San Antonio College Library

"While this book is primarily devoted to the historical reconstruction of the formal and horticultural characteristics of "theatrical" shrubberies and flower beds, it also aims to animate the world of the eighteenth-century pleasure ground. Mark Laird shows how the unwritten lore of planting design was passed down by generation after generation of gardeners and discusses the interaction of landscape designer, client, nurseryman, land agent, and gardener...

What Gardens Mean offers a distinctive blend of historical and contemporary material, ranging from extensive accounts of famous eighteenth-century gardens to incisive connections with present-day philosophical debates. And while Ross examines aesthetic writings from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including Joseph Addison's Spectator essays on the pleasures of imagination, the book's opening chapter surveys more recent theories about the...

Turner, landscape architect and writer, begins with a good introduction of 18th-century England and its gardens. He follows with a biographical account of Lancelot "Capability'' Brown and his many contributions to landscape design, including the creation of numerous parks for the English nobility. In particular, 15 of Brown's landscapes (e.g., Blenheim) are covered in detail, with illustrations ranging from original plans to photographs of the maturation...