The Garden History Of Devon
An Illustrated Guide to Sources
By Todd Gray
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Subjects: British History, History, South-West Studies |
A reference guide to historical sources for over 200 Devon gardens. It also provides an introduction for would-be garden historians on how to conduct garden research. The book is the result of an exploration of the archival resources of Devon's garden history; the objective being to provide signposts to research material for those interested in the development of Devon's gardens.
Each entry begins with a brief section describing the garden's history, amplified by quotations from contemporary travellers and diarists; following the descriptive sections are listings of documents, printed sources and illustrations relating to the garden. The greater part of this material is unknown to garden historians.
" . . . This volume will be an invaluable handbook for tourists and others visiting the county's historica gardens as well as a guide to further research . . . Don't assume, though, that this is just garden history de haut en bas; Gray is broad-minded enough to provide appendices listing records of allotments and of nurseries and market-gardens in the county."
(Archives, Volume 23, No. 98)
"For anyone involved in researching historic parks and gardens a publication of this kind is both invaluable and a great rarity. Lucky Devon! The information contained in it is the kind that takes hours of painstaking trawling through record office indexes and catalogues to unearth. Todd Gray has done the sifting process for us and produced a short-cut to relevant archival, illustrated and published sources for the 226 parks and gardens listed. A wide range of users will find this book useful and fascinating, from those involved professionlly with historic parks and gardens to owners, local historians, or even media researchers in search of authenticity. The author has opened an Aladdin's cave of riches: let us hope that it is put to good use."
(Landscape History)
Todd Gray is a Leverhulme Research Fellow at the Centre for Maritime Historical Studies, University of Exeter. He is a specialist on Tudor and Stuart Devon.
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