Humphry Repton
Fragments on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening
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London · 1816 · English
Summarised and illustrated here; the text is not reproduced.
Repton’s last book on gardens, which includes a pair of plates contrasting the old cedar parlour, its company seated in a formal circle round the fire and its furniture against the walls, with the modern living room, where the company is scattered about the room in groups at tables, sofas and the pianoforte.
Humphry Repton (1752–1818) was the leading landscape gardener after Capability Brown. In the Fragments he set his remarks on the house and its gardens beside two views of interiors, with a verse on the change from the formal parlour of the old manners to the modern room where each guest follows his own pursuit, opening on to the garden.
Rules drawn from Fragments
In the room of the Regency and after, bring the furniture out into the room in groups for the occupations of the company: a sofa by the fire with a sofa table before it, a round table in the middle with chairs round it, the pianoforte, a work table, a couch; leave the walls for the pier tables, the cabinets and the bookcases.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “Humphry Repton, Fragments on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/source/repton-fragments. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.