English Garden Eccentrics - Three Hundred Years of Extraordinary Groves, Burrowings, Mountains and Menageries

English Garden Eccentrics is a book that explores the eccentric English garden-makers and their extraordinary gardens between the early seventeenth and early twentieth centuries. It features such fascinating characters as William Stukeley, Lady Read, and Jonathan Tyers, who created gardens that were often thought excessive. The book combines garden and landscape history with cultural history and biography, revealing what it is about the gardener and their creation that can be seen as eccentric. It encourages gardeners today to learn from example and dare to be eccentric.

Format: Hardback
Length: 400 pages
Publication date: 26 April 2022
Publisher: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

In his captivating book, "English Garden Eccentrics," renowned landscape architect and historian Todd Longstaffe-Gowan delves into the fascinating world of obscure and eccentric English garden-makers who, between the early seventeenth and early twentieth centuries, created intensely personal and idiosyncratic gardens. These remarkable individuals include the superstitious antiquary William Stukeley, the animal- and bird-loving Lady Read, and the celebrated master of Vauxhall Gardens, Jonathan Tyers, who at his home in Denbies crafted one of the gloomiest and most perverse anti-pleasure gardens in Georgian England. Others went to great lengths to realize their gardens, building miniature mountains, shaping topiaries, displaying exotic animals, excavating caves, and assembling architectural fragments and fossils.

"English Garden Eccentrics" is a captivating blend of garden and landscape history, cultural history, and biography. Through quirky and compelling illustrations and chapters such as "Lady Broughtons 'Miniature copy of the Swiss Glaciers," "Topiary on a Gargantuan Scale: The Clipped 'Yew-trees at Four Ancient London Churchyards," and "The Burrowing Duke at Harcourt House," the book explores what it is about the gardener and their creation that can be deemed eccentric. It sheds light on a lesser-explored aspect of garden history, focusing on gardens as expressions of the singular character of their makers and functioning as a form of autobiography.

This lively and accessible book encourages gardeners today to draw inspiration from these remarkable garden-makers and embrace their eccentricities. It serves as a reminder that gardens can be more than just ornamental spaces; they can be a reflection of the unique personalities and passions of their creators. By daring to be unconventional and embracing the unconventional, gardeners can create truly extraordinary and unforgettable gardens that stand the test of time.

Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, "English Garden Eccentrics" is a must-read for anyone with an interest in garden history, landscape design, or the art of creating unique and personal spaces.

Weight: 1252g
Dimension: 176 x 251 x 44 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781913107260