The Lindley Library holds a wonderful collection of 300 hand-coloured glass lantern slides of English Gardens from the 1920s and 1930s, commissioned by Edith Carroll Perkins and taken by Reginald Malby and Company Ltd., who specialised in horticultural photography.

Who was Edith Carroll Perkins?

Edith Carroll Perkins (1869-1958) was an American woman who lived with her Unitarian Minister husband John Carroll Perkins (1862-1950) in Seattle. However she spent many summers in England, staying in Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds, with extended stays at Stamford House from 1934 to 1939. Edith was a keen gardener, and was well-known in Seattle for giving lectures on English gardens.

Stamford House Garden. P/CAR/255. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

While in Chipping Campden Edith commissioned Reginald Malby & Company to take photographs of the gardens she visited. When Reginald Malby died in 1924, his wife Eleanor (1886-1956) took over the business, and it was Eleanor that travelled with Edith to take photographs of the gardens.

Syringa and Blue Iris at Hidcote Manor. P/CAR/160. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

What gardens are featured in the collection?

The collection of gardens is diverse. Well-known gardens such as those at Hidcote in the Cotswolds and Cliveden in Buckinghamshire, sit alongside grand privately owned houses and gardens such as Sedgwick Park, as well as much smaller cottage gardens. Stamford House, where the Carroll Perkinses spent so many summers, is represented by six images. Some of the images are a record of gardens and houses that no longer survive, such as Seagrey House in Wiltshire, which burnt down in 1949.

Loggia and terrace at Seagrey House. P/CAR/239. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

A donation to the RHS

In 1948, when Edith was nearly 80 and almost completely blind, she donated her collection to the RHS, asking her good friend. poet T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), to present them on her behalf. Eliot knew the Carroll Perkinses through their niece Emily Hale (1891-1969). Eliot and Hale had met at Harvard University, and it is widely known they had a close relationship. Eliot’s poem ‘Burnt Norton’ is named after the manor house which Eliot and Hale visited in 1934. Eliot is known to have stayed in Chipping Camden with the Carroll Perkinses and Hale at least 13 times between 1934 and 1939.

Sedgwick across the Pool. P/CAR/244. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

The presentation of the slides took place on the 2^nd March 1948, in the RHS’s Lawrence Hall in London. Eliot presented the slides to RHS President Lord Aberconway, in front of a packed audience of over 300 people. During the presentation Eliot gave a speech, which was followed by a lecture about the photographs by Country Life author G.C. Taylor.

The RHS has several written accounts of the presentation, including one by Eliot himself. In his account Eliot said of Mr Taylor’s lecture: ‘I found it, myself, poignant for several reasons; and it all seemed symbolic of a beauty and order which is vanishing from the world and which none of us will see again. Mr Taylor ended very suitably I thought with one or two slides of small gardens, as a kind of reminder of what could still be done under modern conditions.’

There is also a letter to Edith from Anne Bennet Clark who lived at Derby House, which is depicted in the collection. She described Eliot’s speech as very moving, saying ‘He spoke of you and your bravery and your love of beauty. He felt it so much that he made us all feel it too.’

Glass lantern slide of 'The Rose Garden at Mrs Bennet Clark's'. P/CAR/125. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Eleanor Malby, who had spent so much time visiting the gardens with Edith, was also at the presentation, and wrote to Edith that she almost cried during Mr Taylor’s lecture, as she ‘thought of the grand times we had and should never do it again. But it is no use being gloomy is it, as there are some marvellous memories of the past and I know you as well as myself can see in our mind’s eye the beautiful gardens we have seen and enjoyed.’

View the complete Edith Carroll Perkins lantern slide collection