The Royal Horticultural Society Treasury of Garden Writing.

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Author: Miller, Carol Bishop

The Royal Horticultural Society Treasury of Garden Writing
Selected by Charles Elliott
Frances Lincoln Limited, 2005; $19.95

"Gardeners who like to read are indeed blessed," notes the editor of this elegant little volume. Handsomely illustrated with selections from the botanical art collection of the Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Library, it is the perfect gift for the gardener who appreciates fine literature. Arguing that "of all the avocations to which we dedicate our leisure … gardening is the richest and most varied source of good writing," Elliott, an American transplanted to Britain, and former Horticulture contributing editor, here assembles tantalizing passages from the works of over 50 of his favorite writers. Pliny the Younger describes his elaborate first-century formal gardens. Sir Francis Bacon, in his 1625 essay "Of Gardens," assures the invention of the lawn mower, opining, "Nothing is more pleasant to the eye than green grass kept finely shorn." In an extract from Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, we eavesdrop on a dinner party at which the efficacy of hiring an "improver" to redo the landscape at staid old Sotherton Court is debated. Renowned plant hunter E. H. Wilson shares a harrowing account of the 1910 incident in which, his leg freshly broken by an avalanche and four days from medical assistance, he lay motionless across a narrow, stony path in the wilds of China while a caravan of mules, traveling in the opposite direction from that of his party, gingerly stepped over him. And, of course, there are excerpts from prominent contemporary writers, such as Russell Page, Christopher Lloyd, Michael Pollan, and Eleanor Perényi.

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By Carol Bishop Miller