Beatrice Parsons was one of a small group of watercolour artists who made a living exclusively from painting gardens in the early twentieth century. Her clientele consisted largely of the London gallery-going public. For this urban audience, Parsons’ paintings captured the transient appeal of the glorious midsummer garden. This garden at Ashfold in Surrey features an exuberant herbaceous border of the kind made popular by Gertrude Jekyll (1843 – 1932).