A Brush with Brown
The Landscapes of ‘Capability’ Brown
Tim Scott Bolton
Dovecote Press
ISBN 978-0-9929151-3-1
£25.00
In his thoughtful introduction Prince Charles reminds us that Brown was made Chief Master Gardener at Hampton Court Palace by George III and that he restructured the grounds of Buckingham House ‘the foundations of which survive today as the gardens of Buckingham Palace’.
For this really enjoyable celebration of ‘Capability’ Brown’s genius the accomplished artist Tim Scott Bolton visited and recorded nearly a third of the gardens Brown is known to have been involved with from the north of England to the south. The text is also enriched by Scott Bolton’s observations on the thoughts and processes behind his pictures.
I shall leave you with this thought:
“A contemporary of ‘Capability’ Brown’s once said to him, ‘I very earnestly wish I may die before you, Mr Brown.’
‘Why so?’ he replied.
‘Because I would like to see Heaven before you have improved it.’”
Tim Forrest's E & A 