BOOKS
The Reviewer
A selection of the best writing on the shelves this month
The Eighth Wonder of the World: Exbury Gardens and the Rothschilds by Lionel de Rothschild and Francesca Murray Rowlins, Exbury Gardens, £30
Some 24,000 plants are recorded as growing at the Exbury Gardens, situated on the banks of the Beaulieu river in Hampshire. Of these, 13,000 are rhododendrons, a figure that points to the rich, 100-yearold history of this property, recorded here by Francesca Murray Rowlins, garden writer and historian, and Lionel de Rothschild, chairman of the Exbury Gardens Trust and grandson of Lionel Nathan de Rothschild (1882-1942), who bought Exbury in 1919. Gardening was in the blood of Lionel Nathan de Rothschild, who described himself as a “banker by hobby but a gardener by profession”. He, his wife Mariloo, and a constellation of gardeners, breeders and plant-hunter-explorers passionately developed Exbury into one of the most important gardens in the country, making significant contributions to horticulture in doing so. And it is an ethic that has persisted to this very day. This is a detailed account of the work at Exbury that will captivate those curious about ericaceous plants, as well as readers more broadly interested in interwar society. Anecdotes and images from The Rothschild Archive bring an idiosyncratic cast of characters to life, while a foreword by HRH The Prince of Wales alludes to the many royal associations this garden has enjoyed over the decades.
A Tree A Day
WORDS VIVIENNE HAMBLY
by Amy-Jane Beer Batsford, £20
With the autumn winds beginning to blow the leaves from the boughs, Amy-Jane Beer reflects on the life of trees as told through a mixture of science, folklore, history and art. This is an opportunity to visit some of the world’s most wonderful trees from the comfort of an armchair. Entries represent such far-flung places as the Yemeni island of Socotra, where the cucumber tree (Dendrosicyos socotranus) is protected, and Juneau, Alaska, which is widely populated with western hemlock trees (Tsuga heterophylla). Not all entries relate to specific trees, however. There are also thoughts on mycorrhizae; an account of goats that climb the branches of Moroccan argan trees (Argania spinosa) to eat its tasty fruits; and a simple technique for measuring tree height. If the collection is at times a little disparate, it is compensated for by the breadth and interest of the subject matter.
Bedside Companion for Gardeners by Jane McMorland Hunter Batsford, £20
If the past 18 months has led to an unhealthy mobile-phone habit at bedtime, this anthology of garden writing could be the remedy. Jane McMorland Hunter has gathered 366 digestible reads, some no more than a few lines, spanning fact, fiction, fantasy and experience. Contributions come from John Milton, Edward Thomas and Gertrude Jekyll, among others, with entries grouped seasonally. While Keats’ ode ‘To Autumn’ is an inevitable inclusion, consider, on 16 October, the advice of Mrs Earle, in Pot-Pourri from a Surrey Garden, of 1897: ‘It is a very good plan, when you want to cut a new bed or alter the shape of an old one, to shuffle along the wet dewy grass on an October morning – and this leaves a mark which enables you very well to judge the size, shape, and proportion – before you begin to cut your beds out.’ OCTOBER 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 131
