The Pursuit of Paradise: A Social History of Gardens and Gardening

It was always going to be an ambitious project to define the social history of the garden in 377 pp including index, and bibliography and while Brown writes a good history, it is ultimately thin when trying to encompass such a broad subject. The chapters are defined mostly by the type of garden, from military to secret, to small gardens, but clearly while chapters each hold a theme the subject matter is a mixed bag in each of them. For instance the military garden is very much about the rise of the large park and the type of features which were defined by military themes - the ha ha for instance came from military design and indeed the first garden landscapers would use the military texts to assist them. The duke of Marlboroughs gardens and palace were laid out with this military theme in mind in the early eighteenth century - and the description of the garden landscaping even harks back to the military theme again. If you think people can't wait for gardens to be planted now then it is a salient reminder that people have been impatient all through history. Mature trees were provided for the wilderness area which looked as though they were 30 years old when planted - and the operation to plant them all certainly needed to done with military precision. The irony is that within 40 years the entire gardens which had been planted were torn up and the park redone by that most patient of landscape architects, Capability brown. All the most famous gardeners are here, Capability Brown, Jekyll, Sackville-West, Luteyns etc - and their contribution to the development of the garden, or the influences of the time are discussed in reference to their age and the development. All types of gardens are covered - from personal spaces, to large estates to military graveyards - so it broadly covers all avenues (so to speak). This is definitely only for those interested in gardening itself but I found it enormoulsy readable. Brown has an easy readable style. It is well illustrated too. There are seceral colour picture sections, but throughout the text are b/w garden plans or reproductions of significant influences to garden design.