Rules · Theory · Site · Optics
Show the natural beauties of a place and hide its defects; give it an appearance of extent and freedom by disguising the boundary; conceal every interference of art, so that the whole seems natural; and remove or hide whatever serves only convenience and cannot be made ornamental.
Repton’s four requisites are a summary of Brown’s practice by his successor, and they read as a defence of it against Price and Knight. Each is a rule of appearance: the designer works on what is seen. The boundary is disguised by the ha-ha and by planting; the art is hidden in the dams, drains and earthworks that make the scene; and the stables, kitchen garden and farm buildings are screened.
Repton showed his clients how the rules would apply with the before-and-after views of his Red Books, painted from a fixed point with a hinged flap: the client saw his own view, lifted the flap, and saw it improved.
In place of a wall, bound the garden with a ditch whose side towards the garden is a vertical retaining wall and whose other side slopes up to the field, so that cattle are kept out and the view from the house runs on uninterrupted into the park.
ditch c. 1.5–2 m deep: wall on the garden side, turf slope on the park side
Let the character of the site direct the design: whether the ground should be raised or lowered, a view opened or closed, water led or stilled. Prefer variety, surprise and concealed bounds to symmetry.
Compose the garden as a painter composes a landscape: in groups of trees for light and shade, with water winding through the hollows and a temple or bridge placed where it will be seen across it, so that each turn of the walk opens a new picture.
Bring grass up to the walls of the house and keep the cattle off it with a ha-ha; plant trees in clumps on the rising ground and as single specimens on the lawn; and enclose the park with a belt of woodland, with a drive inside it from which the park is seen.
Make the lake by damming a stream in its valley, give it a winding, irregular outline with promontories, and hide both its ends behind trees, a bend or a bridge, so that it seems a river flowing through the park.
Let the approach be the natural road to the house, without needless turns; let it show the house first at an angle, so that two sides are seen, and not head-on down an avenue; and make it plain that the road leads to this house and nowhere else.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “The four requisites of landscape gardening”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/repton-four-requisites. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.