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April 2003

The Life and Times of Humphrey Repton

Humphrey Repton was born in Norfolk in 1752 to moderately affluent parents. His father sent Humphrey to Holland to be educated and it was while he was in Holland that he became interested in gardening. The style of gardens in Holland tended to be of a very formal nature. Towards the end of the 18th century this type of garden was rapidly disappearing because it was thought that formal gardens were far too rigid, pompous and looked quite unnatural. Thoughts which Humphrey Repton agreed with.

While he was in Holland, Repton had married and on his return to England he decided not to make gardening his career immediately, but chose to follow a career as a general merchant in Norwich. After some time as a merchant he found this type of career unsatisfying so he promptly retired and settled down in Susted Old Hall in Norfolk to become an English country gentleman. As the size of his family increased he found it necessary to move to a larger house in Hare Street in Essex, it was while living at Hare Street that he took the decision to become a landscape gardener. His very first "contract" was to be the garden of his new home at Hare Street and involved the removal of an old fence and replacing some ducks with flowers.

At the very beginning of his career as a gardener his thoughts on how landscape gardening should be approached and carried out were summed up very well in his own words: "In landscape gardening everything may be called a deception by which we endeavour to make our works appear to be the product of nature only. We plant a hill to make it appear higher than it really is, we open the banks of a natural river to make it appear wider, but whatever we do we must ensure that our finished work will look natural or it would fail to be agreeable." At achieving this goal Repton was the master. He was a man of great vision for only he could imagine and draw for his clients what a landscape would look like in 50 years time. It would take this amount of time for trees he planted to approach maturity and the hills and pastures he created to settle down.

Once he had decided to become a landscape gardener he wasted no time in contacting his old friends and influential people in Norfolk with the latest news about his new career. These people provided him with some of his first commissions, but his very first commission was at Catton Hall in Norwich and was the home of the mayor, Jeremiah Eyes. Of this work Repton said "the ability of being able to predict effects constitutes the master in every branch of the polite arts, and can only be the result of a correct eye, a ready conception, and a fertility of imagination to which the professor adds practical experience."

The "Sales Technique" that Repton used to win commissions was his now famous "Red Book", and most clients found this technique to be irresistible. In these Red Books he would portray his clients existing gardens in a series of unflattering contemporary views, then he would produce a series of improved views in his Red Book which would form the basis of his commission. Each commission had its own Red Book and this idea proved so successful that he used this method of selling his work to clients for over 30 years. The Red Book was to become Humphrey Repton's trade mark but unfortunately the Red Book for the work he did on Wentworth Park has not survived.

In his heyday commissions rolled in from all areas of England from Yorkshire to Devon, and he regularly travelled five or six hundred miles a month to supervise and oversee his work being carried out. This amount of travelling was quite an achievement in the days when there was no trains and cars, only horse drawn coaches.

In 1791 Repton was commissioned to do work at Garnhams in Herefordshire. At Garnhams he took a dislike to the ploughed fields and he also suggested radical changes to the house. His comments at the time were "the character of the place will take its distinguishing mark from its situation and from the extent of territory surrounding. Both these at Garnhams require a degree of greatness that neither this house nor the grounds at present possess." After many letters on this matter had passed between Repton and his client, J G Cotterel paid Repton the sum of £9. 19s. 6d. for his work at Garnhams.

During the course of his work Repton was concerned that tree planting should not be done in straight lines, avenues, squares, triangles or circles. To Repton it seemed to be so unnatural, his idea was to plant trees in small clumps so that they looked more natural and also to afford better views of the mansion as people were approaching. Another idea of his was to introduce herds of cattle and deer into his landscapes to enhance his work even further. He was against straight roads leading to the front door of the mansion, preferring winding approach roads to offer better views of the mansion, the park and his work. An idea which was perfectly executed at Wentworth.

At about this time in his career Repton formed a partnership with the famous architect John Nash (1752 - 1835). John Nash was responsible for designing Regents Park and its Terraces, Regent Street, which was later rebuilt and Marble Arch in London which was originally intended to be the entrance gate to Buckingham Palace. However at this point John Nash was not as famous as he was to be in the future.

One of the partnership's collaborations was at Luscombe in Devon. Repton said of this commission: "If a Grecian or modern style building were adopted, the roof would be unsightly from every part of grounds. However, this would be obviated by giving to the house the character of a castle with a roof enriched by turrets, battlements, corbels and lofty chimneys. By availing himself of these advantages my ingenious friend Mr Nash would give the house an outline that would always please the eye of taste." Unfortunately the partnership was not to last very long, it had been a collaboration from which Nash had gained the most advantage, for Repton had introduced him to many of his own influential clients, including the Prince Of Wales.

In 1807 the Prince of Wales had received designs from Repton for improvements to the grounds of The Marine Pavilion at Brighton. These designs showed the reshaped pavilion and the gardens in an Indianesk style. On receipt of the designs the Prince of Wales was thrilled and very excited by them and said of Repton's work "Mr Repton, I consider the whole of this work as perfect, and will have every part of it carried into execution. Not a tittle shall be altered. Not even you yourself Mr Repton shall attempt any improvement." However, the Prince of Wales was about to fall on hard times financially and it was many years before the work was undertaken, the man who was eventually chosen to do the work was Repton's old partner - John Nash. Repton left his mark on London by designing Bloomsbury and Russell Squares, and they were the first London Squares to be designed by a landscape gardener.

Between the years 1804 and 1810 Repton worked on a commission for the 5th Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey. Repton wrote of his work here "The improvements I have the honour to suggest here have been never so fully realised than at Woburn." However, he did not get all his own way at Woburn, for he wanted to introduce a winding road leading to the mansion to afford better views of the mansion and his work, the Duke wanted and insisted that the road be built in a straight line. The Duke won the day and got his own way, the approach road to Woburn Abby was built in a straight line and remains for all to see to this day.

By late 1810 Repton's prospects were beginning to take a downward trend, and he was delighted when the Speaker of the House of Commons asked Repton to look out for a suitable property which the government wished to purchase for Lord Nelson as a big "thank you" for all Nelson had done for England. After a considerable period of searching Repton came up with a suitable sight on which to build a new property in Sherringham, Norfolk. But the Government rejected Repton's recommendations and began to look elsewhere.

In his later years Repton was left partly crippled by a coaching accident, and had difficulty moving around and bending down. He was wheeled about in a wheel chair and he soon discovered that from his wheel chair he could not bent to pick a flower. To overcome this problem Repton invented the raised flower bed so the flowers would be at a height that he could not only admire them from close up, but he could pick and tend the flowers without having to bend. Humphrey Repton died in 1818.

Let Your Desires Obey Your Reason

 

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