British Gardens in Time

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RHS Lindley Library Early Evening Talk with Katie Campbell Gardens have long been markers of social status, wealth and taste, this talk explores how four great British gardens also reflect the changing cultural values of their time. In the eighteenth century Lord Cobham used his garden at Stowe to express his growing disillusionment with the government he helped create; in the nineteenth century James Bateman used his plant collections at Biddulph Grange to proclaim his - increasingly untenable - belief in creationism; in the twentieth century the Messel family used their garden at Nymans to achieve social acceptability; in the twenty first century Christopher Lloyd used his garden at Great Dixter to provoke and antagonise Britain's horticultural establishment.