The Country House Kitchen Garden 1600-1950


Book Description

Country house kitchen gardens were designed as perfect 'grown your own' environments and ensured that many households were supplied with their own fruit and vegetables throughout the year. This book offers an insight into the digging and sowing of these gardens, as well as exploring how walled gardens contributed towards a sustainable lifestyle and often were a source of not just food, but also natural medicines. A wealth of contemporary illustrations, material from archives, gardening manuals, seed catalogues, engravings and other documents, paint a vivid picture of the country house kitchen garden and its development over three and a half centuries. This delightful book recounts an important part of our historic houses and their national heritage – to be enjoyed by gardeners and non-gardeners alike.




Country House Kitchen Garden, 1600-1950


Book Description

The role & function of the country house kitchen garden has not ceased to be of interest to many people in the 21st century. Visitors to the historic houses in Britain that still retain the sites of their walled gardens are fascinated to learn which fruit & vegetables were provided & how they were grown & stored. This book includes a wealth of contemporary illustrations, & draws on archives, gardening manuals, seed catalogues, engravings & other documents, to provide a vivid picture of the country house kitchen garden & its development over three & a half centuries. It will be compelling reading for anyone interest in gaining a fuller knowledge of how the kitchen garden functioned & how it contributed to the changing culture of country house life. Illus.




The Annotated Emma


Book Description

From the editor of the popular Annotated Pride and Prejudice comes an annotated edition of Jane Austen’s Emma that makes her beloved tale of an endearingly inept matchmaker an even more satisfying read. Here is the complete text of the novel with more than 2,200 annotations on facing pages, including: - Explanations of historical context - Citations from Austen’s life, letters, and other writings - Definitions and clarifications - Literary comments and analysis - Maps of places in the novel - An introduction, bibliography, and detailed chronology of events - Nearly 200 informative illustrations Filled with fascinating information about everything from the social status of spinsters and illegitimate children to the shopping habits of fashionable ladies to English attitudes toward gypsies, David M. Shapard’s Annotated Emma brings Austen’s world into richer focus.




The Annotated Mansfield Park


Book Description

From the editor of the popular Annotated Pride and Prejudice comes an annotated edition of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park that makes her story of an impoverished girl living with her wealthy relatives an even more satisfying read. Here is the complete text of Austen’s own favorite novel with more than 2,300 annotations on facing pages, including: ● Explanations of historical context ● Citations from Austen’s life, letters, and other writings ● Definitions and clarifications ● Literary comments and analysis ● Maps of places in the novel ● An introduction, bibliography, and detailed chronology of events ● More than 225 informative illustrations Filled with fascinating details about the characters’ clothes, houses, and carriages, as well as background information on such relevant issues as career paths in the British navy, contemporary attitudes toward slavery, and the legal and social consequences of adultery, David M. Shapard’s Annotated Mansfield Park brings Austen’s world into richer focus.




The Kitchen Garden


Book Description

The kitchen garden was once a key part of every large country home, and they are now popular destinations for visitors. This is the history of the British kitchen garden and those who tended it.




England's Magnificent Gardens


Book Description

An altogether different kind of book on English gardens—the first of its kind—a look at the history of England’s magnificent gardens as a history of Britain itself, from the seventeenth-century gardens of Charles II to those of Prince Charles today. In this rich, revelatory history, Sir Roderick Floud, one of Britain’s preeminent economic historians, writes that gardens have been created in Britain since Roman times but that their true growth began in the seventeenth century; by the eighteenth century, nurseries in London took up 100 acres, with ten million plants (!) that were worth more than all of the nurseries in France combined. Floud’s book takes us through more than three centuries of English history as he writes of the kings, queens, and princes whose garden obsessions changed the landscape of England itself, from Stuart, Georgian, and Victorian England to today’s Windsors. Here are William and Mary, who brought Dutch gardens and bulbs to Britain; William, who twice had his entire garden lowered in order to see the river from his apartments; and his successor, Queen Anne, who, like many others since, vowed to spend little on her gardens and instead spent millions. Floud also writes of Frederick, Prince of Wales, the founder of Kew Gardens, who spent more than $40,000 on a single twenty-five-foot tulip tree for Carlton House; Queen Victoria, who built the largest, most advanced and most efficient kitchen garden in Britain; and Prince Charles, who created and designed the gardens of Highgrove, inspired by his boyhood memories of his grandmother’s gardens. We see Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, who created a magnificent garden at Blenheim Palace, only to tear it apart and build a greater one; Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire, the savior of Chatsworth’s 100-acre garden in the midst of its 35,000 acres; and the gardens of lesser mortals, among them Gertrude Jekyll and Vita Sackville-West, both notable garden designers and writers. We see the designers of royal estates—among them, Henry Wise, William Kent, Humphrey Repton, and the greatest of all English gardeners, “Capability” Brown, who created the 150-acre lake of Blenheim Palace, earned millions annually, and designed more than 170 parks, many still in existence today. We learn how gardening became a major catalyst for innovation (central heating came from experiments to heat greenhouses with hot-water pipes); how the new iron industry of industrializing Britain supplied a myriad of tools (mowers, pumps, and the boilers that heated the greenhouses); and, finally, Floud explores how gardening became an enormous industry as well as an art form in Britain, and by the nineteenth century was unrivaled anywhere in the world.




Apples and Orchards since the Eighteenth Century


Book Description

Showing how the history of the apple goes far beyond the orchard and into the social, cultural and technological developments of Britain and the USA, this book takes an interdisciplinary approach to reveal the importance of the apple as a symbol of both tradition and innovation. From the 18th century in Britain, technology innovation in fruit production and orchard management resulted in new varieties of apples being cultivated and consumed, while the orchard became a representation of stability. In America orchards were contested spaces, as planting seedling apple trees allowed settlers to lay a claim to land. In this book Joanna Crosby explores how apples and orchards have reflected the social, economic and cultural landscape of their times. From the association between English apples and 'English' virtues of plain speaking, hard work and resultant high-quality produce, to practices of wassailing highlighting the effects of urbanisation and the decline of country ways and customs, Apples and Orchards from the Eighteenth Century shows how this everyday fruit provides rich insights into a time of significant social change.




The Annotated Northanger Abbey


Book Description

From the editor of the popular Annotated Pride and Prejudice comes an annotated edition of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey that makes her lighthearted satire of the gothic novel an even more satisfying read. Here is the complete text of the novel with more than 1,200 annotations on facing pages, including: -Explanations of historical context -Citations from Austen’s life, letters, and other writings -Definitions and clarifications -Literary comments and analysis -Maps of places in the novel -An introduction, bibliography, and detailed chronology of events -225 informative illustrations Filled with fascinating details about the characters’ clothing, furniture, and carriages, and illuminating background information on everything from the vogue for all things medieval to the opportunities for socializing in the popular resort town of Bath, David M. Shapard’s Annotated Northanger Abbey brings Austen’s world into richer focus.




The Annotated Pride and Prejudice


Book Description

This Revised and Expanded Edition contains hundreds of new notes and illustrations. The first-ever fully annotated edition of one of the most beloved novels in the world is a sheer delight for Jane Austen fans. Here is the complete text of Pride and Prejudice with thousands of annotations on facing pages, including: • Explanations of historical context Rules of etiquette, class differences, the position of women, legal and economic realities, leisure activities, and more. • Citations from Austen’s life, letters, and other writings Parallels between the novel and Austen’s experience are revealed, along with writings that illuminate her beliefs and opinions. • Definitions and clarifications Archaic words, words still in use whose meanings have changed, and obscure passages are explained. • Literary comments and analyses Insightful notes highlight Austen’s artistry and point out the subtle ways she develops her characters and themes. • Maps and illustrations of places and objects mentioned in the novel. • An introduction, a bibliography, and a detailed chronology of events Of course, one can enjoy the novel without knowing the precise definition of a gentleman, or what it signifies that a character drives a coach rather than a hack chaise, or the rules governing social interaction at a ball, but readers of The Annotated Pride and Prejudice will find that these kinds of details add immeasurably to understanding and enjoying the intricate psychological interplay of Austen’s immortal characters.




The Annotated Sense and Sensibility


Book Description

From the editor of the popular Annotated Pride and Prejudice comes an annotated edition of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility that makes this tale of two sisters in love an even more enjoyable read. Here is the complete text of the novel with more than 2,000 annotations on facing pages, including: -Explanations of historical context -Citations from Austen’s life, letters, and other writings -Definitions and clarifications -Literary comments and analysis -Multiple maps of England and London -An introduction, bibliography, and detailed chronology of events -More than 100 informative illustrations Filled with fascinating information about everything from the rules of inheritance that could leave a wealthy man’s daughters almost penniless to the fashionable cult of sensibility that Austen so brilliantly satirizes, David M. Shapard’s Annotated Sense and Sensibility is an entertaining and edifying delight.