Tag Archives: antiquarian

Beaudesert: “a desert beautified”

Posted on 27/07/2019 by The Gardens Trust

Beaudesert is/was an enormous estate in Staffordshire’, its name probably coming from the French for the surrounding landscape – “beautiful wilderness”. It has a reasonably well recorded architectural and contents history up to the demolition of the great Elizabethan mansion … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged antiquarian, historic revivalism, hothouse, Humphry Repton, james wyatt, kitchen garden, Plas Newydd, Red Book, ruins, William Emes | Leave a comment

Visiting a Duke 18thc style…

Posted on 09/02/2019 by The Gardens Trust

At the end of last year I wrote about the travel journals of John Byng, 5th Viscount Torrington. His diaries are, unlike most 18thc published writing, quite informal in style , probably because he had no intention of putting his … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged antiquarian, grimsthorpe, Humphry Repton, John Byng, John Vanbrugh, monastery, ruins, rustic, Topiary, tourism, travel, William Stukeley | Leave a comment

BEAUTIFUL BRITAIN: Romance and Reason

Posted on 07/02/2014 by The Gardens Trust

I’m a hoarder and always have been. I’ve also been interested in history all my life and even as a child I collected anything and everything in the hope that one day it would come in ‘useful’. Having written last … Continue reading →