Henry Wise

Henry Wise (bapt. 4 September 1653 [Probably at St. Alfege, Greenwich. (George Royle, "Family Links between George London and John Rose: New Light on the 'Pineapple Paintings'" "Garden History" 23.2 (Winter 1995, pp. 246-249) p. 249, note 2).] – 1738) was an English gardener, designer, and nurseryman. He was apprenticed to George London, working at Brompton Nursery, on the present site of the Royal Albert Hall and the museums of South Kensington, London. The two later worked as partners on parterre gardens at Hampton Court, Chelsea Hospital, Longleat, Chatsworth, Melbourne Hall, Wimpole Hall and Castle Howard, drawing inspiration from engravings of contemporary garden designs in France and the Netherlands.

Wise and London translated into English two well-known French texts on gardening. The resulting work was titled "The Retir'd Gard'ner, in Two Volumes: the Whole Revis'd, with Several Alterations and Additions, Which Render It Proper for Our English Culture." The book was printed in London in 1706 and went through several printings thanks to its popularity. [ [http://library.stanford.edu/depts/diroff/biennial06/na_grb_5.html The Retir'd Gard'ner, in Two Volumes: the Whole Revis'd, with Several Alterations and Additions, Which Render It Proper for Our English Culture, George London, Henry Wise, 1706, Stanford University Library acquisition] ]

Kensington Gardens were laid out by Henry Wise and Charles Bridgeman with fashionable features including the Round Pond, formal avenues and a sunken "Dutch" garden. [For the historicist phantom of the "Dutch" garden, see David Jacques, "Who Knows What a Dutch Garden Is?" "Garden History" 30.2 (Winter 2002), pp. 114-130.]

Queen Anne of Great Britain and King George I both appointed him to the post of Royal Gardener. Although the Brompton nursery passed into other hands, Wise retained the house, Brompton Park. His will, in 1734, directed his heir to remove all the pictures remaining at Brompton to his house at Warwick. [Royle 1995:248.]

Wise became wealthy through his gardening endeavors and purchased the manor of The Priory, Warwickshire. [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=57118 Henry Wise the 'eminent landscape gardener,' Lillington Manor, A History of the County of Warwick, L.F. Salzman, 1951, Victoria County History, British History Online] ] He purchased the estate and the mansion and retired there as a country squire in 1727. [ [http://www.leekwoottonandguyscliffe.org.uk/HistoryWoodcote.htm Leek Wootton Site] ] [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=16049 The borough of Warwick, the suburbs from ca. 1600, A History of the County of Warwick, W.B. Stephens, 1969, Victoria County History, British History Online] ] Henry Wise died at The Priory on Dec. 15, 1738, said to be worth some £200,000 -- far more, probably, than some of his clients. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=6SI8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA711&lpg=PA711&dq=%22the+priory%22+warwick+henry+wise&source=web&ots=smmUCHvwls&sig=vWOJTnDwKRrW9brDx1IsuFritfI&hl=en The Dictionary of National Biography, Sidney Lee, Great Britain, 1909] ]

The writer and garden designer Stephen Switzer trained with London and Wise.

Notes

Further reading

*Green, David B. "Gardener to Queen Anne: Henry Wise and the Formal Garden" )Oxford University Press) 1956."
*Harvey, John. "Early Nurserymen" 1974.
*Willson, E.J. "West London Nursery Gardens" (Fulham and Hammersmith Historical Society) 1982.