The Garden History Blog

From The aquarium: an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea, by Philip Gosse, 1856

I’m writing this as the rain lashes down outside – again – but it’s not, as the title might suggest,  a post about how to manage a flooded garden, instead it’s another one about water gardens, but water gardens with a difference.

While there’s a long history of water gardens in virtually every country across the globe virtually all of them were, until quite recently, outside in the open air.

If you think about indoor water gardens you probably imagine fountains, basins and goldfish, perhaps in a Victorian conservatory or a Georgian grotto. I bet you didnt think much about water plants and what place they might have, so  today’s post is going to look at aquatic plants indoors in what might be called the dawning of the age of aquaria…

from The Aquavivarium  , by Edwin Lankester, 1856

Continue reading →

One of the pavilions at Piercefield. Photo by Paul White. 2005. One of an evocative series of black and white photos on his  website about Welsh ruins

Last week’s post looked at the creation of the picturesque landscape at Piercefield, near Chepstow.

Today I’m going to look at the decline  and fall of the estate and how all the conservation and heritage protections in the world still haven’t managed to save a Grade II* listed building and Grade 1 listed landscape from dereliction.

 The early part of the decline is sad, but the later part is more than sad – it is shocking.

Piercefield before its almost total collapse, photo courtesy of Mike Freeman

Continue reading →

Detail of Piercefield Mansion and Park, G. Eyre Brooks c. 1840. (© Chepstow Museum)

These days Garden visiting is a popular pastime but actually it has been so since at least the 18thc  and one of the earliest estates to become a tourist attraction in its own right  is Piercefield, which stands above the river Wye near Chepstow in Monmouthshire.  Largely dating from the mid-18thc century and often described a “picturesque” or “sublime” landscape it’s  had a very chequered ownership and history  but  featured in all the early guide books as a must-see site.  As a result visitors flocked to visit, and they still do even though the house is now in a state of complete ruin and the grounds a shadow of their former selves…

View on the Wye, Thomas Hearne,undated late 18thc, © The Trustees of the British Museum

Continue reading →

The cover of the first American edition of The Secret Garden, illustrated by M. L. Kirk, 1911

I found a copy of  The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett when sorting out some old books recently and flicked through it again – hence this post.  I suspect you probably  have read it yourself,  read it to children,  or seen  one of the film or TV versions.  But what did you think of the story?

It always strikes me as a bit of a Marmite book. Seen by many as a children’s classic, full of charm which tells of redemption and the ultimate “niceness” of people. But it can also be read as saccharine, sentimental even mawkish, or  even, alternatively,  as one critic put it, as  “a story about neglect, remiss parenting and mental illness; a book that, for all its light, is underpinned by darkness”.

There’s no doubting its popularity though, so I wondered where Burnett found the idea for the story?  Her son said she was workaholic who “wanted to be in the land of make-believe as often and as long as possible” , but did she just make it all up or was there really a Secret Garden with “ beautiful old walls ” which ‘bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles”  

detail from one of Inga Moore’s illustrations for a 2010 edition of The Secret Garden

Continue reading →

No – I know it’s not Saturday but….I’m going to break my own rules just for once because  I want to  invite you to join me for a free on-line  “open evening”  next Tuesday, 25th June  at 6.30 to discover more about garden history research, and in particular about the only research degree  in the subject in the country which I help to run.

If you can’t make that date or time, don’t worry, it’s going to be recorded and will be available [via a link on here] until the course actually starts in October.

Continue reading →