Quintessential is defined as ‘something representing or illustrating the most perfect or typical example’. The English pastoral landscape created by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown is perhaps most quintessential of all, displaying seemingly natural relaxed form, while disguising huge effort and expense in moving, shaping and moulding to produce such beautiful effects.  

Not surprisingly, the 300th anniversary of Brown’s birth this year has produced an outpouring of appreciation of the man, his achievements and extraordinary influence. Certainly, the scale of work on over 250 landscapes in his lifetime is astounding, with Yorkshire boasting 14 sites, possibly more. As part of the celebrations Savills is proud to sponsor ‘Noble Prospects: Capability Brown and the Yorkshire Landscape’ at Harrogate’s Mercer Art Gallery (25 June-11 September), showcasing original exhibits about the Yorkshire sites, accompanied by a commemorative book by Karen Lynch, exhibition curator for the Yorkshire Gardens Trust.   

Brown’s career began in estate management, moving to gardening and landscaping. He cultivated patrons with wealth and sufficient trust to allow him freedom to put his revolutionary ideas into practice, utilising massive manpower and invention to sculpt land, engineer water, plant in swathes and clumps, frame views and create vistas which appear so informal and natural it can be hard to distinguish where his changes lie. The glorious results of Brown’s vision and energy are eulogised worldwide today as his planting matures.

The skills Brown utilised are just as relevant today: managing landscapes successfully requires a deep understanding and love of the countryside, creativity, persuasive communication, boldness, leadership and partnership, practicality and commerciality.

Brown’s genius can also inform the current work of landowners and land managers – the value of good design, applying a soft hand, blurring boundaries, long-term planting, planning views and encouraging diversity while maintaining a working countryside, whether coast, moor, dale or park, and an appropriate country house setting. Foresters can choose resilient species to cope with climate change and diseases previously unknown while still respecting design. Historic parkland can be managed as Brown envisaged, fusing productive farming, forestry and sporting pursuits with pleasure.

The increasing value of heritage tourism and public access can contribute enormously towards challenging costs of managing these national treasures. Small-scale interventions with a nod to Brown, such as planting orchard trees in a cottage garden, a woodland clump to frame a view from a house, masking sites earmarked for future development or allowing scalped hedges to grow up as screening, can all enhance amenity value.

Our duty as rural property managers is to amalgamate modern management expertise, apply funding wisely and share knowledge about historic landscapes to ensure there is a ‘capable’ plan for today’s custodians to care for and hand on these masterpieces in sound condition so that future generations can continue to celebrate the legacy. 

Further information

Noble Prospects: Capability Brown and the Yorkshire Landscape

Contact Savills Rural Estate & Property Management

Image: Simon Warner