Rose Moutray Read

Rose Hamilton Moutray Read was born in 1870, the eldest child of Edith and John Moutray Read, who was a Lt Colonel of the 4th Cheshire Regiment. Her youngest brother was Anketell Moutray Read, who earned a Victoria Cross during the First World War.[1]

Under the pseudonym DH Moutray Read, she wrote the popular "Highways and Byways of Hampshire" volume in the Highways & Byways series, in this instance illustrated by portrait painter Arthur Bentley Connor.[2] Moutray Read also wrote a book on the creation of her own garden, with illustrations, plans and photographs.[3] She began gardening with a ten rod allotment in Cottenham Park, Wimbledon, and soon realised that she could not manage without a garden. She purchased an old house and garden of about three quarters of an acre near Wadhurst in Sussex, which was grassland when Moutray Read purchased it.[3]

Moutray Read was a Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society, and edited the Gardener's Year Book for 1930.[4] Moutray Read was also a member of the Folklore Society, presenting a number of papers, and reviewing books for the society's journal Folklore.[5]

• Rose Moutray Read (1908), Highways and Byways in Hampshire, Highways and Byways, Illustrator: Arthur Bentley Connor, Macmillan Publishers, Wikidata Q67189102
• Rose Moutray Read (1923), One garden; the intimate chronicle of its making, London, Wikidata Q104433742{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Rose Moutray Read, ed. (1930), The Gardener's Year Book 1930, London: Philip Allan & Co Limited, Wikidata Q104433960