A charming caricature by Sir Edwin Lutyens of Gertrude Jekyll with a spade adorns the cover of Down-to-Earth Women. It attracts the reader and suggests the tone of this 1982 collection of stories about British women gardeners. Dawn MacLeod announces in the preface that “gardens were of little interest to me unless they were personal and subjective” (p. ix), and “Certain gardens could only be made by women” (p. x).
Of the book’s eight chapters, two deal with earlier periods and six with the twentieth century. MacLeod knew personally a number of her later subjects. The book places women in groups, such as medieval nuns, herb gardeners, and flower gardeners. Several of her subjects are known mainly for their writing about plants, but MacLeod assures the reader that she included none unless she was convinced they got their hands dirty in the soil.
MacLeod provides a variety of information about her down-to-earth women. Some had art school training and adapted it, some learned from hired gardeners, many from family members. Ellen Willmott had eighty-six gardeners before she lost her fortune due to German investments before World War I.
MacLeod includes character traits: Gertrude Jekyll was an “ideal aunt,” but “Poor Miss Willmott. It is so hard to find anybody who has said nice things about her” (p. 55). Margery Fish found “clearing bindweed . . . far more exciting than golf or fishing” with a reward of “a barrow-load of obscene twisting white roots and the joy of burning them” (p. 122) .
Perhaps MacLeod’s greatest skill is in describing the gardens the women created. Not only does she name plants, but she explains garden designs, often with comparisons to painting and textiles – very helpful in a book with no design illustrations. She also includes the garden’s environment and its history, as it developed and, sadly, often declined or disappeared. Black and white photos support some of the descriptions.
Down-to-Earth Women contains lots of intriguing information. Like its cover, it is lively and very reflective of its creator’s enthusiastic personality.
Reviewed by Priscilla Grundy in The Leaflet, Volume 11, Number 9, August 2024.