REFERENCE BOOKS ON ENGLISH GARDENING LITERATURE. 109 



REFERENCE BOOKS ON ENGLISH GARDENING 

 LITERATURE, WITH NOTES ON THEIR AUTHORS. 



By F. W. Burbidge, Esq., M.A., F.L.S., F.R.H.S. 



[Read at Chester, August 4, 1896.] 



I do not wish to inflict a lengthy bibliographical list upon 

 you, but those who wish to get a bird's-eye view of British 

 garden literature from 1516 to 1836 will find a capital list in the 

 Hon. Miss Amherst's "History of Gardening in England" 

 (pp. 323 to 379), a work itself that is full of interest 

 to all lovers of literature and of gardening (Quaritch, 1895). 

 There is another modern work entitled "Gleanings in Old 

 Garden Literature," by W. Carew Hazlitt (Eliott Stock, 1887). 

 There is also a very interesting " History of English Gardening " 

 by George W. Johnson (1829), and another on " Portraits of 

 English Authors on Gardening " by S. Felton (2nd edition, 1830), 

 while older still, but none the less readable and interesting, are 

 Pulteney's sketches (1790). There are also the bibliographer's 

 " Manual of Lowndes," 1857 to 1864; Pritzel's "Thesaurus," 

 1872 ; and Jackson's " Guide to the Literature of Botany," 1881 ; 

 all well-known finger-posts on the highway and cross-roads of 

 our garden literature. 



But horticulture has also been greatly aided by the general 

 poetry and literature of our country. Gower, Chaucer, Spencer, 

 and all the Elizabethan poets, including Shakespeare, allude to 

 flowers ; and one of the most interesting books I know is the 

 Rev. Mr. Ellacombe's work on the " Plant-Lore and Garden 

 Craft of Shakespeare." Our poet-laureate of to-day (Austin) is, 

 as I need scarcely mention, a well-known author on gardening, 

 and every line that Buskin has written on trees, or grass, or flowers 

 deserves attention. All the great story-tellers have in one way or 

 another used the garden as a stage. And, indeed, many of us who 

 love books are beginning to feel that a good garden is after all only 

 another name for " a beautiful book, writ for us by the finger of 

 God. Every flower and leaf is a letter. You have only to learn 

 them . . . and join them, and then go on reading and reading, and 

 you will find yourself carried away from much that is sordid 

 and mean by the beautiful story you are going through. 



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