CULTIVATING CURIOSITIES: PLANTS AS COLLECTIONS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY SUZANNE RACHEL MOSS PhD University of York Archaeology December 2018 1 2 ABSTRACT Gardens and plants were popular subjects for recreation and scholarship in eighteenth- century Britain. Wealth was invested into the creation of elaborate pleasure grounds, newly introduced exotic plants were purchased and cultivated with relish and extensive collections of dried plants were collated. Studies of eighteenth-century botany, horticulture and gardens have diverged in current research, creating a split in ideological interpretations of plants, their taxonomical systems and the gardens in which they were cultivated. The well-preserved archive at Burton Constable Hall in East Yorkshire provides a unique perspective on gardens, indoor and outdoor collections which can help to unite isolated historical disciplines into a cohesive narrative. Enlightenment ideals, the Baconian system of inductive reasoning and a new, empirical approach to natural philosophy had created a new, scientifically-based, eighteenth- century culture in which botany could flourish. Seventeenth-century scientists had proven that an empirical approach could transform a human understanding of the world, and publications, societies and coffee houses made their discoveries popular. The cabinets of curiosity held for wonder and exoticism became assemblages of natural philosophy which could help to order and understand the world through observation and classification. Scholarship and collection became fashionable, and a means of making new connections and forging social identities. Plants held economic, medicinal and social potential, and were at the forefront of this development. This thesis will discuss the evidence at Burton Constable and related case studies to demonstrate that plants were part of the tradition of collecting a cabinet of natural philosophy in the eighteenth century, and that by considering them as such we can take a new, holistic approach to their cultivation and to the pleasure ground which should influence future interpretations of eighteenth-century gardens. 3 4 CULTIVATING CURIOSITIES: PLANTS AS COLLECTIONS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY LIST OF CONTENTS Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ 3 List of Contents ................................................................................................................................. 5 List of Tables ..................................................................................................................................... 7 List of Figures .................................................................................................................................... 8 List of Accompanying Material .......................................................................................................... 9 Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... 10 Declaration ...................................................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................15 Chapter 2: Literature Review and Context ................................................................................ 25 Gardens ........................................................................................................................................... 26 Plants and botany ............................................................................................................................ 30 Knowledge, Science and Collecting ................................................................................................. 33 Burton Constable ............................................................................................................................ 38 Early Modern and Enlightenment Plant Collectors........................................................................... 45 Chapter 3: Exotic Collections in the Landscape ..........................................................................51 The Burton Constable Landscape .................................................................................................... 57 Development of the House and Garden ....................................................................................... 57 Chapter 4: Plant Collections in the Garden ................................................................................. 73 Trade and Technology ..................................................................................................................... 74 The growth of specialist plants ........................................................................................................ 81 Burton Constable ............................................................................................................................ 90 Chapter 5: Knowledge, Botany and Natural Philosophy ........................................................... 107 The Context of Knowledge: Bacon to Newton ............................................................................... 108 Natural Philosophy and Natural History ......................................................................................... 110 Societal Context ............................................................................................................................ 115 Knowledge and the Individual ....................................................................................................... 124 William Constable and Science ...................................................................................................... 132 Chapter 6: Plants as Collections .............................................................................................. 141 Cabinets and Collections ............................................................................................................... 142 Plants as Collections ...................................................................................................................... 151 William Constable’s Cabinet .......................................................................................................... 161 Chapter 7: The Hortus Siccus and Flower Paintings ................................................................... 173 The Hortus Siccus phenomenon ..................................................................................................... 174 Flower and Botanical Paintings ...................................................................................................... 182 5 CULTIVATING CURIOSITIES: PLANTS AS COLLECTIONS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY The Early Modern and Enlightenment Hortus Siccus ...................................................................... 187 William Constable’s Plant Collections ............................................................................................ 199 Chapter 8: Discussion ............................................................................................................ 219 Chapter 9: Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 231 Appendices ........................................................................................................................... 235 Appendix 1 ..................................................................................................................................... 237 Appendix 2: ................................................................................................................................... 305 Appendix 3: .................................................................................................................................... 239 Appendix 4: ........................................................................................................................ 243 Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................ 307 Reference List ....................................................................................................................... 309 6 CULTIVATING CURIOSITIES: PLANTS AS COLLECTIONS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Summary of the Burton Constable Herbarium……………………………………………….200 7 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Location of Burton Constable Hall. (after Google Maps) .......................................... 41 Figure 2: Anon. oil painting of Burton Constable hall, 1690 .................................................. 422 Figure 3: Jean-Etiene Liotard. William Constable (1770) ...................................................... 433 Figure 4: Badminton from the south. ................................................................................. 5252 Figure 5: The existing features of Bulstrode Hall .................................................................... 55 Figure 6: Plan of Burton Constable from 1755 ...................................................................... 588 Figure 7: Plan c. 1767 showing Burton Constable. ................................................................. 599 Figure 8: The outline of Constable's stove garden .................................................................