Visions of Arcadia [antikvár]

ForewordI first visited the Villa d'Este 30 years ago, to be entranced, as travellers have been since the i6th century, by the drama of its cascades and fountains. Reading Visions of Arcadia has reawakened inspiring memories and made me long to return to this garden, and to many others: Isola Bella, the Villa Lante, Fontainebleau. Some of the gardens described here I have not seen, but with the help of the author's expressive prose and the lavish illustrations I can visualise them clearly.What comes across most vividly is the passion, the flair, the intelligence and the wit that went into the creation of these early surviving gardens. The span of May Woods' book is 350 years -a long time in gardening - and it is fascinating to discover how one style yielded to the next, and how the major European countries shaped these styles to suit their differing natural circumstances and national characteristics.Do these grand landscaped gardens hold any message for gardeners today, other than to command our admiration; I think they do, for in their ingenuity in making a vision fit the reality of the site, their passion for craftsmanship, their forging of an alliance between house and garden, architecture and nature, their delight in the unexpected jeu d'esprit, their use of light and shade and water, these landscape gardeners and their patrons are saying something universal to gardeners today, no matter how small their plot or restricted their budget. And new gardens like the late Gervase Jackson/Stops' in Northamptonshire show that, as May Woods writes, Each age has its own Arcadia.One of the cardinal principles behind the creation of these great gardens was expressed by the first truly Arcadian designer, Leon Battista Alberti, in 1452: Let all things smile and seem to welcome the arrival of your Guests. It is a precept that gardeners and garden designers should ever bear in mind.Rosemary Verey