Description

Regency gardens dazzled with colour, invention and theatricality: trellises heavy with roses and jasmine, shrubberies designed for intrigue and lawns enlivened with pools, grottoes and fanciful ornaments. Yet behind this world of perfume and spectacle lay a striking social shift. In a domain long defined by men, women began to play an active role, influencing Humphry Repton and other designers to realize their visions of pleasure grounds. These gardens became stages for al fresco entertainments, displays of taste and private encounters alike. This book offers the first sustained account of ornamental gardening in Regency Britain, revealing a vivid, feminine-inflected landscape where horticulture, fashion and sociability intertwined – and where artistry still resonates two centuries later.

Publisher Review

"An excellent book on an important but neglected period in garden history. Mowl, as usual, has researched his topic well and writes beautifully, using evidence and example to great effect." - Tom Williamson, author of Humphry Repton: Landscape Design in an Age of Revolution "Impeccably researched and elegantly written, this beautiful book is a must for anyone interested in historic gardens, in Jane Austen's England or in British cultural history." - Steven Parissien, author of Regency Style and Building Britannia "An absolute delight from beginning to end. Timothy Mowl has brought the Regency garden to life in all of its extravagant and ethereal beauty." - Adrian Tinniswood, author of The Long Weekend and The Power and the Glory "Timothy Mowl's deeply researched book soaks the reader in the hedonistic spirit of the Regency period and explores how this was expressed in its complex ornamental gardens and pleasure grounds. The essential symbiotic relationship of house and garden and views between them is central to this story, as are all the styles at play, so we can enjoy a dazzling confection of everything from Chinese to Moorish, from Italianate to Gothic. This book is a highly entertaining read with a serious message about what has been forgotten in the story of the English garden." - Jeremy Musson, architectural historian and author, and Chair of the Historic Houses Foundation