The Garden History Blog

A few days ago I visited a garden I’d known about for years, but because it’s only open two afternoons a year I’d never managed to visit.    I’d seen images of its ponds and cascades, its red Japanese-style bridges and its flaming autumnal colours and so, undeterred by the heavy rain, I set off from north London to the far-flung south-western corner of the capital and the last remaining part of what  used to be Coombe Wood Nursery, part of the Veitch horticultural empire.

It’s often thought to include the first Japanese garden in Britain. Even though that is disputed, what remains still maintains something of the illusion of Japan today. Continue reading →

Title Page of John Parkinson’s Paradisi in Sole, 1629  later hand coloured probably by Lettice Morris

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 I hope not.  Such reluctance for many books with long Latin names is understandable. They are usually  long-winded and  devoid of any illustrations.  But in the case of Paradisi it’s exactly the opposite.

It was a landmark  book which shows  how both  gardening and botany were evolving into a new form of science in the 17thc. And even if you’re not much interested in the history of botanical science,  it’s worth looking at simply for the beautiful high quality illustrations. Obviously originally printed in black and white, owners could easily hand-colour them the images have since become popular as decorative prints. Continue reading →

Any idea where this  is?

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 just one woman with her umbrella and basket.

You’ll also probably be surprised to know that  hidden away behind the house was once a collection of classical antique statues [mostly broken] and later  a large number of wine barrels [mostly full]!  You might have a better idea of where it was, especially if you’re a Londoner, if I tell you it was within sight of both St Paul’s Cathedral and Somerset House…

detail from a print of 1825

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Old Shrewsbury Bridge, Paul Sandby, undated late 18thc. Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge

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 towards the Sublime encouraged  by a group of theorists, critics and garden-makers.  But it wasn’t a coherent or unanimous move…

Lets start by introducing the new theorists of the picturesque who rejected Capability Brown and all his works, and who were more interested in that wilder  end of the landscape and garden spectrum.

From the Tour of Dr Syntax by William Combe 1812

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