A good overview of the background and progress and scale of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown's working life.
In chronological order and with a small but informative reference bibliography at the end, the book details the great landscape gardener's rise from competent garden boy, understudy of William Kent and then patronage and often friendship with the vast country-seat holders of England - including a royal position and house at Hampton Court and finally a country seat of his own whilst tirelessly travelling, surveying and laying out various comissions of grand degree sometimes over several years, right up until his death.
The book also captures some of the political influences and changing styles during his lifetime, although his own popularity was no passing fad.
A man of his moment, his style symbiotic with artistic and aristocratic influence, the book goes on to mention his subtle legacy of large scale landscaping if not completely originally his own, then something he sympathetically grasped.
The book should be useful to those intereted in social history, gardening, the english countryside, conservation and where art and architecture combine... ( )