In this lecture we shall trace the development of English gardens from Tudor times through to the twentieth century. Our early formal gardens owe much to the influence of Italy and France, and although most were destroyed in the later vogue for the ‘naturalistic’ landscape park, we can form an excellent idea of their appearance through paintings and engravings. In the 17th century, the more intimate gardens of the Tudor and Stuart period give way to grandiose formal layouts inspired by Versailles and many fragments of great formal schemes survive.