ABSTRACT
This chapter provides Paradise Lost in the context of agricultural, horticultural, and ecological reforms that were prevalent during the interregnum in the 1650s. The renewed concern with environmental issues that occurred after Charles II was restored to the throne in 1662. Paradise Lost realizes the closing of Renaissance conceptions of gardens and signals a transition into the eighteenth-century landscape gardening, a style that will define England's horticultural identity. As a mid-seventeenth-century publication, Paradise Lost resonated poetically and aesthetically with one of the great scientific and environmental concerns of the day: air. In Milton's text, the quality of the air reflects the period's fascination and experimentation with air. John Milton's revolutionary vision and horticultural style no doubt spurred Thomas Jefferson's Arcadian notions. However, what Hugh Jenkins does not acknowledge is that Paradise Lost was also the seminal text for Shenstone and for the entire generation who created the English Landscape garden style.
