Cambridge University Archives : Hand drawn and coloured plan for laying out The Backs at Cambridge

Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (bap.1716, d.1783)

Cambridge University Archives

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Lancelot 'Capability' Brown had been employed by St John’s College in 1772 to work on their fellows’ garden. In April 1776, the University Senate agreed he should be paid £50 for a plan of improved landscaping as a unified park (‘in unam quasi corpus unamque specie concinnam et venustam’, UA Grace Book Lambda, p.37) for land on either side of the river Cam from Peterhouse to Magdalene College. Presented to the Senate in 1779, it was not adopted.</p> <p style='text-align: justify;'> Jacqueline Cox, Keeper of the University Archives </p>