Live Talk: Dr Laura Mayer

Title The Society of Dilettanti: bacchanalian antics and building the Antique.

Abstract The Grand Tour with its ancient ruins and sun-drenched landscapes became an educational rite of passage for the classically trained. This lively lecture considers how the Society of Dilettanti – an eighteenth-century gentleman’s club – embodied their motto of ‘Grecian taste and Roman Spirit’ in both the literal sense of worshiping Dionysus and Bacchus through heavy drinking, as well as by the scholarly promotion of antiquity. As travellers and gardeners, their famous publications exerted a profound influence on the Georgian landscape garden. Glass of seasonal cheer optional.

Our Speaker Dr Laura Mayer is an independent lecturer and researcher, with an MA in Garden History and a PhD in eighteenth-century patronage from the University of Bristol. She has published extensively, particularly on Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown and Humphry Repton. In 2013 she co-wrote The Historic Gardens of England: Cambridgeshire & the Isle of Ely with Professor Tim Mowl, having gone to sixth-form in the county. Laura currently works as a consultant for the National Trust and Land & Heritage, researching and writing Conservation Management Plans.

Location Hemingford Abbots Village Hall, High Street, Hemingford Abbots PE28 9AH. There is ample parking available at the hall.

Bookings This Christmas Lecture is open to members of Cambridgeshire Gardens Trust and guests. Seasonal refreshments will be available. Members £12; guests £15. For catering, please email admin by 3 December and preferably pay by BACS (Cambridgeshire County Garden Trust; sort code 20-29-68, account number 30347639, using your name as reference), or at the door.

We look forward to seeing you there!