Philip Southcote

Philip Southcote (1698–1758) created an early example of the English landscape garden at Woburn Farm (sometimes Wooburn), near Addlestone, Surrey.

Southcote had a long affair with the notorious courtesan Teresia Constantia Phillips which started in 1727.

The gardens were contained within a weaving ornamental walk, remains of which can be seen between the Philip Southcote school for children with special needs and Gerry Cottle's Circus headquarters.

[3] Woburn Farm's grotto and architectural garden follies, arches and gateways, some features designed by William Kent, including the existing rusticated entrance that marks the entrance from the public road, soon attracted stylish visitors who made the serpentine circuit of the garden, passing from feature to feature: "all my design at first was to have a garden on the middle high ground and a walk all round my farm, for convenience as well as pleasure" Southcote wrote [1].

In a letter in 1751, Horace Walpole wrote rather peevishly of Capability Brown's landscaping at Warwick Castle, "The castle is enchanting; the view pleased me more than I can express, the river Avon tumbles down a cascade at the foot of it.