The amateur gardener's yearbook

1854

Private Collection

A & C. Black: Edinburgh

The Rev. Dr Henry Burgess was a Victorian curate who followed John Laurence's advice to obtain exercise cultivating his garden. When not editing The Journal of Sacred Literature, he was penning practical advice for the Gardener's Chronicle (1846-9). His articles were revised and assembled in The Amateur Gardener's Year-Book (1854). The book was both a garden calendar and collection of essays in which Burgess expounded his views on topics like weeds as ‘thieves', the ‘hateful fraternity' of cats, and the penalties of sloth.