Stowe was also home for 10 years and witnessed many life changing events; he married at Stowe Parish Church in the heart of the gardens and started a family here. Lord Cobham’s patronage allowed Brown to travel across the country to wealthy estates, advising landowners that their estates had ‘capabilities’ and suggesting changes. Following Cobham’s death, Brown struck out as a consultant, making Stowe his first and only ever place of employment.
A real gem for those on the trail of Brown’s gardens, Stowe is still defined by the style of the eighteenth century; having been protected from further fashion changes in the following decades and centuries, due to the decline, fall and bankruptcy of the Temple-Grenville family in the nineteenth century. Since acquiring the gardens in the late 1980s, the National Trust has been working to restore Stowe to its eighteenth-century gardening heyday.