The Leasowes

The Leasowes /ˈlɛzəz/ is a 57-hectare (around 141 acre) estate in Halesowen, historically in the county of West Midlands, England, comprising house and gardens. The parkland is now listed Grade I on English Heritage's Register of Parks and Gardens and the home of the Halesowen Golf Club. The name means "rough pasture land".

Developed between 1743 and 1763 by poet William Shenstone as a ferme ornée, the garden is one of the most admired early examples of the English garden. Its importance lies in its simplicity and the uncompromisingly rural appearance. Thomas Whately praises it in chapter LII of his Observations on Modern Gardening of 1770:

The ideas of pastoral poetry seem now to be the standard of that simplicity; and a place conformable to them is deemed a farm in its utmost purity. An allusion to them evidently enters into the design of the Leasowes, where they appear so lovely as to endear the memory of their author; and justify the reputation of Mr. Shenstone … every part is rural and natural. It is literally a grazing farm lying round the house; and a walk as unaffected and as unadorned as a common field path, is conducted through the several enclosures.

After this passage, Whately goes on to describe every detail.

Shenstone died in 1763. The house and grounds were purchased by Edward Horne, who demolished Shenstone's house and built a new one on the same site completing it around 1776. He also built a walled garden and a hothouse.

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