The Pleasure Garden. An Illustrated History of British Gardening. by LANCASTER, Osbert (illustrates). SCOTT-JAMES, Anne - 1977

John Murray, London., 1977. First edition. Quarto. 128 pages. Illustrated with drawings by Osbert Lancaster. Presentation copy from the husband-and-wife team, inscribed on the title-page: ''For Billa with much love from Anne and Osbert. 18.9.77''. Scott-James has made the inscription, while Lancaster has signed. The recipient is Wilhelmina ''Billa'' Harrod, the pioneer conservationist. Her bookplate, designed by Osbert Lancaster, is on the front pastedown. There is a famous story of John Betjeman meeting her at Sezincote, a country house in Gloucestershire, and almost immediately asking her to marry him, even though he was already engaged to her friend Penelope Chetwode. It was at the same house a few years later that Billa met Roy Harrod, the rising young economist, whom she did marry. Billa Harrod and John Betjeman remained close friends. The Old Rectory in Holt, Norfolk, to which the Harrods retired in 1963 became celebrated not least for the garden Billa created there. A few words and phrases are underlined, presumably by Billa Harrod (one of the words is ''parsonages''). Near fine in near-fine dustwrapper slightly faded at the spine.