Sharon Kivland
William Markwick
The Property of a Gentleman
The Property of a Gentleman is part of the touring exhibition ‘Nature and Nation: Vaster than Empires’, curated by Eggebert-and-Gould, which brought together artists from Australia, France, India, Indonesia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Britain, and examined contested territories – geographical and symbolic, place and landscape, garden and wilderness, culture and horticulture.
'"The Property of a Gentleman is an edited version of the Naturalist’s Journal of William Markwick, covering the period from 1768 to 1776, bequeathed to Hastings Museum and Art Gallery in 1922. The Editor, Sharon Kivland, has transcribed three years of the diaries, painstakingly writing them out by hand at the Curator’s desk, for the pages are too fragile to be copied otherwise. Then returning home to the French countryside, she has produced a version working from her manuscript. She has glanced from time to time at her garden and has observed the Narcissus in bloom, the Chinese Honeysuckle first in bud, the Broad Bean first emerging from the ground, and heard the Woodpecker make a loud noise. She, too, is a woman of property."
