Description
Book SynopsisThe people and publications at the root of a national obsession In the century between the accession of Elizabeth I and the restoration of Charles II, a horticultural revolution took place in England, making it a leading player in the European horticultural game. Ideas were exchanged across networks of gardeners, botanists, scholars, and courtiers, and the burgeoning vernacular book trade spread this new knowledge still furtherreaching even the growing number of gardeners furnishing their more modest plots across the verdant nation and its young colonies in the Americas. Margaret Willes introduces a plethora of garden enthusiasts, from the renowned to the legions of anonymous workers who created and tended the great estates. Packed with illustrations from the herbals, design treatises, and practical manuals that inspired these menand occasionally womenWilles's bookenthrallingly charts how England's garden grew.
Trade Review“Willes, who was a publisher for the National Trust, is a true bibliophile who has undertaken an ambitious piece of research that will be invaluable to students of gardens and their history.”—Rosie Atkins,
History Today -- Rosie Atkins * History Today *
“…..all can enjoy the illuminating way Willes puts gardens into context.”—
Gardens Illustrated * Gardens Illustrated *
“Avoid the glut of picture books that blossom at this time of year for this serious study of the social life of the English garden. It will fascinate serious horticulturalists with its explanation of the how the country had already undergone a radical revolution in gardening before the 18th century, which so many thought was its heyday.”—
Country and Town House Magazine * Country and Town House Magazine *
