With chapters that include Lust, Wrath, Sloth, and Gluttony, this is an amusing history of British gardening's greatest eccentrics. Recorded here are the vices, virtues, and quirks of British gardeners through the ages, particularly those who shaped the gardens of the National Trust. From the obsessive to the visionary, the eclectic to the eccentric, each chapter explores how gardeners played out their excesses, thus revealing the gardens' secrets--how and why they were created; the fortunes lavished and lost; clandestine and unorthodox uses; and hidden meanings. For example, Sir Francis Dashwood's lusty garden at West Wycombe in Buckinghamshire has been described as "laid out by a curious arrangement of streams, bushes, and plantation to represent the female form." A rare treat for garden lovers everywhere.