The Claudians Chapter 9 Italian gardens

Despite having lost his health and his first fortune, Loudon embarked on a Grand Tour to Italy in 1818. He was planning the world’s first Encyclopedia of Gardening and intended it to be comprehensive. After four years of working night and day the Encyclopedia was published in 1822. It sold very well and earned him a second fortune. All the reviews praised the contents but there was some sharp criticism of what a few reviewers took as indicators of religious scepticism. Loudon invested some of his money in building a mansion in Bayswater and some in other publishing ventures. The stress of the building works brought a return of rheumatic fever.

Loudon’s Grand Tour - 

Belvedere at Frascati: Villa Aldobrandini Garden - 

Gondo Village - 

Hermitage Bayswater - 

Versailles  - 

Ermenonville Landscape Garden -

Vallisneria - 

Rhône boat - 

Avignon bridge & promenade - 

Vaucluse Petrarch Sorgue - 

Marseilles feluccas - 

La Canebière - 

Genoa La Superba - 

Villa di Negro - 

Mangles & Irby - 

Signor di Negro - 

Boboli Garden Florence - 

Perugia oxen - 

Nepi  - 

Villa Borghese -

Villa Doria Pamphili - 

Belvedere at Frascati - 

Naples roof terrace garden - 

Chiaja  -

Caserta Palace garden and aqueduct - 

Detestable Italian inns - 

Bologna arcades - 

Piazza of St. Mark -

Padua Botanic Garden - 

Monza garden - 

Borromean Isles and Isola Bella - 

Simplon Pass - 

Encyclopedia of Gardening - 

Mahomed's Vapour Baths - 

Encyclopedia of Agriculture -  

Chapter index pages Introduction, Chapter 1: Somers and Buchanans, Chapter 2: Loudons, Chapter 3: Indian Mission, Chapter 4: Picturesque Gardens, Chapter 5: Farming Landscapes, Chapter 6: Prussian Gardens, Chapter 7: Russian Gardens, Chapter 8: Buchanan’s Destiny, Chapter 9: Italian Gardens, Chapter 10: Gardenesque Gardens, Chapter 11: Utilitarian Landscapes, Chapter 12: Marriage, Chapter 13: Landscape Architecture, Chapter 14: Family Reunion, Chapter 15: Loudon’s Zenith, Chapter 16: Valedictory, Afterword.