Improbable Pioneers of the Romantic Age: The Lives of John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford and Georgina Gordon, Duchess of Bedford

(Hardback)

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Description

The story of how the 6th Duke of Bedford and his second wife, Georgina Gordon, became intimately involved with the scientific discoveries of the Enlightenment, the joys of Romantic poetry and painting - and the leading figures of both worlds

Reviews

"Paints a moving portrait of a long and successful marriage enriched by a shared passion of the Arts, gardening and wild landscapes that reflected - and indeed, influenced - the spirit of the Romantic age. Enlivened with many images and extracts from contemporary sources, the book is also a fascinating study of Georgian Britain."

"A lavish new volume offers a fascinating and comprehensive insight into the part the strath played in pioneering the Romantic Age...it is quality all through, its 560 pages weighing a ton and so many of them crammed with exquisite illustrations."

"Davidsons biography of the duke andduchess is a richly researched and detailedstudy of two important personalities andpatrons of arts and sciencesin RegencyBritain. In their multifarious activitiesand interests, they embody the questing,Romantic spirit of the age, here vividlybrought to life."

Author Bio

After a career as a landscape designer, specializing in waterfalls of natural rock, Keir Davidson has written books on subjects ranging from the history of Zen gardens in Japan to the poet Coleridges ground-breaking fell walks of the early nineteenth century. For more than twenty years he has been associated with Woburn Abbey, initially as a designer of waterfalls and subsequently as a landscape historian, and he is the author ofWoburn Abbey: The Park and Gardens(Pimpernel Press, 2016), described by John Martin Robinson inCountry Lifeas the best country-house history published in recent years.