The Secret Life of the Georgian Garden : Beautiful Objects and Agreeable Retreats

Now in paperback, The Secret Life of the Georgian Garden offers a fascinating account of life and landscapes in Georgian Britain. Kate Felus’s examination of an enormous array of primary sources reveals, in scintillating detail, the untold secrets these gardens held. The Georgian Garden, as Felus shows, bore witness to the salubrious and the scandalous: from the installation of cold water therapy baths, to garden parties, to the illicit affairs between masters and maids the Georgian Garden – and the experiences within it – is unveiled here as a centrepoint of high society.

It reveals its previously untold secrets from early morning rides through to amorous evening liaisons.

It explains how by the 18th century there was a desire to escape the busy country house where privacy was at a premium, and how these gardens evolved aesthetically, with modestly-sized, far-flung temples and other eye-catchers, to cater for escape and solitude as well as food, drink, music and fireworks. Lavishly illustrated with over fifty monotone and colour illustrations, this book unearths the previously untold secrets of the Georgian gardens.