Repton’s larger book, with his views on optics, the scale of objects in a landscape, the relation of house and grounds, and the return of the terrace and flower garden near the house.
By 1803 Repton had moved some way from Brown. He still laid out parks of grass and trees, but he argued that the ground next to a house is a work of art like the house itself, and should be formal: a terrace with a balustrade, steps, a flower garden, conservatories. In later work (at Ashridge and Woburn, and in his Fragments, 1816) he proposed groups of separate gardens near the house, each of a different character.
The book is also a study of how landscapes are seen. Repton discusses how the eye judges distance and size, how the apparent extent of a view depends on what frames it, why a house should be seen at an angle rather than square on, and how the light of morning and evening changes a scene. It includes a chapter on his collaborations with architects, among them his sons John Adey and George Stanley Repton, and John Nash.
The book, part by part
I Optics and the scale of objects
How distance, size and light are perceived in a landscape; the uses of trees to measure scale.
II House and grounds
The character of houses; terraces, flower gardens and conservatories as the link between the architecture and the park.