Recorded Talk: A History of Gardens 3 - Early Landscape Gardens

For those who missed the third series of A History of Gardens, which originally ran in November 2024, this is a chance to access the recordings of the talks.

You can buy a ticket for the whole recorded series, or for any of the individual sessions. The recordings will all be available from 19th Aug to 30th Sep 2025. You will also receive the short reading list produced for the original run of the series.

A History of Gardens from the Gardens Trust is suitable for anyone curious about gardens and their stories – whether absolute beginners or those with some garden history knowledge. It aims to help participants recognise important eras, themes and styles in mainly British garden history from the earliest times to today, grasp something of the social, economic, political and international contexts in which gardens have been created and find greater pleasure in visiting historic gardens.

This introductory series can be followed by the ‘Building the C18th Garden’ talks that we’re running from late October, for those who would like to know more.

We will be offering access to recordings of talks from the subsequent series of A History of Gardens over the next few months.

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A HISTORY OF GARDENS 3: 18th-CENTURY GARDENS

The Georgian era is often seen as the pinnacle of garden design in England, as the formal, baroque style of the late 17th century gave way to the looser, more naturalistic designs of what became known as the English Landscape Movement. It was a style that spread around the world.

This series will trace the development of the landscape style, beginning with early examples full of decorative garden buildings and classical allusions, and then the impact of England’s most famous landscape designer, Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, who laid out vast parklands with rolling lawns, serpentine lakes and clumps of trees. As we’ll see, the century ended with a clash between the wild, rugged aesthetic of the Picturesque and the start of a return to formality and ornamentation in garden-making.

As well as examining individual gardens and designers, we will explore some of the myriad social and economic influences at work on Georgian design. These included political upheaval, changing land use, foreign trade and the lure of exoticism, alongside the impact of the European ‘Grand Tour’ undertaken by wealthy men, which instilled an admiration for classical art and poetry, and for French and Italian landscape painting.

This ticket is for this individual talk and costs £8, and you may purchase tickets for other individual sessions via the links below, or you may purchase a ticket for the series of 5 available talks in our History of Gardens 3 Course at £35 via the link here. (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 5 for £26.25)

Tickets will be released on 19th Aug, and the recordings will be available to view until 30th September 2025. The Zoom links will be in the confirmation email sent directly after booking, if you do not receive that email, please contact us.

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Recording 1: Early Landscape Gardens with Oliver Cox. First in a series of 5 online lectures, £8 each or all 5 for £35 (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 5 for £26.25)

Recording 2: Poetry and Prose with Judith Hawley. Second in a series of 5 online lectures, £8 each or all 5 for £35 (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 5 for £26.25)

Recording 3: Lancelot Brown: Assessing the ‘Capabilities’ with Laura Mayer. Third in a series of 5 online lectures, £8 each or all 5 for £35 (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 5 for £26.25)

Recording 4: Chinoiserie: Tea, Trade Routes & a Taste for the ‘Exotic’ with Laura Mayer. Fourth in a series of 5 online lectures, £8 each or all 5 for £35 (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 5 for £26.25)

Recording 5: Humphry Repton: from Picturesque provocateur to Regency ornamentalist with Laura Mayer. Last in a series of 5 online lectures, £8 each or all 5 for £35 (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 5 for £26.25)

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Recording 1: Early Landscape Gardens with Oliver Cox

Often presented as a dramatic shift, the change from baroque designs to the landscape style, in reality, happened gradually over many years. Early glimpses of irregular layouts and whimsical features started to appear alongside the blurring of boundaries between gardens and the wider rural landscape. With wars in Europe and shifting political values at home, there was perhaps a desire for a less grandiose, more patriotic garden style, and so stiff baroque geometry slowly softened into gentler glades, serpentine lakes, irregularly placed garden buildings and allusions to classical and British myths and legends. Designers such as Charles Bridgeman and William Kent (who memorably ‘leaped the fence and saw that all nature was a garden’) were among the leading figures in the emerging naturalistic style.

Many significant 18th-century gardens – Chiswick House, Rousham, Castle Howard, Studley Royal, Stowe and Stourhead - remain today as well-loved visitor attractions, and their stories have much to tell us about the values, influences and aesthetics of the early landscape garden-makers.

Dr Oliver Cox is a historian by training and received his undergraduate, masters and doctoral degrees from the University of Oxford. His recent publications include contributions to The Country House: Past, Present and Future (Rizzoli International Publications, 2018), Sport and Leisure in the Irish and British Country House (Four Courts Press, 2019), and journal articles including the challenges of interpreting eighteenth-century spaces for twenty-first-century visitors. He also writes regularly for Apollo and is a frequent contributor to television and radio programmes. Currently, he is Head of Academic Partnerships at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A).

Image: Coplestone Warre Bampfylde, The Grotto, Stourhead, 1753, ©the Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license

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We’re grateful to Wooden Books, sponsor of the first five series of A History of Gardens.

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