cylinder 110, 125–6, 131
design advances 124, 125–6, 129–30, 144–5, 177, 183–6
electric 184–5
hover 184–5
industry 124–31, 144, 177–8, 183, 186
petrol-driven 145–6, 177–8
pony-mower 124–5, 128, 141, 242
prototype 108–15
rotary 183–4
screw 129–30
steam-powered 145, 146
see also under individual makers
Lawrence, Mrs 84–6
Leasowes, The 59
Lee, Sir Thomas 63
Legend of Good Women (Chaucer) 26
Le Nôtre, André 39, 40, 47
Levitt, William 163
Levittown, Long Island 163
Lewis, John and Joseph 105, 107
Leyland Steam Motor Company 145
Life Magazine 167
Lindley, John 126
Lister, George 112
literature 26–7, 42, 139–42, 158–9
see also poetry
Llewellyn Park 152–3
Lloyds of Letchworth 220–1
Paladin 186, 219, 221, 225, 244, 258
Lockner, Stefan 28
London County Cricket Club 146
Lorris, Guillaume de 27
Loudon, Jane 75, 123, 134, 136, 249
Loudon, John Claudius 72, 75–81, 84–6, 116–17, 121–3, 134
Louis XIV 39, 40
Luxborough, Lady 59
Madonna in the Rose Arbour (Lockner) 28
Mansfield, Earl of 84
Markham, Gervase 33–4, 37
Marvell, Andrew 42–3
Mason, Revd William 62, 64, 69, 134
Merrick, A. 109, 118
middle ages 16–17, 26–30, 34
middle classes 74–7, 120, 121, 133, 163
Mills, Charles B. 163–4, 170
Mollet, André 39
monasteries 18–23, 31
Mongredieu, A. 137
Monticello 68, 149
Moor Park 44
morality 60, 75, 76, 117, 122, 134, 148, 149, 151, 153, 155, 156, 158, 163, 169
moss 136, 178, 200, 209–10, 218
mounds 37, 44
Mount Vernon 149
Mumstead Wood 182
Napoleon III 125
Nature 54, 58, 60, 60, 121, 143, 152, 199, 206
Nebot, Balthasar 63
New College, Oxford 44
New Lawn Expert, The (Hessayon) 191
New Principles of Gardening (Langley) 57
New York Times 169
Newton, Sir Isaac 44
Nobleman, Gentleman, and Gardener’s Recreation, The (Switzer) 57
Norman Conquest 18, 29
Observations on Man (Hartley) 22
Observations on Several Parts of England (Gilpin) 69
‘Of Gardens’ (Bacon) 36–8
Old Lawnmower Club 238–9
Olmsted, Frederick Law 153
Painshill 65–8
painting 26, 28, 63–4, 70
Palladio, Andrea 57
Palumbo family 217
Paradise Lost (Milton) 25
parterres 46, 48, 58, 63, 74
Paxton, Joseph 126, 133, 138, 142, 143, 255
Pembroke College, Oxford 44
Pepys, Samuel 39, 143
pests 165, 168, 178, 179–80, 193, 200–1
Pettigrew, Mr 127
Philosophical Inquiry into … the Sublime and the Beautiful (Burke) 62
Phoenix Ironworks 106, 107, 113–15, 125, 127
Picksley, Sims Imperial 144
picturesque movement 67, 69, 74, 79, 82
Pinckney, Mrs 149
Pinturicchio 28
pleasure gardens 23, 24, 28, 139
Pliny 17
poetry 26, 42–3, 55–6, 62, 82–3
Pollan, Michael 148, 169
Pope, Alexander 54, 55–6, 68, 133
Port Lympne 182
Portrait of a Lady, The (James) 140
Practical Gardening for Pleasure and Profit (ed. Wright) 176
Prestcott Westcar, Mr 146
Price, Revd R. 129
Price, Sir Uvedale 69–70, 82, 134
Pugh, Charles H. 178
Qualcast 178, 183, 185, 186
Radcliffe, Mr 129
Randall, H.A. 106
Ransome, Arthur 160
Ransome, James 145, 146
Ransomes 126, 130, 131, 183, 186, 228, 234
Ajax 246–7, 266
Automaton 130, 131
Budding 113, 119, 124, 243
Certies 96, 258
Little Gem 130
Mastiff 258
motor mowers 145, 177
Rea, John 41
Redisigning the American Lawn (Bormann) 168
Regent’s Park 125
Repton, Humphrey 70, 73–4
Richard II 34
Richardson, Samuel 66
Richmond Palace 55
Riverside, Chicago 153
Robinson, William 143
Rohde, Eleanor Sinclair 147
‘Rolling the Lawn’ (Empson) 83
Roman de la Rose (de Lorris) 27, 29
Romans 17–18, 42
Rothery, James 221–6
‘Rural Essays’ (Downing) 152
Russell family 45
Rydal Mount 82
Sackville-West family 182
St Albans 37
St Gall 21
St James’s Park 39
St John’s College, Oxford 260–2
Samuelson & Co 125, 127, 242, 267
Sapperton 103
Sassoon, Sir Philip 182
Schery, Robert W. 170
Science Museum 243
Scott, Frank Jessup 153, 154–5, 170
Scott, O.M., & Sons 161, 163–4
Seats of the Nobility (Angus) 72
Seats of the Nobility and Gentry (Watts) 72
Second Nature (Pollan) 169
Second World War 162, 182
seed 49, 58, 65, 135, 136, 150, 159, 161–2, 173, 251
Shaftesbury, Earl of 84
Shakespeare, William 25
Shanks, Alexander, & Sons 124–5, 127–30, 136, 183, 186
motor mowers 145, 178
pony mower 242
Shay Rotoscythe 183–4 sheds 5–6, 201
Shenstone, William 59–60, 66
Shread, John C. 168
Silent Spring (Carson) 168
Sissinghurst 182
Small House at Allington, The (Trollope) 139–40
Spectator 54
Spergula (spurry) 137
statuary 45, 46, 58, 63, 64, 84
Stevens, Mrs 44
Stowe 61, 257–60
Stroud 102, 107, 243
Stuart age 44
Suburban Gardener and Villa Companion (Loudon) 76
suburbia 77, 133, 138, 146, 150–5, 163, 172, 174
Suffolk Punch mower 183
Sumner, James 145
Supplee Hardware Co. 144
Switzer, Stephen 57–9
Taylor, Frederick Winslow 166
Taylor, Samuel 118
Tempest, The (Shakespeare) 25
Temple, Sir William 34, 44
temples 54, 55, 56–7, 63, 67, 77, 84
Thames-Severn canal 102, 103, 104
Theory and Practice of Gardening, The (James) 46–52
Thomas, H.H. 178
Thrupp Mill 106–7, 108, 111, 243
Tolstoy, Leo 42
topiary 45, 54, 58, 63, 64
Town Gardener, The (Hibberd) 135, 137
town gardens 135
Tradescant, John 45
Trentham 133
Trinity College, Cambridge 44
Trollope, Anthony 139
Truman, Harry 162
Tudor age 31, 32
Tuileries 39
turf 41, 49, 120, 135, 159, 166
turfing tools 41, 43
Twickenham 55–6
Unconnected Thoughts on Gardening (Shenstone) 60
United States 68
golf clubs 160–1
lawns 148–71, 181
mowers 128, 129–30, 144, 156, 183, 242
turfgrass industry 164–8, 170
US Congress 157
US Department of Agriculture 156, 160, 161
US Golf Association 160, 161
Vanbrugh, Sir John 55
Vaux, Calvert 153
Victoria, Queen 132, 133, 146
Victorian age 75, 121, 124, 142–3, 146, 172
Villa Palmieri 26
Virginia, University of 150
Waite, Burnell & Huggins Excelsior 144
Walker, Mrs E.M. 220–1
Walker, Richard 220–1
walks:
gravel 33, 34, 37, 38–9, 40, 44–5
turf 34, 44, 173
Waller, George, & Sons 114
Walpole, Horace 57, 61, 68, 133
Washington, George 149
Waters, Michael 140
Watts, William 72, 73
We Made a Garden (Fish) 188
Webb 186 Wednesfield Conservative Club 222–3
weeds 165, 179, 192–3, 200, 219, 225–6, 253–4, 262, 264
Westminster, Palace of 23
Whately, Thomas 134
White, Katharine S. 248
White House 169–70
wild flowers 191, 254–6
Wilde, Oscar 53
William and Mary 45
Wilton House 129
Windermere 82
Windsor Castle 23
Woburn 44, 45
Wood & Sons 125
Wooton, Sir Henry 38
Wordsworth, Dorothy 82
Wordsworth, Mary 81
Wordsworth, William 81–2, 84
Worlidge, John 40, 41
Wotton, Keith 239
Wright, W. 176–7
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The idea for this book came from a visit to my father-in-law’s home, during which I suggested to him – quite wrongly – that his lawn was being sabotaged by moss. His outrage at the notion set me thinking about Englishmen and their grass. I am grateful to him, and to my wife Helen, for that and much else besides.
I would also like to express my thanks to: Pippa Lewis, for her invaluable helping hand; Diana Farley, for letting me make use of the indispensable material in her dissertation ‘The Development and Use of the Lawn Mower’; Alan Andrews, Lord Deedes, Tony Hopwood, James Rothery, Denis Burles, Andrew Hall, Michael Duck, Steve Curley and Michael Hardy for entertaining me and giving generously of their time; my friends Jeremy Paxman and Stephen Taylor, for reading some of the manuscript and offering their enthusiastic encouragement; Stephen and Jane Lewis for their hospitality; the staff of the Royal Horticultural Society Library, the Reading University Library, the Museum of English Rural Life and Stroud Museum; Barry Bowerman at St John’s College, Oxford, Jack Briggs, Jim Crace, Roger Evans, Keith Wotton, Halla Beloff, Michael Argyle and Duncan Snelling; Lloyds of Letchworth, Ransomes of Ipswich and Atco-Qualcast; and, finally, to Susan Watt of HarperCollins, for her perceptiveness, sympathy and good humour.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tom Fort has spent most of his working life with BBC Radio News. His interests, apart from lawns, include fishing and cricket, and he is the fishing correspondent for the Financial Times. Also the author of The Far From Compleat Angler, Tom Fort now lives in Oxfordshire and is currently working on his next book, Thin Heads: A History of the Eel.
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