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Seventeenth-century Water Gardens and the Birth of Modern Scientific thought in Oxford - Stephen Wass

Seventeenth-century Water Gardens and the Birth of Modern Scientific thought in Oxford

The Case of Hanwell Castle

(Autor)

Buch | Softcover
240 Seiten
2022
Oxbow Books (Verlag)
978-1-914427-16-9 (ISBN)
CHF 75,90 inkl. MwSt
The story of a water garden that became a crucible for the development of scientific thinking in 17th-century Oxford.
Based on a decade of archaeological investigation and historical research, this book tells the story of the Copes of Hanwell Castle in north Oxfordshire and the creation of a garden with links to the development of scientific thinking in Oxford in the late seventeenth century. New research using Robert Plot’s Natural History of Oxfordshire as a starting point has uncovered details of a remarkable family and their rise and tragic downfall, their social circle, that included some great names in the development of early scientific thinking, and their garden that in effect became a place dedicated to the wonders of technology.

 

The complex tale weaves together the activities of a royalist agent, Richard Allestree, a prodigious musician, Thomas Baltzar, John Claridge, a Hanwell Shepherd with a penchant for weather forecasting, and Sir Anthony Cope who in an atmosphere of secrecy and distrust began to gather together a community that eventually was named by Plot as The New Atlantis, a reference to a book published earlier in the century by Sir Francis Bacon in which he suggests a model for a Utopian science-focused society.

 

The book also chronicles the programme of archaeological excavation that has uncovered several unusual garden features and, most significantly of all, describes in detail the unique collection of seventeenth-century terracotta garden urns, an assemblage that is unparalleled in post-medieval archaeology. This collection was destroyed in a single episode of vandalism around 1675 and has been preserved in deeply buried deposits of mud and silt. Their analysis and reconstruction is opening new insights into the decorative schemes of seventeenth-century gardens. There is coverage of other gardens of the period and their surviving features as well as an examination of early science and how gardens impacted on its development in many ways.

Having completed his MA in historical archaeology at the University of Leicester, Stephen Wass established himself as a freelance consultant specialising in historic gardens. Much of the work he has undertaken has been for the National Trust including such major sites as Chastleton House, Packwood House, Croft Castle and most recently Stowe Landscape Gardens. This current volume has arisen from a programme of doctoral research at the University of Oxford.

Preface: Robert Plot and Sir Anthony Cope

1. Introduction

The Study of Gardens in Theory and Practice

Hanwell: Geology, Geography, Archaeology and History

2. The Sixteenth Century

William Cope and the Building of Hanwell House

The Origins of Early Modern Water Gardens

Water Gardens in the Sixteenth Century

3. The Seventeenth Century

Continental Engineers and their Influence

The Copes in Ascendancy

Walter Cope’s Water Maze

Francis Bacon, Gardening and The New Atlantis

Thomas Bushell and the Enstone Marvels

Other Early Seventeenth-Century Water Gardens

4. At Hanwell House

The Archaeology of the Gardens 1600-1660

Sir Anthony Cope, the Fourth Baronet

Sir Anthony Cope in his Social Setting

Hanwell, Cope and Plot

Sir Anthony’s Companions

The Archaeology of the Gardens 1660-1675

Reconstructing the House of Diversion

The Hanwell Pots and Other Finds

5. The End of it All

The Aftermath, the Family and Estate after 1675

The Archaeology of the Gardens from 1675 to the Present Day

6. Oxford, Science and Gardening

Oxford, Hanwell and Early Scientific Thinking

Gardens and Science

The Tangley Mystery and Hanwell as the New Atlantis

Conclusions

Erscheinungsdatum
Zusatzinfo B/w and colour
Verlagsort Oxford
Sprache englisch
Maße 185 x 246 mm
Themenwelt Sachbuch/Ratgeber Natur / Technik Garten
Geisteswissenschaften Archäologie
Geisteswissenschaften Geschichte Regional- / Ländergeschichte
ISBN-10 1-914427-16-5 / 1914427165
ISBN-13 978-1-914427-16-9 / 9781914427169
Zustand Neuware
Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR)
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