Landscape design is the art of planning and shaping outdoor spaces, including gardens, parks and estates, through the arrangement of land, water, planting, paths and buildings. In the context of British country houses it describes the great historic gardens and parklands that provided settings for houses and a stage for statuary, temples and garden ornament.
English landscape design passed through several distinct phases. Formal gardens of the seventeenth century, influenced by French and Dutch models, featured parterres, avenues, canals and clipped topiary. In the eighteenth century the English landscape garden swept these away in favour of rolling lawns, serpentine lakes, clumps of trees and carefully placed buildings, as developed by William Kent and Lancelot "Capability" Brown, and later by Humphry Repton. The Victorians reintroduced terraces, bedding schemes and elaborate garden structures, while Gertrude Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens brought an Arts and Crafts approach to planting and architecture. These changing styles shaped the demand for urns, statues, sundials, seats, fountains and gates. Collectors and garden makers today use antique ornament to give structure and historic character to gardens, taking inspiration from these traditions.
