Recorded Series - A History of Gardens 2

For those who missed the second series of A History of Gardens, which originally ran in September 2024, this is a chance to access the recordings of four of the talks. Unfortunately, due to contractual obligations we are unable to provide what was originally talk 2.

You can buy a ticket for the whole recorded series, or for any of the individual sessions. The recordings will all be available from 19th July to 31st Aug 2025. You will also receive the short reading list produced for the original run of the series.

A History of Gardens from the Gardens Trust is suitable for anyone curious about gardens and their stories – whether absolute beginners or those with some garden history knowledge. It aims to help participants recognise important eras, themes and styles in mainly British garden history from the earliest times to today, grasp something of the social, economic, political and international contexts in which gardens have been created and find greater pleasure in visiting historic gardens.

We will be offering access to recordings of talks from the subsequent series over the next few months.

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A HISTORY OF GARDENS 2: 17th-CENTURY GARDENS

What is a garden? Why were they created as they were? What influences were at play in garden making, and how have gardens evolved and developed over time? These are the questions we will explore as we traverse the history of gardens through the ages.

Following on from our opening talks on early gardens, this second series will examine how gardens developed during the 17th century, before the tumultuous impact of the English civil wars on gardens and gardening from the 1640s. The second part of the century saw the rise of extravagant, dramatic styles, now known as baroque gardens and exemplified by the work of André Le Nôtre for the Sun King at Versailles. We will explore these gardens through an analysis of the work of Le Nôtre and his contemporaries in France, and the series will end with a talk scrutinising how the European baroque style played out in England.

Image: Isaak de Moucheron, drawing of a garden terrace and lake, c.1700, ©The Trustees of the British Museum CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Please scroll down below the links to see the full details of each talk.

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This ticket is for the second series of 4 talks in our History of Gardens Course at £28 or you may purchase a ticket for individual talk recordings, costing £8 via the links below. (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 4 for £21)

Tickets will be released on 19th July and the recordings will be available to view until 31st August 2025. The Zoom links will be in the confirmation email sent directly after booking, if you do not receive that email, please contact us.

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Recording 1: EARLY 17th-CENTURY PLANTS AND GARDENS with David Marsh. First in a series of with Jill Francis. Third in a series of 4 online lecture recordings, £8 each or all 4 for £28 (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 4 for £21)

Recording 3: BETWEEN KINGS: GARDENS OF THE MID 17th CENTURY with Jill Francis. Third in a series of 4 online lecture recordings, £8 each or all 4 for £28 (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 4 for £21)

Recording 4: THE FRENCH BAROQUE GARDEN with Gabriel Wick. Fourth in a series of 4 online lecture recordings, £8 each or all 4 for £28 (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 4 for £21)

Recording 5: THE BAROQUE IN ENGLAND with David Marsh. Last in a series of 4 online lecture recordings, £8 each or all 4 for £28 (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 4 for £21)

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Recording 1: EARLY 17th-CENTURY PLANTS AND GARDENS with David Marsh

“God Almighty first planted a garden; and, indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.” This is the well-known opening line of Francis Bacon’s essay On Gardens, first published in 1625. It sums up the early 17th century’s growing obsession with plants and horticulture. While Continental designers, engineers and sculptors transformed the structure and style of the English garden, plants began to take centre stage. They became desirable consumer items, eagerly sought out and highly prized as European exploration opened up the world. At the same time the Worshipful Company of Gardeners chartered by James I helped establish horticulture not only as a profession covering garden making, market gardening and the first proper plant nurseries but as an important contributor to the national economy.

Dr David Marsh was awarded his PhD in 2005 for a study of the ‘Gardens and Gardeners of Later-Stuart London’ and has been lecturing and supervising research in Garden History ever since. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Buckingham and is co-course director for their MA in Garden History. A trustee of the Gardens Trust from 2016-2023, he helped set up and run the Trust’s on-line lecture programme and is the author of a weekly blog about garden history.

Image: Hieronymus Francken the Elder, Courtiers Strolling in a Garden (before 1610), Wikimedia Commons, public domain

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Recording 3: BETWEEN KINGS: GARDENS OF THE MID 17th CENTURY with Jill Francis

After decades of relative peace and prosperity in Britain, the mid-17th century saw the country plunged into civil war, resulting in almost twenty years of turmoil, instability and uncertainty. This talk will examine the effect that this had on gardens as their owners returned - from the wars, from exile, from prison – and retreated to their neglected estates. With no role to play in the new Commonwealth regime, they turned to rebuilding, improving and in some cases, creating wonderful new gardens, such as the ones built by John Evelyn at Sayes Court and Wotton House. These gardens, and the fascinating stories behind them, will be the subject of this talk.

Dr Jill Francis is an early modern historian, specialising in gardens and gardening in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. She has taught history at the universities of Birmingham and Worcester and still contributes to the programme of activities for both the Centre for Midlands History and Winterbourne House and Gardens. She is currently involved with delivering the online lecture programme for the Gardens Trust and also works at the Shakespeare Institute Library in Stratford-upon-Avon. Her book, Gardens and Gardening in Early Modern England and Wales, was published by Yale University Press in June 2018.

Image: The portico at Wotton House, designed by John Evelyn c.1650, photo ©Jill Francis

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Week 4: THE FRENCH BAROQUE GARDEN with Gabriel Wick

Visiting André Le Nôtre's masterpieces, Chantilly, Vaux, Saint-Cloud, Sceaux, Versailles, the Grand Trianon, we encounter a series of static images, born out of the head of a 'humble' polymath for the greater glory of a megalomaniacal master. The myth of the sudden invention of the Louis XIV Grand Manner was carefully cultivated even at the time, but the roots of the Le Nôtrean taste stretched back to previous reigns, and designers. But what was the purpose of these linear perspectives and expanses of gravel? Of what were they made? How were they built and maintained?

This talk examines the construction and formal vocabulary of these compositions, but also their antecedents in garden and military architecture, and their usages and significance in the social and political practices of the court. The last part of the talk considers the afterlife of the idiom, its evolution under Louis XV and Louis XVI, its neglect and destruction in the 19th century, and its rehabilitation in the Belle Époque.

Dr Gabriel Wick is a landscape historian and curator. He teaches history of architecture and urbanism at the Paris campus of New York University and also lectures for the École du Louvre. He received his master’s in landscape architecture from UC Berkeley, a master’s of historic landscape conservation from ÉNSA-Versailles, and a doctorate in history from Queen Mary - University of London. His most recent book Gardens in Revolution: landscapes and political culture in France, 1760–1792 will be published in August 2025.

Image: detail, Plan for the Gardens and the Grand Canal at Chantilly, after André Le Nôtre, Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, public domain

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Week 5: THE BAROQUE IN ENGLAND with David Marsh

After the civil war Charles and many of his court circle went into exile in Europe where they saw the glories of French and Dutch gardens. They fell in love with their ornate geometric formal layout, and on their return at the Restoration tried to recreate the grandeur of the European baroque in British gardens. At the same time the foundation of the Royal Society encouraged the development of botany as a new science while the financial revolution of the late 17th century spread an interest in gardening into the ranks of the new ‘middling sort’ and led to a thriving horticultural scene to serve them.

Dr David Marsh was awarded his PhD in 2005 for a study of the ‘Gardens and Gardeners of Later-Stuart London’ and has been lecturing and supervising research in Garden History ever since. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Buckingham and is co-course director for their MA in Garden History. A trustee of the Gardens Trust from 2016-2023, he helped set up and run the Trust’s on-line lecture programme and is the author of a weekly blog about garden history.

Image: Attributed to Peter Tillemans, 1684–1734, A View of the Garden and House at Upper Winchendon, Buckinghamshire, Yale Centre for British Art, public domain

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We’re grateful to Wooden Books, sponsor of the first five series of A History of Gardens.

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