Gardens of England

Rousham in England, designed by William Kent in the 18th century in the new natural landscape style. Rose Standish Nichols writes in her book of 1902 English Pleasure Gardens, just reissued,  about the tension between a formal garden design and the more…

Knot gardens as rows of trimmed hedges like yew or boxwood were popular in the Elizabethan garden, according to Nichols’ English Pleasure Gardens, which I am still reading. It is the topiary style, where the plant is trimmed in such a way…

Rose Standish Nichols writes in her 1902 book English Pleasure Gardens, just reissued: “Grottoes or artificial caves [in the gardens of early Rome] cooled by streams of fresh water served as musea, or thinking-places for  philosophers, where they could meditate in…

am reading a new edition of the book  English Pleasure Gardens by the American garden writer Rose Standish Nichols, which first appeared in 1902. She wrote: “The Graeco-Roman style of garden brought to its perfection in the first century before…