Designs upon the Land: Elite Landscapes of the Middle Ages (Garden and Landscape History)

The book is outstanding. A full and comprehensive collection of research with numerous named examples. What is also excellent is the number of accompanying illustrations. Reading into the subject, this is the first book I have come across that focuses primarily on a larger landscape context. There are countless publications that are concerned with the intimate Mediaeval herber and cloister garden, but little reference is ever made to lordship estates which could cover vast acreages. These expanses of land were also objects of design- this book analyses a host of features that were indicators of wealth, power and authority.