Editing Capability Brown (section)

{{short description|English landscape architect}}
{{redirect|Lancelot Brown|the English politician|Lancelot Brown (MP)|the English physician|Lancelot Browne}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}{{Use British English|date=September 2013}}

{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix  = 
| name              = Lancelot "Capability" Brown
| honorific_suffix  = 
| nickname          = 
| image             = File:Nathaniel Dance-Holland (1735-1811) - Capability Brown - NPG 6049 - National Portrait Gallery.jpg
| caption           =''[[Portrait of Capability Brown]]'' by [[Nathaniel Dance-Holland|Nathaniel Dance]], 1769
| awards            = 
| birth_name        = Lancelot Brown 
| baptised           = 30 August 1716
| birth_place       = [[Kirkharle]], Northumberland, England
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1783|2|6|1715}}
| death_place       = [[London]], England
| death_cause       = 
| burial_place      = 
| height            = 
| nationality       = 
| parents           = 
| spouse            = {{marriage |Bridget Wayet |22 November 1744}}
| children          = 8
| occupation        = {{ublist|[[Gardener]]|[[Landscape architect]]}}
| alma_mater        = 
| signature         = 
}}

'''Lancelot''' "'''Capability'''" '''Brown''' (born c. 1715&ndash;16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783)<ref name="Lancelot">{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/81572/Lancelot-Brown?anchor=ref45555 |title=Lancelot Brown |year=2007 |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]], Encyclopædia Britannica Online|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Inc |access-date=12 March 2012}}</ref> was an English gardener and [[landscape architect]], a notable figure in the history of the [[English landscape garden]] style.

Unlike other architects including [[William Kent]], he was a hands-on gardener and provided his clients with a full [[turnkey]] service, designing the gardens and park, and then managing their landscaping and planting.  He is most famous for the landscaped parks of [[English country house]]s, many of which have survived reasonably intact. However, he also included in his plans "pleasure gardens" with flower gardens and the new [[shrubberies]], usually placed where they would not obstruct the views across the park of and from the main facades of the house. Few of his plantings of "pleasure gardens" have survived later changes.  He also submitted plans for much smaller urban projects, for example the college gardens along [[The Backs]] at [[Cambridge]].

Criticism of his style, both in his own day and subsequently, mostly centres on the claim that "he created 'identikit' landscapes with the main house in a sea of turf, some water, albeit often an impressive feature, and trees in clumps and shelterbelts", giving "a uniformity equating to authoritarianism" and showing a lack of imagination and even taste on the part of his patrons.<ref>Wickham, 2</ref>

He designed more than 170 parks, many of which survive. He was nicknamed "Capability" because he would tell his clients that their property had "capability" for improvement.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.traveller.com.au/highclere-castle-the-reallife-downton-abbey-go1ore|title=Highclere Castle: The real-life Downton Abbey|last=McKenna|first=Steve|date=17 April 2016|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|access-date=18 April 2016}}</ref> His influence was so great that the contributions to the [[English garden]] made by his predecessors [[Charles Bridgeman]] and [[William Kent]] are often overlooked; even Kent's champion [[Horace Walpole]] allowed that Kent "was succeeded by a very able master".<ref>{{cite book |first1=Horace |last1=Walpole |author-link=Horace Walpole |location=Canton, Pa. |publisher=Kirgate Press |page=87 |url=https://archive.org/details/essayonmodernga00walpgoog |title=On Modern Gardening |orig-year=1780 |year=1905}} at [[Internet Archive]]</ref>