Overview

This book explores the connections linking the history of Llanllyr in west Wales, the people who lived there and their gardens, with the re-creation of the garden and with the family living there now. The story begins with Celtic saints in the Dark Ages and continues with Cistercian nuns in medieval times, Elizabethan squires, Victorian gentry and, now, farmers and entrepreneurs.

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9781847712592

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Llanllyr is a small estate in the Aeron valley with a long history perhaps 1,000 years. The author is the present owner and responsible for the revival of the garden in recent times. With the help of Penny David (co-author of the excellent Historic Parks and Gardens in Ceredigion) she has given not only an account of her own and her immediate family's years of stewardship but also a well-researched account of the estate's earlier development. Probably being the site of a hermitage during the 'age of saints', the named estate began as a very early Cistercian nunnery under the patronage of the Lord Rhys, in about 1180. After the Dissolution, the Lloyd family built a fashionable Elizabethan mansion. While little of the structure remains from that time, the author draws interesting parallels from neighbouring and contemporary estates to conjecture its form and she has created features in the present garden to evoke the renaissance era notably the intriguing 'allegorical labyrinth' and the lovely Italian water garden. After a period of neglect and decay, the estate was bought by the Lewes family and in the 1830s 'Waterloo' Lewes built the present house in the fashionable Nash style and developed the gardens in the style of Repton. The military Leweses seem to have married keen gardeners and, after a hiatus, Loveday took up her inheritance. The rest of the book recounts her re-creation of the garden, its trials and triumphs. This gives the reader both useful material on the practicalities of gardening under local conditions and inspiration from some very imaginative garden design. It also gives a delightful sense of the place as a beloved family home, which celebrates not only its long history but also contemporary personal events and continues to create features which will be the heirlooms of another generation. Although in a small format, the book is beautifully illustrated and contains an extensive biography. It should appeal to anyone interested in the social history of Wales, or in garden design and practice a good candidate for the Christmas present list. Caroline Clark It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council. Gellir defnyddio'r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru. -- Welsh Books Council

Author Information

Belonging to a long-establishd Cardiganshire family Loveday Lewes Gee spent her childhood at Llanllyr, Talsarn. She is an art historian specialising in Medieval and Renaissance art with BA, MPhil and PhD degrees. She has studied Italian Language and Culture in Rome and has done research on Italian Renaissance gardens. She worked in the History of Art Department of the University of Warwick for twenty years. On retiring in 1989 she and her husband returned to the family home at Llanllyr and have much enjoyed restoring and developing the gardens there. They have two sons and a daughter and ten grandchildren.

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