GEORGE PARKYNS'S 'ENTWURFE ZU ANLAGEN ... IMENGLISCHEN LANDSCHAFTSSTYL'

摘要

George Parkyns's Six Designs for Improving and Embellishing Grounds, with Sections and Explanations (London, 1793) has designs that are strongly reminiscent of Lancelot Brown's work. A German edition of the book came out in Leipzig in 1796, titled Entwurfe zu Anlagen und Verschonerungen der Landsitze und grossen Garten, im englischen Landschaftsstyle. At that time mid-European garden owners had little practical information on how to lay out their gardens in the 'English Taste', so Parkyns's treatisewas certainly welcome, especially as it provided very clear advice on how to create landscape gardens in the newest, i.e., Brownian, manner. However, in 1796 as Parkyns's Entwurfe ... was published, the Napoleonic Wars began to take their toll on all cultural pursuits on mainland Europe, and the inhabitants of the war-torn countries cannot have spared much thought to their gardens at all. In 1806 Parkyns's book was listed in a bibliography of new German books on gardens and flowers. It seems, indeed, tohave stood out as the only really informative publication on laying out gardens in the English style that was available to mid-European readers at that time; a reprint had already been brought out in 1805.