1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:04,280 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:14,720 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. 3 00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:18,040 Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. A couple of weeks ago, 4 00:00:18,160 --> 00:00:20,960 Speaker 1: I was listening to a history talk about a Gilded 5 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:24,079 Speaker 1: Age property, and there was part about how back in 6 00:00:24,120 --> 00:00:29,200 Speaker 1: the nineteenth century, guests would have approached this cottage, which 7 00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:33,840 Speaker 1: was of course really a mansion on this winding road 8 00:00:33,920 --> 00:00:37,120 Speaker 1: that would give little glimpses of the estate through the trees, 9 00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:39,720 Speaker 1: and I thought, you know who. I've been meaning to 10 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:44,760 Speaker 1: do an episode of the podcast about that British garden 11 00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:47,960 Speaker 1: designer who worked on all those famous estates that our 12 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:51,440 Speaker 1: old coworker Christopher told me about that guy that had 13 00:00:51,440 --> 00:00:55,240 Speaker 1: a really funny name. I could not remember the guy's 14 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:58,280 Speaker 1: name beyond the fact that it struck me as funny 15 00:00:58,320 --> 00:01:01,200 Speaker 1: in that moment, to be I was not in England, 16 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:04,760 Speaker 1: I was in Massachusetts. But there were parallels to the 17 00:01:04,800 --> 00:01:07,440 Speaker 1: way this property was being described in what this guy's 18 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:10,880 Speaker 1: garden designs were like. So when I got home, I 19 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:15,559 Speaker 1: googled the following British garden designer with a funny name. 20 00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:21,160 Speaker 1: This seemed very straightforward to me, Google did not come 21 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:25,759 Speaker 1: back with Lancelot Capability Brown, which is who I had 22 00:01:25,800 --> 00:01:31,520 Speaker 1: been thinking of. Instead, Google thought that British garden designer 23 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:35,760 Speaker 1: with a funny name must mean Gertrude Jicyl, and I 24 00:01:35,800 --> 00:01:39,920 Speaker 1: got totally sidetracked on Gertrude Jicyl. And that's today's episode. 25 00:01:39,959 --> 00:01:42,640 Speaker 1: So maybe we'll come back to Capability Brown someday, not 26 00:01:42,720 --> 00:01:47,480 Speaker 1: today though today. Gertrude Jicel Gertrude Time. Gertrude Jicel was 27 00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:51,080 Speaker 1: born on November twenty ninth, eighteen forty three. She was 28 00:01:51,120 --> 00:01:54,160 Speaker 1: the fifth of seven children born to Edward Joseph Hill 29 00:01:54,240 --> 00:01:58,520 Speaker 1: Jicel and Julia Hammersley. This was a well established upper 30 00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:02,280 Speaker 1: middle class family lived very comfortably thanks to an assortment 31 00:02:02,280 --> 00:02:06,840 Speaker 1: of properties and investments and inheritances. Gertrude's father was a 32 00:02:06,880 --> 00:02:10,160 Speaker 1: captain in the British infantry unit known as the Grenadier Guards, 33 00:02:10,480 --> 00:02:14,280 Speaker 1: but he retired early because of his health. This family 34 00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:19,120 Speaker 1: is a great example of how upper middle class could 35 00:02:19,160 --> 00:02:23,200 Speaker 1: mean having a lot of money, So much money you 36 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:26,000 Speaker 1: didn't have to work and things were fine. Yeah, and 37 00:02:26,040 --> 00:02:28,160 Speaker 1: you had a hall staff in a very big house. 38 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:32,040 Speaker 1: When Gertrude was born the family lived in London, they 39 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:36,320 Speaker 1: regularly visited the green park next to Buckingham Palace. She 40 00:02:36,480 --> 00:02:40,399 Speaker 1: later said that her earliest clearest memories of London were 41 00:02:40,440 --> 00:02:45,240 Speaker 1: of the grass and the flowers, including the dandelions, which 42 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:48,320 Speaker 1: she really loved, but which her nurse told her were 43 00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:51,680 Speaker 1: nasty things. I have feelings you can talk about behind 44 00:02:51,680 --> 00:02:54,760 Speaker 1: the scenes. Let's do it. In eighteen forty eight, when 45 00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:57,720 Speaker 1: Gertrude was five, the family moved to an estate called 46 00:02:57,760 --> 00:03:01,320 Speaker 1: Bramley House in Surrey, and the children did a lot 47 00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:05,840 Speaker 1: of rambling and exploring the countryside. Because Gertrude's only sister 48 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:09,320 Speaker 1: was seven years older than she was, her closest companions 49 00:03:09,400 --> 00:03:13,000 Speaker 1: were her brothers, too older and too younger, and she 50 00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:16,720 Speaker 1: was particularly close to her younger brother, Herbert. She later 51 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:19,360 Speaker 1: wrote quote, it was therefore natural that I should be 52 00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:21,480 Speaker 1: more of a boy than a girl in my ideas 53 00:03:21,480 --> 00:03:24,800 Speaker 1: and activities, delighting to go up trees and to play 54 00:03:24,840 --> 00:03:28,520 Speaker 1: cricket and take wasps nests after dark, and do dreadful 55 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:31,440 Speaker 1: deeds with gunpowder, and all the boy sort of things. 56 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:35,320 Speaker 1: She was independent and high spirited, and her father called 57 00:03:35,320 --> 00:03:39,400 Speaker 1: her his little oddity. As an adult, she would simultaneously 58 00:03:39,480 --> 00:03:43,680 Speaker 1: defy and follow conventions about things like gender and propriety, 59 00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:47,680 Speaker 1: like climbing up ladders while wearing a billowing dress as 60 00:03:47,720 --> 00:03:50,280 Speaker 1: a male gardener down below held it steady with his 61 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:53,800 Speaker 1: back to her. The children were educated at home with 62 00:03:53,920 --> 00:03:57,920 Speaker 1: governesses from Germany and France, and then the boys eventually 63 00:03:57,960 --> 00:04:01,920 Speaker 1: went off to boarding schools. Gertrude also spent a little 64 00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:04,560 Speaker 1: time at a boarding school for girls that was opened 65 00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:07,440 Speaker 1: in the area, but her parents withdrew her from that 66 00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:11,880 Speaker 1: school pretty quickly for reasons that aren't really documented. They 67 00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:15,800 Speaker 1: framed her brief time at this school as a failed experiment. 68 00:04:16,320 --> 00:04:21,640 Speaker 1: I'm wildly curious. Once all of her brothers were away 69 00:04:21,640 --> 00:04:24,279 Speaker 1: at school, Gertrude spent a lot of time left to 70 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:28,320 Speaker 1: her own devices. Her parents were also both musicians, and 71 00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:32,320 Speaker 1: her father had a particular interest in science. Gertrude helped 72 00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:35,320 Speaker 1: him in his workshop, tinkering and building things, and she 73 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:38,120 Speaker 1: learned pretty much anything the workers around her home and 74 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:42,080 Speaker 1: the rest of Bramley would teach her, including thatching, wall building, 75 00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:45,400 Speaker 1: and how to shoe a horse. The family also hosted 76 00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:48,920 Speaker 1: a lot of famous and influential guests, including Michael Faraday 77 00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:53,120 Speaker 1: and Felix Mendelssohn. Growing up in a house full of 78 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:56,560 Speaker 1: mostly boys and wandering in the woods and tinkering in 79 00:04:56,600 --> 00:04:59,359 Speaker 1: a workshop sounds like it might have been a really 80 00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:05,000 Speaker 1: boisterous existence. But Gertrude really hated noise. One day when 81 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:07,320 Speaker 1: she was young, she came down to breakfast without her 82 00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:10,880 Speaker 1: boots because she had thrown them at nightingales that were 83 00:05:10,880 --> 00:05:14,039 Speaker 1: singing outside of her window and keeping her awake. She 84 00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:18,520 Speaker 1: didn't like loud dogs or loud children. A nephew later 85 00:05:18,600 --> 00:05:21,880 Speaker 1: described her as having a nervous response to noise that 86 00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:27,080 Speaker 1: was outside her control. She also liked her solitude. She 87 00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:29,880 Speaker 1: claimed the garden shed as a personal refuge, and she 88 00:05:29,920 --> 00:05:32,400 Speaker 1: would scatter cinders onto the path as she went out 89 00:05:32,480 --> 00:05:35,680 Speaker 1: to it because her father, who also apparently could not 90 00:05:35,839 --> 00:05:39,600 Speaker 1: abide noise, hated the sound and feel of walking on them. 91 00:05:40,320 --> 00:05:42,599 Speaker 1: This shifted a little as she got older, though she 92 00:05:42,760 --> 00:05:46,920 Speaker 1: still detested noise and avoided children and liked her solitude. 93 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:49,640 Speaker 1: But as an adult she also had lots of friends 94 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:53,799 Speaker 1: and took great care in maintaining those relationships. A couple 95 00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:56,600 Speaker 1: of years into living at Bramley, Gertrude had an almost 96 00:05:56,760 --> 00:06:01,640 Speaker 1: mystical experience looking out a stretch of yellow presses. As 97 00:06:01,640 --> 00:06:05,760 Speaker 1: an adult, she described feeling the same sensations while wandering 98 00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:08,960 Speaker 1: in a primrose wood, smelling the fragrance of the flowers 99 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:12,960 Speaker 1: and feeling the warm spring air. Quote when I see 100 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:15,359 Speaker 1: and feel and hear all this for a moment, I 101 00:06:15,400 --> 00:06:19,000 Speaker 1: am seven years old again, and wandering in the fragrant wood, 102 00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:21,600 Speaker 1: hand in hand with the dear God who made it, 103 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:25,400 Speaker 1: who made the child's mind to open wide and receive 104 00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:29,880 Speaker 1: the enduring happiness of the gracious gift. So as by 105 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:33,840 Speaker 1: direct divine teaching, the impression of the simple sweetness of 106 00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:38,799 Speaker 1: the primrose wood sank deep into the childish heart and laid, 107 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:42,839 Speaker 1: as it were, a foundation stone of immutable belief that 108 00:06:42,920 --> 00:06:45,560 Speaker 1: a father in heaven who could make all this, could 109 00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:48,279 Speaker 1: make even better if he would when the time should 110 00:06:48,279 --> 00:06:51,560 Speaker 1: come that his children should be gathered about him. So 111 00:06:51,920 --> 00:06:55,440 Speaker 1: it's pretty obvious that Gertrude was really interested in flowers 112 00:06:55,520 --> 00:06:58,880 Speaker 1: and gardens and nature as a child. She also had 113 00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:02,320 Speaker 1: a fondness for science and music and art. In eighteen 114 00:07:02,400 --> 00:07:04,960 Speaker 1: sixty one, at the age of eighteen, she enrolled at 115 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:07,919 Speaker 1: the National School of Art in the South Kensington district 116 00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:11,760 Speaker 1: of London. One of her classmates was Susan Mery Mackenzie, 117 00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:15,440 Speaker 1: who became a lifelong friend. Today this is the Royal 118 00:07:15,480 --> 00:07:17,920 Speaker 1: College of Art and it had been founded in eighteen 119 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:21,240 Speaker 1: thirty seven as the Government School of Design, and its 120 00:07:21,280 --> 00:07:25,600 Speaker 1: courses included a focus on both art and design. After 121 00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:29,080 Speaker 1: enrolling at the school, Jiegeles spent her time between studying 122 00:07:29,200 --> 00:07:33,080 Speaker 1: art in London and enjoying the countryside in Surrey, and 123 00:07:33,200 --> 00:07:36,560 Speaker 1: in both places she was always really active and really busy. 124 00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:40,400 Speaker 1: She also started traveling, including a trip to the Mediterranean 125 00:07:40,480 --> 00:07:43,520 Speaker 1: with Charles and and Mary Newton in eighteen sixty three. 126 00:07:44,160 --> 00:07:47,160 Speaker 1: Charles was an archaeologist and keeper of Greek and Roman 127 00:07:47,200 --> 00:07:50,520 Speaker 1: antiquities at the British Museum, and Mary was an artist. 128 00:07:50,920 --> 00:07:54,119 Speaker 1: Gertrude and Mary's friendship was sadly cut short when Mary 129 00:07:54,120 --> 00:07:56,920 Speaker 1: died of measles in eighteen sixty six at the age 130 00:07:56,920 --> 00:08:01,120 Speaker 1: of thirty three. During this trip, Ortrude really fell in 131 00:08:01,160 --> 00:08:04,200 Speaker 1: love with the gardens and plant life around the Mediterranean, 132 00:08:04,640 --> 00:08:07,240 Speaker 1: and she started collecting samples to send back home and 133 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:10,400 Speaker 1: try to grow there. Of course, this is a fairly 134 00:08:10,440 --> 00:08:12,800 Speaker 1: common practice at this point, even though it could be 135 00:08:12,880 --> 00:08:16,040 Speaker 1: destructive to the ecosystems that the plants were being taken from, 136 00:08:16,480 --> 00:08:19,800 Speaker 1: and it's something that Jicyle continued to do as botanists 137 00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:23,760 Speaker 1: and horticulturists became more vocally critical of the practice in 138 00:08:23,880 --> 00:08:28,160 Speaker 1: later decades. Yeah, obviously, some of these plants also can 139 00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:32,480 Speaker 1: be in damative Yeah, in other places they're introduced to. 140 00:08:33,480 --> 00:08:36,400 Speaker 1: In eighteen sixty five, Jekle was exhibiting her artwork at 141 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:40,360 Speaker 1: places like the Royal Academy and the Society of Female Artists. 142 00:08:40,840 --> 00:08:43,960 Speaker 1: This artwork has not been the subject of as much 143 00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:47,320 Speaker 1: study as her gardens, though, because a lot of it 144 00:08:47,400 --> 00:08:50,640 Speaker 1: was in family collections and largely out of the public 145 00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:54,800 Speaker 1: eye until the nineteen nineties or later. Like, I read 146 00:08:54,800 --> 00:08:57,080 Speaker 1: a biography of her that was written prior to this 147 00:08:57,200 --> 00:08:59,640 Speaker 1: that was like, well, we don't know what any of 148 00:08:59,679 --> 00:09:03,160 Speaker 1: her art looks like, and then I found scans of 149 00:09:03,400 --> 00:09:07,160 Speaker 1: a lot of it. A lot of her study of 150 00:09:07,400 --> 00:09:11,200 Speaker 1: art included copying other artists' master works, and she was 151 00:09:11,280 --> 00:09:15,120 Speaker 1: reportedly a very good copyist. Some of her copies still 152 00:09:15,160 --> 00:09:19,400 Speaker 1: exist and are in the collection of the Godalming Museum. 153 00:09:19,800 --> 00:09:23,000 Speaker 1: There were also times when her instructors used her artwork 154 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:25,640 Speaker 1: as a reference or as an example for other students. 155 00:09:26,559 --> 00:09:30,360 Speaker 1: Art critic and polymath John Ruskin described her painting Yahoo 156 00:09:30,440 --> 00:09:34,920 Speaker 1: driving Furiously as quote very wonderful and interesting and for 157 00:09:34,960 --> 00:09:37,160 Speaker 1: a while that was all anybody had to go on. 158 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:40,240 Speaker 1: Did not know what it looked like, but now you 159 00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:43,640 Speaker 1: can see a picture of it online. Jicel was always 160 00:09:43,920 --> 00:09:46,400 Speaker 1: very fond of cats, and there is a painting of 161 00:09:46,440 --> 00:09:49,440 Speaker 1: her cat Thomas as the character of Puss and Boots 162 00:09:49,679 --> 00:09:53,760 Speaker 1: in the collection of the Godalming Museum as well. Some 163 00:09:53,800 --> 00:09:56,000 Speaker 1: of her work is also in the collection of the 164 00:09:56,080 --> 00:10:00,160 Speaker 1: Surrey History Center. Jicyle finished her painting of Tom as 165 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:03,240 Speaker 1: the Cat in eighteen sixty five, and that same year 166 00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:07,559 Speaker 1: her sister Caroline known as Carrie, got married. The departure 167 00:10:07,679 --> 00:10:10,480 Speaker 1: of her only sister from the household meant that Gertrude 168 00:10:10,559 --> 00:10:12,520 Speaker 1: was expected to take up a bigger share of the 169 00:10:12,559 --> 00:10:16,199 Speaker 1: domestic work, and this seems to have been really hard 170 00:10:16,240 --> 00:10:19,600 Speaker 1: for her. The Jeagles were a close knit family, but 171 00:10:19,679 --> 00:10:22,920 Speaker 1: Gertrude also had interests of her own. She was more 172 00:10:22,960 --> 00:10:25,800 Speaker 1: interested in studying art than trying to run a household, 173 00:10:26,320 --> 00:10:30,040 Speaker 1: and her sister's marriage also emphasized that the expectation was 174 00:10:30,080 --> 00:10:32,920 Speaker 1: for Gertrude, who was aged twenty two at this point 175 00:10:33,160 --> 00:10:36,360 Speaker 1: to marry as well. She seems to have spent more 176 00:10:36,400 --> 00:10:39,800 Speaker 1: of her time in London after her sister's marriage, perhaps 177 00:10:39,840 --> 00:10:43,320 Speaker 1: to try to get away from those expectations. In eighteen 178 00:10:43,360 --> 00:10:46,440 Speaker 1: sixty eight, the Jakle family moved from Bramley House in 179 00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:51,040 Speaker 1: Surrey to Wargrave Hill in Berkshire. This was a property 180 00:10:51,040 --> 00:10:53,200 Speaker 1: that had been passed down through the family and it 181 00:10:53,240 --> 00:10:56,679 Speaker 1: had become vacant after the death of a tenant. Even 182 00:10:56,760 --> 00:11:00,320 Speaker 1: though Gertrude had not been living at Bramley House full time, 183 00:11:00,440 --> 00:11:03,920 Speaker 1: she was really sad to leave it. She had fallen 184 00:11:03,960 --> 00:11:06,320 Speaker 1: in love with the landscape of Surrey and she just 185 00:11:06,640 --> 00:11:11,720 Speaker 1: wasn't as fond of Berkshire. However, this move did give 186 00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:15,640 Speaker 1: her a new creative outlet. She was tasked with redecorating 187 00:11:15,679 --> 00:11:18,160 Speaker 1: the house, with her parents seeing it as a way 188 00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:21,920 Speaker 1: to encourage her creative side, and this involved everything from 189 00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:26,200 Speaker 1: sourcing furniture and decorative objects to designing draperies and wall 190 00:11:26,240 --> 00:11:29,400 Speaker 1: coverings for the house herself. We'll get in some more 191 00:11:29,440 --> 00:11:42,360 Speaker 1: on that after a sponsor break. We said earlier that 192 00:11:42,400 --> 00:11:48,280 Speaker 1: Gertrude Jeekles's family was comfortable and well respected comfortable means 193 00:11:48,360 --> 00:11:51,720 Speaker 1: pretty rich, though, This meant that there were a lot 194 00:11:51,800 --> 00:11:56,080 Speaker 1: of prominent visitors to their home at Wargrave Hill, people 195 00:11:56,120 --> 00:11:58,400 Speaker 1: who took notice of the work that she had done 196 00:11:58,480 --> 00:12:03,199 Speaker 1: on its interior design. Soon other people were asking her 197 00:12:03,360 --> 00:12:07,440 Speaker 1: for her help and redecorating their own homes. This included 198 00:12:07,520 --> 00:12:11,040 Speaker 1: Hugh Grovener, first Duke of Westminster, who asked Jekyll to 199 00:12:11,160 --> 00:12:15,040 Speaker 1: decorate Eton Hall, which had been newly rebuilt under architect 200 00:12:15,040 --> 00:12:18,640 Speaker 1: Alfred Waterhouse. The Duke wrote to her that quote, I 201 00:12:18,679 --> 00:12:21,560 Speaker 1: don't see how without your advice it can ever be 202 00:12:21,720 --> 00:12:26,480 Speaker 1: satisfactorily accomplished. This was paid work, which meant that it 203 00:12:26,520 --> 00:12:30,800 Speaker 1: had to be handled delicately. It was not considered appropriate 204 00:12:30,880 --> 00:12:33,840 Speaker 1: for a woman of Jicyll's economic class to work or 205 00:12:33,880 --> 00:12:37,319 Speaker 1: to present herself as having a profession, and she got 206 00:12:37,360 --> 00:12:40,720 Speaker 1: around this by describing herself as an amateur, which also 207 00:12:40,760 --> 00:12:42,959 Speaker 1: meant that she was paid much less than a man 208 00:12:43,000 --> 00:12:46,360 Speaker 1: of comparable ability would have been paid. It also helped 209 00:12:46,360 --> 00:12:48,280 Speaker 1: that much of this work was done for friends and 210 00:12:48,320 --> 00:12:51,080 Speaker 1: acquaintances who heard about her work by word of mouth 211 00:12:51,280 --> 00:12:54,000 Speaker 1: or just by visiting one of the homes she had decorated. 212 00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:58,360 Speaker 1: Other clients for her interior decoration and design work included 213 00:12:58,440 --> 00:13:02,720 Speaker 1: Queen Victoria's daughter, Princess Louise, and artists Frederick Layton and 214 00:13:02,800 --> 00:13:08,280 Speaker 1: Hercules Brabazon. Brabazon was another of Jekle's lifelong friends, and 215 00:13:08,320 --> 00:13:11,360 Speaker 1: through the eighteen sixties and seventies she made connections to 216 00:13:11,480 --> 00:13:15,560 Speaker 1: a lot of other British artists and artisans. This included 217 00:13:15,559 --> 00:13:18,000 Speaker 1: William Morris, who she visited for the first time in 218 00:13:18,040 --> 00:13:22,400 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty nine. Morris was a social reformer, a poet, 219 00:13:22,480 --> 00:13:26,840 Speaker 1: an artist, and a designer whose work included textiles and wallpapers. 220 00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:29,880 Speaker 1: Morris was a key figure in the Arts and crafts 221 00:13:29,920 --> 00:13:33,520 Speaker 1: movement in Britain. This was an esthetic and reform movement 222 00:13:33,559 --> 00:13:36,800 Speaker 1: that developed in response to the Industrial Revolution and a 223 00:13:36,840 --> 00:13:41,160 Speaker 1: perception that mechanization and industrialization had led to a proliferation 224 00:13:41,320 --> 00:13:45,240 Speaker 1: of unattractive and badly made goods. The Arts and crafts 225 00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:48,720 Speaker 1: movement focused on making things by hand and doing it well. 226 00:13:49,400 --> 00:13:52,240 Speaker 1: Many in the movement also advocated for the idea of 227 00:13:52,280 --> 00:13:54,840 Speaker 1: the unity of the arts, that there really was no 228 00:13:55,000 --> 00:13:59,080 Speaker 1: distinction between fine art and decorative art. It all required 229 00:13:59,160 --> 00:14:02,360 Speaker 1: skill and care, hair and craftsmanship, and all of it 230 00:14:02,400 --> 00:14:05,480 Speaker 1: brought beauty into the world. Yeah, there's a big focus 231 00:14:05,520 --> 00:14:10,280 Speaker 1: on creating should be joyful and it all matters. Uh. 232 00:14:10,520 --> 00:14:14,960 Speaker 1: That choked me up to say. Gertrude Jiegel had a 233 00:14:14,960 --> 00:14:17,520 Speaker 1: lot of connections to the arts and crafts movement, and 234 00:14:17,640 --> 00:14:21,200 Speaker 1: these ideas had a big influence on her work. She 235 00:14:21,240 --> 00:14:25,280 Speaker 1: incorporated a lot of handcrafted pieces into her interior designs, 236 00:14:25,360 --> 00:14:28,840 Speaker 1: and she learned to make a lot of different things herself. 237 00:14:29,560 --> 00:14:32,520 Speaker 1: She had a particular focus on painting and embroidery, but 238 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:37,680 Speaker 1: she also learned skills like metalwork, wood carving, gilding, inlaying, 239 00:14:37,800 --> 00:14:40,520 Speaker 1: and embossing, and she practiced all of this in a 240 00:14:40,560 --> 00:14:43,600 Speaker 1: workshop she set up for herself at home. She was 241 00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:47,480 Speaker 1: just continually learning how to do new things and then 242 00:14:47,560 --> 00:14:50,960 Speaker 1: finding ways to incorporate any new skill that she learned 243 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:54,920 Speaker 1: into her other creative work. She also made an ongoing 244 00:14:54,960 --> 00:14:57,640 Speaker 1: study of the world around her and how people were 245 00:14:57,760 --> 00:15:02,280 Speaker 1: using decorative objects and archetecl ure and design. Some of 246 00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:07,040 Speaker 1: this was actually difficult because of her eyesight. She had myopia, 247 00:15:07,200 --> 00:15:11,160 Speaker 1: so nearby objects were clear, but objects farther away were blurry, 248 00:15:11,320 --> 00:15:14,920 Speaker 1: and she wore heavy eyeglasses with steel rims to correct 249 00:15:14,960 --> 00:15:18,520 Speaker 1: her vision as much as possible. Even though her close 250 00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:22,080 Speaker 1: up vision was clearer, doing fine detail work caused her 251 00:15:22,080 --> 00:15:24,920 Speaker 1: a lot of eye stream, and the changes in her 252 00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:27,720 Speaker 1: vision were also progressive, so this was something that she 253 00:15:27,840 --> 00:15:31,280 Speaker 1: was often very worried about. In addition to all her 254 00:15:31,400 --> 00:15:35,120 Speaker 1: study and design work, Jicyle continued to travel, including a 255 00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:38,440 Speaker 1: trip through France, Italy and Algiers that lasted for more 256 00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:42,200 Speaker 1: than five months. She set out in September of eighteen 257 00:15:42,240 --> 00:15:45,640 Speaker 1: seventy two when she was twenty nine. And Algiers she 258 00:15:45,800 --> 00:15:49,320 Speaker 1: was once again struck by the plant life, particularly these 259 00:15:49,560 --> 00:15:52,880 Speaker 1: large architectural plants that were used as focal points in 260 00:15:52,920 --> 00:15:56,520 Speaker 1: some of the gardens. She continued to make things as 261 00:15:56,600 --> 00:16:00,440 Speaker 1: she traveled, particularly during the coldest part of the winter months, 262 00:16:00,520 --> 00:16:03,200 Speaker 1: when she and her companions were spending more of their 263 00:16:03,240 --> 00:16:06,760 Speaker 1: time indoors, and she painted and sketched the people and 264 00:16:06,840 --> 00:16:11,320 Speaker 1: places she saw. Jigel had always been interested in plants 265 00:16:11,400 --> 00:16:14,080 Speaker 1: and gardening, and she started to focus more on that 266 00:16:14,200 --> 00:16:17,720 Speaker 1: after returning from this trip. At some point she had 267 00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:22,040 Speaker 1: started redesigning the gardens around Wargrave Manor. She was also 268 00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:24,360 Speaker 1: working with the plants that she had gathered, both from 269 00:16:24,400 --> 00:16:27,400 Speaker 1: her trips to other countries and from the countryside around 270 00:16:27,440 --> 00:16:31,080 Speaker 1: where she lived, propagating them, breeding them, and working to 271 00:16:31,160 --> 00:16:36,240 Speaker 1: develop improved cultivars. In eighteen seventy five, Jigell visited Irish 272 00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:40,600 Speaker 1: gardener and journalist William Robinson at his office. Robinson had 273 00:16:40,640 --> 00:16:45,000 Speaker 1: published books on gardening, including Alpine Flowers for Gardens and 274 00:16:45,320 --> 00:16:49,320 Speaker 1: The Wild Garden. He had also established a weekly journal 275 00:16:49,440 --> 00:16:53,720 Speaker 1: called The Garden four years before. At this point, Gertrude 276 00:16:53,760 --> 00:16:56,880 Speaker 1: was interested in gardening and garden design, and she wanted 277 00:16:56,920 --> 00:17:00,240 Speaker 1: to learn more. Her visit with Robinson marked the start 278 00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:03,400 Speaker 1: of a friendship that would turn into a professional relationship 279 00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:07,280 Speaker 1: six years later, when Jeekles started contributing articles of her 280 00:17:07,320 --> 00:17:11,440 Speaker 1: own to The Garden. In eighteen seventy six, Gertrude's father, 281 00:17:11,680 --> 00:17:15,720 Speaker 1: Edward died, Her mother, Julia, decided to return to Surrey, 282 00:17:15,760 --> 00:17:19,480 Speaker 1: although not to Bramley House. For one, it wasn't available, 283 00:17:19,560 --> 00:17:21,919 Speaker 1: but even if it had been, the family was a 284 00:17:21,960 --> 00:17:25,840 Speaker 1: lot smaller now. In addition to their father's death, Gertrude's 285 00:17:25,840 --> 00:17:28,360 Speaker 1: three other siblings had all gotten married and moved into 286 00:17:28,400 --> 00:17:31,920 Speaker 1: homes of their own. Julia decided to have a new 287 00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:35,760 Speaker 1: house built to her specifications, and she commissioned architect John 288 00:17:35,880 --> 00:17:39,560 Speaker 1: James Stevenson. While the house was being built, the family 289 00:17:39,600 --> 00:17:43,280 Speaker 1: lived in a house in Bramley Village. Their new home, 290 00:17:43,440 --> 00:17:47,159 Speaker 1: known as Munstead House, was in Munstead Heath, and Gertrude 291 00:17:47,200 --> 00:17:50,840 Speaker 1: designed the gardens. She had already started to think of 292 00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:54,639 Speaker 1: gardens as works of art, and now she works toward 293 00:17:54,680 --> 00:17:58,560 Speaker 1: applying everything she had learned about art and design so 294 00:17:58,760 --> 00:18:01,840 Speaker 1: far in her life to her designs for the gardens. 295 00:18:02,600 --> 00:18:05,040 Speaker 1: This was something that developed over the course of Jekyll's 296 00:18:05,080 --> 00:18:08,720 Speaker 1: career as a landscape designer and architect. She really learned 297 00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:12,080 Speaker 1: by doing observing the plants and keeping careful notes on 298 00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:14,560 Speaker 1: how they grew and what they did. Year after year. 299 00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:18,960 Speaker 1: She incorporated color theory into her designs, including the colors 300 00:18:18,960 --> 00:18:22,280 Speaker 1: of flowers and of their foliage. The colors of her 301 00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:25,600 Speaker 1: gardens typically moved from cool to warm and back again, 302 00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:28,919 Speaker 1: and they were intentionally planted to change with the seasons, 303 00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:31,480 Speaker 1: with the plant's life cycles being a part of how 304 00:18:31,520 --> 00:18:34,600 Speaker 1: the garden looked and grew. So, for example, if a 305 00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:38,080 Speaker 1: flowering plant typically withered and died back after it bloomed, 306 00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:41,680 Speaker 1: she might plant it alongside ferns that would conceal those 307 00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:45,359 Speaker 1: fading stems, or she might plan for potted plants to 308 00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:47,720 Speaker 1: fill in the spaces left by plants that died back 309 00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:51,720 Speaker 1: later in the season. One of the garden elements that 310 00:18:51,800 --> 00:18:56,360 Speaker 1: Jingle became really known for was her herbaceous borders. These 311 00:18:56,400 --> 00:18:59,600 Speaker 1: are long stretches of beds that ran along things like 312 00:18:59,720 --> 00:19:04,159 Speaker 1: walls or paths, typically not much wider than the gardener's 313 00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:08,119 Speaker 1: arms reach, to make things easier to maintain. She of 314 00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:12,240 Speaker 1: course did not invent the idea of herbaceous borders. People 315 00:19:12,280 --> 00:19:15,320 Speaker 1: had been planting things alongside walls and paths for as 316 00:19:15,359 --> 00:19:18,720 Speaker 1: long as they had been gardening. But she did put 317 00:19:18,760 --> 00:19:21,520 Speaker 1: a lot of thought into the use of color and 318 00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:24,879 Speaker 1: texture in these borders and the sizes and shapes of 319 00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:28,719 Speaker 1: the plants. It wasn't just about the flowers looking pretty. 320 00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:32,440 Speaker 1: She used color, space, and texture to create a sense 321 00:19:32,480 --> 00:19:35,760 Speaker 1: of perspective and distance, the way a painter can use 322 00:19:35,880 --> 00:19:39,000 Speaker 1: light and color and shadow to create a sense of 323 00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:42,960 Speaker 1: depth and dimension in a painting. Sometimes she used a 324 00:19:43,119 --> 00:19:46,119 Speaker 1: lot of different flowering plants to get the effect she 325 00:19:46,160 --> 00:19:48,600 Speaker 1: was looking for here, so, especially when it came to 326 00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:52,280 Speaker 1: very large gardens with a lot of borders, this was 327 00:19:52,320 --> 00:19:55,360 Speaker 1: something that required a whole team of gardeners to maintain. 328 00:19:56,200 --> 00:19:59,320 Speaker 1: Within a few years, Jekyl was applying this philosophy of 329 00:19:59,359 --> 00:20:03,120 Speaker 1: gardening to property of her own. She purchased about six 330 00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:07,320 Speaker 1: hectares that's almost fifteen acres of Munstead Wood across the 331 00:20:07,320 --> 00:20:09,800 Speaker 1: street from her mother's home. She made that purchase in 332 00:20:09,840 --> 00:20:13,040 Speaker 1: eighteen eighty two. She knew that when her mother died, 333 00:20:13,160 --> 00:20:16,000 Speaker 1: her brother Herbert would be the one inheriting the house, 334 00:20:16,080 --> 00:20:18,720 Speaker 1: and since he had recently gotten married, he would be 335 00:20:18,760 --> 00:20:22,640 Speaker 1: moving in with his family. Gertrude was not married. There's 336 00:20:22,800 --> 00:20:26,080 Speaker 1: really no record of her ever having a romantic relationship 337 00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:29,840 Speaker 1: with anyone, at least not in material that's publicly available, 338 00:20:30,480 --> 00:20:33,000 Speaker 1: so she needed to plan for a house of her own. 339 00:20:33,760 --> 00:20:36,040 Speaker 1: She didn't get started on the house right away, though, 340 00:20:36,200 --> 00:20:39,320 Speaker 1: She gardened in Munstead Wood, planning around a space where 341 00:20:39,320 --> 00:20:42,800 Speaker 1: a house would eventually go. By this point, Jkyl was 342 00:20:42,840 --> 00:20:47,119 Speaker 1: publishing articles about gardening in William Robinson's journal, The Garden 343 00:20:47,280 --> 00:20:51,000 Speaker 1: and in other publications. As the changes in her eyesight 344 00:20:51,080 --> 00:20:55,119 Speaker 1: continued to progress, she also became an avid photographer, taking 345 00:20:55,200 --> 00:20:58,400 Speaker 1: pictures of the plants end of her gardens. She used 346 00:20:58,440 --> 00:21:02,280 Speaker 1: these as illustrations for her work. She developed these pictures 347 00:21:02,359 --> 00:21:05,239 Speaker 1: herself in her own dark room, and it's estimated that 348 00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:08,360 Speaker 1: between eighteen eighty five and eighteen eighty eight she took 349 00:21:08,359 --> 00:21:12,800 Speaker 1: at least nine hundred photographs intended for publication. That doesn't 350 00:21:12,840 --> 00:21:16,359 Speaker 1: sound like many when we how have phones that have 351 00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:19,640 Speaker 1: cameras on them and we can take nine hundred pictures 352 00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:23,760 Speaker 1: of a cat in a day. These were like film 353 00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:30,240 Speaker 1: pictures that were developed and prepared. In eighteen eighty nine, 354 00:21:30,440 --> 00:21:33,719 Speaker 1: Jikell meant architect Edwin Lutians, who, at the age of twenty, 355 00:21:33,880 --> 00:21:36,879 Speaker 1: was just starting his career. They meant for the first 356 00:21:36,880 --> 00:21:40,200 Speaker 1: time when Jicel was having tea with a neighbor, Henry Mangles. 357 00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:45,160 Speaker 1: Jikkel and Lutiens became friends and collaborators for years. There 358 00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:48,600 Speaker 1: was both a partnership and a mentoring relationship, with the 359 00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:52,479 Speaker 1: much younger Lutians referring to Jicyl as ant bumps, and 360 00:21:52,600 --> 00:21:56,359 Speaker 1: Jikyl connecting him to potential clients for his architecture work. 361 00:21:57,160 --> 00:21:59,320 Speaker 1: In eighteen ninety one, at the age of forty eight, 362 00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:02,240 Speaker 1: Jikel went to an eye doctor because she was concerned 363 00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:04,400 Speaker 1: about the changes in her eyesight and she was also 364 00:22:04,480 --> 00:22:08,280 Speaker 1: having a lot of headaches. The doctor advised her to 365 00:22:08,359 --> 00:22:12,360 Speaker 1: give up things like painting and embroidery that required close 366 00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:16,280 Speaker 1: up detail work. She did continue to do all of 367 00:22:16,320 --> 00:22:18,479 Speaker 1: these things for the rest of her life, and she 368 00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:22,080 Speaker 1: was an avid reader, but she had to limit her 369 00:22:22,160 --> 00:22:25,359 Speaker 1: time with this kind of close up focused work. She 370 00:22:25,520 --> 00:22:30,160 Speaker 1: instead became increasingly dedicated to gardening rather than to other 371 00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:33,720 Speaker 1: arts and crafts, and her words quote, when I was young, 372 00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:35,679 Speaker 1: I was hoping to be a painter, but to my 373 00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:39,000 Speaker 1: lifelong regret, I was obliged to abandon all hope of 374 00:22:39,040 --> 00:22:43,320 Speaker 1: this on account of my extreme and always progressive myopia. 375 00:22:44,040 --> 00:22:46,640 Speaker 1: We're going to talk about more about her gardening and 376 00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:50,800 Speaker 1: her collaborations with architect Edwin Lutiens after a sponsor break. 377 00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:04,120 Speaker 1: Gertrude Jeekle's first home at Munstead Wood was known as 378 00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:07,359 Speaker 1: the Hut and it was designed by Edwin Ludiens in 379 00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:10,960 Speaker 1: eighteen ninety four. This was a single story home with 380 00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:14,920 Speaker 1: whitewashed walls and an oak beam roof covered in simple tile, 381 00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:18,440 Speaker 1: and she seems to have genuinely loved it. At the 382 00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:20,679 Speaker 1: same time, though, this was always meant to be a 383 00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:24,240 Speaker 1: temporary home, and when her mother died the next year, 384 00:23:24,400 --> 00:23:29,080 Speaker 1: getting into a bigger house became more urgent. The construction 385 00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:32,600 Speaker 1: site for this bigger house, which she called Munstead Wood, 386 00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:35,280 Speaker 1: was inside of the hut, just basically right next to it, 387 00:23:35,320 --> 00:23:39,080 Speaker 1: and she was fascinated by the whole building process. This 388 00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:43,040 Speaker 1: Tudor inspired home was finished in eighteen ninety seven, and 389 00:23:43,119 --> 00:23:45,679 Speaker 1: the house and everything in it were inspired by the 390 00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:48,920 Speaker 1: principles of the arts and crafts movement. It was made 391 00:23:48,920 --> 00:23:52,280 Speaker 1: from local stone and timbers and built by local crafts people, 392 00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:54,480 Speaker 1: and she meant for it to look as though it 393 00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:57,359 Speaker 1: had grown from the gardens, and it was built to 394 00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:01,200 Speaker 1: suit her needs and interests. There were seven bedrooms, including 395 00:24:01,240 --> 00:24:04,600 Speaker 1: her room, guest rooms and bedrooms for her staff, as 396 00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:07,240 Speaker 1: well as a dark room, a workshop, a writing room, 397 00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:11,199 Speaker 1: and a flower shop meaning a workshop for flowers. By 398 00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:15,480 Speaker 1: the time Munsteadwood was finished, Jikyle had become widely recognized 399 00:24:15,480 --> 00:24:19,480 Speaker 1: for her work in gardening and horticulture. In eighteen ninety seven, 400 00:24:19,600 --> 00:24:22,159 Speaker 1: she was awarded the Victoria Medal of Honor by the 401 00:24:22,280 --> 00:24:27,159 Speaker 1: Royal Horticultural Society. This was Britain's highest horticultural award and 402 00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:30,399 Speaker 1: she was the first woman to be so honored. In 403 00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:33,680 Speaker 1: eighteen ninety nine, she published her first book, Wood and 404 00:24:33,720 --> 00:24:37,879 Speaker 1: Garden Notes, and thoughts practical and critical of a working amateur. 405 00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:40,919 Speaker 1: About a third of this book was expanded from a 406 00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:44,040 Speaker 1: column called Notes from Garden and Woodland that Jicele had 407 00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:47,720 Speaker 1: published in The Guardian over the previous few years. Most 408 00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:50,399 Speaker 1: of the photographs were ones that she took herself in 409 00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:54,280 Speaker 1: her own gardens. The book was based on her own 410 00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:58,920 Speaker 1: experiences at Munsteadwood and it was full of practical advice 411 00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:03,239 Speaker 1: for gardeners. The first twelve chapters are arranged by the 412 00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:07,080 Speaker 1: months of the year, covering flowers that bloom during those months, 413 00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:10,440 Speaker 1: as well as garden tasks that need to be handled 414 00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:13,880 Speaker 1: by the season. After the month by month chapters are 415 00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:20,440 Speaker 1: ones for things like large and small gardens, beginning and learning, colors, scents, weeds, 416 00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:24,360 Speaker 1: and other more general topics. There's a chapter titled the 417 00:25:24,400 --> 00:25:29,080 Speaker 1: Worship of False Gods and she discusses how the popularity 418 00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:31,600 Speaker 1: of gardening had led to a big focus on what 419 00:25:31,680 --> 00:25:36,240 Speaker 1: she calls florists flowers, that is, the kinds of flowers 420 00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:40,879 Speaker 1: that have their own societies and shows, like tulips, dahlia's 421 00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:45,880 Speaker 1: and chrysanthemums. But quote I do most strongly urge that 422 00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:49,360 Speaker 1: beauty of the highest class should be the aim and 423 00:25:49,440 --> 00:25:53,119 Speaker 1: not anything of the nature of fashion or fancy, and 424 00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:56,680 Speaker 1: that every effort should be made towards the raising, rather 425 00:25:56,720 --> 00:26:00,960 Speaker 1: than lowering of the standard of taste. Jigell wrote this 426 00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:03,600 Speaker 1: book in the midst of a huge division in the 427 00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:07,800 Speaker 1: world of British gardening, sometimes described as hard or soft, 428 00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:12,520 Speaker 1: or the formal school versus the free school, broadly speaking, 429 00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:15,719 Speaker 1: on the free school side was William Robinson, who Jicel 430 00:26:15,760 --> 00:26:18,679 Speaker 1: wrote for, who thought that gardens should be wild and 431 00:26:18,720 --> 00:26:21,359 Speaker 1: that the plants should be the focus. And on the 432 00:26:21,400 --> 00:26:24,880 Speaker 1: formal side were John's Setting and Reginald Blomfield, who thought 433 00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:27,679 Speaker 1: that a garden is an extension of the house and 434 00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:30,840 Speaker 1: should follow the principles of architecture and rules of design 435 00:26:31,119 --> 00:26:34,040 Speaker 1: that a house should follow, with the garden itself more 436 00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:38,919 Speaker 1: formal and tightly defined. Again, broadly speaking, the free school 437 00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:42,000 Speaker 1: had a focus on flowering plants, while the formal school 438 00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:46,800 Speaker 1: emphasized features like topiaries and neatly trimmed hedges. Jigel was 439 00:26:46,840 --> 00:26:50,840 Speaker 1: really somewhere in between these two schools. She definitely thought 440 00:26:50,920 --> 00:26:53,840 Speaker 1: the house and the garden should work together, and this 441 00:26:54,040 --> 00:26:57,040 Speaker 1: was really a big part of what drove her ongoing 442 00:26:57,040 --> 00:27:01,760 Speaker 1: collaborations with Edwin Lutien's her gardens, though, often had very 443 00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:06,240 Speaker 1: carefully planned elements that had a very free or almost 444 00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:10,800 Speaker 1: wild look about them, like imagine the English country garden 445 00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:13,320 Speaker 1: that just seems to have a profusion of all kinds 446 00:27:13,320 --> 00:27:17,280 Speaker 1: of different flowering plants. But this was in a structure 447 00:27:17,560 --> 00:27:23,720 Speaker 1: of more formally defined paths and features. These approaches to 448 00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:27,760 Speaker 1: gardening were hotly debated through the eighteen nineties, and Jicyl 449 00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:31,000 Speaker 1: wrote in eighteen ninety six quote within the last few years, 450 00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:34,679 Speaker 1: just such another war of controversy has raged between the 451 00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:38,240 Speaker 1: exponents of formal and the free styles of gardening. And 452 00:27:38,359 --> 00:27:40,720 Speaker 1: again it is to be regretted that it has taken 453 00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:44,719 Speaker 1: a somewhat bitter and personal tone. The formal army has 454 00:27:44,800 --> 00:27:49,080 Speaker 1: hurled javelins, poisoned with the damning epithet vulgar. The free 455 00:27:49,119 --> 00:27:53,639 Speaker 1: has responded with asseguyes imbued with an equally irritating ignorant 456 00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:58,320 Speaker 1: Both are right and both are wrong. Throughout all of this, 457 00:27:58,520 --> 00:28:02,639 Speaker 1: Gertrude Jekyl was busy over the course of her career 458 00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:05,960 Speaker 1: as a landscape architect and garden designer. She designed or 459 00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:10,080 Speaker 1: consulted on at least four hundred gardens about one hundred 460 00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:14,240 Speaker 1: of them as collaborations with Edward Lutien's. Their work together 461 00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:18,360 Speaker 1: was hugely influential within the arts and crafts movement and 462 00:28:18,640 --> 00:28:22,720 Speaker 1: in setting trends of what English houses and gardens were 463 00:28:22,760 --> 00:28:26,800 Speaker 1: supposed to look like. She was writing books and articles, 464 00:28:26,880 --> 00:28:30,320 Speaker 1: including a gardening book for children in nineteen oh two, 465 00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:33,280 Speaker 1: which she did in spite of her general dislike of 466 00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:36,680 Speaker 1: how loud they were. In nineteen oh four she also 467 00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:40,840 Speaker 1: published a book called Old West Surrey, documenting what life 468 00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:42,680 Speaker 1: had been like in that part of England in the 469 00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:46,239 Speaker 1: second half of the nineteenth century. She was also a 470 00:28:46,280 --> 00:28:50,600 Speaker 1: really avid observer of life and a collector of ordinary 471 00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:54,600 Speaker 1: objects related to country life. She donated a lot of 472 00:28:54,640 --> 00:28:58,760 Speaker 1: this collection to the Surrey Archaeological Society in nineteen oh seven. 473 00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:04,480 Speaker 1: Nineteen oh four, Jikyl did her work almost entirely by correspondents. 474 00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:07,400 Speaker 1: She made her last visit to London that year, and 475 00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:11,160 Speaker 1: after that she rarely left home. She would write letters 476 00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:14,600 Speaker 1: with sketches and thorough descriptions of the plan, using vellum 477 00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:19,560 Speaker 1: overlays to add her notations to architectural plans and other designs. 478 00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:23,719 Speaker 1: In the early twentieth century, Jekle established a commercial Plant 479 00:29:23,800 --> 00:29:27,360 Speaker 1: Nursery at Munsteadwood to make sure that she always had 480 00:29:27,360 --> 00:29:30,560 Speaker 1: the plants she would need for a client's designs, and 481 00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:34,040 Speaker 1: to discourage the gardeners who would actually be building and 482 00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:38,840 Speaker 1: maintaining those gardens from making substitutions. She ran this nursery 483 00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:42,400 Speaker 1: until nineteen thirty two, and she continued working on her 484 00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:46,080 Speaker 1: own breeds of plants during that whole time. She was 485 00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:49,280 Speaker 1: also part of the movement for women's suffrage. She was 486 00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:52,560 Speaker 1: elected Vice president of the Godalming branch of the National 487 00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:56,760 Speaker 1: Union of Women's Suffrage Societies in nineteen oh nine. One 488 00:29:56,800 --> 00:29:59,520 Speaker 1: of her surviving works of embroidery is a banner that 489 00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:03,160 Speaker 1: she made for the society. World War One marked a 490 00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:06,400 Speaker 1: shift in Jeekle's life and work. A lot of her 491 00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:09,920 Speaker 1: writing about gardening was meant to be practical and accessible 492 00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:12,320 Speaker 1: to anybody who had a little patch of green space 493 00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:15,800 Speaker 1: to grow things in, and some of her design commissions 494 00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:20,840 Speaker 1: were for spaces as small as individual window boxes, But 495 00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:22,960 Speaker 1: a lot of her commissions were for the types of 496 00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:27,560 Speaker 1: estates that had a whole gardening staff. This included her 497 00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:31,080 Speaker 1: own home at munstead Wood, which had a staff of 498 00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:35,160 Speaker 1: at least ten gardeners. The exact number is not really 499 00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:39,040 Speaker 1: clearly documented. It also seems like she had some critics 500 00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:43,560 Speaker 1: who just intentionally inflated their estimates of how many gardeners 501 00:30:43,600 --> 00:30:47,240 Speaker 1: she was employing to make it seem like the things 502 00:30:47,280 --> 00:30:50,760 Speaker 1: she was advocating were totally out of reach. During World 503 00:30:50,800 --> 00:30:54,200 Speaker 1: War One and later the Great Depression, people had less 504 00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:58,680 Speaker 1: money and other priorities than paying for garden labor. In 505 00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:01,240 Speaker 1: the wake of a bunch of social and economic changes, 506 00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:05,320 Speaker 1: a lot of Britain's stately mansions and country estates were 507 00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:09,880 Speaker 1: also no longer occupied or no longer employing a giant 508 00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:13,760 Speaker 1: paid staff. Jikle worried that she might have to give 509 00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:16,760 Speaker 1: up munstead Wood, but she got a donation from the 510 00:31:16,800 --> 00:31:20,200 Speaker 1: Garden Club of America that helped her keep going. She 511 00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:23,760 Speaker 1: also started keeping chickens during the war, which continued after 512 00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:27,600 Speaker 1: it was over. She planted more food crops at munstead Wood, 513 00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:29,800 Speaker 1: and she wrote about how other people might do the 514 00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:33,760 Speaker 1: same in their kitchen gardens. She also organized collections of 515 00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:37,120 Speaker 1: sphagnum moss, which was used as a surgical dressing because 516 00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:42,360 Speaker 1: of its antimicrobial and absorptive properties. Flowers from Jicyl's nursery 517 00:31:42,400 --> 00:31:44,800 Speaker 1: were sent to the continent to be used at burial 518 00:31:44,840 --> 00:31:48,600 Speaker 1: sites for Allied soldiers after the end of the war. 519 00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:52,360 Speaker 1: In nineteen twenty, Edward Lytiens convinced Gertrude Jekyl to sit 520 00:31:52,440 --> 00:31:55,800 Speaker 1: for a portrait, something she was really reluctant to do. 521 00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:58,880 Speaker 1: She had never really been fond of her body or 522 00:31:58,880 --> 00:32:02,240 Speaker 1: her appearance, to the point that she called herself unpaintable. 523 00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:05,200 Speaker 1: She also had so much to do during the day, 524 00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:09,400 Speaker 1: and she just refused to lose any daylight hours sitting 525 00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:13,680 Speaker 1: for a portrait, so William Nicholson painted her by lamplight 526 00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:17,680 Speaker 1: in the evenings. Nicholson spent some of his time during 527 00:32:17,680 --> 00:32:20,200 Speaker 1: the day painting a still life of her well worn 528 00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:24,800 Speaker 1: men's balmeral boots, which she wore for gardening. One source 529 00:32:24,840 --> 00:32:27,240 Speaker 1: that Tracy used in this episode said she had acquired 530 00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:29,720 Speaker 1: these boots all the way back in eighteen eighty three, 531 00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:33,320 Speaker 1: and they were definitely well worn. She said in a 532 00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:37,000 Speaker 1: nineteen hundred letter quote, no carpenter likes a new plane. 533 00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:39,680 Speaker 1: No house painter likes a new brush. It is the 534 00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:43,080 Speaker 1: same with clothes. The familiar ease can only come of 535 00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:46,400 Speaker 1: use and better acquaintance. I suppose no horse likes a 536 00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:49,400 Speaker 1: new collar. I am quite sure I do not like 537 00:32:49,520 --> 00:32:52,160 Speaker 1: new boots. The painting of the boots is in the 538 00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:55,120 Speaker 1: collection of the Tate Museum today, and the boots themselves 539 00:32:55,160 --> 00:32:58,400 Speaker 1: are in the collection of the Guildford Museum. The portrait 540 00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:01,240 Speaker 1: is on display in the National port Gallery in London. 541 00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:04,720 Speaker 1: By the time this portrait was painted, Jicyl was in 542 00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:08,280 Speaker 1: her late seventies and was spending one day each week 543 00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:11,600 Speaker 1: resting in bed. On the advice of a doctor, she 544 00:33:11,720 --> 00:33:15,160 Speaker 1: chose Sunday as her day of rest. Her other days 545 00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:18,440 Speaker 1: were tightly scheduled to allow her to both work and 546 00:33:18,560 --> 00:33:23,240 Speaker 1: recover from working. But she was generally opposed to various 547 00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:26,960 Speaker 1: labor saving devices that were introduced in the early twentieth 548 00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:29,280 Speaker 1: century that might have made her work in the gardens 549 00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:33,760 Speaker 1: a little less tiring. She was set in her ways 550 00:33:33,840 --> 00:33:37,560 Speaker 1: in this aspect. She did, however, get a radio the 551 00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:42,160 Speaker 1: year she turned eighty. Jkyl was awarded the Royal Horticultural 552 00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:45,920 Speaker 1: Society's Viitch Gold Medal in nineteen twenty nine for quote 553 00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:49,920 Speaker 1: persons of any nationality who have made an outstanding contribution 554 00:33:50,280 --> 00:33:53,120 Speaker 1: to the advancement and improvement of the science and practice 555 00:33:53,160 --> 00:33:56,840 Speaker 1: of horticulture. In nineteen thirty, at the age of eighty six, 556 00:33:56,920 --> 00:34:01,120 Speaker 1: she wrote forty articles for Gardening Illustrated, even though she 557 00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:05,240 Speaker 1: said she couldn't see her own handwriting anymore. By this point, 558 00:34:05,320 --> 00:34:08,440 Speaker 1: she was no longer able to create huge garden plans, 559 00:34:08,680 --> 00:34:12,480 Speaker 1: but she still took commissions for flower boarders. Her doctor 560 00:34:12,680 --> 00:34:15,960 Speaker 1: ordered rest and perfect quiet during her off hours to 561 00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:20,000 Speaker 1: allow herself to continue working. In the last summer of 562 00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:23,239 Speaker 1: her life, Jekles started using a wheelchair, which was given 563 00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:26,000 Speaker 1: to her by Edwin Lutiens, and she really loved the 564 00:34:26,040 --> 00:34:29,960 Speaker 1: mobility that she had reclaimed with it. Gertrude's brother, Herbert, 565 00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:33,520 Speaker 1: died on September twenty ninth, nineteen thirty two. She had 566 00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:35,879 Speaker 1: been the closest to him of her siblings, and they 567 00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:39,840 Speaker 1: had by this point been neighbors for decades. It seems 568 00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:43,000 Speaker 1: like she approached the deaths of other family members in 569 00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:47,279 Speaker 1: a fairly stoic way, but Herbert's loss was particularly hard. 570 00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:51,960 Speaker 1: Gertrude died a few months later, on December eighth, nineteen 571 00:34:52,040 --> 00:34:54,959 Speaker 1: thirty two, at the age of eighty nine. She died 572 00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:57,640 Speaker 1: in the arms of her maid, Florence Hayter, who had 573 00:34:57,680 --> 00:35:01,200 Speaker 1: worked with her since nineteen oh six. Her last words 574 00:35:01,200 --> 00:35:06,880 Speaker 1: were reportedly peace, perfect peace in Jesus Christ. Gertrude Jiceyl 575 00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:11,320 Speaker 1: was buried at Buzbridge Church near Gadalming. Edwin Lutiens designed 576 00:35:11,320 --> 00:35:15,320 Speaker 1: her grave marker and a family monument. The family monument 577 00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:19,160 Speaker 1: describes her and her brother Herbert as quote longtime dwellers 578 00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:21,680 Speaker 1: in their homes at Munstead, who passed their rest in 579 00:35:21,719 --> 00:35:25,200 Speaker 1: the autumn of nineteen thirty two. Their joy was the 580 00:35:25,239 --> 00:35:28,120 Speaker 1: work in their hands. Their memorial is the beauty which 581 00:35:28,120 --> 00:35:31,920 Speaker 1: lives after them. Herbert's widow, Agnes, was buried with them 582 00:35:31,920 --> 00:35:34,800 Speaker 1: after she died in nineteen thirty seven, and the memorial 583 00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:38,680 Speaker 1: also reads quote also of Agnes Jgel, whose spirit ever 584 00:35:38,760 --> 00:35:44,360 Speaker 1: dwelt in loving kindness. Gertrude's individual gravestone, also designed by Lutiens, 585 00:35:44,440 --> 00:35:50,520 Speaker 1: reads artist, gardener, craftswoman. Jigel remembered four household staff members 586 00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:53,960 Speaker 1: and her will, including Florence Hayter, and left the rest 587 00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:57,880 Speaker 1: of her estate to Agnes. The family sold most of 588 00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:01,000 Speaker 1: the estate to raise money for the Red Cross relief 589 00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:05,080 Speaker 1: effort during World War II. Many of Jekyll's papers and 590 00:36:05,160 --> 00:36:10,080 Speaker 1: garden designs were bought by landscape architect Beatrix farrand Farand 591 00:36:10,120 --> 00:36:13,080 Speaker 1: and her mother had visited Jekyl from the United States 592 00:36:13,160 --> 00:36:17,399 Speaker 1: during her lifetime, and Farrand was deeply inspired by Jekyll's work. 593 00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:21,520 Speaker 1: After Faran's death, these materials were left to the University 594 00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:25,719 Speaker 1: of California at Berkeley. Many of Jekyll's notebooks are in 595 00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:29,719 Speaker 1: the collection of the Gottalmy Museum, which also has copies 596 00:36:29,719 --> 00:36:31,719 Speaker 1: of a lot of these materials that are in the 597 00:36:31,760 --> 00:36:36,640 Speaker 1: collection at UC Berkeley. During her lifetime, Jekyl published fourteen 598 00:36:36,680 --> 00:36:40,400 Speaker 1: books along with well over one thousand articles. She produced 599 00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:43,799 Speaker 1: six volumes of photo notebooks containing roughly two thy one 600 00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:47,920 Speaker 1: hundred images, many intended for use in her own publications, 601 00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:51,839 Speaker 1: and they're arranged chronologically, beginning in eighteen eighty six and 602 00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:55,640 Speaker 1: ending in nineteen fourteen with Britain's declaration of war on Germany. 603 00:36:56,440 --> 00:36:59,400 Speaker 1: She developed at least thirty strains of plants, and she 604 00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:02,440 Speaker 1: sent sea eds to various botanical gardens with the hope 605 00:37:02,480 --> 00:37:05,799 Speaker 1: that they would be preserved. Many of her strains no 606 00:37:05,880 --> 00:37:09,759 Speaker 1: longer survive. Some that do include a Columbine known as 607 00:37:09,840 --> 00:37:13,480 Speaker 1: Munstead White Munstead Lavender, a love in a miss known 608 00:37:13,520 --> 00:37:18,080 Speaker 1: as Miss Jicyle, and Gertrude Jicylvinca minor. There's also an 609 00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:20,640 Speaker 1: Old World rose named for her, but it's named in 610 00:37:20,640 --> 00:37:23,919 Speaker 1: her honor, not one of her breeds. Yeah. I think 611 00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:26,080 Speaker 1: one of the sources that I read said that six 612 00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:28,880 Speaker 1: of her strains still survived out of roughly thirty or 613 00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:32,920 Speaker 1: so that she created. Jicyl designed more than four hundred 614 00:37:32,960 --> 00:37:35,880 Speaker 1: gardens during her career. As we've said, most of these 615 00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:38,760 Speaker 1: are in the UK, but some are in other parts 616 00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:42,520 Speaker 1: of Europe. There are thirty two gardens associated with her 617 00:37:42,719 --> 00:37:46,560 Speaker 1: on England's National Heritage List today, and a few of 618 00:37:46,600 --> 00:37:50,560 Speaker 1: them either were maintained with her design or are being 619 00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:54,960 Speaker 1: restored to her design. These include the gardens at Munstead, 620 00:37:55,400 --> 00:37:59,560 Speaker 1: Linda's Farn Castle, Hestercombe, and the Old manor House at 621 00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:04,240 Speaker 1: Upton Gray. There is one remaining garden in the United 622 00:38:04,239 --> 00:38:06,799 Speaker 1: States of the three that she designed, and that's at 623 00:38:06,840 --> 00:38:10,560 Speaker 1: the Old Glebe House Museum in Woodbury, Connecticut, which commissioned 624 00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:13,880 Speaker 1: the garden from her in nineteen twenty six. You can't 625 00:38:13,920 --> 00:38:17,279 Speaker 1: get there from here on the train, but I have 626 00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:21,279 Speaker 1: this on my list of like a sometime future Connecticut 627 00:38:21,280 --> 00:38:25,000 Speaker 1: field trip. In twenty seventeen, Jekyl was honored with a 628 00:38:25,040 --> 00:38:27,920 Speaker 1: Google Doodle for her one hundred and seventy fourth birthday. 629 00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:31,680 Speaker 1: Just last year, in twenty twenty three, the UK National 630 00:38:31,719 --> 00:38:36,799 Speaker 1: Trust acquired Munstead Wood, which is currently undergoing restoration. We'll 631 00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:38,799 Speaker 1: end with a couple of quotes from her work that 632 00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:42,799 Speaker 1: I just found very dear. Quote the first purpose of 633 00:38:42,800 --> 00:38:45,600 Speaker 1: a garden is to be a place of quiet beauty, 634 00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:48,320 Speaker 1: such as will give delight to the eye and repose 635 00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:52,440 Speaker 1: and refreshment to the mind. That was from a Gardener's Testament, 636 00:38:52,480 --> 00:38:55,200 Speaker 1: which she wrote toward the end of her life. The 637 00:38:55,239 --> 00:38:58,480 Speaker 1: other is from Wood and Garden quote the size of 638 00:38:58,520 --> 00:39:00,840 Speaker 1: a garden has very little to do with its merit. 639 00:39:01,120 --> 00:39:04,000 Speaker 1: It is merely an accident relating to the circumstances of 640 00:39:04,040 --> 00:39:06,680 Speaker 1: the owner. It is the size of his heart and 641 00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:10,080 Speaker 1: brain and goodwill that will make his garden either delightful 642 00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:13,120 Speaker 1: or dull, as the case may be, and either leave 643 00:39:13,160 --> 00:39:16,359 Speaker 1: it at the usual monotonous dead level, or raise it 644 00:39:16,560 --> 00:39:19,560 Speaker 1: in whatever degree may be, towards that of a work 645 00:39:19,680 --> 00:39:25,560 Speaker 1: of fine art. As Gertrude Jekyl. She's a delight. I'm 646 00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:30,840 Speaker 1: quite fond of her. Yeah, do you have a listener? Mail? Also, 647 00:39:31,239 --> 00:39:33,320 Speaker 1: I do you have a listener? Mail listener mail about 648 00:39:33,440 --> 00:39:38,799 Speaker 1: Humphrey Davy. This email is from Larry, and Larry wrote 649 00:39:38,840 --> 00:39:42,200 Speaker 1: to say, I thoroughly enjoyed your podcast and have learned 650 00:39:42,239 --> 00:39:45,160 Speaker 1: some interesting things. I'm about an episode behind in real time, 651 00:39:45,200 --> 00:39:48,560 Speaker 1: but appreciate your podcast and my rotation. As a young 652 00:39:48,600 --> 00:39:50,920 Speaker 1: man in the early nineteen eighties, I worked in the 653 00:39:51,080 --> 00:39:54,560 Speaker 1: coal mines to put myself through mechanical engineering at the 654 00:39:54,680 --> 00:39:58,680 Speaker 1: University of Missouri Ralan now Missouri S and T. It 655 00:39:58,719 --> 00:40:01,759 Speaker 1: appears that Davy won out in the long run. We 656 00:40:02,080 --> 00:40:06,640 Speaker 1: used safety lamps to supplement the electronic methane monitor of 657 00:40:06,719 --> 00:40:10,720 Speaker 1: the day, which would false alarm occasionally, and we're mounted 658 00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:14,600 Speaker 1: on the machinery, being too heavy to carry. The safety 659 00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:17,880 Speaker 1: lamps in use were proudly tagged with a coined brass 660 00:40:17,960 --> 00:40:21,879 Speaker 1: label stating Davy Safety Lamp. To miners of the day, 661 00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:25,280 Speaker 1: the visual feedback of the flame was much more comforting 662 00:40:25,320 --> 00:40:30,680 Speaker 1: than an electronic black box. The safety lamp readily detected 663 00:40:30,760 --> 00:40:35,279 Speaker 1: two of the three damps terms still use today. Firedamp, 664 00:40:35,360 --> 00:40:37,800 Speaker 1: as you pointed out in the pod, is methane, which 665 00:40:37,840 --> 00:40:41,400 Speaker 1: caused the flame to grow and become more blue. Black 666 00:40:41,560 --> 00:40:45,440 Speaker 1: damp is poor oxygen content in the atmosphere, causing a shorter, 667 00:40:45,640 --> 00:40:49,720 Speaker 1: more yellow flame or in extreme cases, an extinguished flame. 668 00:40:50,320 --> 00:40:52,600 Speaker 1: The third ist white damp, which could be detected by 669 00:40:52,600 --> 00:40:56,000 Speaker 1: an experienced miner using the lamp and the symptoms of exposure. 670 00:40:56,360 --> 00:41:00,160 Speaker 1: Often the lowest effective technology is most helpful. Here's my 671 00:41:00,160 --> 00:41:05,000 Speaker 1: obligatory pet photo. Here is Cole. He turns one this week. 672 00:41:06,080 --> 00:41:11,960 Speaker 1: Cole is a very very like. I see a lot 673 00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:16,240 Speaker 1: of people posting pictures of black cats with the note 674 00:41:16,280 --> 00:41:20,360 Speaker 1: that they are avoid This is a dog void of 675 00:41:20,680 --> 00:41:25,520 Speaker 1: just inky, solid black coat on this dog within the 676 00:41:25,560 --> 00:41:30,760 Speaker 1: first picture a very happy, long tongue panting expression. Second 677 00:41:30,840 --> 00:41:34,239 Speaker 1: picture just sacked out next to the door. Love it, 678 00:41:35,920 --> 00:41:38,839 Speaker 1: I love it. So thank you so much Larry for this. 679 00:41:39,640 --> 00:41:41,880 Speaker 1: Larry ended upy saying today is writing out a thunderstorm 680 00:41:41,880 --> 00:41:44,480 Speaker 1: with a tornado warning. So thank you so much Larry 681 00:41:44,560 --> 00:41:48,240 Speaker 1: for sending this, for thanking us for our hard work. 682 00:41:48,920 --> 00:41:50,520 Speaker 1: If you'd like to send us a note, where at 683 00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:54,680 Speaker 1: History Podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com and you can subscribe 684 00:41:54,680 --> 00:41:57,880 Speaker 1: to the show on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you 685 00:41:58,040 --> 00:42:06,400 Speaker 1: like to get your podcasts. Stuff you missed in History 686 00:42:06,400 --> 00:42:10,759 Speaker 1: Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, 687 00:42:10,920 --> 00:42:14,520 Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen 688 00:42:14,560 --> 00:42:15,560 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.