Author: STEUART, Sir Henry.
Title: The Planter's Guide; or a practical essay on the best method giving immediate effect to wood, by the removal of large trees and underwood;
Description: Edinburgh, Blackwood &c 1828. Octavo, uncut in original cloth backed boards, printed spine label; [8],xxii,473pp & publisher's list, 5 plates, the frontispiece double page. A little spotting of the plates. ¶ First edition; not a rare book but a pretty outstanding copy and not unimportant in the history of landscape. Steuart sits for the most part in the mainstream of the picturesque though he was savaged for his advocacy of the oval and circle as a natural form - which hearkens back to earlier platonic ideals. I'm told this slip of judgment was excised from later editions. Where his influence is important is in his practical advice, drawn from his own work on his estate at Allanton, showing how the removal and replanting of large trees made feasible the re-ordering of entire landsapes. Re-ordering nature is of course nothing new but it had taken vast amounts of money, labour and, most important, time. Steuart's methods offered, comparatively, something close to instant gratification.

Keywords: landscape gardens botany forestry trees aboriculture c19th Scotland