Four Hedges

by Clare Leighton

In 1930 Clare Leighton bought a plot of land on a sloping site in the Chilterns. Here, she and Noel Brailsford built a house and created a garden from the "rough meadowland". This book tells of a year in the life of that garden. The author portrays the seasonal changes, from the unfurling of the iris stylosa in the dead of winter, to the warmth of June when the garden belongs to the birds. The text is illustrated with Clare's own wood engravings.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Art, Natural History, Memoir, British Literature

168 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Zanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There’s not much call to be here in the country on May Day nowadays. Nothing happens. Why, the schools don’t even give the children a holiday as they used to do. When we was children, we used always to go out with our garlands to all the houses. We’d pick every kind of wild flower and blossom and even ask people for flowers out of their gardens. Me and Maggie Oliver and Jenny and Martha Lacey would wear out garlands on our heads and round our necks, and we’d carry long poles, twined with flowers; and we’d have a doll in a chair on two long poles, and we’d dress the doll up in white and cover it with blossoms and garlands.”

Annie nods towards the window from which we can see a royal clump of crown imperials flowering on their tall straight stalks.

“The Queen would have one of them at the top of her garland."

So says an older woman of her childhood days in Clare Leighton’s tender ode to her garden. The world of the thirties Leighton describes, where grass is still mowed by scythe, has passed away and is only accessible through stories, and for me this text is most magical when it invokes a culture that has already passed away at the time of writing, before the other war perhaps.

The garden knows time only as a cycle of weather conditions. Clare’s woodcuts make no reference at all to the emotionally charged line of history that runs through me, tugs at me, a cultural groove I can’t free myself from. In the garden, detached from time, I feel nirvana close by, but one mention of a lost pagan rite and I ache with vicarious nostalgia. This text crosses and recrosses the boundary between eternity and memory, losing itself in soil and grass, teeming life and struggle. Mowing barefoot on the wet grass, Clare feels nourished by earth she belongs to, its goodness rising into her. The people of today are even further cut off from that wholeness and oneness-with.

In the city that I live in, I never touch the ground. This part of the earth looks metal plated from the air. I have no garden. I gave this book to my mother, who is a gardener and can feel the truth Clare speaks, without the sense I have of grasping at something out of reach.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up at Caveat Emptor several years ago, and remember standing among the bookshelves wondering whether I should buy it. I'm so grateful that I did--and grateful too for all of my book purchases over the past couple years, as they're keeping me going during this seemingly endless quarantine. This is a lovely book. The author describes creating a garden between four hedges on the windswept, chalky soils of the Chilterns. Leighton's attention to detail is admirably displayed both through her precise descriptions and through the dramatic woodcuts with which she illustrated the book. A true treasure of the British arts and crafts movement.

[Sophy H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some lovely, heartfelt, honest nature and garden writing here from Clare Leighton.

The passion for outdoors really shines through particularly when Leighton and her husband become giddy over choosing seeds or planting trees or collecting windfall fruit. You can just tell this couple were really into their garden and their wildlife.

The wood engravings that accompany this book are also stunning and show Leighton's real talent; the engravings tell such a story, from scything the long grasses in the orchard to watching weeds grow that possess their own extraordinary beauty.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book for its passion and love. I hope you would too.

[ambyr · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a difficult book to rate. Clare Leighton's illustrations are justly revered; her woodcuts of plants are exacting in their horticultural detail, but it's the occasional full-page or half-page images of her, her partner, and their servants at work that are luminous and make hard labor look a thing of grace and beauty.

The text is pleasant when describing nature and her sense of connection to her garden, but frequently frustratingly unreflective; like many of her time and social class, Leighton is dripping with class privilege and entirely oblivious, and the contrast between how she chides others for their snobbery and how she describes her own servants is frustrating. And no one who has read this book (much less the person who wrote this book) should be surprised that Leighton and her partner Brailsford separate four years later; his every appearance on the page consists of him being supercilious and high-handed toward Leighton in a way that's sometimes painful to read, particularly when you consider that as his lover she's presumably trying to cast him in the best possible light.

But gosh, those woodcuts. I'm inclined to track down every other book she's written just to gaze at the illustrations.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This beautifully produced, generously proportioned Little Toller edition of Clare Leighton’s 1935 book about a year in her windswept Chiltern garden is a real treat. Leighton was an exceptional artist, particularly renowned in the unforgiving form of woodcut and Four Hedges is liberally illustrated (at least one on each double page spread) with her remarkable pictures. The book is essentially a monthly record of a single year’s gardening in an exposed and recently tamed half acre of Buckinghamshire hillside, and although I’m not a natural reader of gardening memoirs, Four Hedges really grabbed my attention. That’s probably largely down to the immediacy with which the author captures the experience of being outdoors throughout the changing seasons and in all weathers, as well as the exceptional illustrations.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming book that spans a year in the author's young Chiltern garden. Leighton records the changes in plants and animals, muses over the lure of gardening, exclaims over her attempts at gardening. The descriptions are evocative without being overblown, and her enthusiasm for her garden and for gardening is obvious. Scattered throughout the book are Leighton's gorgeous woodcut illustrations, which are what prompted me to pick up the book in the first place. Some are small portraits of particular plants, others - like the one of a blackbird in her nest - are full-page glories that deserve close attention.

One thing that this book does very well is show just how little some aspects of gardening have changed in the decades since the book was written. Leighton struggles with bindweed and dandelion, gets carried off by the descriptions in seed catalogues and orders far too many, and argues with herself about the envy she feels over gardens in more sheltered locations or about the mismatch between the plants she would like to grow and those that actually will grow in her chalky soil. Anyone who has ever tried to cultivate a garden will enjoy this book, because its themes are universal to gardeners everywhere, though the specifics may be radically different.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting experience to read this reflection on a personal garden from the 1930s soon after a much more recent (and less rural) one. I doubt that I would have enjoyed it as much without the author's beautiful woodcuts. The subtle differences in sensibilities struck me: would anyone now think of a rough meadow containing 'only' skylarks as insignificant? And things have come full circle: there's a description of scything which now seems bang on trend. The garden is clearly a whopper - Clare and her partner order 60+ poplars! I enjoyed the description of their employees responses, what they value in a gardener, what they want to do for themselves.

[Ruth Brumby · Rating 4 out of 5]

My version was beautifully produced. The woodcuts are inspirational. The book is beautifully written. It's sad that they planted elms 'for the future' and fascinating that they were already worried in the 30s about the destruction of hedges. Poignmant too to read about the sheer number of moths and bees and other insects that they had. A beautiful poetic but practical and very specific record of garden building and seasonal change.

[M & B Carlisle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gardeners delight

A wonderful inspiring book that makes you to want to garden. I have enjoyed the year with the author following both the trials and success of gardening. Her eye for the detail along with the wonderful woodcuts make this a book to treasure.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

intricate account of english country life during the 1910s-20s. Wonderful read with gorgeous woodcuts.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delightful book taking you through the months of the year in a garden being created by Clare Leighton and her partner Noel interspersed with her exquisite engravings.

[Katy Wheatley · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the Thirties, Clare Leighton built a garden in the Chilterns with her partner. In this book she takes us through a year, from spring to spring, month by month sharing the ups and downs of a gardener's life. What makes this book so wonderful is that she illustrated each month's activities with her own, stunning woodcuts. They are so full of life and beauty and the detail in them is incredibly fine. Her writing is wonderful but it is the art that elevates here. It's a sublime treat.

[Hemu · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is somewhat pretentious in beginning but grows on you with each chapter. Maybe if I am into gardening, I have enjoyed it better.

[Brian Gowthorpe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful little book with beautiful illustrations.

[NoBeatenPath · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a true gem of a book. Simply written, it is a month by month account of Leighton's garden and gardening. The prose sparkles with a quiet love and a joy of nature and the beauty of the seasons. The new Littler Toller Books version contains mainly illustrations which are woodcuts by Leighton, who as well as being a wonderful nature writer was also a very talented wood engraver as well as a designer of mosaics and stained glass.

I assure you that reading this book will leave you smiling and potentially sighing at the beauty of the prose; and you will almost definitely be driven to go outside and observe the world around you.

[Catie]

Recommendation from Emma @silverpebble - 9/10/2017