Friday library snapshot …

As a continuation of Wednesday’s post about the Brazilwood trees; I did find the book referred in A passion for trees ; a legacy of John Evelyn by Maggie Campbell-Culver;   Sylva ; a discourse of forest trees by John Evelyn.  I was disappointed that there were few images; but the text was in English rather than in Latin so it was quite easily understood.

Our copy doesn’t have the original binding; I romantically thinking that, by its very nature it would have been well thumbed.

The author as the royal adviser addressed the book to the King [Charles II], and then the readers not just the members of the Royal Society but those he suggests in the glossary; ‘not ordinary rustics but for the more ingenious, for the benefit and diversion of gentlemen and persons of quality, who often refresh themselves in these agreeable toiles of planting, and the gardens …’

So, this book I hope, remembering the ‘romance’ was never far away from the potting shed or conservatory and subject to all sorts of harmful elements; while a fine literary work might have been kept in a gentleman’s library.