The eighteenth-century phenomenon of the English landscape garden was so widespread that even today, when so much has been built over or otherwise changed, examples remain throughout England. Although seemingly natural, the English landscape was generally the result of considerable effort, contrivance, and design skill, the glorious outcome of "the art that conceals art." Taking many forms, the landscape garden might involve digging lakes, raising or leveling hills, or planting vast numbers of trees--whatever was required to show nature to best advantage. Richly illustrated throughout, this book uncovers the complex, multi-layered, and wide-ranging story of the landscape garden in England.

This book provides an overview of the extent to which the 18th-century English Landscape Garden spread through Europe and Russia. While this type of garden acted widely as an inspiration, it was not slavishly copied but adapted to local conditions, circumstances and agendas. A garden 'in the English style' is commonly used to denote a landscape garden in Europe, while the term 'landscape garden' is used for layouts that are naturalistic in plan and resemble natural scenery, though they might be highly contrived and usually large in scale. The landscape garden took hold in mainland Europe from about 1760. Due to the differing geopolitical character of several of the countries, and a distinct division between Catholic and Protestant, the notion of the landscape garden held different significance and was interpreted and applied variously in those countries: in other words, they found it a very flexible medium. Each country is considered individually, with a special chapter devoted to 'Le Jardin Anglo-Chinois', since that constitutes a major issue of its own. The gardens have been chosen to illustrate the range and variety of applications of the landscape garden, though they are also those about which most is known in English.

The classic text of English landscape history, ground-breaking and hugely influential.

In this interdisciplinary study, Ann Bermingham explores the complex, ambiguous, and often contradictory relationship between English landscape painting and the socio-economic changes that accompanied enclosure and the Industrial Revolution.

Jane Austen was deeply inspired by the landscape and rural comforts of southern England. Her family's final move to Chawton, in the depths of the Hampshire countryside and so near the Steventon rectory of her childhood, gave her great satisfaction and led to her most creative period.

Join leading garden writer Tim Richardson as he visits twenty-five significant English gardens made or remade over the past decade, in this comprehensive overview of the contemporary English garden scene, probably the most inventive garden culture in the world. From the cutting-edge naturalistic planting design of the Sheffield School to the scientific imagery of Througham Court, this stunning guide surveys a wide spectrum of garden styles;some are challenging or thought-provoking, while others reflect the sensuously romantic tradition of English planting design, which has also been moving ahead in interesting ways. The New English Garden presents all that is most interesting about garden-making in England in the twenty-first century, beautifully illustrated by Andrew Lawson’s photography of some of England’s most famous gardens, from Prince Charles’s garden at Highgrove,Christopher Llyod’s garden at Great Dixter and Arabella Lennox-Boyd’s garden at Gresgarth right up to the Olympic Park in 2012.

This is the definitive and most authoritative book ever published on the glories of English gardening--historically and horticulturally, a tour de force. An unprecedented in-depth look at the English garden by one of Britain's foremost garden writers and authorities, this book showcases the enduring appeal of the English garden whose verdant lawns and borders of colorful plants are the inspiration for garden lovers worldwide. Kathryn Bradley-Hole--the longtime garden columnist for Country Life--takes a fresh look at more than seventy gardens from across England and distills the essence of what makes the English garden style so sought after. Seasonal photographs capture the gardens--some grand, some personal, some celebrated, some rarely photographed--at their finest moments, accompanied by sparkling, insightful text. Featuring photographs from the unparalleled archives of Country Life, the full story of the English garden is here, from medieval monastery gardens to the Victorians and the Arts and Crafts movement to the twenty-first century. Designs by many of the horticultural world's greats are amply featured, including Gertrude Jekyll, Capability Brown, Piet Oudolf, and Arne Maynard, as well as gardens famous the world over--Sissinghurst, Hidcote, and Great Dixter--alongside new and less-well-known ones, many open to the public.