![Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire](https://www.britain-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/Blenheim-Palace.jpg)
Revolutionary landscaper Capability Brown transformed Britain’s stately home gardens with his designs. Here are a few examples of his exquisite work
![The grounds of Longleat, Wiltshire, were landscaped by Capability Brown in the 18th century](https://www.britain-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/Longleat.jpg)
The revolutionary landscape style that Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown brought to the great houses of England in the 18th century is now synonymous with our image of stately homes. The likes of William Kent before him and Humphry Repton afterwards also coaxed wealthy clients to abandon earlier fashions for formal gardens in the Tudor, Dutch and French manner. But it is Brown who is most famous for the landscape tradition that came to epitomise Englishness, setting our grand houses in (artfully contrived) Edens of parkland.
In this, the Year of the English Garden, we celebrate some of his finest vistas.
Here are some of the best examples of Capability Brown’s work:
![Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire](https://www.britain-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/Blenheim-Palace.jpg)
![View from the terrace of Bowood House in Wiltshire. Credit: Anna Stowe Botanica/Alamy](https://www.britain-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/View-from-the-terrace-at-Bowood-House.jpg)
![Capability Brown designed the formal gardens and surrounding parkland at Burghley House, Lincolnshire. Credit: VisitBritain/Tony Pleavin](https://www.britain-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/Burghley-House-Lincolnshire.jpg)
![The sweeping views at Weston Park in Shrewsbury are typical of Brown's naturalistic style](https://www.britain-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/Panorama-of-Weston-Park.jpg)
![East Front of Hampton Court Palace. Credit: Historic Royal Palaces](https://www.britain-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/East-Front-of-Hampton-Court-Palace.jpg)
For the full feature see the Jan/Feb 2016 (March 2016) issue of BRITAIN.
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