Place-Making: Capability Brown and the Landscaping of Harewood House, West Yorkshire

Abstract

Harewood House, north of Leeds in West Yorkshire (Figure 6.1), is surrounded by one of the key landscapes where Capability Brown is celebrated as the designer: 'Boasting 1000 acres of "Capability" Brown designed landscape, Harewood represents one of his most important designs … [w]ith soft, rolling hills and mature, established tree lines, visitors can experience the idyllic, picturesque views "Capability" Brown imagined for Harewood in the 1760s'. 2 Brown's involvement at Harewood lasted for nearly twenty-five years, from his first visit in 1758 before the house was even built to his final payment from Edwin Lascelles in 1781, but the extent and nature of his engagement varied considerably over that period. This study will, for the first time, evaluate Brown's role at Harewood in the context of how the new landscape evolved over the late-eighteenth century. In doing so it will shed new light on the wider context of how designed landscapes were created and how designs were realised on the ground; it will explore the work practices behind the creation of a large new country seat and park, overlaying an older, medieval landscape. In doing so it reveals the contributions of various designers, not just Brown, who were involved in the creation of this grand new park, using the detailed documentation and recent archaeological excavations. By doing this within the context of the eighteenth-century development of the landscape it provides a more detailed insight into Brown's contribution than has been possible at other sites where documentation is less comprehensive. It thus enables a deeper understanding of Brown's practice and of his legacy. This chapter will critically examine the assumption that he was the predominant designer at Harewood, and will argue that the nature of Brown's success was more complex than traditional historiography has allowed. Henry Lascelles (1690-1753), who had made his considerable fortune in the Atlantic slave trade, bought the estate of Gawthorpe and Harewood in 1739, at which time Gawthorpe Hall, the medieval manor house, was its centrepiece (Figure 6.2). The manor house was probably built in the fourteenth century by the Gascoigne family, who then substantially remodelled it in the late 1470s. The estate and the house were both enlarged