The subtitle, ‘The Anglo-American Gardens of Florence’, of this engaging and elegantly produced book, is misleading. The reclusive and narcissistic chatelaine of the Villa Gamberai in the days of its glory, Princess Catherine Jeanne Keshko Ghika, was not an Anglo-American but a Romanian. Similarly, Lady Paget, indefatigable not merely as a custodian of her superb garden at Torre di Bellosguardo but also as a lady scribbler, was born a Saxon princess, Walburga (‘Wally’ to her friends) Helena de Hohenthal.
Katie Campbell also from time to time strays beyond her geographical parameters. The Sitwells’ Montegufoni, Val d’Orcia, in which Iris Origo’s La Foce is situated, and Anciano, where Lord Lambton in some measure expiated for an often misspent life by the creation of a superb garden for his Villa Cetinale, can hardly be regarded as even remote suburbs of Florence.
No great matter — except to pedants like myself. What make this book so entertaining are not merely its skilful evocations of famous gardens but also its hugely entertaining accounts of those who presided over them. Having admitted that people visited Vernon Lee’s Il Palmerino not for its undistinguished building and garden but for its owner, a lesbian of remarkable erudition and powerful of intellect, whom Cyril Connolly classified among such ‘mighty-mouthed international geysers’ as Coleridge, Swinburne and Wilde, Campbell at once brings this once famous but now largely forgotten character to formidable life in no more than half-a-dozen pages. For many other notabilities she performs the same skilful service.
It is difficult to assess how much was done by, and how much was done for, these wealthy and often aristocratic expatriates as they vied with each other in taking over some dilapidated castle or villa and turning it and its grounds into a wonder of their small, exclusive world.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in