The Landscape at Croome was not made as an afterthought. House and garden here form an integrated design. The park may be in the naturalistic style, based partly on the landscape paintings of Claude Gellee ‘le Lorraine’ and Nicolas Poussin and partly on ‘Capability’ Brown’s native Northumberland scenery, replacing the formal patterns of earlier periods, but every element in it is in fact orchestrated. The house and the lake, the follies, temples and statues, the parkland and the river are all carefully arranged in relation to each other.*

*From the Croome guide book

The historic grounds at Compton Verney are registered as a Grade II* listed parkland. Most of what you see in the grounds is the result of a long-term project to restore many of the features which Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (1716 – 1783) created after 1768. Brown was commissioned by John Verney, 14th Baron Willoughby de Broke (1738 – 1816) to redesign the landscape at Compton Verney. Brown’s resulting landscape typified his minimalist approach to parkland, with its sweeping vistas, viewpoints and imaginative use of water.*

*Info from the Compton Verney Grounds leaflet.

[Capability] Brown changed the direction of the approach to the house and merged the five separate pools into the central lake, which he crossed with two new bridges. The Upper Bridge of 1770, guarded by four lead sphinxes, is thought to have been designed either by Brown or by architect Robert Adam.*

*From the Compton Verney Grounds leaflet.