This volume aims to restore the reputation of Thomas White, who in his
time was as well respected as his fellow landscape designers Lancelot
'Capability' Brown and Humphry Repton. By the end of his career, he had
produced designs for at least 32 sites across northern England and over
60 in Scotland. These include nationally important designed landscapes
in Yorkshire such as Harewood House, Sledmere Hall, Burton Constable
Hall, Newby Hall, Mulgrave Castle as well as Raby Castle in Durham,
Belle Isle in Cumbria, and Brocklesby Hall in Lincolnshire. He has a
vital role in the story of how northern English designed landscapes
evolved in the 18th century.
The book focuses on White's known commissions in England and sheds
further light on the work of other designers such as Brown and Repton,
who worked on many of the same sites. White set up as an independent
designer in 1765, having worked for Brown from 1759, and his style
developed over the next thirty years. Never merely a 'follower of
Brown', as he is often erroneously described, his designs for
plantations in particular were much admired and influenced the later,
more informal styles of the picturesque movement.
The improvement plans he produced for his clients demonstrate his
surveying and artistic skills. These plans were working documents but at
the same time works of art in their own right. Over 60 of his
beautifully-executed colored plans survive, which is a testament to the
value his clients placed on them. This book makes available for the
first time over 90% of the known plans and surveys by White for England.
Also included are plans by White's contemporaries, together with later
maps, estate surveys, and contemporary illustrations to understand which
parts of improvement plans were implemented.
