Gardens of the National Trust Book

The gardens of Britain's National Trust are unmatched anywhere in the world for sheer number, diversity, and quality. Taken together, they form the world's most important collection of cultivated plants, distinguished for their beauty, rarity, historic interest, and scientific value, ever assembled under single ownership. With this incomparable palette, Stephen Lacey paints a vivid picture of a wide range of individual Trust gardens. He gives his own impressions, describing the present state of each, and placing it firmly within the context of gardening history in Britain. All the major periods are represented: a knot garden from a 1640 design at Moseley Old Hall in Staffordshire; great estate gardens such as Blickling, Cliveden, Killerton and Powis; magnificent eighteenth-century landscapes such as "Capability" Brown's Petworth in Sussex as well as Stourhead, Stowe and Studley Royal; Victorian gardens like Biddulph Grange in Staffordshire with a wealth of new plants introduced from all over the globe; and the outstanding gardens of this century, such as Nymans in Sussex, Sissinghurst Castle in Kent, and Hidcote in Gloucestershire. This superbly designed volume serves as a practical guide to National Trust gardens as well as a source of reference and inspiration. Every entry gives details of soil and climate, while an appendix includes tables listing the special features of each garden. Last, but by no means least, the beauty of the gardens is conveyed in superb full-color images taken by leading photographers.