Papers by David L Jacques
Lancelot Brown's career as His Majesty's Chief Gardener at Hampton Court has been less researched... more Lancelot Brown's career as His Majesty's Chief Gardener at Hampton Court has been less researched than his contracting business. This chapter looks at Lancelot Brown in that capacity and resolves most of the numerous confusions surrounding his involvement at other royal properties. When Brown took up his post at Hampton Court in 1764, the Board of Works was, even by the government standards of the day, notoriously riddled with placemen who added nothing to the effectiveness of the institution but cost a great deal. The four senior posts were that of Surveyor-General, Surveyor of Gardens and Waters, Surveyor of the King's Private Roads, and Paymaster. These placeholders were mostly Members of Parliament enjoying their positions as sinecures. Thomas Worsley (1710-78), Surveyor-General, happened to be an amateur architect and conscientiously took an interest in the work of the Board, though this was not demanded of him. His successor in 1778, Colonel Whitshed Keene (1731-1822), reverted to type. Below the senior posts, the Comptroller of Works and the Chief Gardeners were required to be experienced professionals. The first Surveyor of Gardens and Waters, in 1715, John Vanbrugh, had carried out his duties, but his successors treated the post as a sinecure worth £500. At the point when Brown took up post, his nominal supervisor was Charles Sloane Cadogan (1728-1807), the Whig MP for Cambridge until 1776, when he succeeded as 3 rd Baron Cadogan. His sinecures had begun with Keeper of the Privy Purse to Prince Edward in 1756; he advanced to Surveyor of Gardens and Waters from 1764 to 1769 on an increased salary of £800; 1 finally he was Master of the Mint from 1769 to 1784. Cadogan was succeeded as Surveyor of Gardens and Waters in 1769 by William Varey (1711-93), of Ixworth Abbey, Suffolk, about whom very little is known. 2 The Paymaster was George Augustus Selwyn (1719-91), of Matson, Gloucestershire. He became a Tory MP in 1747 and acquired a number of sinecures, being appointed to the post of Paymaster of the Works in 1755.
Alexander Pope and the Arts of Georgian England
Garden History; Journal of the Garden History Society, 1979
Charles Bridgeman and the English Landscape Garden
Garden History; Journal of the Garden History Society, 2001
Georgian Gardens: The Reign of Nature
Garden History; Journal of the Garden History Society, 1984
The birth of the natural style the progress of taste the heyday of the natural style strictures o... more The birth of the natural style the progress of taste the heyday of the natural style strictures on landscape gardening Repton and the picturesque regency gardens.
Two Notes on James Sambrook's Article on Woburn Farm (Garden History, VII, 2)
Garden History; Journal of the Garden History Society, 1979
Girth Growth Analysis in Historical Survey
Arboricultural Journal, Aug 1, 1987
(1987). GIRTH GROWTH ANALYSIS IN HISTORICAL SURVEY. Arboricultural Journal: Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 1... more (1987). GIRTH GROWTH ANALYSIS IN HISTORICAL SURVEY. Arboricultural Journal: Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 193-207.
Letters to the Editor: Southcote's Wooburn
Garden History; Journal of the Garden History Society, 1975
Warwick Castle Grounds and Park, 1743-60
Garden History; Journal of the Garden History Society, 2001
Landscape Research, Mar 1, 1981
Pursuing Innocent Pleasures: The Gardening World of Alexander Pope
Garden History; Journal of the Garden History Society, 1986
... Pursuing innocent pleasures: The gardening world of Alexander Pope. ... SUBJECT(S): Gardens; ... more ... Pursuing innocent pleasures: The gardening world of Alexander Pope. ... SUBJECT(S): Gardens; Landscape gardening; Gardeners; Poets, English; Design; History; Biography; 18th century; England; Pope, Alexander; Aesthetics; Knowledge; Botany; Homes and haunts. ...
William Marshall's Advice on Plant Selection
Garden History, 1993
Many seventeenth and eighteenth century gardening books give good information on plants and their... more Many seventeenth and eighteenth century gardening books give good information on plants and their characteristics, but not much on the principles of selection and layout. Nor, of course, does any shrubbery of that date survive. An awareness from about 1983 that garden restoration projects lacked this information began to be answered by the research undertaken by Mark Laird at the University of York. He showed that the main principles of planting design were the steppingup of plants towards the rear, the importance of covering the bare stems of trees, the segregation of deciduous and evergreen species, and planting with a variety of species in a mingled manner11. The idiosyncracies and innovations of individual writers can be made clear against this background. Nevertheless, the subject remains in its infancy, and the findings are as yet largely untested in practice. Therefore historical planting designs will have to be regarded as experimental for many years, as the old principles need to be confirmed or rediscovered in practice.
The Court Historian, 2006
This paper concerns the garden making in Greenwich Park co-eval with the building of Charles II&a... more This paper concerns the garden making in Greenwich Park co-eval with the building of Charles II's new palace in the 1660s. The new garden works were the only authenticated scheme in England by André le Nostre, Louis XIV's famous gardener at Versailles, though the scheme was settled by correspondence and he seems never to have set foot in England.
Landscape Modernism Renounced
Landscape Modernism Renounced, 2012
Before the Second World War landscape architect Christopher Tunnard was the first author on Moder... more Before the Second World War landscape architect Christopher Tunnard was the first author on Modernism in Landscape in the English language, but later became alarmed by the destructive forces of Post-war reconstruction. Between the 1950s and the 1970s he was in the forefront of the movement to save the city, becoming an acclaimed author sympathetic to preservation. Ironically it was the Modernist ethos that he had so fervently advocated before the war that was the justification for the dismemberment of great cities by officials, engineers and planners. This was not the first time that Tunnard had to re-evaluate his principles, as he had done so in the 1930s in rejecting Arts-and-Crafts in favour of Modernism. This book tracks his changing ideology, by reference to his writings, his colleagues and his work. Christopher Tunnard is one of the most influential figures in Landscape Architecture and his journey is one that still resonates in the discipline today. His leading role in first embracing the tenets of Modernism and then moving away from to embrace a more conservationist approach can be seen in the success and impact on the profession of those with whom he worked and taught.
Garden History, 1976
This paper explores the changes in emphasis in gardening taste and estate improvement in the 1720... more This paper explores the changes in emphasis in gardening taste and estate improvement in the 1720s. It is related chiefly to the life and works of Alexander Pope and in particular it examines the divergence in Pope's own attitudes that emerged when, from about the time that he finished his garden at Twickenham, he came under the renewed influence of Lord Bolingbroke, the Tory politician. Pope's moral conscience concerning the 'vanity of wealth' was awakened so that he turned his attention from artistic taste to improving sense. The origins of Pope's taste and politica1 conscience must be sought in his childhood and early career. In his adolescence he became aware of writers like Dryden, and he would have felt the pressures of belonging to a Catholic family. From the former he learnt the natural philosophy of Art and Nature, and the second was to impel him towards Tory sympathies and the political philosophy of Bolingbroke. In this paper an introductory section 'Nature and Politics' is followed by discussion of the two lines of Pope1s thought, 'Art' and 'Sense'. It comes as no surprise to find the historians of 'Modern Gardening' of the next generation-Walpole and Whateleytracing the results of Bridgeman, Kent and Southcote rather than the intricate political implications of their work. A connoisseur like Walpole would have distinguished between the realms of art and politics in a way that Pope never did. Secondly, it would have been an unsavoury task to describe the contribution to gardening by political groups whose ethics had many of the signs of superiority to those of his father. Lastly, Walpole appears to have been endeavouring consistently to demonstrate that the French were unworthy of their cultural heritage, and to have been eager to pass credit for French design in England to English invention. The political aspect of the English landscape school cannot be explained by the analogy between wavy lines and Whig freedom. This theory is unsatisfactory in very many ways, and this article is intended to relate a rather different story. In particular it identifies the first form of the ferme ornée, that described by Switzer, as an ingredient in a political offensive by the Tory party.
Histories of garden conservation: Case-studies and critical debates, 2005
The conference provided many fascinating insights into historical examples of attitudes to the pa... more The conference provided many fascinating insights into historical examples of attitudes to the past. This is not just an historians’ topic, but one that has lessons for today’s conservationists and restorers. It is desirable to bring the subject up to the present, so that the recent past can be subjected to the same scrutiny.
Garden History, 2022
John Harris was one of the blessed few who have been able to turn a passion into a career. After ... more John Harris was one of the blessed few who have been able to turn a passion into a career. After some haphazard and unserious beginnings, he was employed in an antique shop aged twenty-three and was immediately attracted to the visual world of paintings, prints and drawings. He subsequently created a niche for himself as a drawings curator and, allying himself with architectural historians and museum curators, organized some famous exhibitions on country houses and their gardens in the 1970s. His enduring academic interests included Palladianism and garden buildings.
TGT Newsletter, 2015
Members will remember Keith as studious, at first sight aloof, but forever helpful and always con... more Members will remember Keith as studious, at first sight aloof, but forever helpful and always concerned to get the facts and interpretation straight. The occasional flash of dry humour betrayed his appreciation of irony and the ridiculous.
Note on Anthony Mitchell, National Trust architect and vice-president of the ICOMOS/IFA Gardens a... more Note on Anthony Mitchell, National Trust architect and vice-president of the ICOMOS/IFA Gardens and Sites Committee
GHS News, 2014
Edward Charles Richard Fawcett (Ted) had a very wide range of interests and admirers, amply prove... more Edward Charles Richard Fawcett (Ted) had a very wide range of interests and admirers, amply proved by the turnout of hundreds at his funeral service and reception in Petersham. He and his wife Jane (née Hughes) were together a formidable team for seventy years, supporting, and urging, each other on to further achievements.
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Papers by David L Jacques