'Mrs S.' was Richard Hall's short-hand for his sister-in-law (and next door neighbour) Mrs Snooke. She lived at the Manor House at Bourton on the Water and was evidently a keen gardener. The fashion for greenhouses grew throughout the century. Earlier, in 1712,  J James had translated the Frenchman Le Blond's  "Theory & Practice of Gardening; wherein is fully handled all that relates to fine gardening, commonly called pleasure gardens". In it James explained that 'greenhouses are large Piles of buildings like Galleries... for preserving Orange Trees, and other Plants....during the Winter'. By 1754 Philip Miller had published his Gardener's Dictionary, to include a plan for a greenhouse. These would have been stone or wooden glazed structures  - the huge iron and glass masterpieces like the ones we associate with Kew Gardens were not to appear until the next century.

Richard Hall mentions making a gift to Mrs Snooke of geraniums and myrtles, but there is no other record of specific plants (except 'groundsil' - which I always thought was a weed!)

A painting entitled 'Rubens with a Geranium' by the Eighteenth century American artist Rembrandt Peale, of his brother.

It does however give me a chance to show a couple of paintings which I like, with a greenhouse theme:

                            Stanley Spencer, (English painter, 1891 – 1959) The Greenhouse 1938

The Le Blond book specifically mentions growing oranges, and certainly no country home would be complete without its orangery, but equally the fashion for growing exotica grew throughout the 1700s with an increasing awareness of the huge range of plants available to the discerning gardener. 

                         Edward John Poynter  (English painter 1836-1919) entitled 'Hot-house Flower'

Jigsaws are thought to have been invented by an Englishman called John Spilsbury, who lived between 1739 and 1769 (if Wikipedia is to be believed). In his short life he was apprenticed to the engraver, cartographer, and map and print publisher Thomas Jeffreys, who was also Royal Geographer to George III. He set up in business selling prints (his brother Jonathan was a portrait painter and he sold his pictures from his shop) and moved on to selling books and toys for children.

In 1766/7 he hit upon the idea of printing maps and sticking them onto a thin mahogony boards. These were then cut up into small pieces (with a jig saw, hence its name) so that children could learn to put the pieces in the right order, thereby re-creating the picture of the world.The cut.outs followed the political boundaries of the region and Spilsbury called them 'dissected maps'.

Spilsbury moved on to doing the same for maps of specific continents, as well as separate puzzles for England and Wales, Ireland and Scotland. They were popular as teaching aids - pupils could learn geography through play (in much the same way as with the Bowles Map of the World used as a snakes and ladders game - see my earlier post).

About  twenty pieces survive amongst Richard's papers but I have no idea of their date. I suspect that they date from the 1770's and would have been ideal for making up stories about imaginary adventures and trips to exotic places!

(For anyone interested there is a book entitled  "Dissected for the Instruction of Young Ladies and Gentlemen in the Knowledge of Geography: John Spilsbury and Early Dissected Puzzles" written by Jill Shefrin and published in 1999).