The Formal Garden in England

First published in 1892, this work by the architect Reginald Theodore Blomfield (1856-1942), illustrated by Francis Inigo Thomas (1865-1950), uses historical evidence to vindicate a classical approach to garden design, in which a house and its surroundings are kept in harmony. It is a response to the work of the gardener and journalist William Robinson (1838-1935), who had written vehemently in favour of romantic, naturalistic gardens. Closely linked to the burgeoning Arts and Crafts movement as secretary to the Art-Workers’ Guild under William Morris’ presidency, Blomfield had developed a theory of garden design which held that it should be a reflection of architectural order: honest, vernacular simplicity as opposed to the ‘wild garden’. Illustrative of the contemporary debate between architects and plantsmen, this instructive text, reissued in its second edition of 1892, captures a moment in this developing relationship in the years before Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll gave it new harmony.