Of all the many passions & crazes in nineteenth-century gardening & natural history none was as long lasting or as wide reaching as fern fever or Pteridomania as it became known. The obsession with ferns was not confined to a few professional botanists but it affected men women & children from all classes through the British Isles the Empire & America. Books & articles encouraged thousands to set out on fern forays. Their overwhelming desire to capture a rare specimen led them to wade through streams scale rock faces descend gorges & lean over fast-flowing rivers. Accidents were common sometimes fatal & over-collecting & even fern stealing were rife. Sarah Whittingham has explored verdant ferneries & Pulhamite grottoes throughout the land read hundreds of Victorian works on ferns & examined ferny items from Coalbrookdale benches to Royal Worcester pottery to reveal the incredible extent of the craze. She introduces the key players
- John Lindsay Nathaniel Ward George Loddiges Edward Newman Thomas Moore
- together with many others. It was possible to live a life in ferns from the cradle to the grave: if you were to go to the seaside visit the theatre view an exhibition decorate your house read novels play music & even spend time in hospital you would come upon ferns & ferneries. Fern Fever encompasses garden history social history & the decorative arts illustrated with over 150 beautiful images from around the world. It
Includes:: a list of places to visit where you can experience the Victorian fern craze first hand today.