvement – grasped a quite new principle: that the fashionable pursuit of great gardens should be “rural and extensive”, rather than merely the ornamentation of a particular part of an estate. Switzer saw that a whole estate could be enjoyed as an aesthetic experience, and that the process of improving its value could increase wealth. By encouraging improvers to see the garden in his enlarged sense, he opened up the adjoining countryside, the landscape, and made the whole a subject of unified design. Some few followed his advice immediately, such as Bathurst at Cirencester. But it took some time for his ideas to become generally accepted. Could this vision, and its working out in practice between 1710 and 1740, be the very reason for such changes? Three hundred years after the first volume of Switzer’s writings began to be published, this book offers a timely critical examination of the lessons learned and Switzer’s roles. In major influential early works at Castle Howard and Blenheim, and later in the more “minor” works such as Spye Park, Leeswood and Rhual, the relationships between these designs and his writings is demonstrated. In doing so, this book makes possible a major re-assessment of the developments, and thus our attitudes to well-known works. It provides an explana- tion of how Switzer, and his colleagues and contemporaries, first made what he had called Ichnographia Rustica, or more familiarly Modern Gardening, from the mid-1740s, and later landscape gardens. It reveals an exceptional innovator who, by transforming the philosophical way in which nature was viewed, integrated good design with good farming and horticultural practice for the first time. It raises the issue of the cleavage in thought of the later 18th century, essentially whether the ferme ornée as the mixture of utile and dulci was the perfect designed landscape, or whether this was the enlarged garden with features of “unadorned nature”? The book discusses these considerable and continuing contrary influences on later work, and suggests that Switzer has many lessons for how contemporary landscape and garden design ought to be perceived and practised. William Alvis Brogden is an architectural historian, critic and consultant based in Aberdeen. He has served on the councils of the National Trust for Scotland, the Garden History Society and the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland. His interests in architecture are wide and include landscape, old buildings and towns. He has fought to enhance the city of Aberdeen and to pro- tect its very strong architectural heritage from foolish depredation, and occasionally is called on to advise on historic interiors, the reclamation of old gardens and the expansion of designed townscapes. He taught student architects in these subjects until his retirement. His recent book A City’s Architecture: Aberdeen as Designed City (Ashgate) was published in 2012. The same year saw the fourth edition of his Aberdeen: An Illustrated Architectural Guide (Rutland). Ichnographia Rustica Stephen Switzer and the designed landscape William Alvis Brogden First published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2017 William Alvis Brogden The right of William Alvis Brogden to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Brogden, William A. Title: Ichnographia rustica : Stephen Switzer and the designed landscape / by William Alvis Brogden. Description: Burlington, VT : Ashgate, 2015. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2015025291 | ISBN 9781472434401 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781472434418 (ebook) | ISBN 9781472434425 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Switzer, Stephen, 1682?–1745. | Landscape gardening—Great Britain—History—18th century. | Gardens— Great Britain—Design—History—18th century. | Agriculture— Great Britain—History—18th century. Classification: LCC SB470.55.G7 B76 2015 | DDC 712.0941—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015025291 ISBN: 978-1-4724-3440-1 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-58771-4 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC To Zian Chi Lamb Contents List of figures ix Abbreviations of sources xiii Introduction 1 1 A fine genius for gardening 8 Garden history; Brompton Park, Cassiobury, Hertfordshire; Longleat, Wiltshire and Bretby, Derbyshire; London and Wise, Castle Howard, Yorkshire and the new gardens at Kensington, London; Blenheim, Oxfordshire; Heythrop, Oxfordshire; Hampton Court, Bushy Park Middlesex; Magdalen College, Oxford; Chargate, Surrey 2 Towards a rural and farm-like way of gardening 44 Grimsthorpe, Lincolnshire; Riskins, Buckinghamshire; How to make a rural and extensive garden; Dyrham, Gloucestershire; Hopetoun, West Lothian; Whetham, Wiltshire 3 Early landscapes 79 Cirencester Park, Gloucestershire; Marston, Somerset; Hampton Court, Herefordshire; Stourhead, Wiltshire; Leeswood, Flintshire; Cliveden-Taplow Court, Buckinghamshire 4 “Nature to advantage dress’d” 119 Caversham, Berkshire; Holme Lacy, Herefordshire; Ebberston, Yorkshire; Shotover, Oxfordshire; Lumley Castle, County Durham; Studley Royal, Yorkshire; Belvoir, Rutland/Lincolnshire; Wilton, Wiltshire; Marlborough House, Wiltshire; Spye Park, Wiltshire; Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire 5 A public figure 158 Seedshop in Westminster Hall; Societies of Improvers, Lord Cathcart, Cannons, Middlesex; Lord Burlington, William Kent and Chiswick House, viii Contents Middlesex; Kent and Carlton House, London; Rokeby and the North; Switzer’s improvers; Rhual, Flintshire 6 Essays in the landscape style 192 Cirencester Lodge Park, Gloucestershire; Sherborne Lodge Park, Gloucestershire; Tottenham Park, Wiltshire; Stowe, Buckinghamshire and Castle Howard, Yorkshire; Nostell Priory, Yorkshire and Mereworth Castle, Kent; Exton, Rutland; Garendon, Leicestershire; Beaumanor, Leicestershire; Wilton, Wiltshire 7 Furor hortensis 231 Lord Petre, Thorndon, Essex; Gisbourne, Lancashire/Yorkshire; Formark House, Derbyshire; Stowe, Buckinghamshire, Home Park; Elysian Fields and Hawkwell Field; The Leasowes, Worcestershire; Hagley, Worcestershire and Enville, Worcestershire; Castle Kennedy, Dumfries-shire; Blenheim, Oxfordshire, The Lake (Queen Pool); Wroxton, Oxfordshire; Kiddlington, Oxfordshire; Lowther, Westmorland; Badminton, Gloucestershire; Wimpole, Cambridgeshire; Stowe, the Grecian Valley; Brown and the English Landscape Garden: Croome Court, Worcestershire 8 Legacy 259 Alternative genesis of the Modern Taste; Whately and the English Landscape Garden; neo-classical landscape and beginnings of urban design; taste into philosophy, Association of Ideas, arts and science estranged; the Modern Movement; Envoi Switzer’s publications 273 Works consulted 276 Acknowledgements 289 Index 292 Figures 0.1 Stephen Switzer (?), presumed self-portrait xiv 1.1 Kensington Palace, London: gravel-pit amphitheatre 8 1.2 Wilton, Wiltshire: aerial view of garden 15 1.3 Cassiobury, Hertfordshire 17 1.4 Bretby, Derbyshire 18 1.5 Castle Howard, Yorkshire: design for the grounds, ca 1699, by George London 21 1.6 Castle Howard, Yorkshire: working plan, early 18th century 24 1.7 Castle Howard, Yorkshire: prospect from the south in 1732 26 1.8 Blenheim, Oxfordshire: anonymous plan of the early Bridge-Canals, ca 1708 28 1.9 Blenheim, Oxfordshire: 1719 part of the estate plan 29 1.10 Heythrop, Oxfordshire: plan of the grounds, ca 1707 31 1.11 Upper Lodge, Bushy Park, Hampton Court, Middlesex 33 1.12 Upper Lodge, Bushy Park, Hampton Court, Middlesex 35 1.13 Chargate/Claremont, Surrey: view from the north-west, by William Stukeley, 1722 37 1.14 Chargate, Surrey: plan of the fruit garden where the walls are bevel 40 1.15 Chargate/Claremont, Surrey: partial plan 42 2.1 Grimsthorpe, Lincolnshire: prospect of the estate 45 2.2 Grimsthorpe, Lincolnshire: view of Duchess’ Bastion, by William Stukeley, 1736 47 2.3 Grimsthorpe, Lincolnshire: view of the parterre from the east, by William Stukeley, 1736 48 2.4 Grimsthorpe, Lincolnshire: view of Grime’s Walk, by William Stukeley, 1736 49 2.5 Grimsthorpe, Lincolnshire: estate plan from the 1752 plan book 50 2.6 Riskins, Berkshire: plan 52 2.7 Riskins, Berkshire: Stephen Switzer’s “regulated Epitomy” 54 2.8 Houghton Hall, Norfolk: plan of the grounds
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