It has been written, by Richard Bisgrove (‘A History of Gobions  Chapter Three - Charles Bridgeman and the English Landscape Garden’) that “The eighteenth century English Landscape Garden, Britain's greatest contribution to the world of art”.

In the early part of the eighteenth century a number of great formal gardens were created for the important English stately homes.  While several men made prominent contributions to this movement, three names in particular recur through the story: the landscape gardeners Charles Bridgeman, William Kent and Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown.  This great period also coincided with the career of the great architect Sir John Vanbrugh, who was experimenting with the dramatic potential of buildings in a landscape setting.

Just as there was increasing demand for landscape gardens, demand also increased for artists to paint the resultant gardens.  After the Restoration of Charles II, a number of such works appeared in print, but generally devoted to one house. The earliest set of engraved architectural plates published after the Restoration were by Henry Winstanley of Audley End in Essex, and by Robert Thacker of Longford Castle.  It is uncertain which series came first, but whichever has priority could claim to be the first engraved suite of view of a country house in Britain (thus Harris: The Artist And The Country House, p.89).  The plates for both these series were engraved versions of topographical drawings, but Thacker’s eleven plates of Longford Castle included two platforms, or ground plans. 

At the end of the century, the Dutch artist Leonard Knyff announced ambitious plans to produce a series of images of all the major houses of England.  This project eventually lead to ‘Britannia Illustrata’, with the views engraved by Johannes Kip (and frequently called after him) and published by David Mortier in 1707.  The book was re-issued and expanded over the next thirty years, often under the title ‘Le Nouveau Théâtre De La Grande Bretagne...’, published by a number of publishers, including Joseph Smith.  The plates of country houses in this series were generally engraved versions of topographical views, but there were one or two more typical plans of the houses and gardens.

The other series, conceived as a more theoretical work, was compiled by the Scottish architect Colen Campbell.  Volume I of 'Vitruvius Britannicus...' was published in 1715, with volume II in 1717, and volume III in 1725.  The bulk of the plates were formal architectural elevations of buildings or ground plans, but volume III did contain a number of plans of the houses set within the estate, including such famous houses as Blenheim, Claremont and Longleat.

The plans assembled here form an important record of this important period in he development of the English stately home, and of the important contribution of the men whose vision so popularised garden design in the first half of the eighteenth century.