This book is not about gardening but about what to do when that is done (or not done, as the case may be). Philippa Lewis looks at how people have enjoyed their gardens over the centuries, combining quotations from the many words written on the subject with contemporary illustrations. You will find here some very imaginative ideas for garden use. You might, for instance, like to sit naked in the summer house, reciting passages from Milton's Paradise Lost, as William Blake did with his wife. Or perhaps you could create a menagerie (complete with wombats, armadilloes and a zebu), as D.G. Rossetti did in his Chelsea garden. Parties, shooting, follies, grottoes, drawing - the notions of what a garden can be used for are endlessly various. What gardener would not want to lay down their fork and take up this book, to be reminded of all the pleasures there are in being out of doors?