Description: Established in the Middle Ages for the protection of the royal deer, the parks that surround Windsor Castle have served a practical and ornamental purpose for more than a thousand years. This book is the first to tell the story of the Windsor parks and gardens, where generations of gardeners, architects, and farmers have worked and developed the 4,800-acre Great Park and 650-acre Home Park. With the assistance of documents in the Public Record Office and the Royal Archives, and works of art in the Royal Collection, Jane Roberts has created an extensive and beautifully illustrated historical account.

The first part of the book charts chronologically the contributions of different monarchs to the development of the parks and gardens and associated buildings, while the second part offers a topographical survey of the chief features of the two parks. Uses of the parkland have been varied -- to protect deer and their food; to provide areas for hunting, fishing, shooting, and riding; to farm; and to create pleasure grounds with temples and flower gardens. Roberts discusses the leading architects and garden designers who created both ornamental and practical buildings at Windsor, including Frogmore House, Royal Lodge, Cumberland Lodge, Cranbourne, and the park features in the vicinity of Virginia Water, including George IV's Fishing Temple and Fort Belvedere. She also investigates such varied subjects as the flora and fauna within the parks, the forest trees that were of such importance to the navy, exotic plants and animals introduced during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, George III's and Prince Albert's promotion of enlightened agricultural improvements, the association of thepark with horse racing at nearby Ascot Heath, and the evolution of the Savill and Valley Gardens during this century.

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