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Letters and diplomatic reports have always been at the heart of diplomacy. However, in terms of travel literature, ministerial papers are not necessarily related to the genre. Diplomats normally made themselves the focus of attention in their reports, describing their interactions at court and rarely providing detailed narratives on the cities and palaces that they visited. In official correspondence, they might not comment at length on architecture and the manners of the people whose country they were visiting but in letters to friends and family they may reveal more. English diplomats could remark on festivities, construction and other visiting embassies. This paper traces the presence of Versailles, its court and visitors within the correspondence of ministers representing the kings of England, afterwards Great Britain. It aims to account for and describe the presence of the palace within diplomatic correspondence and hopes to trace both similarities and differences in ministerial perspectives.

This article analyzes the relationship between environmental specificities and the cultivation of public gardens in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in the city of Fortaleza, in the northeast region of Brazil. First, it examines the planted tree species and the creation of ponds in public gardens relative to hydric aspects and sun abundance in the city. Second, the essay describes the introduction of American windmills, known as cata-ventos in Brazil, by documenting their origin, their utility for pumping underground water stored in iron tanks, the use of this system for garden irrigation, as well as their disappearance. The paper uses iconographic and written documentary sources, such as newspapers, albums, magazines, photos, postcards, as well as chronicler’s reports and memoirs, and specialized literature on American windmills. Thus, it offers new references for garden historiography in Brazil concerning the existence of utilitarian artifacts for maintaining public gardens.

The history of Paronella Park is a tale of migration from Europe to far north Queensland; underscored by the music of a diversity of cultures that weaves a rich tapestry through this narrative; set to a backdrop of tropical wilderness in the rainforest of Mena Creek, via Innisfail. Jose Paronella arrived in north Queensland, Australia from Catalonia, Spain in 1911; where he spent many years working as a cane cutter. In 1929 he bought thirteen acres of land on Mena Creek to fulfil his dream of creating a Spanish castle and tourist resort. By 1935 Paronella’s dream had become a reality, with the completed construction of Paronella Park: a Spanish castle, picnic area, ballroom, movie theatre, hydro-electric power system, tennis courts and botanical gardens. Paronella Park became the cultural hub of the Mena Creek-Innisfail area, providing entertainment in movies, dances, balls and theatre. North Queensland was a base for Allied Service personnel during World War II, so musical activities increased greatly during this time with Australian and United States soldiers frequenting Paronella Park on rest and recreation. From this heyday, Paronella Park has survived destruction by cyclones and floods, fire, years of neglect, and finally restoration of much of the property. Over the past decade, Paronella Park has won extensive tourism awards. In 2010, to commemorate Paronella Park’s 75th anniversary, the musical The Impossible Dream was written and performed in Cairns. This paper traces the musical history of Paronella Park, investigates the cultural and musical activities performed there, identifies the bands and musicians who played at Paronella Park, their musical styles and repertoire, discusses the contribution of Paronella Park to tourism in north Queensland, and evaluates the influences of Spanish culture and music on the identity of the Mena Creek community. Music and lyrics from The Impossible Dream are transcribed and analysed to correlate their musical links to entertainment at Paronella Park during the 1930s and 1940s and identify Spanish influences in the musical score. The research also evaluates the impact of The Impossible Dream on recent tourism at Paronella Park, investigates current musical entertainment at Paronella Park and its potential for future development.

A collection of documents held in the National Archives in France, in the papers of the Bâtiments du Roi, concern the replanting schedule of the gardens of Versailles and of Trianon, called “regarnis” or replenishment. It comprises twenty orders for plants addressed to the Nurseries of the king between 1753 and 1772, drafted on the same model and containing the same information: quantity, name and destination of each plant. Study of this unbroken series allows connections between plant species and their part in landscaping, thus creating a hierarchy among plants and landscape components. These replanting orders further demonstrate the desire to maintain – as well as the difficulty of doing so – the gardens in their original state and cast new light on the management decisions of various gardens during the reign of Louis XV.