Introduction
A combination of a new monarch, the emergence of Aesthetics as a distinct theoretical discipline and a period of relative peace in Europe saw the development of one of England's most distinctive artistic movements: the English landscape garden. Although men of land and wealth had for many years engaged people to cultivate their estates for leisure, the years after 1715 saw grander and grander designs that shunned continental - especially French - influences in favour of a new natural landscape that aligned with new understandings of Nature, not just of flowers, shrubs and trees, but also of human nature, as evidenced in the social musings and philosophical writings of the time.