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"A fascinating literary foray" - Canadian Gardening "This rarefied botanical pursuit is usually considered a British eccentricity, but Ms. Whittingham has turned up much proof that it reached American shores." - The New York Times "One of those remarkable tales you never knew you needed to read and that, once begun, you never want to put down" - Dallas Morning News Pteridomania or Fern Fever took a frantic hold in Britain from the 1840s. It was a craze fostered by an array of books and magazines and special equipment designed for fern hunting trips and the cultivation of the finds in delicate fern cases. Sarah Whittingham has searched every nook and cranny for her subject, finding ferns in splendid glazed ferneries, Pulhamite grottoes and decoratively across every imaginable surface in the Victorian home. You would sit on your Coalbrookdale 'Fern and blackberry' garden bench and sup from your Ridgway 'Maiden Hair Fern' dinner service. The industrious Victorians lavished much love and care (and knowledge) on their beautiful fern albums. This ravishing book shines a sympathetic light on an enthusiasm that looks as if it might well take hold again.
Fern Fever (or Pteridomania, to give it its official name), hit Britain between 1837 and 1914 and peaked between 1840 and 1890. Although in previous centuries ferns played an important role in customs and folklore, it was only in this period that they were coveted for aesthetic reasons and that man's passion for them reached its zenith. The craze for collecting ferns reached such epidemic proportions that it affected the very existence of some species. The fern craze started to gather momentum in the 1840s; books and magazines maintained that fern growing was a hobby that anyone could enjoy as ferns would grow in the glazed fernery, garden, shady yard, window box or even indoors in Wardian Cases. The mania also spread from the living plant to depicting it in architecture and the decorative arts. Even roads, villas and terraced houses were named after the fern. This book, the first to deal exclusively with the subject for nearly forty years, looks at the how the craze developed, the ways in which ferns were incorporated into garden and home, and the spread of the fern through Victorian material and visual culture.
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Classic British Cooking is a collection of our very best national and regional dishes. With over 300 recipes, it includes both timeless favourites and forgotten gems. It covers everything from soups and fish dishes to sauces and sides, from vegetable and meat courses to puddings, breads and jams. Try delicious recipes for potted crab, slow-roasted pork belly, steamed ginger pudding and damson ice cream. Make the most of seasonal British produce with tasty chutneys and syllabubs. Bake a delicious piece of history with a Fidget Pie or Whittingham Button biscuits. Throughout, the author uncovers the fascinating history behind many dishes, from the Indian-influenced Kedgeree to the humble but delicious Toad in the Hole. Discover how medieval pottage became soup and how desserts like rice pudding and Eton mess became all-time favourites. Both practical and inspirational, this is a celebration of the best of British cooking past and present. This book was previously published as The National Trust Complete Traditional Recipe Book.
Gardening became a popular pastime in Victorian Britain with the rise of suburban gardens and a passion for the outdoors. New plant introductions from abroad brought a greater variety of plants, while improvements in technology made gardening more accessible. Gardening books and magazines spread the appeal and debate raged over the merits of colour and order versus wild and natural. The large and impressive gardens of country houses were emulated in suburban settings as the appeal of gardens and gardening spread to the masses, while the creation of public parks introduced green spaces to grey cities. As with architecture, Victorian gardens underwent a 'battle of the styles', and an explorati...
The Arts and Crafts Movement espoused values of simplicity, craftsmanship and beauty quite counter to Victorian and Edwardian industrialism. Though most famous for its architecture, furniture and ornamental work, between the 1890s and the 1930s the movement also produced gardens all over Britain whose designs, redolent of a lost golden era, had worldwide influence. These designs, by luminaries such as Gertrude Jekyll and Sir Edwin Lutyens, were engaging and romantic combinations of manor-house garden formalism and the naive charms of the cottage garden – but from formally clipped topiary to rugged wild borders, nothing was left to chance. Sarah Rutherford here explores the winding paths and meticulously shaped hedges, the gazebos and gateways, the formal terraces and the billowing border plantings that characterised the Arts and Crafts garden, and directs readers and gardeners to where they can visit and be inspired by these beautiful works of art.