GEORGIAN WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR GARDEN

HOW TO ‘IMPROVE’ YOUR GARDEN

Whether cottage, rectory or grand country pile, Austen’s inhabitants are all keen garden fixer-uppers. Here’s how to improve to the tastes of Ms Austen

1 Add a shrubbery Austen characters delight in a place to take a turn (and the benefit of privacy). One of Elinor and Edward’s tasks as a married couple is “to project shrubberies”.

2 Be wary of fashion The radical influence of Humphry Repton – successor to ‘Capability’ Brown – is reflected in Sense and Sensibility’s John Dashwood swapping the “old walnut trees” for a greenhouse, and Rushworth in Mansfield Park happily cutting down “two or three fine old trees to create a prospect”.

3 Watch your budget Sensible Edmund Bertram gives his parsonage “the air of a gentleman’s residence without heavy expense.”

4 See gardens as an extension of personality Lizzie gains appreciation of Darcy at Pemberley, “where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste.”

5 Consider the added benefits of improvements Gardening is one of Mr Collins’ pleasures. It’s perhaps unsurprising that his wife Charlotte “encouraged it as much as possible”.