English Gardens

This large, glossy folio was produced by Country Life in 1925. Country Life Magazine was founded in 1897 and is still in circulation. From the introduction:

“This volume illustrates and describes fifty-two English gardens as they are in our own times. Some of them are new creations, but many have links more or less strong with the past, so that, despite alterations arising from passage of time and change of taste, we can get, through them, a glimpse of what Tudor, Stuart, and Hanoverian gardening was like.”

The author H. Avray Tipping (1855-1933) was an Architectural editor for Country Life Magazine for 17 years. A French-born British writer, he was an expert on country houses and gardens as well as a garden designer and writer. His garden designs were influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement and his friends Gertrude Jekyll, Harold Peto, and Edwin Lutyens, the most famous horticulturists associated with the movement. His gardens frequently featured hedges as boundaries, long grass greens, lush planting and areas remaining wild alongside planned beds and sculpted topiaries.  

Gardens and the English style were interests of the Weeks family and the topics are found in their library. These books and the family’s travels to Europe inspired their plans for the grounds and gardens of Salisbury House, visible through the library window.