Humphry Repton

The English landscape designer Humphry Repton (1752-1818) designed over 400 gardens and landscapes throughout the course of his life. Most of Repton's commissions came from the English aristocracy, who engaged Repton to remodel their country estates. Repton created folios outling his proposals for his clients. These folios are known as Repton's 'Red Books' because of the colour of their covers. The Red Books included maps, descriptions and drawings, the latter often featuring flaps that could be lifted, to reveal before and after views of the estate.

The RHS Lindley Library holds the Waresly Park Red book in its archive, as well Repton's publications Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening (1795), Observations on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening (1803), and Fragments on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening (1816).