Esther Singleton
How can a garden evoke the world of Shakespeare without becoming a grand estate in miniature? This richly detailed horticultural guide turns instead to the small, enclosed pleasure garden: a place for strolling and sitting, displaying flowers, gathering herbs for nosegays and strewing, and enjoying colour and fragrance through the seasons. Its intimate scale provides the foundation for an absorbing exploration of historical garden design and cultivation.Across three carefully organised parts, the book traces the development of medieval, Renaissance, Tudor and Elizabethan gardens, then examines Shakespearean flowers and the traditions attached to them. Botanical identifications sit alongside flower-by-flower cultural commentary, connecting familiar plants with the language, customs and horticultural knowledge of their period. Illustrated historical descriptions illuminate the contrast between cottage-style planting and the stately grounds of castles and manor houses, while features including knots, pleached alleys, mounts and arbors reveal the formal vocabulary from which such gardens were shaped.Practical guidance brings this horticultural history into the cultivated plot. Attention is given to historically appropriate plants, blended colours, seasonal interest, fragrance and the patient care required to sustain them. Rather than treating a Shakespeare garden as a decorative theme, the book presents it as a considered arrangement of paths, flowers and useful herbs, informed by period practice and plant lore. It combines cultural history with garden-design instruction, offering both a record of earlier traditions and a framework for recreating their distinctive character. This book was out of print for decades and is now republished by Alpha Editions.It has been restored for today’s and future generations.This edition is not just a reprint - it’s a collector’s item and a cultural treasure.
