Stephen Switzer

Although he had never travelled abroad to see them,[3] Switzer admired and emulated the formal grandeur of French broad prospects and woodland avenues, finding in the state of horticulture an index of cultural health, in Augustan Rome as in contemporary Britain, where August Designs [his example is Blenheim Palace], denote that Greatness of Mind that reigns in the English Nobility and Gentry".

Rising through the ranks of the largest nursery and landscaping operation of the day, Switzer helped execute London's designs at Castle Howard, Yorkshire (from 1706), notably the wilderness, at Cirencester Park, Gloucestershire (from about 1713), and at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire.

Ichnographia seems targeted "at the owners of villas who sought a small estate near London", recognising that "the Fatigues of Court and Senate often force the illustrious Patriots of their Country to retreat, and breathe the sweet and fragrant Air of gardens", many of which were on gentle hills.

He advised that "all the adjacent Country be laid open to view", showing the "extensive charms of Nature, and the voluminous Tracts of a pleasant County",[10] still a realistic hope at that date.

His main rival in the practical, though not the literary, aspects of early tentative exercises in "naturalistic" planting schemes was Charles Bridgeman, another gardener trained by London and Wise.