Since then I have done nothing to the lawn – except walk on it, look at it and think about it. To be frank, its condition is terrible. The grass, what is left, is lank and feeble. Where a few months ago it sprang resiliently to the upright position when trodden upon, now it lays down in surrender. Its green is not vital but sickly. There are worm casts everywhere, dark curls of slimy earth extruded from wormish bottoms and rendered into slippery smears wherever anyone has walked. I am beginning to wonder if tolerance of worms cannot be taken too far.
It is the evening of December 4th, a Thursday. The sun has shone all day from a sky of the palest eggshell blue, but without any warmth to lift the dampness which has settled like a sodden blanket on the outside world. The leaves lie dank and heavy, the branches of trees are slippery with the wet. The earth is dark and secret. Walking down to the bonfire, I seemed to feel the ground quaking beneath my feet. The tread of my boots produced a muted squelching sound, and left prints in the mud on the grass.
I wonder how I could ever have been so absurd as to think that I could create a greensward. Nevertheless, this morning I did something I have never done before. I took both the mowers from the shed, the Ransomes Ajax first, then the Hayter Harrier. I scraped the muck from the cutters and rollers and massaged them with an oily rag. I cleaned the dark crannies of their accumulations of dead matter, squirted oil into nipples, junctions and holes. For the first time in history, I managed to find the implement for removing the spark plug from the Hayter, which I decarboned with a wire brush and returned. Like a groom with favourite horses, I took my time, pausing now and then to admire the fine lines and robust build of my charges. Finally, I rubbed linseed oil into the wooden front roller of the Ajax. It was not obligatory, the manual said, but advisable to prevent cracking. I felt it was a gesture of commitment, perhaps even of penitence for past neglect.
It is dark now and the mowers are back in the shed, side by side, clean, sleek with oil, conspicuously cared for. I confess to feeling virtuous, having done my bit for them, repaid them, as it were. The grass still rebukes me though, for my pride and my carelessness and my dereliction. But I am consoled, because spring and summer will make all that right. I can see it now: the turf thick, smooth, springy, glowing in its green glory, offering itself up to the whirring motion of well-lubricated cutters. It is very forgiving stuff, grass.
If you enjoyed The Grass is Greener, check out this other great Annette Roome title.
Beginning life in the Sargasso Sea, the eel travels across the ocean, lives for twenty or so years, and then is driven by some instinct back across the ocean to spawn and die. And the next generation starts the story again. No one knows why the eels return, or how the orphaned elvers learn their way back. One man discovered, after many adventures, the breeding ground of all eels – and he is the hero of this book.
Eels were being caught and consumed 5000 years before the birth of Christ – Aristotle and Pliny wrote about them; Romans regarded them as a peerless delicacy; Egyptians accorded them semi-sacred status; English kings died of overeating them. There are many strange practices among eel fishers all over the world, and many great fortunes based upon the eel harvest.
The Book of Eels, a combination of social comment, biography and natural history, is also a fascinating and witty account of Tom Fort’s obsession with the eel, his journeying to discover the eel in all its habitats, and the people he meets in his pursuit.
Buy the ebook here
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bacon, Francis, Essays, or Counsels Civill and Morall, 1612.
Batey, Mavis, The Historic Gardens of Oxford and Cambridge, 1989
Baker, C. H. C. and M. I., The Life of James Brydges, Duke of Chandos, 1949.
Beale, Reginald, The Book of the Lawn, 1931.
Blomfield, R. and Thomas, F. Inigo, The Formal Garden in England, 1892.
Borman, H. and others, Redesigning the American Lawn, 1993.
Cobbett, William, The English Gardener, 1833.
Comito, Terry, The Idea of the Garden in the Renaissance, 1978.
Daniels, Stevie, The Wild Lawn Handbook, 1995.
Downing, Andrew Jackson, Rural Essays, 1853.
Evans, R. D. C., Bowling Greens, 1988.
Evelyn, John, Kalendarium Hortense.
Fiennes, Celia, The Journeys of Celia Fiennes, 1947.
Fish, Marjery, We Made a Garden, 1956.
Godfrey, Walter, Gardens in the Making, 1914.
Hadfield, Miles, A History of British Gardening, 1969.
Halford, David, Old Lawnmowers, 1982.
Harvey, John, Medieval Gardens, 1981.
Hibberd, James Shirley, The Amateur’s Flower Garden, 1878.
—, The Town Garden, 1859.
Hill, Thomas, The Profitable Art of Gardening, 1563.
Hyams, Edward, Capability Brown and Humphry Repton, 1971.
Jackson, Kenneth T., The Crabgrass Frontier, 1985.
Jacques, David, Georgian Gardens, 1983.
James, John, The Theory and Practice of Gardening, 1728.
Kemp, Edward, How to Lay Out a Small Garden, 1850.
Knight, Richard Payne, The Landscape, 1795.
Landsberg, Sylvia, The Medieval Garden, 1995.
Lees-Milne, James, The Earls of Creation, 1962.
Loudon, John Claudius, Encyclopaedia of Gardening, 1822.
—, The Suburban Gardener and Villa Companion, 1838.
Loudon, Jane, The Ladies Companion to the Flower Garden, 1846.
M’Intosh, Charles, The Practical Gardener, 1828.
McLean, Teresa, Medieval English Gardens, 1981.
Macky, John, A Journey Through England, 1714.
Mahnke, Frank H., Colour, Environment and Human Response, 1996.
Mason, William, The English Garden, 1783.
Markham, Gervase, Cheap and Good Husbandry, 1614.
Miller, Philip, The Gardener’s Kalendar, 1757.
Partridge, Michael, Farm Tools Through the Ages, 1973.
Pollan, Michael, Second Nature, 1991.
Price, Uvedale, Essays in the Picturesque, 1794.
Rea, John, Flora – A Complete Florilege, 1676.
Repton, Humphry, An Inquiry into the Changes of Taste in Landscape Gardening, 1806.
Robinson, William, The English Flower Garden, 1883.
—, The Wild Garden, 1894.
Sanecki, Kay, Old Garden Tools, 1979.
Scott, Frank Jessup, The Art of Beautifying Suburban Home Grounds, 1870.
Scott-Jenkins, Virginia, The Lawn – History of an American Obsession, 1994.
Shenstone, Unconnected Thoughts on Gardening, 1764.
Sitwell, Sir George, On the Making of Gardens, 1909.
Switzer, Stephen, The Nobleman, Gentleman, and Gardener’s Recreation, 1715.
Tann, Jennifer, Gloucestershire Woollen Mills, 1967.
Taylor, Geoffrey, Some 19th Century Gardeners, 1951.
Teyssot, Georges (ed.), The American Lawn, 1999.
Thacker, Christopher, The Genius of Gardening.
Tresemer, David, The Book of the Scythe, 1981.
Walpole, Horace, On Modern Gardening, 1780.
Waters, Michael, The Garden in Victorian Literature, 1988.
Wright, W. (ed.), Practical Gardening for Pleasure and Profit.
INDEX
The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader’s Search tools.
Abingdon 216
Academy of Armory (Holme) 35
Addison, Joseph 22, 54, 60, 69
Albertus Magnus 15, 23, 24, 33
All-England Croquet Club 128
Alton Towers 84
Amateur’s Flower Garden, The (Hibberd) 135, 137
André, Edouard 144
Andrews, Alan 213–16
Anglo-Saxons 17, 18
Angus, William 72, 73
Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) 42
Arch
imedean 128, 129–30, 136, 144
Ardsley, New York 160
Argyle, Prof. Michael 202
aristocrats 72–4, 77, 120, 133, 154, 175
Arlington 161–2
Arnold, Matthew 83
Art of Beautifying Suburban Home Grounds, The (Scott) 154
Art of Gardening (Worlidge) 40
Ashridge 74
Asterix 197–8
Atco 178, 183, 186, 225, 234
Bacon, Francis 36
Barber, Samuel 81
Bartholomew De Glanville 24, 25
Bate, John 130
Beale, Reginald 178–81
Beaulieu 214–15
Beloff, Prof. Halla 202–4
Benedictines 19–21
Better Homes and Gardens 163
Bingley Research Institute 181, 255
Birkenhead Park 138
Black and Decker 186
Blomfield, Reginald 173
Boccaccio, Giovanni 26
Bogo de Clare 16
Book of the Lawn, The (Beale) 178–9
Books of Hours 28
Bormann, Herbert 167
botany 45, 121, 182
Bowerman, Barry 261
bowling greens 23, 34, 39, 43, 44, 45, 48, 64, 149, 223–4 crown 222–3
Brasenose College, Oxford 44
Brentwood Golf Club, Long Island 161
Bridgeman, Charles 55, 56, 61
Brimscombe Mill 104–5, 114
Brithnod, Abbot 16
Broughton, Rhoda 140
Brown, Capability 61–2, 64, 68–71, 72, 73, 74, 255, 256, 260
Buckingham Palace 145
Budding, Edwin Beard 107–13, 115, 117, 118, 131, 221
Burke, Edmund 62
Burles, Dennis 216–19, 225
Burlington, Lord 54, 56
Cadbury Brothers 146
Cambridge colleges 44
camomile lawns 35
Canons, Middlesex 46, 50, 56
Carnegie, Lindsey 124
Carson, Rachel 167–8
Castle Howard 55 Celts 18
Central Park, New York 153
Challis, Thomas 129
Chambers, Sir William 68–9
Chandos, Duke of 45–6, 50, 56
Charles II 39, 40
Chatsworth 64, 133, 255–6
Chaucer, Geoffrey 26, 27
Chewing, Mr 250
Chiswick 56–7
Chiswick Gardens 127
Christchurch, Oxford 44
Clairvaux 22
Claremont 55
Clarendon 23
Clarissa Harlowe (Richardson) 66–7
Clark, Alan 226
classicism 55, 56–7
cloister garth 21, 24
clover 65, 136, 150, 156, 178, 218
Cobbett, William 25, 120, 135, 150
Cobham, Lord 61, 259, 260
Cocke, Gen. Hartwell 149
Coldwell Lawn Mower 159
Columbia mower 144
Complete Amateur Gardener, The (Thomas) 178
Conaty, Mr 128
Conway Castle 23
cottage gardens 143
Crabgrass Frontier, The (Jackson) 150
Crace, Jim 205–6
cricket grounds 95–6, 146
Crowley Invincible mower 144
crown bowling 222
Crystal Palace 143
Curley, Steve 257–8
Curtis, Mr 116
Curwen, Mr 82
Dahlman, Karl 184
D’Argenville, Antoine Joseph Dezallier 32, 47
Davis, Alexander Jackson 152
Davis, William 107
DDT 165, 168
De Vegetabilis (Albertus Magnus) 23
Deane lawnmower 127–8
Decameron (Boccaccio) 26
Deedes, Lord (Bill) 226–8
Dennis Brothers 91–7, 178, 186, 230–7, 244
Devonshire, Duke and Duchess of 254–5
Dickens, Charles 150
Doctor Cupid (Broughton) 140–2
Downing, Andrew Jackson 151–2
Drake, Sir Francis 35
Drayton Green 84
Duck, Michael 240, 242–4
Durdans 44
Dursley 111012
Eden, Garden of 15
Edward IV 34
Edward VII 145
Edwardian age 172, 175, 177
Egyptians 41
Eleanor of Castile 23
Elizabethan age 32, 35–6
Elvaston Castle 133
Ely 16, 18
Elyot, Thomas 25
Elysium Britannicum (Evelyn) 43
Empson, William 83
‘English Garden, The’ (Mason) 62
English Gardener, The (Cobbett) 25, 120
English Husbandman, The (Markham) 33
environmentalism 168–9, 170–1
Epsom 44
‘Essay on Modern Gardening’ (Walpole) 61
Essays (Bacon) 36–8
Essays on the Picturesque (Price) 69
Evelyn, John 41, 43, 68
Ferrabee, James 124–8, 130–2
Budding 108–20, 123, 125, 127–8, 240, 243
Improved Mowing Machine 113–14, 126
Noiseless Lawn Mower 126
Ferrabee, John 106–9, 111, 113, 115, 116, 118, 131
Field, John 45
Fiennes, Celia 44
Fish, Marjery 188
Fish, Robert 138
Fitzgerald, F. Scott 158
Flint, Charles 156
Flora (Rea) 41
Floure and the Leafe, The 26
Flymo 184–5, 186
Follows, Frederick 130
Fontainebleau 39
Formal Garden in England, The (Blomfield) 173
France 39–40, 47–8, 53
Freedom Lawn 168, 170
Frome, River 101, 104, 111
games, lawn 90, 218
Garden in Victorian Literature, The (Waters) 140
Garden Kalendar, The (Miller) 25
Gardener’s Chronicle 112, 126–9, 142, 182
Gardener’s Magazine 75, 109, 116–17, 118, 134, 138
gardening 29, 32, 77, 81, 120–1, 123, 126, 133, 176–7, 186–7, 189–90
Gardening Club of America 161, 162
Gardens in the Making (Godfrey) 173
gender 123, 164–5, 197–206, 228–9
geometric gardens 40, 54, 61
Georgian age 53–4, 75, 120
Gibb, James 63 Gilbert, Dr 2555
Gilpin, Revd William 67, 69, 79
‘Glory of the Garden, The’ (Kipling) 174–5
Godfrey, Walter 173
Golden Valley 101–5, 107
golf 160–1
Grace, W.G. 146
Granada 28
Grand Tour 55
Grasmere 81
Grassbox 239
grasses 136, 152, 156, 166, 191–2, 248–51
Great Exhibition (1851) 111, 125
Great Gatsby, The (Fitzgerald) 158–9
Great War 175–7, 180
green, symbolism of 22, 23
Green, Thomas, & Son 125, 127–8, 129, 130, 183, 186
Silens Messor 125, 132
steam-powered mower 145
Hadfield, Miles 29, 32, 46
ha-has 59, 61, 62, 73, 149
Hall, Andrew 240–3, 245
Hall Duck Collection 240–3
Hamilton, Charles 65–8
Hamilton, William 149
Hardy, Michael 245–6
Hardy, Thomas 83
Hartley, David 22
Hartley & Sugden Balmoral 144
Hartwell House, Bucks 63–4
Harvey, John 24
Hayter rotary mower 244, 261, 266
Hearne, Thomas 44
Henderson & Sons 137
Hennesy Book of Hours 28
Henry II 23
Henry III 23
Henry IV 34
Henry VII 29
Henry VIII 34
Hessayon, Dr David
49, 58, 190–4, 209, 248, 251, 264
Hibberd, James Shirley 134–7, 178, 181, 209, 249
Hill, Thomas 32–3
Hirst Charm 144
History of British Gardening (Hadfield) 29
Holme, Randle 35
Holt & Willis Easy 144
Honda 186, 228
Hopkins, Mr 255
Hopwood, Tony 232–7, 240
House Beautiful 162
How to Lay Out a Small Garden (Kemp) 138
Hudson, W.H. 172
Hugh of Fouilloy 22
Industrial Revolution 74, 104
Jackson, Kenneth T. 150
Jacobean age 34, 35–6
James, Henry 133, 140, 175, 262
James, John 47–52, 57, 58, 61, 173, 190
Jefferson, Thomas 67–8, 149–50
Jekyll, Gertrude 182
Johnson, Dr Samuel 25, 59–60
JP Engineering 178, 186, 245–6
Kalendarium Hortense (Evelyn) 41
Kemp, Edward 138
Kent, William 55, 56–7, 61
Kenwood 84
Kew Gardens 69, 125
Kinnaird, Lord 124
Kipling, Rudyard 174–5
Knight, Richard Payne 69, 134
labour 80, 86, 174–5, 177
Lady of the Unicorn tapestry 28
Lake District 81–2
lakes 64, 67, 73
Lamson-Scribner, F. 156, 158, 161, 166, 173
‘Landscape, The’ (Knight) 69
landscape gardening 56, 61, 62, 73
Lane Fox, Robin 142–3
Langley, Batty 57–9
Lasseter Fairy 145
lawn:
creation of 23, 33–4, 41, 49, 64–5, 152, 173, 179, 210–13, 248–52
definition 25
first 23, 27
lawn care 58, 79–80, 86, 187–8, 192–4
beating 41, 50
mowing 3–12, 93–6, 122, 123, 136, 143, 155, 167, 180–1, 197, 198, 202–4
rolling 41, 50, 63, 83
scarification 264 scything 41–3, 63, 73, 79–80, 110, 120, 129, 147, 152, 228
sweeping 79–80
tools 41, 43, 164, 219
top dressing 264–5
watering 192
lawn care industry 164–8, 170, 182
Lawn Institute 170, 171
lawn mowers 6–9, 91–3, 95–6, 230–47
American 128, 129–30, 144, 156
collecting 237–45