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‘The sheer vulgar fatness of wealth’
‘There never was, I suppose, in the history of the world a time when the sheer vulgar fatness of wealth, without any kind of aristocratic elegance to redeem it, was so obtrusive as in those years...
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An Age of Transition?
William Strang, ‘The Temptation’, c.1899 ‘The habit of dividing history into epochs, each with its own label, is convenient but misleading. The business of the historian is to carve the past at the...
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Edwardian decay
‘Other people may see this country in other terms; this is how I have seen it. In some early chapter in this heap I compared all our present colour and abundance to October foliage before the frosts...
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Beyond Edward
Edward VII by Max Beerbohm ‘To call the years 1901 to 1910 the Edwardian era is misleading, mediating the complexity and discordancy of this decade through a single patriarchal figure. The whole field...
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Art Has No Elgar
Jacob Epstein, Maternity (for the British Medical Association Building), 1908 ‘ “Edwardian” is one of art-history’s unclaimed adjectives. No one name, no particular branch of artistic activity...
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Uncertain Futures
Vanessa Bell, ‘Abstract Painting’, c.1914 ‘In a large part, the uncertain future facing us early in the twenty-first century arose from the inventions, thoughts and transformations of those unusually...
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Crinoline, Chenille Nets, and Pork-Pie Hats
Irene Vanburgh in ‘Trelawny of the “Wells”‘, costume notes. ‘At last I have seen Pinero’s ‘Trelawny of the “Wells”’ and am not converted to crinoline, chenille nets, and pork-pie hats. How beauties in...
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‘The Miraculous Generation’
‘Potland’ by Joseph Pennell ‘Happily the inhabitants of the Five Towns in that era were passably pleased with themselves, and they never suspected that they were not quite modern and quite awake. They...
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Edwardian (Horti)culture Network: Introduction
Ethel Walker, ‘The Garden’, c.1899 (Bradford Art Galleries) Starting next Monday and running for a fortnight, the ECN blog will be featuring a series of extracts from the advice manuals, diaries,...
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Edwardian (Horti)culture 1: How to Begin
‘Down the Garden’ by Spencer Gore, 1912 (Museum of London) ‘Many people who love flowers and wish to do some practical gardening are at their wit’s end to know what to do and how to begin. Like a...
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Edwardian (Horti)culture 4: The Italian Garden
‘At Torre Galli’ by John Singer Sargent, 1910 (Royal Academy of Arts) ‘The cult of the Italian garden has spread from England to America, and there is a general feeling that, by placing a marble bench...
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Edwardian (Horti)culture 5: Beware the Iron Bench
Queen Victoria in the Garden, c.1898 ‘It is with real sorrow that we see so many survivals of an era of not particularly good taste, in the shape of iron benches. It is their undoubted durability which...
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Edwardian (Horti)culture 6: Depression and Disappointment
‘A View from the Window at 6 Cambrian Road, Richmond’ by Spencer Gore (The Fitzwilliam Museum) ‘You must not, any of you, be surprised if you have moments in your gardening life of such profound...
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Edwardian (Horti)culture 7: Exercising the Imagination and Assessing the...
‘Bar House Garden, Beverley’ by Frederick William Elwell, 1914 (Beverley Art Gallery) ‘Half the interest of a garden is the constant exercise of the imagination. You are always living three, or indeed...
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Edwardian (Horti)culture 8: The Rebellious Gardener
‘The Gardener’s Daughter’ by Charles Conder, 1902-3 (Manchester City Galleries) ‘How I loathe being ill! How I fight it, rebel against it, garden up to the very last moment and get up tottering to go...
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Edwardian (Horti)culture 9: The Dahlia’s Duty
Adrian Allinson, ‘Dahlias’ (Salford) ‘The Dahlia’s first duty in life is to flaunt and to swagger and to carry gorgeous blooms well above its leaves, and on no account to hang its head’ (Gertrude...
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Edwardian (Horti)culture 10: Malignent Magentas
‘The Blue Butterflies’ by William Nicholson, 1913 (The National Trust) ‘I am always surprised at the vague, not to say reckless, fashion in which garden folk set to work to describe the colours of...
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Edwardian (Horticulture) 12: Dream Gardens
‘Nude in a Garden’ by Frederick Cayley Robinson, c.1895 (National Museums, Liverpool) ‘One of the most exquisite of Mrs. Browning’s poems is The Lost Bower; it is endeared to me because it expresses so...
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In the Words of Arnold Bennett (1): The Resplendent Egg-Stand
‘A few days later Constance was arranging the more precious of her wedding presents in the parlour; some had to be wrapped in tissue and in brown paper and then tied with string and labelled; others...
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In the Words of Arnold Bennett (2): A Singular Dog
A Late Victorian Poodle ‘Presently she saw a singular dog. Other people also saw it. It was of the colour of chocolate; it had a head and shoulders richly covered with hair that hung down in thousands...
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