A comprehensive visual guide presents a timeline chronicling key events in the history of Britain and Ireland, from the Roman and Norman conquests through the Elizabethan age to the present day.

Inspired by the pioneering naturalist Gilbert White, who viewed natural history as the common study of cultural and natural communities, Mark Laird unearths forgotten historical data to reveal the complex visual cultures of early modern gardening. Ranging from climate studies to the study of a butterfly's life cycle, this original and fascinating book examines the scientific quest for order in nature as an offshoot of ordering the garden and field....