The garden came to represent two things for the
English in the Victorian era: home in the
face of a massive Empire, and stability
in the face of industrialization and a perceived disintegration of society.
Planting Home in the
Empire: Gardens as a Metaphor for England
England had
been compared to a garden since at least the time of Shakespeare, but this
metaphor took on particular significance in the Victorian Era as it infiltrated
visual, literary, and everyday culture in England. This image was particularly
important during the Victorian Era as England expanded her empire and influence
across the globe. Increasingly, English citizens were spread across the globe,
and began to seek a symbol that would unify those at home, and that would serve
as a memory of home for those in the colonies. According to Anne Helmreich,
gardens came to represent “a rooted sense of home to which even the most
far-ranging imperialist longed to return.” (Hemreich 11)
The
English appreciation for gardening became closely linked with the national
character, as Roberts later claimed “the Englishman’s love of gardens and
of gardening is one of the most characteristic things about him.” (Roberts 14)
Style was particularly important in the connections between England and
gardens. For example, the French style of gardening “came to symbolize
autocracy and the absolute rule of man over nature" in a period of imperial
conflict, while the English garden symbolized "constitutionalism and man’s
alliance with nature.” (Clark 22)
Planting
Nature in Industrialized England: Gardens as Metaphor for
Stability
By this period, many in England had begun to fear the
destabilization and decline of their cultural order, on both the domestic and
the international level. As Froude said, "we
live in times of disintegration." As a result, they felt the need to “invoke a
stable, coherent image of the nation. Many commentators located
that image in the garden, with its associations of home and fidelity compounded
by sensations of pleasure and beauty.” (Helmreich 8) The wealthy middle classes
began to increasingly identify with the countryside, particularly as they
identified a necessary bond between the individual and nature, threatened by
industrialization. (Helmreich 10)
