Agricultural History Review, Volume 68 Part 2 (2020), p. 315

Gardens are a topic of perennial and growing interest for both historians and the public. This short book offers a bridge between these two sets of readers by offering a readable yet erudite introduction to English landscape gardens. It is well illustrated and grounded in examples of gardens across the country (many of which can be visited), and helps the reader get to grips with some complex ideas, from the iconography of statues and garden buildings to the definition and nature of the picturesque. In tracing the development of the genre, Symes provides a balanced view, giving equal weight to different forms, theorists and practitioners rather than focusing only on the big names. Whilst we get chapters on Kent, Brown and Repton, there is also discussion of Switzer, Langley, Whately, Shenstone, Bridgeman and many others. This is a story with many characters and many sub-plots: the English landscape garden is revealed as a complex and varied phenomenon, one that evolved over the course of the eighteenth century.

The first three chapters offer an introduction to the landscape garden and provide a framework for its development. Ideas, influences and practicalities are discussed in a (comparatively) lengthy opening chapter, followed by an overview of its evolution, and of the key theorists and writers who shaped its changing aesthetic and form. Symes does an excellent job of synthesizing a large body of research and allowing the reader to distinguish the wood from the trees: the detail is there, but the bigger picture is to the fore. Together, these three chapters provide context for the short topic-based chapters that make up the bulk of the book; but they also set out Symes’s agenda and perspective: one that is largely concerned with design and aesthetics. What follows, then, are 13 chapters that focus on particular topics or individuals. In these, Symes explores in a little more detail many of the key ideas, people and forms highlighted in the introductory chapters. Their brevity – many are just four pages long – allows him to offer the reader an insight into a huge range of topics, but necessarily means that discussion is limited. As befits a survey, they are easily digestible summaries rather than fully developing the topics under consideration.

Symes takes a broadly chronological approach, tracing the landscape garden from the extensive or forest gardening championed by Switzer, through the ‘artinatural’ garden of Langley and others, to Kent’s pictorial garden and the mid-century circuit garden, and on through Brown’s vision of landscaping, the rise of the picturesque and finally to Repton’s pragmatic synthesizing of design elements. The reader is thus provided with a clear picture of how the English landscape garden evolved over time. But this is no simple story of progressive change: Symes is careful to highlight how key ideas persisted or re-emerged; how earlier elements survived subsequent remodelling in many places, and how a ‘pure’ form was very rare, either on paper or, especially, on the ground. Hybridization was not something reserved for the plantsman, and Symes is right to question the overweening importance of the big-name designers, arguing that they often worked within the aesthetic and physical framework left by their predecessors. Within this, Brown seems to come under particular scrutiny. Despite being acknowledged as the ‘indisputable giant of landscape gardening’ (p. 67), his impact is systematically dissected in a manner not attempted for Kent or Repton, for instance – a result, perhaps, of the scrutiny as well as the celebration of his work that surrounded the tercentenary of his birth.

Interspersed with these chapters on designers and writers are others that focus on particular elements of the landscape gardens. We thus have discussion of plantings (including the impact of imported plants); the use of iconography and the poetic associations of landscape gardens (especially grottoes); the ferme ornée and the relationship between garden and park/ farm, and the terrace walk. As with the chronology, these chapters draw on a wide variety of gardens to illustrate the arguments being made – some famous and others far less familiar. Contemporary prints and present-day photographs serve to draw out particular points, making them more than simply pleasant adornments, but an integral part of the analysis. Symes again does a good job of balancing brevity and overview with detail and exemplification.

As a survey, this book has many qualities, but its concern throughout is with the evolution and implementation of design. Very little is said about how these designs were received, or about how gardens were used or viewed by owners and visitors – beyond a broad idea of approbation or criticism. Nor do we have any discussion of the economics of the landscape garden: what were the (relative) costs of different models of landscape garden and how did these impact on the choices made by landowners in terms of design and maintenance? Such factors undoubtedly played an important role in shaping landscapes gardens, but maybe they lie beyond the scope of a short survey. More central to the approach that Symes takes to the subject, yet dealt with only briefly, is the influence of politics on the evolution and choice of design. Most fundamentally, there is the question of national identity: what made these landscape gardens English (as opposed to Welsh or Scottish, for example) and to what extent was English identity bound up with and communicated through this medium?

Unsurprisingly, then, a short survey has gaps in its coverage, but overall Symes’s book provides an excellent and engaging overview of its subject: one that will satisfy many readers and encourage others to find out more.