THE PRACTICAL KITCKEN GARDEN:
Or, A New and Entire System of Directions For his Employment in the MELONRY, KITCHEN-GARDEN, AND POTAGERY, In the several Seasons of the Year. Being chiefly The Observations of a Person train'd up in the Neat-Houses or Kitchen-Gardens about London. Illustrated with Plans and Descriptions proper for the Situation and Disposition of those Gardens. To which is added, by way of SUPPLEMENT, The Method of Raising Cucumbers and Melons, Mushrooms, Borecole, Broccoli, Potatoes, and other curious and useful Plants, as practised in France, Italy, Holland and Ireland. And also, An account of the Labours and Profits of s Kitchen-Garden, and what every Gentleman may rea-sonably expect therefrom in every Month of the Year. In a Method never yet attempted. (one single horizontal line) The Whole Methodiz'd and Improv'd By STEPHEN SWITZER, Author of thePractical Fruit Gardiner. (one single horizontal line) (one single small horizontal line) Et quas Humus educat Herbis Fortunate fait (one single small horizontal line)Ovid Metam XV. (one single horizontal line) LONDON: Printed for Tho. Woodward, at the Half-Moon over-against St Dunstan's Church in Fleestreet. 1727.
FIRST EDITION: 198 x 130 mm. 3 engraved folding plates for plans of gardens. 1fep. Title Page. [1] 13 page Dedication to Lord Bathhurst. [1] I-XX The Preface. 12 pages The Contents. 1page The Supplement. 320 x 240 mm Plate 1. 1-424. Plate 2 next to page 52. 254 x 320 mm Plate 3 before page 363. 8 Pages Index. 1fep. Full dark brown calf binding. Raised bands on spine. Text block good condition. Overall a good copy.
- Stephan Switzer 1627 - 1745, was a prolific author of books on raising fruit and vegetables and gardens in general. He published, "The Nobleman, Gentleman's and Gardener's recreation of 1715". "A Compendious Method of raising vegetables of 1728". "The Practical Fruit Gardener of 1724". then this title on 1727. See blow the bio. for Switzer online from 'Parks and Gardens'. Stephen Switzer, landscape designer and author, was baptised on 25 February 1682 at Micheldever and Stratton parish church, Hampshire. He was the second of two sons of Thomas Switzer (born around 1697) who was a farmer. In 1699 Switzer was apprenticed to George London, who was the senior partner of Brompton Park Nurseries, the firm which dealt with hundreds of landscapes during the 17th and 18th centuries. London was in partnership at the nurseries with Henry Wise. At the Brompton Nurseries Switzer rose to be Lieutenant for a number of projects. During this time Switzer met and formed friendships with architects John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor, as well as Charles Bridgeman, a fellow landscape designer. It is likely that such bonds were made during the projects at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire and Castle Howard, Yorkshire. Switzer's design for Ray Wood at Castle Howard was the first of its kind in Britain, and had a network of serpentine walks that swept throughout the wood. Another of Switzer's designs was at Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire (1711-1718). There he created a landscape that featured a formal garden, encircled by an earthen bank. This formed a platform from which to view the 'improved' rolling working landscape beyond. The formal garden was made up of ten radial spikes terminating in bastions with a long avenue protruding from the centre, southwards, towards the groves. This design is remarkebly similar to that of the 'Manor of Paston' found in Switzer's Iconographica Rustica (1715). The three volumes had been made up of The Nobleman Gentleman and Gardeners Recreation (1715) which was one of Switzer's seminal works. In the 1720s Switzer married his wife Elizabeth, although there is little evidence that reveals her patronage. By the mid-1720s Switzer had taken premises at Westminster Hall and had become a public figure who wrote on modern techniques including fertilisers, hydraulics, and beneficial legumes. Switzer died on 8 June 1745 at his house at Millbank, Richmond. He left a son at St John's College, Cambridge, and was buried at St. Margaret's, Westminster.
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Modern category
ref number:
11171