Among gardeners, Whately is largely remembered as the author of "Observations on Modern Gardening, illustrated by descriptions" (London, 1770), written while living in the Mansion House in Nonsuch Park. Close on the heels of George Mason's "Essay on Design in Gardening", Whately's "Observations" provide the most comprehensive work on the theory and practice of English landscape gardening in the naturalistic taste before Horace Walpole's brief "Essay on Modern Gardening" (1782) and the writings of Humphry Repton. The picturesque landscape style in the manner of idealized landscapes by Salvator Rosa or Claude Lorrain, had been pioneered by Charles Bridgeman in the 1720s, improved by William Kent and eventually dominated by Lancelot "Capability" Brown, but neither had put their thoughts into print.