The Garden Historians have been teaching at Burgh House in Hampstead, London since 2013 and have covered a huge range of topics and themes, during which time they have amassed a wide and loyal following of students who return year after year. Please scroll through some past highlights below.
Taught on zoom from Thursday 26th January 2023 at 10.30am
10 week course
We’ll be continuing our journey across the globe in search of plants and their riches. This term we will travel across the Atlantic Ocean and then off to the south seas, take your travel sickness pills with the Physicians, the Botanists and the Colonial Collectors
Below are the themes and topics we’ll be covering over our ten weeks:
· Botanic illustration
· Rio - the Portuguese and the sad tale of the pau brazil
· Berlin
· Copenhagen - Tresco - the USA
· Pineapples - Agnes Block to Hawaii
· Female botanists
· France, Royal patronage and their gardens
· Captain Cook and Joseph Banks
· Kew Gardens
· Glass houses
This zoom course welcomes new and returning students alike.
Online Course
1.5 hours a week for 10 weeks
Price
£230.00
Information
This course will be taught via Zoom from Thursday 26th January 2023 at 10.30am - UK time and each following Thursday. A recording of each zoom session, along with lecture notes, will be emailed each week. The link remains active for one month.
Transforming Gardens in Nineteenth Century Britain - Imperial College, London
This class is run in partnership with Leighton House, London and starts on Tuesday, January 31st for 5 weeks at 14:00 - 15:30 and is taught in person, At Leighton House, London. Please see the Imperial college link below for booking.
Course Outline
William Combe’s The Tour of Dr. Syntax was published in 1812, alongside prints by the celebrated cartoonist Thomas Rowlandson. In it, Combe satirised the sometimes pretentious claims made by followers of a new craze that arose in the early nineteenth century, namely the Picturesque. This almost cult-like movement led to passionate claims about nature and landscape gardens, which became easy targets for satirists like Combe and Rowlandson.
Today, words like romantic and the picturesque are used quite casually and we probably do not give much thought to when or where they started. So it might surprise us to learn how recently these words entered the English language, and that their use has such a close relationship to landscape gardening.
In this course Deborah Trentham invites us to join her on a fascinating, and entertaining, journey through the gardens of nineteenth-century Britain, to discover the ideas, personalities and ambitions of the gardeners behind them. From the picturesque tours of Dr Syntax to Frank Crisp's Matterhorn and Gertrude Jekyll's 'natural gardening', the nineteenth-century British garden is full of surprises. From curious inventions of the industrial age to the enthusiasm of plant hunters to discover new species, the results ranged from the extraordinarily beautiful to the downright bizarre.
Whether you enjoy gardening or visiting gardens, or are just fascinated by history, art history or the renaissance world, join us on this exploration into the history of gardening.
The in-person classes at Leighton House in London are informal and interactive, so discussions with the group of your experiences of visiting historic gardens will be welcome additions. However, there no formal course work and no previous knowledge of garden history is required.
Price n/a
Attendance certificate
Those who attend at least 80% of the course sessions will receive an attendance certificate from Imperial College London upon completion of the course.
Starts on 16th January 2023 for ten weeks. Please note the course is run and managed by The Imperial College and all enquires should be made through their website. Follow the link below to The Imperial College website.
On a fascinating online course, Deborah Trentham of the Garden Historians will lead us on a journey to discover the remarkable history of botanical gardens. With their earliest origins stretching back to the ancient Levant, botanical gardens as we know them began life in the Middle Ages as medicinal herb gardens, but they developed rapidly in the Renaissance, not least under the patronage of the Italian courts, to become significant status symbols and repositories of scientific knowledge about the nature and the world. Later this patronage was taken up by Western monarchs, not least Louis XIV of France and George III of Great Britain.
On the course we will see how early garden-makers were inspired by classical literature, drawing on the descriptions of ancient Roman gardens in the letters of Pliny the Younger and the poetry of Ovid and how renaissance artists were important too in the development of the garden.
But botanical gardens were also caught up in the growth of empire in the early modern period, as Western plant hunters began to travel the world alongside traders, colonisers and event pirates in search of ever more unusual and exotic plants to add to their gardens' collections.
Whether you enjoy gardening or visiting gardens, or are just fascinated by history, art history or the renaissance world, join us on this extraordinary exploration into the birth of the modern gardening.
The online sessions are informal and interactive, so your experiences of visiting historic gardens will be welcome additions. However, there no formal course work and no previous knowledge of garden history is required.
Live Online Course
This course will be taught live online (via the internet). To take part in the course you will need a suitably equipped device for session attendance each week on the weekday and time shown above.
Course Programme (subject to modification)
The earliest records – texts revealing botany in Egypt and plant use in ancient times
The Kingdom of Flowers – China – oranges and camellias
The rediscovery of the ancients – texts and gardens in the Renaissance
Pisa, Padua and Florence – gardens for learning and collecting
Portugal – plants, spices and parrots
Spanish botanic discoveries and Philip II’s garden notebook
Herbals and a little plagiarism
Dutch East India Company
Botany & Piracy
Additional Reading
There is no compulsory reading required for this course, and there is no set course text.
Price
Follow this link to The Imperial College’s website for more details and how to enrol
Information & Booking
The course begins 16th January 2023. This course is booked via the link above and run by The Imperial College, London. Your tutor will be Deborah Trentham of The Garden Historians
NB - Please note the course is run and managed by The Imperial College and all enquires should be made through their website.
Attendance certificate
Those who attend at least 80% of the course sessions will receive an attendance certificate from Imperial College London upon completion of the course.
Starts Monday 11th October 2021 at 18.00 GMT
Online Zoom Course
2 hours (including break) for 10 weeks
Information
This course is run by The Imperial College, London. Your tutor will be Deborah Trentham of The Garden Historians
Course Outline
Early Italian gardens, often belonging to monasteries, were enclosed by walls, and used for growing vegetables, fruits and medicinal herbs. How did they evolve into playgrounds of the mythical gods, with winded horses landing on Mount Parnassus, giants dipping into fishponds and bronze birds fluttering over fountains? The garden makers were inspired by classical literature, the descriptions of ancient Roman gardens in the letters of Pliny the Younger, the poetry of Ovid, his epic Metamorphoses crops up over and again in the landscape. The romantic stories of The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, published in 1499, also had an important influence on the gardens. The book describes the adventures of Poliphile, looking for his love, Polia. He travels through incredible gardens, full of roses, labyrinths, and even giants – elements we shall find were recreated in the gardens of the Renaissance. Re Aedificatoria written by Leon Battista Alberti in the 1450’s, was based on the architectural principles of Vitruvius. Alberti said that the garden was the province of the architect, he also gave precise details of what should be included in the garden ‘ You should also have rare plants.... Trees should be aligned and arranged evenly, each tree aligned with its neighbours.”
The political symbolism of the Renaissance garden can be seen in the Florentine gardens of the Medici, their patronage had a huge impact on the cultural and artistic history of Italy. Their great wealth acquired through banking, dominated the economic, financial and political world of Florence. They used gardens to demonstrate their power but also to enjoy and party in. They built some of the most original gardens of the period with sculptures and grottoes designed by some of the greatest artists of the period. In Rome while the city was built up sculpture was being excavated, with the rediscovery of some great ancient pieces. The Laocoon, the Apollo Belvedere, various river gods and Venus’ all collected up by which ever Pope was sitting on the throne of Saint Peter. Sculpture makes its way back into the garden to be displayed as it had been in ancient times, river gods sitting in pools. In 1504 Pope Julius II commissioned the architect Bramante to recreate a classical Roman pleasure garden next to the Vatican palace in Rome and the nearby Villa Belvedere. It’s terraces were divided by paths and flowerbeds, and was to be the outdoor setting for Pope Julius's collection of classical sculpture. In 1523 the Cortile del Belvedere was described "One enters a very beautiful garden, of which half is filled with growing grass and bays and mulberries and cypresses, while the other half is paved with squares of bricks laid upright, and in every square a beautiful orange tree grows out of the pavement, of which there are a great many, arranged in perfect order.
Gardens and villas to be investigated will include– Villa Medici (Fiesole and Rome), Medici gardens at Castello, Pratolino. Boboli Gardens, Sacro Bosco, Villa Lante, Villa Farnese (Caprarola), the Cortile del Belvedere.
Course Outline
The Twentieth Century American Landscape
Film, Lifestyle and the Garden
Following the Influence of European gardens and the Modernist Movement on the American landscape.
Our course will follow several strands starting with Florence Yoch, greatly influenced by European gardens and chosen by the Hollywood moguls, Jack Warner and David O’ Selznick to design their personal gardens. She moved into set design working, uncredited, on the iconic ‘Gone with the Wind’.
Fletcher Steele was a designer who sought to incorporate the ideals of the European classic garden and the new Modernist Movement. His influence was to be profound on the younger Harvard students. Garret Eckbo said that Steele was 'the transitional figure between the old guard and the moderns’.
Thomas Church, the pivotal influence on many American designers to follow, was himself inspired by the European Bauhaus school and Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. We will examine Church as the pioneer who would shape the future direction in North America with his ‘California style’.
Other key figures include Lawrence Halprin and the Harvard three, Dan Kiley, James Rose and Garret Eckbo. Their work made it possible for the generation that followed, such as Martha Schwartz combining Fine Art and Landscape, focusing her controversial work on addressing the environment.
Course Outline
Money, socialites, Italian gardens, English gardens, French gardens, murder and madness.
Gardens designed for a new elite, the super-rich ‘Robber Barons'. Combined with the architecture of Stanford White, William Rutherford Mead and Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead and White, these gardens created a dazzling new American style. They looked to Europe for inspiration and created huge French style formal gardens and breathtaking Italianesque estates. The public parks became incredibly important, especially as the cities started to build up and the populations increased. The new need for recreational space led to the founding of Central Park in New York, the work of Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux. Literature and art of the period provide extra clues, such as the writing and gardens of Edith Wharton and the paintings of John Singer Sargent.
Due to the Coronavirus we were unable to continue teaching at Burgh House in London and switched to regular teaching via zoom.
Taught on zoom from 25th September 2020
10 week course
Money, socialites, Italian gardens, English gardens, French gardens, murder and madness.
From the Lemoine Loring House in Pasadena, California to the extraordinary Tiffany estate of Laurelton Hall in New York we will track the gardens designed for a new elite. Combined with the architecture of Stanford White, William Rutherford Mead and Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead, and White, the gardens created a dazzling new American style. Taking in the magnates and their creations such as William Randolph Hearst’s Hearst Castle and the establishment of Palm Beach.
Literature and art of the period provide extra clues: Mark Twain, the novels and gardens of Edith Wharton and the paintings of John Singer Sargent.
We will Investigate along the way the women who create and document the gardens. One of the founder members of the American Society of Landscape Architects, Beatrix Farrand, the photographer who recorded the images, Frances Benjamin Johnson and garden designer Ruth Bramley Dean, who designed the gardens for the now infamous, Grey Gardens of the East Hamptons.
A zoom course taught from June 4th 2020
10 week course
An unusual course in that it will take in European countries from 1500-1600, mainly focusing on Italy, France and England – our main protagonist is Catherine de’ Medici. Following her journey from the Vatican and a convent in Florence to the Valois Court of France. She took with her artists, architects, garden designers and occultists! The Renaissance gardens of Italy with their sculptures, fountains, grottoes and water play can be seen on a lavish scale used by Catherine in her ‘magnificences’.
Her ‘magnificences’ most often held in the gardens of her many palaces would include, ballets (she is credited with the invention), plays, huge amounts of scenery and incredible sights such as whales and giant tortoises. Her aim was not purely for fun and fantasy but was politically driven to promote the power of the Valois dynasty. The gardens themselves were already pleasure centres containing menageries, aviaries, water extravaganzas and exotic garden elements. The course will look at the influence her court had on the arts and gardens of England, and we will even investigate the food eaten and grown in the gardens. It’s serious but should be so much fun, it is going to be called ‘the bonkers Renaissance course’, because let’s be honest inventing ballet and introducing France to spinach and knickers is pretty bonkers.
A four week course taught in association with the Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution via zoom.
09 June 2020
Patronage and PowerIn the 15th Century The Medici were the owners of the largest banking house in Europe, their power and privilege was displayed in their patronage of artists and architects. They developed a new form of princely residence dedicated to health, leisure and the arts. This rural villa and garden was to be copied not only across Italy but over Western Europe. No longer fortified castles or the more basic farms of their contemporary Tuscans, the Medici took up the idea of the classic villa model as outlined by Cicero. We will look at the early villas by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi as places for otium.
16 June 2020
The Utens LunettesIn the late 16th century Giusto Utens produced a series of birds-eye view paintings of the Medici villas, their landscapes and gardens. They were commissioned by Fernando I Medici to decorate the Villa Artimino. Of the original seventeen, fourteen survive. We will take a detailed look at the fourteen paintings and the secrets that they hold. Mount Parnasus, automated sculptures, cascades and caves can all be found on close examination. The wonderful detailing of the paintings reveals the most ephemeral element of the gardens, the planting, which will be revealed and discussed.
23 June 2020
Myths, Grottoes and Monsters in the garden.
Villa di Castello, Pratolino and the Boboli Gardens will be investigated. These gardens contained grottoes, giants and monsters, all of which were part of an overall narrative. References to Ovid and his Metamorphoses can be found in these gardens (and paintings) commissioned by many of the Medici, especially Lorenzo de’ Medici. The contributions of Tribolo, Georgio Vasari and Bernardo Buontalenti as artists and designers cannot be understated, not all their work survives and indeed nor was it meant to, as their design skills were used also for fireworks and making stage sets for the gardens.
30 June 2020
Health, Wealth and PartiesIn our final session we will seek to discover how and why the gardens were used, and who was allowed access. Medici gardens were places of outdoor pursuits, hunting, jousting, games and parties. They contained menageries of exotic animals and birds. They were used as a ‘theatrical space’ for immensely sophisticated celebrations, with equestrian ballets, naumachias, with incredible firework displays created by Bernardo Buontalenti (who probably would have preferred to have used his skills as a military engineer, the fortifications of the port of Livorno were his). Recent research has discussed the Villa di Castello as being designed as ‘a place of healthful resort’ where Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici would visit in times of ill health. John Dixon Hunt suggests that gardens, such as that at Castello, were used as aide memoires to trigger responses in the garden visitor.
Taught at Burgh House Hampstead
From 9th January 2020
Thursdays 10.30 - 12.30pm
Course Outline
The rich history of Portugal, from the Romans and Moorish invaders and conquerors to the later Portuguese discoverers, have shaped the palaces and gardens in the most unique style. Plants brought back from voyages and the temperate climate have added a lush, green vegetation to the gardens in the south of the country. During this term we will read the diaries of the English travellers in Portugal, including those of William Beckford and Lord Byron’s account of his visits to palaces and landscapes. Gardens to be studied include that of Sir Francis Cook’s Monserrate, Quinta da Regaleira designed by the Italian set designer Luigi Manini and the Palacio dos Marqueses da Fronteira with its azulejos tiles and magnificent water tank.
Taught at Burgh House Hampstead
From 9th January 2020
Thursdays 1.30pm - 3.30pm
Course Outline
In corners of Italy are English and Italian gardens made by British residents, from the late 18th century up until present times. This term we shall discover botanic collections, gardens created for Italians by English designers, expats making gardens to remind them of home and others who looked only to Italy for their inspiration. Just north of Florence in the 19th century, the Englishman (although born in Italy) Frederick Stibberd, made his himself an English garden with temples, grottoes and fountains. The Sitwell’s created an Italian garden in Derbyshire and planted roses at Montegufoni. The Quaker Thomas Hanbury created with his brother the botanical collections of La Mortola In the early 20thc. Another botanic garden was made at Villa Taranto on the western shore of Lake Maggiore by the Scotttish Captain McEacharn. And in the 1970’s Lord Lambton was to be found garden making at Cetinale.
We will be visiting a botanical garden during the term.
Taught at The Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution
From the formality of the Dutch garden designs of William and Mary at Kensington Palace and Hampton Court we will trace the development of garden design. Through the ‘transitional’ work of Charles Bridgeman to the apogee of the classical Arcadian landscape of William Kent, via Lord Burlington and the Grand Tour. Using influential and significant gardens we will look at the social and cultural aspects of their creation.
Gardens to be investigated include Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Stowe, Claremont, Rousham, Chiswick House.
Designers/influencers include George London and Henry Wise, Charles Bridgeman, Lord Burlington, William Kent, Alexander Pope, John Vanbrugh
Taught at Burgh House, Hampstead
This term we welcome the return of Garden Historian and Classical Archaeologist, Michael Turner who will be delivering a special lecture.
Course Outline
From the Florentine Anglo-American gardens we look to further corners of Italy to see English gardens. Frederick Stibberd and his English garden with temples, grottoes and fountains and the Sitwells of Derbyshire at Montegufoni. The botanical collections of La Mortola and Villa Taranto and Lord Lambton at Cetinale making an English garden in the 1970’s.
We will be visiting a botanical garden during the term.
This term we will be joined by the prolific author, historian and critic, Tim Richardson who specialises in landscape gardens and art. He writes regularly for Country Life, The Daily Telegraph and Gardens Illustrated.
Course Outline
Starting in the North of Italy and ending in Sicily, we will discover the gardens of the House of Savoy. The lost or changed landscapes of 17th century Piedmont with the help of the Theatrum Sabaudiae. Looking beyond the Medici to the Strozzi and Sassetti clans and their villas. The magnificent Palazzo Farnese at Caprarola and the romantic island of Bisentina will reveal the gardens of the Farnese.
This term includes a visit to The National Gallery.
A ten week course At Burgh House.
The course looks at the writers, garden designers & garden owners based in and around Florence at the turn of the 20th century. We will examine the Renaissance gardens & villas they brought back to life and the gardens of their own design. We shall be studying amongst others; the architect and garden designer, Cecil Pinsent; the art historian and connoisseur Bernard Berenson; the writer Iris Origo, from her childhood at Villa Medici in Fiesole to the creation of her own garden La Foce. The gardens we will be studying include I Tatti, La Pietra, Le Balze and La Gamberaia.
January 2018
We are delighted to be joined by celebrated author and garden historian Helena Attlee, who will deliver a special lecture for both our courses in January. We meet in the comfortable and relaxed music room of Burgh House, coffee, conversation and special biscuits await you. No prior experience of garden history is necessary, please come and join us.
Thursday afternoons 1.30-3.30 pm
This term will track the development of gardens from around 1800 to 1900 and will include:
Landscape in literature including the Gothic Novel with works of Horace Walpole, William Beckford, Thomas Love Peacock, Jane Austen & Tom Stoppard.
Rothschild-shire
William Morris and the Industrial Revoltion
Public Parks and the Landscape of Death
10.30-12.30 pm
This eleven week term will track the development of gardens from around 1900 to 1950. The diverse themes and topics we will cover include: The Wild Garden, the Country House Ladies, the English Garden Abroad and will conclude with the Festival of Britain.
1.30-3.30 pm
Covering the period of design from the era of the great French gardens of Le Nôtre to the Picturesque gardens of the nineteenth century. Topics will include Louis XIV as Apollo, horticulture, plant collections and Dutch flower paintings.
The summer presents the opportunity to visit special historic gardens and houses within London and the Home Counties. We look forward to welcoming you to Burgh House.
View fullsize
View fullsize