Eleanour (Sophy) Sinclair Rohde (1881–1950) was a British gardener, garden designer, and horticultural writer. She authored thirty books on gardening between 1913 and 1948, and is best known for her book, ''The Scented Garden'', published in 1931.

Biography

Eleanor (Sophy) Sinclair Rohde was born in

Alleppey Alappuzha or Alleppey () is the administrative headquarters of Alappuzha district in state of Kerala, India. The Backwaters of Alappuzha are one of the most popular tourist attractions in India which attracts millions of domestic and inter ...

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, on 9 August 1881. She was the daughter of John Rohde, a civil servant in India, and his wife, Isabel Crawford. She was educated at

Cheltenham Ladies College Cheltenham Ladies' College is an independent boarding and day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. Consistently ranked as one of the top all-girls' schools nationally, the school was established in 1853 to p ...

and

St Hilda's College, Oxford St Hilda's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college is named after the Anglo-Saxon Saint, Hilda of Whitby and was founded in 1893 as a hall for women; it remained a women's college until 200 ...

. After Oxford, she began her writing career with articles on gardening in magazines, including '' The Field'', ''

The Queen In the English-speaking world, The Queen most commonly refers to: * Elizabeth II (1926–2022), Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 1952 until her death The Queen may also refer to: * Camilla, Queen Consort (born 1947), ...

'' and ''My Garden''. She also wrote for ''

The Cornhill Magazine ''The Cornhill Magazine'' (1860–1975) was a monthly Victorian magazine and literary journal named after the street address of the founding publisher Smith, Elder & Co. at 65 Cornhill in London.Laurel Brake and Marysa Demoor, ''Dictionary ...

'' and '' The Garden''. Cranham Lodge, Croydon Road - geograph

During her long career, Rhode authored thirty publications on gardening and gardening history. For much of her life, she lived at Cranham Lodge, in

Reigate Reigate ( ) is a town in Surrey, England, around south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as ''Cherchefelle'' and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The earliest archaeological evidence for huma ...

, Surrey. Rohde grew and collected uncommon herb and vegetable varieties in her large garden*

Joan Thirsk Irene Joan Thirsk, (''née'' Watkins; 19 June 1922 – 3 October 2013) was a British economic and social historian, specialising in the history of agriculture. She was the leading British early modern agrarian historian of her era, as well as ...

‘Rohde, Eleanour Sophy Sinclair (1881–1950)’
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 1 Jan 2008 Rohde also worked as a garden designer. One of the most visited gardens that she designed was the herb garden for

Lullingstone Castle Lullingstone Castle is a historic manor house, set in an estate in the village of Lullingstone and the civil parish of Eynsford in the English county of Kent. It has been inhabited by members of the Hart Dyke family for twenty generations inclu ...

in west

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, England. Her work did much to encourage the modern popularity of

herb garden The traditional kitchen garden, vegetable garden, also known as a potager (from the French ) or in Scotland a kailyaird, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden – the ornamental plants and lawn areas. It is used for grow ...

s. The work that she is most known for is ''The Scented Garden'', published in 1931. Her other popular books include, ''A Garden of Herbs'' (1921), ''Rose Recipes from Olden Times'' (1939), and ''The Wartime Vegetable Garden''. ''The Wartime Vegetable Garden'' was published in 1940 to promote increased food production by the general public during World War II. In her personal life, Rohde was shy, solitary and a strict

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat ( red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetaria ...

.Bennett, Sue. (2000). ''Five Centuries of Women and Gardens''. National Portrait Gallery. p. 158.

Selected publications

*1921
''A Garden of Herbs''
*1922
''The Old English Herbals''
*1924: ''The Old English Gardening Books'' *1925: ''The Old-World Pleasaunce: An Anthology'', of extracts in prose and verse relating to gardening *1929: ''A Chaplet of Flowers: An Anthology'' *1931: ''The Scented Garden'' *1938: ''Vegetable: Cultivation and Cookery'' *1939: ''Rose Recipes from Olden Times'' *1940: ''Culinary and Salad Herbs: their cultivation and food values'' *1940: ''The Wartime Vegetable Garden'', Medici Society (reprinted 1941, twice, & 1942) *1943: ''Uncommon Vegetables'', London: Country Life (1943)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rohde, Eleanour Sinclair 1881 births 1950 deaths British garden writers British gardeners Women horticulturists and gardeners