QBARS - v13n3 Book Review: 'The Gardens In The Royal Park At Windsor'

Book Review
by Rudolph Henny

The Gardens In The Royal Park At Windsor, By Lanning Roper, 128 pp., Doubleday & Co.

The author, Lanning Roper, is well qualified to record the making of this vast but comparatively new garden, since he was at hand almost at the time of its inception. Throughout the work the details of the garden layout and the plant material used are described, never in a humdrum or mechanical way but with interest and excitement. You will find yourself engrossed in the anticipation of the gardens completion, as season after season rolls by but of course, such will not be the case, for literally hundreds of acres still remain unplanted, and years will pass before the available area is eventually used.

The chapters on the acquisition and placing of the large rhododendrons will be of great interest to rhododendron fanciers. Fine forms and specimens of species and hybrids were placed so well under the direction of Sir Eric Savill that today after so short a time they create the appearance of having always been there.

The numerous monochrome plates attain a very high standard, and the forty-five large color plates of garden scenes, and specimen plants in the garden are as fine as any I have ever seen.