BROWN, LANCELOT ("CAPABILITY"), - Autograph letter signed ("Lancelot Brown"), to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Hampton Court, "Saturday Evening�, c. 1773. 2 pp., with integral blank. 8-7/8 x 7-1/8 inches. Faint old folds, else fine. ¶ Brown writes at half past five that he has only just received His Grace's note, due to his servant taking a roundabout way home, and will therefore be unable to accept the Archbishop's invitation, which he very much regrets. He hopes "your Grace has received no hurt by the over turn to Day", evidently referring to a carriage accident, and again reiterates his sorrow over the missed connection. Brown (1715-1783) architect and pioneering landscape gardener, changed the face of the English country-house landscape, turning away from the geometric style of Andr� Le Nostre at Versailles and perfecting instead the enhancement of the undulating lines of the natural terrain. One of the great geniuses in this field, his work was enormously influential on his successors: it gave the viewer the feeling of visiting a place of great natural beauty when, in fact, every inch of His Lordship's estate (at Kew, Bleinheim, Stowe, and elsewhere) was carefully planned and man-made. He became wealthy, and, notes one source, "by his amiable manners and high character he supported with dignity the station of a country gentleman." He was high sheriff of Huntingdonshire in 1770, a few years before this letter was written, and it is not surprising to find the Archbishop among his many highly-placed friends
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