Volume 2 only. 8vo. [iv], 279, [1]pp. Full brown leather. Bookplate of "Edw. Kent Esqr." to inner front board. Boards with early paper strengthening to joints, a few pages lightly browned, overall very good throughout.

John Kennedy was the gardener to Sir Thomas Gascoigne, the owner of Parlington Hall in Yorkshire, and this book, first published in 1776, is addressed to landowners and their head gardeners. His concern is with 'the planting of poor wastes, moorlands, and apparent mountains', as well as with hothouse plants such as pineapples and vines, and delicacies including asparagus and cultivated mushrooms. At the other end of the scale, he also provides sections on field-cabbages, carrots and turnips as feed for cattle. In each of these areas, he gives detailed descriptions of the preparation of the ground, the tools needed, propagation techniques, and the subsequent management of pests and diseases. This is a fascinating treatise on the gardening skills needed on a grand eighteenth-century agricultural estate.