William Marshall (1745 1818), an experienced farmer and land agent, published this work in 1795, and early in 1796 produced a second edition (reissued here), 'with large additions'. The two-volume work was intended as a practical guide for the owners or managers of large estates on how to establish and maintain timber plantations, both for their financial value and also as important decorative elements in the landscaping of the surroundings of the owner's house. The work covers the practical issues of planting, propagating and transplanting, and discusses the choice of trees for different...

In the late nineteenth century, British garden design was dominated by two opposing schools, those of 'landscape' and of 'the formal garden'. Henry Ernest Milner (1845 1906) was the son of Edward Milner, a practitioner in the landscape tradition who was a colleague of Sir Joseph Paxton, but Henry did not begin working with his father until after a career as a civil engineer which took him to North America and Russia. In this 1890 book, a number of the exemplar gardens are taken from Milner's father's designs, with two studies of his own work (one in England and one in Hungary) at the end, and...

The horticulturalist John Lindley (1799 1865) worked for Sir Joseph Banks, and was later instrumental in saving the Royal Horticultural Society from financial disaster. He was a prolific author of works for gardening practitioners but also for a non-specialist readership, and many of his books have been reissued in this series. The first volume of this two-volume work was published in 1834, and the second in 1837. At a time when botany was regarded as the only science suitable for study by women and girls, Lindley felt that there was a lack of books for 'those who would become acquainted with...

The horticulturalist John Lindley (1799 1865) worked for Sir Joseph Banks, and was later instrumental in saving the Royal Horticultural Society from financial disaster. He was a prolific author of works for gardening practitioners but also for a non-specialist readership, and many of his books have been reissued in this series. The first volume of this two-volume work was published in 1834, and the second in 1837. At a time when botany was regarded as the only science suitable for study by women and girls, Lindley felt that there was a lack of books for 'those who would become acquainted with...

Eleanor Vere Boyle (1825 1916), who re-created the gardens of Huntercombe Manor in Berkshire in the 1870s, was a talented artist as well as an author, illustrating both poetry and books for children. Coming from an aristocratic family, and in later life a friend of Queen Alexandra, she produced sketches and watercolours admired by Ruskin and Landseer, and Tennyson and Bulwer Lytton contributed to her anthologies of poetry. One of a number of late nineteenth-century female writers on gardens (many of whose works have been reissued in this series), she was interested in the natural history of...

The 'Victoria Library for Gentlewomen', a series of books 'Under the Patronage of HM the Queen and HRH the Princess of Wales', edited by W. H. Davenport Adams (1828-91), provided information and advice on various topics for those who aspired to gentlewomanly status. Davenport Adams himself was a journalist and author of popular science and history works, but little is known of the two authors of this 1892 work. Edith L. Chamberlain was a minor novelist who had also published a book on the dialect of west Worcestershire, and Fanny Douglas worked with Davenport Adams on other titles in the...

Mrs C. W. Earle (1836 1925) was born into the minor aristocracy as Maria Theresa Villiers. After training as an artist, she married Captain C. W. Earle, who inherited family wealth which enabled a comfortable lifestyle with a town house in London and a small property with a large garden in Surrey. Earle's designs for her garden were much admired by her circle, and she was encouraged to write down her gardening advice. She published three volumes of Pot-Pourri from a Surrey Garden (also reissued in this series) between 1897 and 1903, but these works were not restricted to gardening, and...

The writer Mary Roberts (1788 1864) developed an interest in natural history while growing up in the Gloucestershire countryside. This work of observations on wildlife, plants and the weather, though written while she was living in the village of Sheepscombe, near Painswick, was not published until 1831, some time after she had moved to London with her widowed mother and was a published author. Each chapter is devoted to a month of the year, and Roberts' acute observation of nature is enhanced by her considerable knowledge: she cites Withering and Cuvier (both also reissued in the Cambridge...

This story of an Indian garden was published in 1915. Its author, Kathleen L. Murray, was living in the remote north-eastern region of Bihar in the home of her brother, an indigo producer, and some of her musings on life and gardening in India had already been published in the periodical The Statesman. She viewed this work not as a guide, but 'merely a rambling record of some years in a garden' which combined European plants such as roses and sweet peas with natives such as cannas and beaumontias. Along with her gardening successes and failures over three years, the book provides insights...

The botanist and horticulturalist John Lindley (1799 1865) worked for Sir Joseph Banks, and was later instrumental in saving the Royal Horticultural Society from financial disaster. He was a prolific author of works for gardening practitioners but also for a non-specialist readership, and many of his books have been reissued in this series. This 1829 work is a classification of British plants using the 'natural' system of the French botanist Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, which Lindley firmly supported, believing that the Linnaean system was both inaccurate and had 'almost disappeared from every...