Broadlands and Romsey, on a map of the estate, mid-eighteenth century
For many landowners of the eighteenth century, estate maps gave an impressive representation of their holdings in the wider context of the countryside. The Broadlands estates in Hampshire were surveyed in the 1740s and again in the 1780s, and considerable changes took place in the intervening period. Enclosure, redistribution and consolidation of lands allowed the second Viscount Palmerston to invest, with the assistance of Capability Brown, in impressive landscaping. This image shows the estate before the enclosure of the common fields, with Broadlands and its gardens in the centre, and the town of Romsey at the top of the image.
