Our Garden History series moves on to the early 17th century, where James I and his courtiers oversaw a time of magnificence in architecture and extravagant expenditure on gardens inspired by travel abroad, and all justified by Francis Bacon because gardening “is the purest of human pleasure. [and] the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man, without which, buildings and palaces are but gross handiworks”.

We’ll explore how this was reflected in royal gardens such as Somerset House, Whitehall and Richmond and courtier gardens such as Wilton, and how it spread to the gardens of the rural county gentry. But this was also the age when plants first became consumer desirables, and when gardeners like the Tradescants were first sent out deliberately to collect them. It was the age too of increasing scientific awareness, where men like John Parkinson began to systematically classify the contents of our gardens. All this was set against a background of intense theological and political debate which ultimately led to the Civil War, and we’ll examine what impact that had on gardens.

Provisional outline programme (each talk will be approximately 1 hour, with additional time allowed for Q & A afterwards):

Mar 18th: Overview and Sources - Jill & David

Mar 25th: Royal Gardens and Gardens of the Court Circle – Sally

The beginning of the reign of James I in 1603 and the ending of a period of war with Spain meant that there was renewed freedom to travel to and from Europe. Members of the royal family and their circle were eager to acquire knowledge of the latest fashions in architecture, sculpture and garden design and to employ knowledgeable designers and engineers from abroad to create gardens displaying the latest ideas from Italy and elsewhere.

Apr 1st: The Gardens of the Gentry – Jill

Where the court leads, the gentry inevitably follows. Following on from last week, this talk will look at the ways in which the gardens of the rural gentry attempted to emulate - or not - new fashions in gardening.

Apr 8th: John Parkinson, Gardener and Apothecary of London – Jill

Using Parkinson's beautifully illustrated 'Garden of Pleasant Flowers' as a focus, this session will look at how this book also reflects contemporary gardening practice.

Apr 15th: The Tradescants – David

The John Tradescants - father and son -were an extraordinary pair: Gardeners to the aristocracy and royalty, plant hunters, nurserymen and founders of the first museum to be open to the public. Famous in their own lifetimes, and continuously in the centuries since, their lives have even been romanticised by a modern novelist. But how much do you actually know about them?

Apr 22nd: The Civil War and its Impact – Jill

The English Civil Wars and the interregnum were a period of turbulence, hardship and uncertainty. Whilst some were forced to abandon their gardens altogether, others found they had no other choice than to retreat to their country estates and simply 'cultivate their gardens'.

This ticket is for the entire course of 6 sessions.

Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the first talk, which will be the same link throughout (If you do not receive this link please contact us), and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week.

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Dr Sally Jeffery is an architectural and garden historian. She was historian at the City of London for many years and then helped to set up the Birkbeck (University of London) MA Garden History. She now lectures on the MA Garden and Landscape History at the Institute of Historical Research and is a Trustee of The Gardens Trust. She has published extensively and continues to research and write. Her principal area of research at present is the houses and gardens of the 17th century, but her interests include architecture and gardens from the 15th to the 18th centuries in Italy, France, and England.

Dr Jill Francis is an early modern historian, specialising in gardens and gardening in the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries. She teaches history at the University of Birmingham and the University of Worcester and contributes to the MA programme on West Midlands History at Birmingham. She is an occasional lecturer on the IHR Garden and Landscape History programme and is becoming increasing involved with the Gardens’ Trust online provision. She also works at the Shakespeare Institute Library in Stratford-upon-Avon. Her first book, Gardens and Gardening in Early Modern England and Wales, was published by Yale University Press in June 2018.

After a career as a head teacher in Inner London, Dr David Marsh took very early retirement (the best thing he ever did) and returned to education on his own account and did an MA and then a PhD in garden history. Now he lectures on garden history anywhere that will listen to him and helps organize the Garden History Seminar at London University’s Institute of Historical Research. He is co-chair of the Education and Events Committee of The Gardens Trust, for whom he organises courses and writes a weekly garden history blog which you can find at The Gardens Trust Blog.

Gardens of the Early 17th Century