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REPTON, Humphry.
Fragments on the theory and practice of Landscape Gardening.
Including some remarks on Grecian and Gothic architecture, collected from various manuscripts, in the possession of the different noblemen and gentlemen, for whose use they were originally written; the whole tending to establish fixed principles in the respective arts. By H. Repton, Esq., assisted by his son, J. Adey Repton, F.A.S.
Publisher: London: printed by T. Bensley and Son; for J. Taylor, at the Architectural Library, 1816
Stock code: 59681
Price: £17,500 Currency Conversion
First edition of Repton's last treatise, this copy from the library at High Legh, Cheshire. The Legh family had held substantial property in the Cheshire area since the time of Agincourt. Repton laid out High Legh Park for George John Legh (father of George Cornwall Legh) in 1791. John Nash, with whom Repton was then in partnership, was also engaged to create an idyll village, though this was never completed. Repton removed the original Roman road and dropped it to its present position (now the A50), removing the village of High Legh and creating a more enclosed entrance to the estate and pleasure gardens. High Legh Hall was demolished in the early 1970s and its debris used as foundations to a viaduct bridge for the nearby M6 motorway. Fragments is illustrated in the familiar Repton manner, with overslips used to show the changed landscape before and after Repton's improvements. He was by now famous, mentioned for example in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park (1814) as the generic name of all landscape gardeners: "Repton, or any body of that sort".
Large quarto (339 × 276 mm). Near-contemporary red half morocco, spine with gilt devices between raised bands, gilt-lettered direct in second compartment, pink mottled paper sides and endpapers, sprinkled edges. 43 aquatint plates from drawings by H. Repton, of which 21 are hand-coloured, 11 with overslips, 3 double-page; 5 are tinted, one with overslip; the remainder uncoloured, 3 with overslips; 9 aquatint vignettes in the text, 2 with overslips; numerous woodcuts in the text. Armorial bookplate of the Legh family, High Legh, Cheshire; slightly later bookplate of George Cornwall Legh (1804–1877). Extremities rubbed and very slightly worn in places, a few trivial spots, one of two tabs to one overslip detached but the overslip still present and working; overall an excellent copy.
