Some books are just a pleasure even before you get to read and admire them. This is certainly true of ‘Our Flower Garden. How We Made the Most of It with Instructions as to Building Miniature Ruins for Fern Cases’ by H. Allnutt. There are some very pleasures in a very modest seeming book. My copy’s not dated but it prints a review for another title from 1877 and the book cost a shilling. Information on H. Allnutt is scant. There’s a paper manufacturer of that name and that might explain the extensive list of Allnutt’s publications. (See below). I love the flourish on Allnutt’s signature and I love that he described the books he produced as ‘cheap and useful.’
The disarming titles of the chapters ‘Vain attempt to grow Vegetables,’ ‘Unsightly objects to be shut out from view’ draw you in and you know you’re in a different league when you come upon a rockery plan like the one above.
But what really fascinates is the prodigious list of Mr. Allnutt’s other publications on an almighty range of topics.
Everything from Agricultural Chemistry to Composition with Creditors, the Muck Manual, Trout Culture, the Brass Founders’ Manual and the Rat, its History. But the most publicity is dedicated to Allnutt’s ‘The Historical Record of the Franco-German War 1870-1871.” This seems from the publicity to be a work of astonishing detail – the Index of Contents offers such titles as ‘The Balloon Post,’ ‘Parisian Incredulity’ and ‘Visit to the Wounded.’ It’s hard not to imagine that Allnutt must have some particular knowledge.
I see that the ‘Estates Gazette’ still exists – a commercial property publication. I’ll leave you with a picture of Allnutt’s charming design for a miniature ruin to place in a fern case.
The Solitary Reader 