On Saturday 24th April 1920, The Illustrated London News carried a two-page spread entitled ‘Shakespeare’s Garden Reconstructed’. Celebrating the first phase in a long-term project, the article included a rather grainy shot of a less-than-exciting looking ‘knott garden’. It was not the romantic idyll its designers had hoped for, but given the headaches of the previous four months, it was amazing the unveiling had happened at all.
Perhaps it was historian Ernest Law’s idea to make a garden in the grounds of Shakespeare’s last home, New Place; maybe the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust merely invited him to lead the project. Whatever the case, Law set to, using original Elizabethan pattern designs. He was only too aware, however, that he had no real knowledge of plants, so he invited gardening legend – and Shakespeare fanatic –
