Monthly Archives: October 2024

I’m sure many people might be be put off even opening an old  book with a long Latin name like Paradisi in sole Paradis terrestris – and indeed you might be put off reading this post any further because of that, although … Continue reading →

Any guesses as to where this little house was?  You might think somewhere quiet, leafy and rural but  even in 1755 when the painting was done I suspect  that wasn’t really true and there’d  have been more people around than … Continue reading →

I’ve just had the pleasure of lecturing at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh to the students doing a Diploma in Garden History. As part of my reward I was invited to go on a trip with them to Drummond … Continue reading →

Last week’s post looked the origins of the picturesque movement and today’s is going to look at its flourishing at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19thc centuries. That’s when the pendulum swung away from the Beautiful … Continue reading →