Tag Archives: chiswick

The ‘smallest clever man I ever knew”….

Posted on 23/05/2015 by The Garden History Blog

So said John Ruskin of Edward Cooke who was mentioned in the post of May 2nd about Stumperies. Ruskin—a fellow enthusiast for the natural sciences—went on to say that Cooke was ” full of accurate and valuable knowledge in natural history … Continue reading →

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Menageries 4: Knowsley … and Edward Lear

Posted on 21/03/2015 by The Garden History Blog

More on menageries….real and imaginary. The early 19thc saw a shift from menageries as showcases for curiosities to the beginnings of the zoological garden as a base for science. At the same time that the royal menagerie in the Tower was … Continue reading →

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More heraldic beasts…

Posted on 01/11/2014 by The Garden History Blog

As I said at the end of my last post sets of heraldic beasts became rarer in Elizabethan times, as imagery became much more focussed on the queen herself. however there was a revival of interest in the early 19th century, and again … Continue reading →

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Tiglath-Pileser I & the passion he shared with William Robinson

Posted on 11/10/2014 by The Garden History Blog

It’s not every day that an exotically multi-syllabled king of ancient Assyria gets mentioned in the context of Brtain’s historic parks and gardens.  But I was writing a  lecture about  early plant hunting and decided to start with evidence from antiquity when … Continue reading →

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