Tag Archives: menagerie

Edward Lear and his floral inventions

Posted on 23/08/2025 by The Garden History Blog

Years ago, in another life,  I was head teacher of a school in north London.  Our playground was on the site of the birthplace  of Edward Lear, so the children and I got to know a lot about him when … Continue reading →

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Nostell Priory

Posted on 04/02/2023 by The Garden History Blog

If you’ve been following the Gardens Trusts on-line lectures you’ll know that Yorkshire has a lot of unforgettable gardens, but there’s one that we haven’t yet covered: Nostell Priory near Wakefield. Nostell is a Palladian mansion with stunning Robert Adam … Continue reading →

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Josephine @ Malmaison

Posted on 04/07/2020 by The Garden History Blog

The story of how a 32 year widow from Martinique escaped the guillotine and then met and fell in love with the a young Corsican general during the French Revolution is the stuff of romantic novels. It’s one of the … Continue reading →

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The Other London Zoo OR Vesuvius and a parachuting monkey

Posted on 11/04/2020 by The Garden History Blog

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the new menagerie that was set up during the French Revolution in Paris’s  Jardin des Plantes which helped put science rather than entertainment centre stage. This led to pressure for London to have … Continue reading →

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The Jardin des Plantes

Posted on 28/03/2020 by The Garden History Blog

I looked in the last post at the early history of Paris’s principal botanic garden, the former royal garden or the Jardin du Roi. Today’s is about what happened there between the French Revolution and today. It’s a good story … Continue reading →

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