RHS2 Extrct 2 page 2

A transitional style between the knot gardens and the parterre de broderie was the strapwork parterre. This style was similar to the cutwork parterre, but instead of flower beds, the shapes were outlined using boxwood infilled with coloured gravel, crushed rock and/or brick. They are called strapwork parterres because the designs resemble the strapwork designs of late medieval ceilings.

In most 16th and early 17th Century engravings, it is difficult to tell whether the ‘beds’ in a cutwork parterre were flower beds or just hedge outlines infilled with gravel. At any rate, you should not picture 16th Century flower beds overflowing with plants, it appears that the flowers would have been displayed with quite a lot of bare ground between each plant. This may, of course, just be an artistic convention, because it is much easier to portray a single plant than a bed full of plants, but it may also be that the beds were actually planted in such a way. A lot of plants were introduced into Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries, but the range of flowers available was much less than now. This is one of the main reasons why parterres were so popular, the design made up for the limited selection of plants

During the 17th century, France was the most affluent part of Europe and many of the aristocracy had the money to employ fashionable designers for their gardens. The most famous of the French Garden Designers was probably Andre le notre (1613 - 1700). His most famous work, as gardener to Louis XlV, can still be seen today in the magnificent gardens at the palace of Versailles (above). Hampton Court in London was designed in the French style in 1660 and it was during this era that, the pinnacle of the strictly formal style was evident.

This was followed by the so called ‘English Influence’ in the Eighteenth Century and led to the development of what is known as the ‘Landscape’ style.

This new and important Landscape and Garden design movement was largely developed due to the lead provided by three very talented and innovative landscape designers: William Kent, 1684 - 1748, Lancelot Brown, 1715 - 1783 and Humphry Repton, 1752 - 1818, who, with the arrival of the eighteenth century, presided over the decline of the formal garden.

Charles Bridgeman, the royal gardener from 1728 until his death ten years later, who worked on the Serpentine in Hyde park and the round pond in Kensington gardens, was much influenced by the contemporary French styles, although it is often stated that he played a crucial role in developing the transition from the earlier geometric designs to the less formal and freer creations seen in the work of William Kent and Lancelot Brown.

Kent, with help from Lord Burlington - the owner and "Chief" designer - and Bridgeman, designed the garden at Chiswick House and this is one of the very few places today where one can still see evidence of the early informality he introduced. Pope was impressed to the extent that he declared the garden to be the first he had seen in which "the genius of the place " had been consulted.

Having cut his teeth in Chiswick, Kent went on to produce even more naturalistic designs, and is particularly remembered for his frequent use of the ha-ha. This simple idea (see below) allowed designers to create the impression that vast acres of countryside belonged to, and were part of, the garden itself; an idealised version of nature itself.

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A dry ditch or sunken fence which divides a formal garden from the surrounding areas (often landscaped parkland) without interrupting the view to create apparently uninterrupted areas of grass sward, whilst still managing to restrain the all-important livestock and deny them access to the formal gardens.

Following on from Kent was Lancelot Brown, one of the most famous garden designers of his day (arguably of all time) who became known as "Capability" because he frequently advised landowners that their properties had "capabilities for improvement".

Brown rejected completely the formal, geometric French style of gardening, epitomized at Versailles, and emphasised the more natural, undulating lines of the English landscape. A Brown landscape is known as a pure landscape where the layer of Arcadian associations has been stripped away and replaced with the features that define his work; the limits of parkland edged with thick belts of trees, usually beech; natural features adapted to create a smooth, rolling effect, usually with a lake in the middle distance; the turf, gently undulating right up to the house itself, is set off by clumps of trees - beech, oak or chestnut - providing an effect of serene grandeur.

A man of considerable determination, Brown used his power of persuasion (backed up by his reputation) to convince his clients to destroy their expensive formal gardens and replace them with a landscape that, although productive (many of the natural landscapes were suitable for livestock grazing) and far cheaper to maintain, they would never see mature.