Cankerous Blossom Troubles in the later career of Humphry Repton documented in the Repton correspondence in the Huntington Library

Abstract

The 114 letters, now in the Huntington Library, written by, and mostly between, members of Humphry Repton's immediate family illuminate the later career of the landscape gardener.¹ Fifty-three are in Humphry Repton's hand, all but ten of these addressed to his son William, a lawyer at Aylsham in Norfolk. Indeed, most of the letters are addressed to William; it was he who collected and endorsed them. The correspondents include the seven children of Humphry Repton, his wife and his sister, who had adopted William and whose husband's legal practice William inherited. The letters date from 1806, when William was taking over the practice, to 1816. For Humphry Repton this was a troubled period, personally and professionally. He confided in William and sought his advice. His letters to William disclose an intensely personal and local dimension to issues that are, in Repton's published writings, treated more generally and objectively (when they are mentioned at all). Repton was a great self-publicist and extremely sensitive about his reputation. It is scarcely surprising that some ofthe lessflattering events and opinions described in the letters are obscured or omitted in writings intended for more public consumption. In this article I will discuss five, frequently interrelated, issues raised in the letters: Humphry Repton's financial difficulties, his illness, his anxieties about English society, his attempts to secure a commission from the Nelson Trust, and the troubling changes in his home village of Hare Street.