In The Garden Against Time, Olivia Laing traces the evolution of gardens and the different meanings they have taken on in society. One major European development she addresses is the work of Capability Brown and the advent, in the mid-18th century, of a style that came to be known simply as the English garden.

Lancelot "Capability" Brown was born in 1716. The son of a land agent and a chambermaid, he started his career as an under-gardener at Stowe House, a stately home not far from Oxford, before quickly climbing the ranks to become head gardener of the estate in his mid-20s. By this time, a certain aesthetic ideal was starting to bloom in the gardens of England's aristocracy. Every earl and baron in the country dreamed of their own personal Eden, but paradise was getting a new look. Brown, in his position of power, was fundamental in pushing these emerging ideas to never-before-seen heights.

In his designs, he threw out the formality of the "jardin à la fran&...