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The
English landscape garden of the eighteenth century was
the one stylistic lead that continental Europe was eager
to follow. Was it a case of natural evolution or a chain
of polite but absolute revolutions? This book suggests
a radical reappraisal of the great age of the English
Arcadia (1620-1820), when an interaction of amateur
and professional gardeners - the Gentlemen and Players
- resulted in the gardens at Chiswick, Stowe, Castle
Howard, Painshill, Stourhead and an astonishing host
of lesser Edens, the 'Improvements'.
Gentlemen
& Players
traces the development of garden style through the owners
who projected them and the gardeners who worked in them.
There was an interchange of ideas, technologies and
discoveries as theories were absorbed, popularised and
then discarded, in a fascinating sequence of action
and reaction. It was a mould-breaking, revolutionary
period in garden history.
This
218pp book has 101 black-and-white photographs and 16
colour plates.
Sutton
Publishing, 2004 Paperback £12.99
Visit
the History Press to see book details
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