(b East Stratton, nr Micheldever, Hants, bapt Feb 25, 1683; d London, June 8, 1745). English garden designer and writer. He was first trained as a gardener at one of Sir William Russell’s country seats, Stratton House, near Winchester, Hants, and then went to work for George London and Henry Wise at their Brompton Park nursery in London. From c. 1700 he learnt estate management, first under London at Castle Howard, N. Yorks, then under Wise at Blenheim Palace, Oxon. From c. 1714 Switzer was employed at various estates: the forested park at Cirencester, Glos, for Allen, 1st Lord Bathurst; at Grimsthorpe, Lincs, for Robert Bertie, Marquess of Lindsey; and at Marston House, Somerset, where for Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery, he added fountains and cascades. Despite these various works, Switzer’s reputation rests largely on his writings. Formatively influenced by Joseph Addison’s Spectator essays (1712), in which a Lockean epistemology was brought to bear on discussions linking husbandry, landscaping and the creative imagination, Switzer sought to promote this ...