and on the Improvement of Churchyards. With Sixty Engravings by J.C. Loudon
with a new Foreword by James Stevens Curl
Professor James Stevens Curl is proposing to bring out a limited, numbered, finely bound, hardback, enlarged facsimile edition of Loudon’s seminal work on cemeteries, originally published in London in 1843 on very poor-quality paper and with an extremely small font. The new edition will be on good paper, with an enlarged font, and will include a new annotated Introductory Essay on Loudon’s involvement with cemeteries by Professor Curl, with Bibliography, a colour portrait of Loudon, a facsimile of Loudon’s Obituary of 1844, a List of Subscribers, and an Index compiled by Auriol Griffith-Jones.
Subscriptions to publication
Subscriptions are invited, to be received no later than 30 September 2019. The cost per copy is £40.00 to include postage and packing within the United Kingdom only. For postage to Europe please add £5.00, and for postage outside Europe please add £10.00. Copies will be sent out to subscribers as soon as the book is available, estimated as December 2019. After 30 September the price per copy will be £55.00, so Subscribers will get a fine copy at less than cost.
To subscribe contact:
Professor James Stevens Curl
15 Torgrange
Holywood
County Down
BT18 0NG
Tel: +44 (0) 28 90 425 141 or e-mail: jscurl@btinternet.com
About the contributors
John Claudius Loudon (1783-1843), Scots agriculturist, encyclopædist, landscape-gardener, horticulturist, architect, influential critic, and polymath, ‘conducted’ The Gardener’s Magazine from 1826, in which he published numerous articles on cemeteries, and these he collected and brought out in his 1843 book, the most exhaustive tome ever written on the subject, and a mine of information, which includes detailed ideas for landscaping cemeteries that were widely followed. Loudon’s concept of the cemetery as a landscape-garden/arboretum, with all plants clearly labelled, was part of his belief in mass-education and improvement of tone in society, and he argued that once cemeteries were full they should become places of contemplation and quietness, with the monuments conserved rather than swept away. He produced designs for three cemeteries: Histon Road, Cambridge, Bath Abbey, and Old Southampton (all 1842-3), as well as influencing the planting of many more.
