Cultural Ecology of Tree Gazing

English nurseryman and garden-designer. In c.1687 he joined George London at his Brompton Nursery, becoming his partner by 1694. He carried out works at Hampton Court Palace (1689–92— probably based on designs by Marot), and in 1702 was appointed Royal Gardener to Queen Anne (reigned 1702–14), in which capacity he improved St James's Park with new avenues of limes, and widened the canal. From 1705 to 1716 he worked on the grounds of Blenheim Palace, Oxon., with Vanbrugh, and designed the gardens at Melbourne Hall, Derbys. (1704–6—where the French influence is clear). He employed a Franco-Dutch style incorporating parterres, basins, canals, mazes, and straight avenues, and was still actively working on royal parks and gardens until 1727 when his pupil Bridgeman succeeded him. Switzer was another able pupil, and, like Bridgeman, an early protagonist of the C18 English style of landscape gardening. With London he published The Compleat Gard'ner (1699—an abridged translation of Evelyn's

An early proponent of a less-structured garden design, Bridgeman was a pioneer in the landscape style that spread throughout much of Europe in the 18th century and came to be known as the jardin anglais. A contemporary of Bridgeman's, Horace Walpole, describing his colleague's design style in his essay On Modern Gardening, wrote: ‘though he still adhered much to strait walks with high clipt hedges, they were only his great lines; the rest he diversified by wilderness, and with loose groves of oak, though still within surrounding hedges’. Bridgeman’s approach to landscaping can be summarised in three terms: formal, transitional and progressive. His landscapes displayed formal elements such as parterres, avenues, geometrically shaped lakes and pools, and kitchen gardens. Transitional elements in his designs included lawns, amphitheatres, garden buildings and statues, winding paths through wooded areas to viewing points and the use of ha-has – features are some of the progressive ideas he helped bring into favour

William Kent (c. 1685 – 12 April 1748) was an eminent English architect, landscape architect and furniture designer of the early 18th century.Kent introduced the Palladian style of architecture into England with the villa at Chiswick House, and for originating the 'natural' style of gardening known as the English landscape garden at Chiswick, Stowe House in Buckinghamshire, and Rousham House in Oxfordshire. As a landscape gardener he revolutionised the layout of estates, but had limited knowledge of horticulture.He complemented his houses and gardens with stately furniture for major buildings including Hampton Court Palace, Chiswick House, Devonshire House and Rousham

The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner called the landscape garden Britain's major contribution to the visual arts, and this course aims to explore why and how that came to be so. Beginning in the mid 17th century, when grand gardens were laid out in formal style, the course traces the development of garden style across five centuries. There is special emphasis on the early-18th-century landscape garden, as perhaps the high-point, when politics, art, science, philosophy and gardening intersected in an unprecedented way. Later in the century Capability Brown made the style his own, creating a landscape monopoly across Britain, before Humphry Repton brought back an element of formality in the Regency period. The 19th century witnessed the apogee of the head gardener and the creation of the first public parks, while new plant introductions from China and elsewhere provided new impetus to horticulture.The 20th century was one of the richest periods in English garden history and will be fully explored here. Gertrude Jekyll pioneered the colour-themed herbaceous border and her partnership with architect Edwin Lutyens created what is often seen as the perfect stylistic union between house and garden. The story is brought right up to date with modules on 20th-century planting theory and contemporary art or sculpture gardens such as Little Sparta.The Baroque background, 1650-17001 The Anglo-Dutch Gardens of the William and Mary period Vanbrugh and Castle HowardCharles Bridgeman, a 'transitional designer?2. Queen Anne and Early Hanoverian Gardens, 1701-13The rise of PalladianismLord Burlington and Chiswick House gardens3. Whig and Tory landscape gardens, 1710-1730Alexander Pope at TwickenhamNew plants from foreign climes4. William Kent and the Patriot Opposition, 1730sKent's gardens for Princess CarolineLord Cobham's political gardening at StoweThe Jacobite garden5. Capability BrownKey works by Brown Brown's contemporaries: Woods, Emes and co6. Humphry Repton and the RegencyThe gardens at the Royal Pavilion, BrightonSheringham, Norfolk, as the apogee7. Victorian gardening J.C.Loudon and the 'gardenesque'Carpet bedding and the rise of the public parkThe impact of new plant introductions8. Gertrude Jekyll and Arts and CraftsThe partnership between Jekyll and Edwin LutyensWilliam Robinson and the wild garden9. Gardening in the 20th Century Mid-century development of the herbaceous traditionColour theory reaches its climax and is superseded by New Perennials in the late 1990s 10. Modern Gardens through the 20th centuryThe impact (or otherwise) of Modernism Key late-century gardens by Jarman, Jencks, Strong and Finlay