All Around Is Fairy Ground. Pleasure and the Regency Garden

Exquisitely illustrated in color, a fascinating study of gender, social mores, design, and horticulture in Regency gardens. 

Regency gardens dazzled with color, invention, and theatricality: trellises heavy with roses and jasmine, shrubberies designed for intrigue, and lawns enlivened with pools, grottoes, and fanciful ornaments. Yet behind this world of perfume and spectacle lay a striking social shift. In a domain long defined by men, women began to play an active role, influencing Humphry Repton and other designers to realize their visions of pleasure grounds. These gardens became stages for alfresco entertainments, displays of taste, and private encounters alike. This book offers the first sustained account of ornamental gardening in Regency Britain, revealing a vivid, feminine-inflected landscape where horticulture, fashion, and sociability intertwined―and where artistry still resonates two centuries later.