Capt. Philip Southcote (1698–1758) created an early example of the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

landscape garden at Woburn (sometimes Wooburn) Farm, near

Addlestone Addlestone ( or ) is a town in Surrey, England. It is located approximately southwest of London. The town is the administrative centre of the Borough of Runnymede, of which it is the largest settlement. History The town is recorded as ''Attels ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

. It was the original ''

ferme ornée The term ''ferme ornée'' as used in English garden history derives from Stephen Switzer's term for 'ornamental farm'. It describes a country estate laid out partly according to aesthetic principles and partly for farming. During the eighteenth ce ...

'' ("decorative farm"), a term invented by

Stephen Switzer Stephen Switzer (1682–1745) was an English gardener, garden designer and writer on garden subjects, often credited as an early exponent of the English landscape garden. He is most notable for his views of the transition between the large garden ...

in 1741

Life

Philip Southcote, a young army captain, was the fourth son of Sir Edward Southcote. Southcote had a long affair with the notorious courtesan

Teresia Constantia Phillips Teresia Constantia Phillips or Con Phillips (1700/1703 – 2 February 1765) was a British courtesan and bigamist who married at least five times and published a scandalous autobiography. The case is narrated in Lawrence Stone, 'Uncertain unions. ...

which started in 1727. Southcote bought the small property called ''Woburn Farm'' in 1735. He married the wealthy Duchess of Cleveland. They wanted a country home and Woburn Farm had 150 acres, 35 acres of which Philip used to create a beautiful garden; the rest was used as a farm. The gardens were contained within a weaving ornamental walk, remains of which can be seen between the Philip Southcote school for children with special needs and Gerry Cottle's Circus headquarters.Philip Southcote School about the grounds shared with St George's College
Woburn Farm's

grotto A grotto is a natural or artificial cave used by humans in both modern times and antiquity, and historically or prehistorically. Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or often flooded at high ti ...

and architectural garden follies, arches and gateways, some features designed by

William Kent William Kent (c. 1685 – 12 April 1748) was an English architect, landscape architect, painter and furniture designer of the early 18th century. He began his career as a painter, and became Principal Painter in Ordinary or court painter, but ...

, including the existing rusticated entrance that marks the entrance from the public road, soon attracted stylish visitors who made the serpentine circuit of the garden, passing from feature to feature: "all my design at first was to have a garden on the middle high ground and a walk all round my farm, for convenience as well as pleasure" Southcote wrot

A feature of Woburn Farm was a walk planted with Broom (shrub), broom,

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

lilac ''Syringa'' is a genus of 12 currently recognized species of flowering plant, flowering woody plants in the olive family or Oleaceae called lilacs. These lilacs are native to woodland and scrub from southeastern Europe to eastern Asia, and wid ...

, columbine,

peonies The peony or paeony is a flowering plant in the genus ''Paeonia'' , the only genus in the family Paeoniaceae . Peonies are native to Asia, Europe and Western North America. Scientists differ on the number of species that can be distinguished, ...

and

sweet william Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, keto ...

, which wound its way through the fields, for it remained a working far

Like

William Shenstone William Shenstone (18 November 171411 February 1763) was an English poet and one of the earliest practitioners of landscape gardening through the development of his estate, ''The Leasowes''. Biography Son of Thomas Shenstone and Anne Penn, d ...

's Arcadian garden,

the Leasowes The Leasowes is a 57-hectare (around 141 acre) estate in Halesowen, historically in the county of Shropshire, England, comprising house and gardens. The parkland is now listed Grade I on English Heritage's Register of Parks and Gardens and the h ...

, Woburn Farm was highly influential in disseminating the

landscape garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

; it received an extended description in

Thomas Whateley Thomas Whately (1726 – 26 May 1772), an English politician and writer, was a Member of Parliament (1761–1768), who served as Commissioner on the Board of Trade, as Secretary to the Treasury under George Grenville, Lord Grenville, and as Under- ...

's ''Observations on modern gardening''. In a letter in 1751,

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whigs (British political party), Whig politician. He had Strawb ...

wrote rather peevishly of

Capability Brown Lancelot Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783), more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English gardener and landscape architect, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the English la ...

's landscaping at

Warwick Castle Warwick Castle is a medieval castle developed from a wooden fort, originally built by William the Conqueror during 1068. Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England, situated on a meander of the River Avon. The original wooden motte-an ...

, "The castle is enchanting; the view pleased me more than I can express, the river Avon tumbles down a cascade at the foot of it. It is well laid out by one Brown who has set up on a few ideas of

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and Mr. Southcote." Later in life, summing up his thoughts in his ''Essay On Modern Gardening'', Walpole divided types of gardens in the "modern" naturalistic style into three: "into the garden that connects itself with a park, into the ornamented farm, and into the forest or savage garden". To Southcote, Walpole gives the credit for the idealized farm

Southcote was a friend of leading writers and gardeners of his day, including Alexander Pope, Pope,

Lord Burlington Earl of Burlington is a title that has been created twice, the first time in the Peerage of England in 1664 and the second in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1831. Since 1858, Earl of Burlington has been a courtesy title used by the duke ...

Lord Petre Baron Petre (), of Writtle, in the County of Essex, is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1603 for Sir John Petre. His family has since been associated with the county of Essex. He represented Essex in parliament and served a ...

, and

. His house is now occupied by St. George's College, and some features survive. Subsequent owners Woburn Park owners included: * 1783

* 1816 Vice Admiral Charles Stirling, listed in deeds as Admiral Stirling but Vice-Admiral * 1834 Lord and Lady King, later Lord (Earl of and Countess of) Lovelace * 1862 Lord (2nd Earl of) Kilmorey Later in life Philip married the widowed dowager the 1st Duchess of Southampton Anne Fitzroy.

Coat of arms

References

*Christopher Hussey, ''English Gardens and Landscapes 1700-1750''. *Mark Laird, 1999. ''The Flowering of the Landscape Garden: English Pleasure Grounds 1720-1800'' (Penn Studies in Landscape Architecture) University of Pennsylvania
Addlestone Town Trail:
Photographs of surviving Georgian entrance lodge and gatepiers

* ttp://www.gardenvisit.com/t/c3s3.html GardenVisit:The Serpentine Style {{DEFAULTSORT:Southcote, Philip 1698 births 1758 deaths English gardeners English landscape architects

Philip Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...