Humphry Repton (1752-1818) was the self-proclaimed successor to Capability Brown. He was a prolific designer and there are some 300 registered parks and gardens associated with him. Unlike Brown, Repton produced beautiful one-off illustrated books of his designs for individual clients with original watercolours showing ‘before’ and ‘after’ views of the landscape. These were known as Red Books and are highly sought after.

Repton has also left us four luxurious colour-plate books illustrating his theories of design. These are: Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening (1794); Observations on the theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening (1803); Designs for the Pavilion at Brighton (1808, second edition 1822); and Fragments on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening (1815).