A new local history book Erasmus Darwin’s Gardens: Medicine, Agriculture and the Sciences in the Eighteenth Century…

The is the first full study of Erasmus Darwin’s gardening, horticulture and agriculture.

It shows him in historical context re: gardening and horticulture, looks at his two gardens in and near Lichfield, and at various related activities and currents-of-thought then ongoing around plants and medicine. Plants being at that time still a vital part of the healing arts for a practising doctor. Fascinating. Published last summer, though I’ve only just heard about it. A book for me to get around to eventually, and hopefully by that time there will be affordable secondhand copies knocking about.

To be paired with the new English Gardening Eccentrics, from Yale.