The history of the modern taste in gardening
Details
Type of record: Book
Title: The history of the modern taste in gardening
Classmark: Bedford Collection B029
Creator(s): Walpole, Horace (1717-1797)
Additional creator(s): Bedford, John Victor (1941-2019) (Former owner); Hunt, John Dixon (Writer of introduction)
Publisher: Ursus Press
Publication city: New York
Date(s): [1995]
Language: English
Size and medium: 60 pages
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/724619
Printed items catalogue: https://leeds.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?vid=44LEE_INST:VU1&docid=alma991019838215105181
Collection group(s): John Evan Bedford Library of Furniture History
Description
Based on the 1782 edition of the text, which was published by the Strawberry Hill Press under the title: The history of the modern taste in gardening, in the last volume of: Anecdotes of painting in England.
Includes bibliographical references () and index.
"Horace Walpole's delightful essay on garden design is perhaps the most famous and influential piece of writing on the English landscape garden. Written between 1750 and 1770, it was first published in 1780 as part of Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting in England. Walpole captured the attention of his 18th-century audience with his memorable turns of phrase and, more importantly, for his claim that England had invented a modern and "natural" style of laying out gardens - a style that was, indeed, the culmination of garden design." "The essay champions William Kent (who "leaped the fence, and saw that all nature was a garden") and his successor Lancelot "Capability" Brown, while he satirizes earlier styles - especially formal, geometrical, and regular gardens. The fundamental assumption that informs Walpole's essay on gardening is that the English landscape garden was the direct result of the growth of British political liberties. And this assumption underlies his disparagement of monarchical antecedents and gives a particular glee to his dismissal of French formal gardening and a note of scorn for French misunderstanding of English innovation." "The History of the Modern Taste in Gardening was the first attempt at a narrative of modern English garden design and through it Walpole has exercised a profound influence on subsequent generations of historians and garden writers."--BOOK JACKET.
Features
Leeds University Library copy at Bedford Collection B029: Contains bookseller's bookmark: Judd Books.
Provenance
Leeds University Library copy at Bedford Collection B029: From the John Evan Bedford Library, gifted in 2019. Twenty-first-century pictorial bookplate on front pastedown: John Evan Bedford. Former reference: GH/20.
Access and usage
Access
This material is not subject to restrictions under Data Protection or other relevant legislation that might limit access. However, other protections, such as donor conditions or conservation considerations, may still apply where advised.