Irish Demesne Landscapes, 1660-1740

This book charts the history and development of formal gardening in Ireland in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and in particular the grand geometric style garden that was fashionable between 1660 and 1740. It examines the people who created these gardens, the influences that affected them, the materials that they employed, and the uses of landscape interventions. Using a wide range of sources, including several previously unpublished, this the most extensive survey to date of early Irish gardens. *** ＂In this most impressive volume, Vandra Costello tells the story of [demesne] landscapes, drawing on a remarkable variety of manuscript sources, often obscure gardening manuals and the full range of recent scholarship . This handsome volume is definitive in its period, and underpins the recent broadening of interest in Irish improvement in the 17th and 18th centuries.＂ --Nigel Everett, Irish Arts Review, Summer 2015 *** ＂Tracing the true history of the Irish landscape can be difficult, but one well-researched, factual account of our old demesnes is the recently published Irish Demesne Landscapes, 1660-1740 by Vandra Costello. This book contains excellent illustrations and plans of long lost gardens, while covering a period whose rich social and economic history tends to be overlooked because of the emphasis on the aftermath of Oliver Cromwell’s campaign in Ireland . This book is an entertaining read and a valuable record which can add greatly to the pleasure of learning the history of our own farmland.＂ --Joe Barry, Irish Independent, May 2015 *** ＂Ambitious in its scope, it sheds welcome light on a rather neglected, not quite dark age. Much in this is new and unfamiliar: for example, the available and most popular varieties of shrubs, trees, fruit, flowers and vegetables. It inventories the development in Ireland of features like canals, fish-ponds, fountains, deer-parks, duck decoys, rabbit warrens. There is also interesting information about skilled gardeners and their wages and backgrounds, as well as the development within Ireland of specialist nurseries and suppliers of seeds.＂ --Toby Barnard, University of Oxford [Subject: History, Irish Studies, Gardening, Landscaping]