A beautiful coffee table book covering the extraordinary garden that is Chatsworth. Thoroughly engrossing with plenty of detail about the history of the property (which is long and illustrious) and the improvements made by the Duchess of Devonshire during her 50 plus years of stewardship.
It was by chance that I found this book, sitting on a reduced stock table and on a whim thought I’d give it a go. It certainly didn’t disappoint. The only mystery for me is why it was reduced in the first place! The book is 190 odd pages and is packed full of high quality colour photographs. It plots the evolution of the garden from inception, in 1555, and how it has been shaped by the successive Dukes and gardening styles of the day. Drawings and images from the past are blended with current day photographs providing visual clues to the garden’s transformation.
I’m a total sucker for any book which provides a good map of the garden. I love to track my progress around the garden as I’m reading each chapter. This book has a delightful map located on the inside front and back cover making it very easy to refer back to.
Chatsworth has been influenced over the years by many famous garden designers and plantsmen, including George London, Henry Wise, Capability Brown and Joseph Paxton. Paxton’s contribution to the garden and to horticulture at large is enormous and makes for great reading.
I can’t recommend this book enough. It even inspired me to fork out a small fortune to go and visit the garden in person. But that is a story for another day.