Gertrude Jekyll and the Country House Garden: From the Archives of Country Life

This is the first book in over two decades devoted to the most important garden designer of the twentieth century. Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) laid the basis for modern garden design and is credited with popularizing an informal, naturalistic look in counterpoint to the rigid, formal landscapes of the Victorian era. Her collaboration with Edwin Lutyens produced seminal garden masterpieces of the Arts & Crafts movement, including Hestercombe and Folly Farm.

Also known as a prolific and influential writer, Jekyll contributed more than a hundred articles to Country Life and designed three gardens for the publication's founder, Edward Hudson. As a result, the Country Life archive has an unrivaled record of her work. This book includes a combination of both archival black-and-white and contemporary color photographs highlighting a selection of the more than 350 gardens Jekyll created.

The book is organized in four sections and then concludes with an extensive bibliography and index.

Introduction: Biographical overview: family, training, early influences, travel, homes; Accomplishments as an artist, gardener, designer, and writer; Circle of friends: artists, gardeners, architects, and writers; importance of their personal gardens, such as Gravetye Manor and Warley Place; Relationship with Country Life, Hudson, E. T. Cook, Robinson, Tipping, Weaver, Hussey; Importance of GJ's articles, books, and editorial activities related to Country Life Home and Garden: Discussion of Munstead Wood: its design, development, role of Lutyens, role played in Jekyll's books and articles for Country Life; visuals b/w, autochromes, and new color. Gardens of Lutyens and Jekyll: Discussion of their working and personal relationship; Jekyll's style with Lutyens design; progression of their partnership; Examples include: Orchards (1899), Tigbourne Court (1899), Goddards (1899), Deanery (1901), Bois des Moutiers (1904), Millmead (1905), Marsh Court (1905), Folly Farm (1906), Lambay (1907), Hestercombe (1908), Lindisfarne (1911), Gledstone (1925), Queen's Dolls' House (1924) Gardens for Small Country Houses: Jekyll's garden design style, her work with other architects, gardens she wrote about in Country Life, and influence on other designers; Examples include: Owlpen Manor, Little Boarhunt and Durford Edge (Triggs); Mounton House (Tipping); Hurtwood House and Westbrook (Turner); Manor House at Upton Grey (Newton), Townhill Park (Guthrie); Valewood Farm, Woodhouse Copse, (Oliver Hill) Garden Ornament: common features in period gardens drawn from Jekyll's books Wall and Water Gardens, Gardens for Small Country Houses, and Garden Ornament, with her comments; Examples of pergolas, arbors, water features, garden houses, ornament, etc., such as Iford, Easton, (Peto); Deanery, Heywood, Marsh Court (Lutyens); Mathern and Mounton (Tipping); Leasowes and other Cotswold houses (Gimson et al); Little Boarhunt (Triggs), and more.

Judith B. Tankard is a well-known landscape historian, author and preservation consultant. She received an M.A. in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University and taught at the Landscape Institute, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, since 1987. Her articles and book reviews have been published in many magazines, including "Hortus," "Apollo" and "Country Life." She lectures regularly both in the United States and Britain. She is the author or co-author of nine illustrated books on landscape history, including most recently "Beatrix Farrand: Private Gardens, Public Landscapes" and "Gardens of the Arts and Crafts Movement."