top of page
Search

A Walk Through the Grounds: The Gardens of Georgian & Regency Country Estates

Publication Date: April 11, 2026


“To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure, is the most perfect refreshment.”


painting by Francis Orpen Morris of the lake and gardens of Badmiton House
Francis Orpen Morris, "Badminton House," 1866, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Gardens to Impress and Gardens for Courtship


When we imagine a grand country estate in the late Georgian or Regency era, the house is only half the story. The surrounding gardens were just as important, carefully designed landscapes meant to impress visitors, display wealth, and provide fashionable spaces for strolling, conversation, and courtship. By the late 18th century, garden design in Britain had moved away from rigid formal patterns and towards something that looked more natural.


The result was a fascinating mix of sweeping landscapes, ornamental flower gardens, and charming little surprises hidden among the trees.


Our focus for this research interest section will be on the garden styles we would be most apt to encounter when visiting a fashionable estate between 1790 and 1820. Do keep in mind, of course, that older landowners may have kept to the more Baroque styling (or more specifically, the formal French/Dutch parterre styling) rather than change over to the modern garden preferences, so that consideration adds some delicious variety to what our storybook main characters would have encountered.



 

The Great Shift: Baroque to Picturesque

 

The Early Georgian gardens (prior to 1770) were heavily influenced by French and Dutch formal styles, namely what we would have found at Versailles. These styles favored features such as:


  • Straight avenues

  • Symmetrical parterres

  • Clipped hedges

  • Geometric layouts


For a few examples, check out the gallery, which features the Parterre Garden at Pitmedden (photo by Michael Hogan), the Kirbyhall Parterre (photo by Zoe Martin), the Pollok House Gardens (photo by Lord Harris), and the garden at Charlecote Park (photo by Mike Peel):



The shift from this style to the landscape gardening that would become popular during the Regency took place mid-18th century. Both landscape paintings and classical ideal of pastoral nature influenced the shift, landscapers wanting to harness the beauty of nature but improve it for picture-perfect experiences.


Don’t think of “improve” as dominate or control so much as they wished to compose nature as an artist might a painting. Nature itself became a landscape painting. A lovely description of the design roots can be found at The Gardens Trust in this article by Sarah Luton: Framing Nature: The Enduring Legacy of Georgian Garden Design


Instead of the rigid geometry of Baroque gardens, the new style featured:

 

  • Rolling lawns

  • Irregular tree groupings

  • Serpentine lakes

  • Meandering paths

  • Classical ruins and temples


It was all meticulously planned to look natural.


For a few examples of this new style, enjoy those featured in the gallery, namely Packington Hall and Park (photo by Amanda Slater), Stourhead Lake (photo by Roger), Stowe (photo by Scott Wylie), and Folly at Wimpole House (photo by Geoff Barber):



 


The Picturesque Movement


By the late 18th century, a new aesthetic emerged, known as “the picturesque.”


Writers such as William Gilpin encouraged travelers to seek landscapes that looked like paintings. What was being sought included:


  • Rugged scenery

  • Dramatic ruins

  • Irregular water features

  • Carefully framed “views”


This movement and the desire for that picturesque view enticed estate owners to add features such as artificial ruins, hermitages (and yes, sometimes they would hire a hermit to live in the hermitage for a realistic touch!), gothic temples, and rustic bridges. These were all known as “follies.” Have you ever toured estate grounds to find a crumbling castle tour that seems like it is centuries old? Yeah, it was probably built new in the late 18th century, built crumbling and weathered to appear like something old. These follies were fun discoveries for visitors when they would walk the grounds. Some absolutely terrific examples can be found at Stourhead and Stowe Gardens.


The most common types of ornamental structures were:


  • Classical temples

  • Chinese pavilions

  • Gothic ruins

  • Hermitages

  • Obelisks

  • Grottoes


Each of these would have been located and built to create a dramatic viewpoint, not just be decorative. Consider walking along a meandering wilderness path, and along comes a parting of the trees, just wide enough to spy a crumbling castle tower perched over a foggy moat—dramatic viewpoint achieved. Or perhaps the folly itself is where you arrive to turn around and spy a breathtaking vista overlooking the parkland with deer grazing below.


Enjoy a few highlights, such as The Hermitage at Brocklesby Hall (photo by Historic England Archive), the Rotunda at Petworth House (photo by John Miller of National Trust Images), and the parkland of Chatsworth House (photo from Architectural Digest):




The English Landscape Garden


By the Regency era, the English landscape garden had become the defining feature of elite country estates. Developed earlier in the 18th century by designers such as Lancelot “Capability” Brown, these gardens rejected the geometric formality of earlier French designs.


Instead of straight paths and symmetrical flower beds, landscape gardens featured:


  • Rolling lawns stretching away from the house

  • Carefully placed clusters of trees

  • Winding paths for walking or riding

  • Artificial lakes or serpentine rivers

  • Classical follies such as temples, bridges, or grottoes


The goal was to create a scene that resembled an idealized pastoral painting, intending to mimic nature, but improved.


This map of Blenheim Palace details the landscape structure:

an illustrated map of the landscape and park grounds of Blenheim Palace
A New and Accurate Plan of Blenheim Palace, Gardens, Park, Plantations & the Seat of His Grace, the Duke of Marlborough, by Nicolas Vergnaud, 1835

The rolling lawns were a signature of this style, and the seamless effect was achieved with a clever little device called a ha ha, which is a sunken wall or ditch that’s invisible from the house or lawn but would keep deer and livestock from wandering into the pleasure grounds, thus maintaining a spotless stretch of green. Brown used ha-has extensively. Just consider the two miles of ha-ha at Croome Court! The whole effect allowed the eye to travel uninterrupted across “nature” to admire this vast parkland. No crops. No roaming livestock. Just swaths of green.


Blenheim Palace woodblock by James Smith Noel, 1880
Blenheim Palace woodblock by James Smith Noel, 1880

Some of the absolute best examples of Brown’s works were found at Chatsworth, Stowe, and Blenheim Palace. Not only were these three the pinnacle gardens of the era, but they provide us with a still-accurate-to-that-era garden experience so that we can recreate similar styles at the fictional estates in our beloved hist rom novels. This guest blog by Sarah Murden on All Things Georgian highlights some of the best estate gardens: A Tour Through Some Georgian Gardens of Note.


With landscape gardens such as these, the goal was the vantage point. Trees were planted in certain locations, lakes dug in certain locations, wilderness walks meandered in certain locations, follies built in certain locations, and so forth, all to create a moment where the guest would wander to that area, turn to face a certain direction, and have their breath stolen by the picturesque vista—perhaps a folly peeking out in the distance between two trees, a romantic glimpse of swans on the lake as you round a wilderness walk, etc. Everything was designed to look natural, yes, but that was the illusion more than the reality, as the true design was in the photo-op (so to speak).



The Designers


Lancelot “Capability” Brown (1716-1783) was the most influential of the 18th century. His nickname came from a curious little habit he had of telling clients their estates had great “capabilities.”


Brown’s signature landscaping elements included:


  • Sweeping lawns running right up to the house

  • Scattered clumps of trees

  • Large serpentine lakes

  • Gently curving drives


He redesigned over 170 estates across England! (Although that number climbs as high as 260 if including where he might have offered recommendations, aid to a fellow landscaper, etc.) Some of his most famous examples could be found at Blenheim Palace, Chatsworth House, and Burghley House.

 

Humphry Repton (1752-1818) followed Brown and worked heavily during the Regency era. His style had slightly more structure than Brown’s, and he produced the famous collection known as the “Red Books,” which were presentation books he created to show clients first watercolor illustrations of the current estate, and then overlays showing his proposed improvements. Impressive, right?


It is thanks to Repton that Regency estates weren’t all lawn, as he reintroduced formal flower gardens near the house, which created that nice blend of structure and natural landscape. His most famous examples can be found at Kenwood House and Woburn Abbey.


Where Brown created vast, serene parkland, Repton’s Regency touch brought back intimate color and comfort, all to maintain the natural feel but also be inviting for daily life.



The Flower Garden


Closer to the house, more traditional flower gardens remained popular, though their style evolved over time. These areas were meant for leisurely strolls and were often arranged in beds or borders filled with seasonal blooms.


Flowers commonly grown in Georgian and Regency gardens included:


  • Roses

  • Tulips

  • Auriculas

  • Carnations

  • Sweet peas

  • Peonies

  • Hollyhocks

  • Lavender


Holkam Walled Garden, by Samuel Wyatt in late 1700s.
Holkam Walled Garden, by Samuel Wyatt in late 1700s.

These gardens were often enclosed by low hedges or walls and were carefully maintained by estate gardeners. For visitors, they provided a colorful contrast to the sweeping greens of the landscape park beyond. Walled gardens were more the style here rather than the prior fashion of knot gardens or parterre gardens, although we may still find knot or parterre gardens by the more old-fashioned landowners.


We might see the beds arranged along walks, in circular patterns, or even within terraces.


When choosing flowers, the gardener would aim for a combination of color, fragrance, and seasonal variety.



The Kitchen Garden


While ornamental gardens impressed guests, kitchen gardens kept the household supplied with food.

Excerpt from The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, 1747, of what to plant month by month in the kitchen garden
Excerpt from The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, 1747, of what to plant month by month in the kitchen garden

Typically surrounded by brick walls to protect delicate plants from wind and frost, these productive gardens grew:


  • Fruits such as peaches, pears, apples, nectarines, and grapes

  • Vegetables (asparagus, artichokes, peas, beans, cabbages) and herbs for the estate kitchens

  • Espaliered fruit trees trained along warm walls


Large estates sometimes employed entire teams of gardeners to maintain these highly organized spaces.


It was not uncommon to find an orangery next to the house, as well, although conservatories and hot houses wouldn’t become popular until the Victorian era.




Shrubberies and Pleasure Grounds


Another fashionable feature of late Georgian estates was the shrubbery, a planted walk filled with flowering shrubs and small trees. This was close to the house and considered a small “pleasure grounds” or “shrubbery walk.”  


Shrubberies were designed for strolling walks, private conversation, and even exercise in fine weather. Winding paths might pass through plantings of lilac, laburnum, rhododendron, snowball viburnum, syringa, and flowering trees, occasionally opening onto small lawns or garden seats and benches, perhaps even graveled areas, the perfect setting for those intimate hist rom scenes were the hero confesses his adoration.


These areas often connected the formal gardens near the house with the larger landscape park.


The winding shrubbery paths and hidden follies were pure gold for Regency courtship! Imagine how perfect for a “chance” encounter (wink), a whispered confession on a garden seat, or a dramatic turning point when the trees part to reveal a distant temple or lake—gasp! Heroine reaches a hand to touch the hero’s sleeve. It’s no wonder so many of our favorite novels send heroes and heroines outside to “take the air!”


For one of the most detailed sources I've found on the shrubbery and pleasure grounds, especially those mentioned by Jane Austen and including the specific trees and shrubs one would encounter, complete with planting guides, you simply must visit this page on "The Regency Shrubbery in Fine Weather," by Michele Larrow of the Jane Austen Society of North America Eastern Washington-Northern Idaho Region. The reference list is worth noting, as well, for further reading.



A Garden Meant to be Experienced


For Regency visitors, a country estate garden was something to be explored rather than admired from a window. The gardens of the earlier 18th century? Definitely to be admired from a window, and quite often the different rooms of the house would look out onto different formal gardens, such as the drawing room looking out on to the Italian garden and the dining room looking out onto the French garden, etc. But during the Regency? The view out the window would be of rolling lawn, treetops, maybe a hint of a lake or folly, the tease of a walled garden below—just enough to tempt you into exploring it, not with a full view of it.


In this way guests were drawn outside. They might stroll through the flower garden in the morning, wander the shrubbery in the afternoon, and take longer walks through the parkland while admiring lakes, temples, or distant views.


The gardens of a Georgian estate were carefully choreographed landscapes designed to delight the eye, encourage conversation, and provide the perfect setting for the small dramas of polite society.



Excellent Sources for Further Reading








Enjoyed this research post? Consider fueling my research endeavors with a fresh brew:

clickable button that says buy me a coffee

bottom of page