Fishing Temples 1 : the earliest survivals

Posted on 27/08/2016 by The Garden History Blog
Charles Cotton's Fishing Temple in Dovedale, Derbyshire http://images.google.fr/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Ftheincompleatangler.files.wordpress.com%2F2014%2F07%2Ftempblog1.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fincompleatangler.com%2Ftag%2Ftemple%2F&h=951&w=713&tbnid=zt5AYZkoMLImJM%3A&docid=n46J805cY046bM&itg=1&ei=DOmmV4aPEMKqa4mAo7AN&tbm=isch&client=safari&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=628&page=2&start=15&ndsp=25&ved=0ahUKEwiGxZ3M6a7OAhVC1RoKHQnACNYQMwhIKBQwFA&bih=601&biw=1215

Charles Cotton’s Fishing Temple in Dovedale, Derbyshire
https://incompleatangler.com/tag/temple/

Its August and I’ve been sitting admiring my lake – how’s that for showing off?  It’s about an acre in extent and stuffed full of hideous fat carp.  It’s an attraction for local fishermen and there’s often one sitting on the bank although they hardly ever catch anything and when they do they put them back. Being vegetarian I have no interest in catching fish at all  and I’m happy to just sit and look at the water and all the waterlilies we’ve planted. But lovely tho’ my lake is, I was a little envious  of a little riverside lodge in Dovedale, which was up for sale recently.   Built in 1674 in honour of his friend Isaak Walton author of The Compleat Angler, Charles Cotton’s one-roomed fishing temple looks a rather nice place to sit and contemplate, as does Bourne Mill near Colchester

so even tho I don’t fish, and don’t even understand why anyone would want to do it, this is the first of a few posts dedicated to fishing temples and lodges. Today’s looks at the few survivors from the 16th and 17th centuries. Continue reading →

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Welwitschia mirabilis: “the ugliest plant in creation”?

Posted on 20/08/2016 by The Garden History Blog
Life on a welwitschia mirabilis plant in the Namib Desert, David Marsh, Feb 2016

Life on a Welwitschia mirabilis plant                        in the Namib Desert, David Marsh, Feb 2016

What a mouthful that is! Even worse when you realise it’s the Latin name of a bizarre plant ‘discovered’ by a man born in the Austrian Empire of Slovak origin, who worked for the Portuguese monarchy in one of their African colonies and ended up being buried in London.

Actually bizarre is a bit of an understatement: how many plants do you know that only have two leaves, live on fog and sometimes have to be kept in a cage!

The caged welwitschia, David Marsh, Feb 2016

The caged Welwitschia, David Marsh, Feb 2016

OK I admit that’s a bit of a cheat because, like the Wollemi pine, it’s to protect the plant from humans rather than the other way around!

But why am I writing about Welwitschia on a blog about Britain’s parks and gardens? Read on to find out…

Weltwischia from a pianting by Baines, in Transactions of the Linnean Society, 1863

Welwitschia from a painting by Thomas Baines, in Transactions of the Linnean Society, 1863

Continue reading →

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Artificial Stone 4: Post-Coade potteries

Posted on 13/08/2016 by The Garden History Blog
Detail of a Triton fountain by J.M. Blashfield http://www.jardinique.co.uk

Detail of a Triton fountain by J.M. Blashfield
http://www.jardinique.co.uk

While Eleanor Coade’s factory was the dominant player in the artificial stone market in the late 18th and early 19thc there were others. A few using their own magic mixtures and from the 1820s onwards others began using the new invention of Portland cement. So when William Croggan went bust in 1833 there were several other entrepreneurs ready and able to move in and pick up the pieces.

This post is about two of them – Mark Blanchard and John Marriott Blashfield whose careers ran in parallel through the mid-late 19thc. Their  architectural and decorative faux stone and terracotta work can be found all over the country in buildings like the V&A, as well as structures like Chelsea Bridge, and their  garden statuary, urns and other  ornaments are in many historic gardens and are now very collectable.

from Blanchard's catalogue, 1869

from Blanchard’s catalogue, 1869

Read on to find out why….

Continue reading →

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Artificial Stone 3: Coade broken

Posted on 06/08/2016 by The Garden History Blog
The entrsance to Coade and Sealy's exhibition gallery, © The Trustees of the British Museum

The entrance to Coade and Sealy’s exhibition gallery, © The Trustees of the British Museum

In two earlier posts we have seen the rise and triumph of Eleanor Coade’s artificial stone business. [Catch up on them at:   http://wp.me/p4brf0-vR6  &   http://wp.me/p4brf0-vR8 ]  Eleanor was a successful entrepreneur dominating the market in architectural decoration and garden ornaments in later Georgian England. This was partly thanks to her own skills and partly thanks to the talent of her chief designer, John Bacon.  After Bacon died in 1799 Eleanor chose a new business partner – her cousin John Sealy and the business was renamed Coade and Sealy. But was it to continue on an upward curve?

At first it seemed so and Coade and Sealy went from strength to strength but by 1833 the business went bust. What went wrong? Read on to find out what happened to destroy Eleanor’s Coade’s enterprise and take down such an iconic name.

Coade Stone factory yard on Narrow Wall Street, Lambeth, London, c1800.

Coade Stone factory yard on Narrow Wall Street, Lambeth, London, c1800.

Continue reading →

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Beer and Skittles … but mainly skittles

Posted on 30/07/2016 by The Garden History Blog
Miss Tipapin going for all nine, 1779'From the Original Picture by John Collet, in the possession of Carington Bowles. British Museum

Miss Tipapin going for all nine, 
British Museum

Games where you roll or throw something at some sort of target to make it fall over are documented since at least medieval times, maybe even in ancient Egypt.  Such games have only evolved marginally since then!   Whether its kegel, the nine-pin bowling of the Teutonic world, the ten-pin bowling of the American world, quilles which is played in France,  or skittles, a game which is recorded from before Tudor times in England the principle is much the same.

Mind you the detail is very different. I hadn’t realised quite how many variations in the game survive in Britain – each with their own specific rules but don’t worry I’m not going to try and explain them all.  These games were sometimes played indoors but in early modern Britain they were more often played in gardens… particularly those attached to inns and hostelries

from Every Woman's Encyclopaedia, 1910

from Every Woman’s Encyclopaedia, 1910

 

Read on to find out more about the origins and history of skittles in the beer garden and elsewhere… Continue reading →

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