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In this first biography to appear since the Second World War, rediscovering
William Shenstone is exciting. For as the layers are peeled away he re-emerges
as the man he was regarded to be in his own lifetime, a talented gentleman
of letters.
Shenstone was educated at Solihull School and Oxford where his first Collection
of verse was published. Many of the shorter poems have an indefinable
charm and his letters, written with bravura and zest, have a sparkle that
the years cannot dim. There are also his Pensées, written within
that great literary tradition of the French, and which are scattered through
with wisdom and with wit which has relevance for today. “Perhaps
we should not pray”, Shenstone writes, “to keep us steadfast
in any faith, but conditionally, that it be the right one.” From
the serious to the inconsequential; whether in love (again) after a visit
to his friend, Richard Graves, of Mickleton Manor, or commiserating with
Lady Luxborough at Ullenhall over the disappointment of a postponed visit,
he is always entertaining.
Today Shenstone is remembered for his garden at The Leasowes in Halesowen
which at one time drew visitors from all over Britain. In many ways it
was unique, not least for his poems that he “posted” along the
walks as a means of direction and guide. At The Leasowes, Shenstone the
poet and Shenstone the garden designer worked in tandem.
As a landscape gardener Shenstone’s career was spectacular; and in
this book we are introduced to a multi-talented man: a landscape artist
who was also an astute, witty and often acerbic commentator upon eighteenth
century life; whose perceptions herald many surprises and who is far from
being the man so undeservedly denigrated over the years. |
