Upon the Gardens of Epicurus

Sir William Temple, diplomat, statesman, and writer, retired to his garden in the 1680s and wrote what has become one of the key texts, not only of gardening, but also of the English aesthetic. It was he who introduced the idea of the charm of irregularity, and who gave it the allegedly Chinese name sharawaggi. The English style of landscape gardening can be traced in a direct line to this essay, which has not been in print for over 95 years.