cover image Follies and Pleasure Pavilions: England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales

Follies and Pleasure Pavilions: England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales

George Mott, Sally Sample Aall. ABRAMS, $34.95 (132pp) ISBN 978-0-8109-1175-8

Mott ( The Land of Ireland ) and Aall, who heads a foundation in the U.K. that specializes in historical reconstruction, present a collection of 141 color photos depicting garden buildings in Great Britain and Ireland. The perfunctory captions to the photos whet the appetite for additional information, as we view a Hindu-Gothic gateway in Co. Waterford, Ireland; Capability Brown's Jacobean bath house in Cambridgeshire; a fishing pavilion in Leicestershire, where Henry, 6th Earl of Gainsborough, ``is reputed to have reenacted the great sea battles of his day on the lake.'' There are shots of all sorts of luxurious conceits: aviaries and menageries, gazebos, Chinese pagodas, a Tudor treehouse, an Egyptian pyramid. The pictures are of reasonable quality, the buildings unique and diverse--but one would like to know more about them. (June)