The Garden History Blog

Mrs Lawrence’s Villa, from The Gardeners Magazine, July 1838

As I am sure regular readers will have noticed I’m a great fan of John Claudius Loudon, the energetic Scotsman who  tried to bring information about gardens, horticulture and agriculture [and indeed everything else!]  to the widest possible audience in the first part of the 19thc.  He wrote prolifically including many biblical-sized encyclopaedias as well as editing magazines, aiming his work squarely at the middle classes with their suburban villas and gardens.

Louisa Lawrence
wikipedia

Another of his admirers was Louisa Lawrence who lived  in what Loudon described as “a second-rate suburban villa”  at Drayton Green  on the western outskirts of London. And the admiration was clearly mutual.  In labelling it second-rate Loudon was not being dismissive of the fact that she  managed to cram in almost every conceivable fashionable garden feature of the day into her few acres – exactly the opposite in fact.  She won Loudon’s highest praise for doing so!

Louisa Lawrence was also “the lady who created the biggest upset among the bewhiskered gentlemen of the Horticultural Society”   [Catherine Horwood, Gardening Women] so read on to find out more her and her second-rate villa and its garden… Continue reading →