‘The exactness and nicety of those things’: Sir John Reresby’s garden notebook and garden (1633-1644) at Thrybergh, Yorkshire

A surviving 'Garden Notebook' written by Sir John Reresby (1611-46) provides a unique insight into the contents of the early seventeenth-century garden at Thrybergh, Yorkshire. This includes detailed information on the plants grown in the garden, including cultivars of fruit trees and tulips, as well as a complete catalogue of the garden plants and their varieties dated 1642. The information adds to scarce knowledge on other contemporary gardens of the time, including that of Revd Walter Stonehouse, in nearby Darfteld, and provides further context for the plant collection of John Tradescant in Lambeth, south London. It shows that the contents of the garden at Thrybergh equalled these gardens of national significance and exceeded them in some respects. What is even more remarkable is that the remains of this garden still survive, making them some of the oldest surviving garden elements in Yorkshire