A Garden in Venice

An account by Frederic Eden - Gertrude Jekyll's brother-in-law and Sir Anthony Eden's great uncle - of a garden that he acquired, planted and cultivated around the turn of the 20th century. First published by Country Life in 1903, and reissued in France in 2002, it is engagingly illustrated with woodcuts in the style of Poliphilus' Dream, and high-class photographs, and tells the story of the creation of an English garden - complete with an orchard and a cow for fresh milk - in the most improbable site imaginable on the Giudecca. The garden became, unsurprisingly, a resort of poets and aesthetes, and, having been given to Princess Aspasia of Greece, ended up as the property of the Austrian artist Hundertwasser, who died in February 2000. Now a 'monumento nazionale', the Giardino Eden is still there, but closed to the public until funds for its restoration become available.