Two Essex Girls & the exotic: Ella & Florence Du Cane

Posted on 11/11/2017 by The Garden History Blog

Azaleas from Flowers and Gardens of Japan by Ella and Florence du Cane, 1908

My title is a bit unfair. The Essex Girls I’m going to talk about are not those caricatured on TOWI or in popular comedy but two aristocratic young ladies from the county who not only created gardens there but also travelled the world and wrote and illustrated a series of travel books. These were mainly about gardens and introduced a touch of the exotic and colour, to their British readers.

Aristocratic women in the 19thc were conventionally taught to paint and draw but few made a living out of it. That would have been thought shocking. But one woman who did was Ella Du Cane. The daughter of a Tory MP and colonial governor, after the death of her father, she set off with her elder sister Florence to travel the world.

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The Picturesque Traveller discovers the Lakes

Posted on 04/11/2017 by The Garden History Blog

Lakeland Landscape, unknown artist,  York Museums Trust 

Last week’s post about Anthony Devis showed how our understanding and appreciation of the landscape has changed radically over the centuries.  Until the beginning of the 18thc wilderness and untamed nature, was generally unappreciated with most art, literature and aesthetic taste focused on the tranquillity of pastoral scenes.  However philosophers like the Earl of Shaftesbury then began to take more interest in wild nature.

Sir George Beaumont and Joseph Farington painting a waterfall,by Thomas Hearne, 1777,           Wordsworth Trust

This developed as the century progressed and saw the emergence  of a new aesthetic category which explained how wild and untamed  scenery could evoke a response which was not the displeasure associated with ugliness, but pleasure mixed with fear.

Previously unregarded parts of the country  such as the Lake District, the Peak District, Wales and Scotland began to attract visitors. As transport and roads improved so more and more travellers  toured the country  seeking “picturesque beauty” and “the sense of the sublime” in nature.

Who for instance, would previously have thought that Windermere, looking like an outpost of  the North Atlantic coast in a force 9 gale, would be a suitable subject for a painting?

Belle Isle, Windermere, in a Storm,  Philip de Loutherbourg, Lakeland Arts Trust

 

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Anthony Devis: Georgian topographical artist

Posted on 28/10/2017 by The Garden History Blog

No it’s not a repeat. It’s true there was a post about the 18thc artist  Arthur Devis a few month ago but this one is about his half-brother Anthony.  While Arthur specialised in conversation piece portraits Anthony turned to topography and became one of the country’s first successful landscape painters.

The Old Hall from the Park, TableyHouse, Cheshire.  

Anthony’s career spanned more than 60 years and unlike his half-brother he managed to adapt his style to changing Georgian taste and fashion both in painting and appreciation of landscape.  Read on to discover how his works  give us an insight into the changing perception of nature and the countryside in the 18thc.

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On Don and Don and Don and Don…

Posted on 21/10/2017 by The Garden History Blog

I know Monty may be the only Don you’ve heard of but this is not  a post about him. Instead its about some of his 18th and 19thc ancestors who were also well-known horticulturists and botanists.  The family came from the county of Angus, then known as Forfarshire, in eastern Scotland where George Don had a nursery and what he called a botanic garden,  before rather unexpectedly ending up as Superintendant of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh.

He had five sons who all followed him into gardening, and two of whom became celebrated in their day. The eldest, George junior, went plant hunting for the  Royal Horticultural Society  before becoming a botanical writer.  David, the second eldest, after working in a nursery became the Librarian at the Linnean Society  and then Professor of Botany at Kings College. 

Read on to find out more about this extraordinary family and their legacy.

George Do's signature from http://linnean-online.org/64852/

George Don’s signature  Linnean Society

 

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“Fresh Air & Fun”: Ada Salter and the Beautification of Bermondsey

Posted on 14/10/2017 by The Garden History Blog

Ada Salter

London is a city of great surprises and has many hidden corners and almost unknown treasures. I thought I knew it fairly well but there are always surprises and I’ve just found two of them in the same patch.  Did you know, because I certainly didn’t,  that  the remains of one of Edward III’s favourite country houses still survive on the banks of the Thames?   Perhaps the reason I didn’t know it is because it’s in a district which long had a reputation for slums and poverty, and being more than a bit rough around the edges.

The remains of Edward III’s Manor House on Bermondsey Wall, David Marsh May 2017

Of course over recent years nowhere in London is safe from gentrification and this area is no exception.  A new tube station and proximity to central London – that’s an understatement since its within a few minutes walk of Tower Bridge – have led to massive amounts of redevelopment.  So I finally corrected my ignorance of Bermondsey  by going on a guided London walk with Sue McCarthy of Capital Walks. [Highly recommended – and no she’s not paying me to say that!]  You can read a short photo report of what the walk covers here.

The view from Ada’s statue which stands just across the road from Edward III’s manor house.

It focussed on the life and work of Ada Salter, a pioneer of ethical Socialism  who was elected the first woman mayor in London, and first Labour woman mayor in Britain.  Sue’s commentary inspired me to go and find out more about Ada Salter’s radical – and successful – campaign to improve health and housing, provide gardens and beautify Bermondsey.

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