A Little History of British Gardening

by Jenny Uglow

• ISBN13: 9780865477025
• ISBN10: 0865477027
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2004-06-01
• Publisher: North Point Press

Summary

Did the Romans have rakes? Did the monks get muddy? This lively history of gardening in Britain takes us on a tour from the thorn hedges around prehistoric settlements to the rage for decking and ornamental grasses today. It tracks down the ordinary folk who worked the earth-the apprentice boys and weeding women, the florists and nursery gardeners-as well as aristocrats, grand designers, and famous plant hunters. Colored by Jenny Uglow's own love for plants and brought to life by many vivid illustrations, it not only deals with flowery-meads, grottoes and vistas, landscapes and ha-has, parks and allotments, but also tells you, for example, how the Tudors made their curious knots, how housewives used herbs to stop freckles, and how the suburbs dug for victory in World War II. This is a book to put in your pocket when planning your ideal green space-and to read in your deck chair with a glass of cold wine, when deadheading is simply too much.

Author Biography

Jenny Uglow is an editor at Chatto & Windus and lives in Canterbury, England. Her previous books include The Lunar Men (FSG, 2002), winner of the PEN International Prize for History; Hogarth (FSG, 1997); Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories (FSG, 1993); and George Eliot.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Introducion: 'Mrs Woodcock's irises'	1	(6)
I SEED
1 Did the Romans have rakes?	7	(9)
2 Aelfric's list	16	(9)
3 Monastic lore	25	(9)
4 Pleasure...	34	(10)
5 ...and profit	44	(10)
6 Tudor conceits	54	(13)
7 The plantsman cometh	67	(14)
II LEAF
8 Stuart fantasies	81	(10)
9 'Wife, into thy garden'	91	(11)
10 Swords into pruning hooks	102	(13)
11 Points of view	115	(10)
12 Arcadia	125	(10)
13 The citizen's box	135	(10)
14 Miller & Co.	145	(14)
III FLOWER
15 Brown and his foes	159	(11)
16 Victoriana	170	(12)
17 Brightness is all	182	(11)
18 Cottagers, florists and shows	193	(11)
19 Town mouse	204	(6)
20 Don't sneer at Mrs Lawrence	210	(10)
21 Rebellion	220	(11)
IV FRUIT
22 The big kitchen garden	231	(11)
23 Country Life	242	(13)
24 From war to war	255	(11)
25 Modernists and artists	266	(8)
26 Eat your greens	274	(11)
27 The flowers and the wild	285	(11)
28 The cherry tree	296	(4)
Epilogue: All of us	300	(8)
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS	308	(6)
NOTES AND FURTHER READING	314	(11)
TWO HUNDRED GARDENS	325	(7)
INDEX	332