Category: Landscape

EP92: The Thing About Mr. Knightley's Strawberries

6/19/2024

The strawberries are ripe, so gather up your best bonnet and your beribboned basket and head on down to Knightley's U-Pick Farm. We've got all of your favorite strawberries, from the hautboy to the Chili to the white wood. This episode we visit Donwell Abbey to take a look at Mr. Knightley's very fine strawberry beds.

Selected Sources

Frézier, Amédée François. A Voyage to the South-Sea, and Along the Coasts of Chili and Peru, in the Years 1712, 1713, and 1714: Particularly Describing the Genius and Constitution of the Inhabitants, as Well Indians as Spaniards ... Translated by Edmond Halley. J. Bowyer, 1717.
Historic Royal Palaces. “The Georgians.” Historic Royal Palaces. Accessed June 2, 2024. https://www.hrp.org.uk/kensington-palace/history-and-stories/the-georgians/.
Hopkins, Lisa. “Food and Growth in Emma.” Women’s Writing 5, no. 1 (1998): 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/09699089800200031.
Karp, David. “Berried Treasure.” Smithsonian, July 2006. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/berried-treasure-120534521/.
Lee, D. Vivian. “Early History of the Strawberry.” In The Strawberry; History, Breeding, and Physiology, edited by George M. Darrow, 15–13. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966. http://archive.org/details/strawberryhistor00darr.
———. “The Strawberry from Chile.” In The Strawberry; History, Breeding, and Physiology, edited by George M. Darrow, 24–39. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966. http://archive.org/details/strawberryhistor00darr.
Sheehan, Colleen A. “Jane Austen’s ‘Tribute’ to the Prince Regent: A Gentleman Riddled with Difficulty.” Persuasions On-Line 27, no. 1 (2006). https://jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol27no1/sheehan.htm?
Stocks, Christopher. Forgotten Fruits: The Stories Behind Britain’s Traditional Fruit and Vegetables. Random House, 2009.
Tepe, Emily. “A Spy, a Botanist, and a Strawberry.” University of Minnesota Fruit Research, June 11, 2019. https://fruit.umn.edu/spy-botanist-strawberry.
Tickler, Or, Monthly Compendium of Good Things, in Prose and Verse. “Miscellanies.” 1818.
Tobin, Beth Fowkes. “The Moral and Political Economy of Property in Austen’s Emma.” Eighteenth-Century Fiction 2, no. 3 (April 1990): 229–54. https://doi.org/10.1353/ecf.1990.0000.
Todd, Janet. “The Anxiety of Emma.” Persuasions 29 (January 1, 2007): 15–25.
Wilson, Kim. In the Garden with Jane Austen. London: Frances Lincoln, 2009.

EP91: The Thing About the Lakes

6/4/2024

Lizzy is headed to the Lake District with her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner. Or is she? This episode we get into the trip that didn't happen and discuss the picturesque splendors of the Lakes. If you have ever been curious about the ideal cow configuration (and you know you are), this episode is for you.

Selected Sources

Allen, Dennis W. “No Love for Lydia: The Fate of Desire in Pride and Prejudice.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 27, no. 4 (1985): 425–43.
Dove, Jane. “Geographical Board Game: Promoting Tourism and Travel in Georgian England and Wales.” Journal of Tourism History 8, no. 1 (January 2, 2016): 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/1755182X.2016.1140825.
Gilpin, William. An Essay on Prints. 5th ed. London: A. Strahan, for T. Cadell, Jun. and W. Davies, 1802.
———. Observations, Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty, Made in the Year 1772, on Several Parts of England; Particularly the Mountains and Lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland. R. Blamire, 1792.
Jones, Hazel. Jane Austen’s Journeys. London: Robert Hale, 2014.
Lake District National Park. “Landscape and Geology.” Lake District National Park: [email protected], September 18, 2006. https://www.lakedistrict.gov.uk/learning/geology.
Lane, Maggie. Jane Austen’s England. London: Hale, 1996.
Litz, A Walton. “The Picturesque in Pride and Prejudice.” Persuasions 1 (1979): 13–15.
Orestano, Francesca. “The Revd William Gilpin and the Picturesque; Or, Who’s Afraid of Doctor Syntax?” Garden History 31, no. 2 (2003): 163. https://doi.org/10.2307/1587293.
Reych, Zofia. Born to Climb: From Rock Climbing Pioneers to Olympic Athletes. Vertebrate Publishing, 2022.
Shapard, David M. “Notes and Annotations.” In The Annotated Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. New York: Anchor Books, 2012.
Stafford, Fiona J. “Introduction and Notes.” In Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, edited by James Kinsley. Oxford World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Ep83: The Thing About the Ha-Ha

2/7/2024

There's a bit of a brouhaha brewing over at the Sotherton ha-ha, and we've got front row, garden bench seats. Join us as we walk through the various comings and goings of the world's most awkward group date.

Below are a few images that illustrate the type of ha-ha Austen describes in Mansfield Park

Selected Sources

Brodey, Inger Sigrun. “Papas and Ha-Has: Rebellion, Authority, and Landscaping in Mansfield Park.” Persuasions 17 (1995). https://jasna.org/publications-2/persuasions/no17/brodey/.
Heydt-Stevenson, Jill. “‘Slipping into the Ha-Ha’: Bawdy Humor and Body Politics in Jane Austen’s Novels.” Nineteenth-Century Literature 55, no. 3 (2000): 309–39. https://doi.org/10.2307/2903126.
Repton, Humphry. The Landscape Gardening and Landscape Architecture of the Late H. Repton, Being His Entire Works on These Subjects, with ... Introduction, ... Analysis, Biographical Notice, Notes and Index by J. C. Loudon, 1840.
Russell, Tilden A. “On ‘Looking over a Ha-Ha.’” The Musical Quarterly 71, no. 1 (1985): 27–37.
Taylor, Patrick. “Ha-Ha.” In The Oxford Companion to the Garden. Oxford University Press, 2006. https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198662556.001.0001/acref-9780198662556-e-0714.
Toner, Anne. “Jane Austen, Frances Sheridan, and the Ha-Ha: A New Aﬃliation for Mansﬁeld Park,” no. 32 (n.d.).

Ep68: The Thing About Catherine's Love of Hyacinths

5/31/2023

Catherine has finally arrived at Northanger Abbey, and she and Henry are engaging in a bit of botanical discourse. This episode we dig into some horticultural history and try to get to the root of Catherine and Henry's chat about hyacinths.

Selected Sources

Edgeworth, Maria. Early Lessons: In Two Volumes. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. London: R. Hunter, 1803. https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/Stg_AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0.
Hanson, Kristan M. “Plant of the Month: Hyacinth.” JSTOR Daily, March 30, 2022. https://daily.jstor.org/plant-of-the-month-hyacinth/.
Lynch, Diedre. “‘Young Ladies Are Delicate Plants’: Jane Austen and Greenhouse Romanticism.” LHH 77, no. 3 (2010): 689–729.
McMaster, Juliet. “‘A Surmise of Such Horror’: Catherine Morland’s Imagination.” Persuasions 32 (2010): 15–27.
Nakagawa, Tomoko. “Roses, Hyacinths, and Pineapples: Historical and Ecocritical Concerns in Northanger Abbey and The Mysteries of Udolpho.” Persuasions 41 (January 1, 2019): 138–49.
Roberts, W. “The Voorhelms of Haarlem.” Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society 60, no. 3 (1935): 199–208.
Voorhelm, George. A Treatise on the Hyacinth, Containing the Manner of Cultivating That Flower. Bartholomew Rocque, 1753. https://books.google.com/books?id=04xxMwAACAAJ.
Wenner, Barbara Britton. “‘I Have Just Learnt to Love a Hyacinth’: Jane Austen’s Heroines in Their Novelistic Landscape.” Persuasions 24 (2002).

Ep63: The Thing About Polluting the Shades of Pemberley

3/11/2023

Lady Catherine has stopped by Longbourn for a little chat, and she clearly needs to read an article or two on appropriate guest etiquette. This episode we break down Lady Catherine's famous insult to Elizabeth and get into its many layers and possible meanings.

Selected Sources:

Curry, Mary Jane. “‘Not a Day Went by without a Solitary Walk’: Elizabeth’s Pastoral World.” Persuasions 22 (2000).
Ellington, H. Elisabeth. “‘A Correct Taste in Landscape’: Pemberley as Fetish and Commodity.” In Jane Austen in Hollywood, edited by Linda Troost and Sayre N. Greenfield, 90–110. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2001.
Gill, Richard, and Susan Gregory. Mastering the Novels of Jane Austen. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Ep51: The Thing About Lady Bertram's Flower Gardens with guest Dr. Menglu Gao

10/6/2022

The roses need trimming so we are headed to Mansfield Park, clippers in hand. This week we are joined by Dr. Menglu Gao as as we chat about Lady Bertram's flower gardens, Regency landscaping preferences, and the role of women in cultivated outdoor spaces.

Thank you so much to Menglu for joining us for this episode! You can learn more about her and her work at https://udenver.academia.edu/MengluGao.

EP28: The Thing About Blaize Castle

2/18/2022

Wave goodbye to Henry and Eleanor Tilney because this week we're headed to Blaize [Blaise] Castle. Except not really, because John Thorpe is a big liar.

If you have ever gone on an ill-advised outing, this episode is for you.

Selected Sources

Alexander, Christine. “The Prospect of Blaise: Landscape and Perception in Northanger Abbey.” Persuasions 21 (1999): 17–31. https://jasna.org/assets/Persuasions/No-21/1e6d94a95c/alexander.pdf
“Blaise Castle - Bristol.” Parks & Gardens. Accessed February 11, 2022. https://www.parksandgardens.org/places/blaise-castle.
“Blaise Castle House Museum.” Bristol Museums. Accessed February 11, 2022. https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/blaise-castle-house-museum/.
“Blaise Castle.” Historic England. Accessed February 11, 2022. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1208115.
Lane, Maggie. “Blaise Castle.” Persuasions 7 (1985): 78–81. https://www.jasna.org/persuasions/printed/number7/lane.html
Wenner, Barbara Britton. Prospect and Refuge in the Landscape of Jane Austen. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

EP18: The Thing About Fanny's Fallen Avenues with guest Tyler Hamilton

11/20/2021

This week it's a bit of a Fanny Price character study as we head to Mansfield Park to discuss Fanny's love of nature. Fanny is an often dismissed character, but we're here to celebrate her quiet strength and her introverted and philosophical ways. Come for the defense of Fanny, stay for us dunking on Edmund. Also, we forgot to properly welcome our guest because we paused for a train going by, but we were absolutely delighted to have Tyler Hamilton join us for this episode. You can find Tyler on Instagram @Tyler.Hamilton

EP04: The Thing About Marianne's Dead Leaves

10/3/2021

This episode we're all about the connection between Romanticism and Marianne's passion for dead leaves. We also discuss the ways in which the recent film adaptations have amped up the Romanticism factor. If you were ever a teen with a lot of BIG FEELINGS, this episode is for you. Content warning for this episode: Grief and parental loss are briefly mentioned at a few points throughout the episode.

Selected Episode Resources

Daniels, Stephen. “The Political Iconography of Woodland in Later Georgian England.” In The Iconography of Landscape: Essays on the Symbolic Representation, Design, and Use of Past Environments, edited by Denis E. Cosgrove and Stephen Daniels. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Fizer, Irene. “A ‘Passion for Dead Leaves’: Animated Landscapes and Static Canvases in ‘Sense and Sensibility.’” South Atlantic Review 76, no. 1 (2011): 53–72.

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