THE

GARDENER'S MAGAZINE,

FEBRUARY, 1833.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

ART. I.

General Results of a Gardening Tour, during July, August, and part of September, in the Year 1831, from Dumfries, by Kirkcudbright, Ayr, and Greenock, to Paisley. By the CONDUCTOR.

(Continued from Vol. VIII. p. 521., and concluded.)

PALACE Residences. There is no gentleman's house in the west of Scotland, that, in its present state, can properly be denominated a palace residence; but Drumlanrig, from its commanding situation, the extensive territory belonging to it, and the wealth and rank of its owner, we shall here consider as of this class. We feel the more justified in doing so, from the extensive improvements now carrying on in the grounds, and which will, doubtless, in a short time, be extended to the house. Nothing can exceed the dignity of the situation of this edifice; placed on a knoll, on the summit of an advancing ridge, backed by an extensive range of wooded hills and mountains, and commanding, in front, and to the right and left, as far as the eye can reach, a varied surface of corn and pasture land, watered by a considerable stream which skirts the margin of the park, and terminating in hills of heath and pasture in the horizon. To whatever side the eye turns of this extensive and magnificent prospect, the whole is the property of the Duke of Buccleugh.

As this property now exists, in a general point of view, there is little for the landscape-gardener to do, except forming two new approaches to the house, a new kitchen-garden; and modifying, by planting and by some changes on the

surface, the park and pleasure-ground. An excellent kitchengarden is already walled round, and the gardener's house, about to be commenced, we were informed, will be the first in Scotland, not only as a commodious and complete dwelling, but as a specimen of cottage Gothic architecture. The designer of the garden, Mr. Hannay, is the present head gardener at Drumlanrig; and the architect of the house is Mr. Burn of Edinburgh. As far as we saw the new line of approach, it did not appear to us at all satisfactory; because we could not conceive how the ascent to the house by it could be rendered either easy to travel over, or agreeable to the eye. Judging from a hasty glance, we should say that the best way to procure two approaches. of perfectly easy ascent and descent, of great beauty and variety in the views seen from it, and of striking effect on arriving at the house, would be, to commence two or three miles to the right and left, and to lead from the present public road, a private one, on a uniform but very gentle slope, along the side of the range of hills at the back, or what is, we believe, the south side of the present flower-gardens. We would there form a court-yard to the palace, instead of the present one on the western front, reserving the extensive prospect from the north front to be obtained by the stranger first from the windows. As pleasureground, we would follow up the present style of the place, and form such additions and variations as would place two ranges of terrace-gardens on each side of the east, west, and north fronts. The beautiful terrace-gardens already existing show with how much effect this might be done. Whether we might not change the course of the river in some places, or produce ramifications from it, in such a way as to show more water from the palace windows, we did not take time enough to consider; but, at all events, we think we ascertained the practicability of diverting a part of its waters in such a way as to produce a powerful waterfall in one place, and a lake in another. We have great pleasure in stating that the flowergardens were in the highest order and keeping, and the grass edgings to the walks entirely to our mind. Mr. Hannay we found fully concurring in all that we had said on that subject in our October article. (Vol. VII. p. 544.) Some instruction, as well as amusement, may perhaps be obtained by the reader, from the perusal of what the celebrated Gilpin said of this place, then called Queensberry House, in his Observations relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty in Scotland, &c., published in 1776. "The garden front of Queensberry House," he observes, "opens on a very delightful piece of scenery. The ground falls from it, near a quarter of a mile, in a steep

sloping lawn, which at the bottom is received by a river; and beyond that rises in lofty woody banks. All these objects are in the grandest style, except the river; which, though not large, is by no means inconsiderable. It is amazing what contrivance has been used to deform all this beauty. The descent from the house has a substratum of solid rock, which has been cut into three or four terraces, at an immense expense.

The

art of blasting rocks by gunpowder was not in use when this great work was undertaken. It was all performed by manual labour; and men now alive remember hearing their fathers say, that a workman, after employing a whole summer day with his pickaxe, would carry off in his apron all the stone he had chipped from the rock. How much less expensive is it, in general, to improve the face of nature, than to deform it! In improving, we gently follow; in deforming, we violently oppose. The Duke of Queensberry of that day, who carried on these works, seems himself to have been aware of his folly. He bundled up all the accounts together; and inscribed them, as I have been informed, with a grievous curse on any of his posterity who should ever look into them." (p. 84.) The other observations made by Gilpin on this place are excellent, as, indeed, is all that he has written on picturesque beauty; always, however, making allowance for his almost exclusive admiration of that kind of beauty.

Of all the alterations which we should wish to make on the grounds at Drumlanrig, there is none that strikes us as of half the importance as that of forming new approaches. There is one now going on; but a more preposterous undertaking of the kind we have seldom or never witnessed in any country. An attempt is made, or was making in August, 1831, to ascend a steep acclivity directly in front of the house; a still more hopeless task than that of cutting the rock into terraces, above related by Gilpin, by the old Duke of Queensberry. The duke did succeed, and the terraces were formed, and now exist; but this approach never can form an easy ascent; and we maintain that, even if it did, it would be in the very worst taste imaginable in the given situation; for this specific reason, that it would show all the striking beauties of the spot before entering the house. Now, we hold it to be a fundamental principle, in laying out grounds, that the grand beauties of every situation should be first shown to the stranger from the drawing-room windows. If this be not a fundamental principle, we should be glad to know on what reasons either the situation for a house is fixed on, or the direction of a road to it is laid out. There are many points in which a stranger taking a cursory glance at a place may be

mistaken; but, if he has his eyes open, he never can err in forming an opinion as to the approach. As to the terraces we certainly have no wish to alter them. At the time Gilpin wrote, terraces were common, and the great rage was for nature and the picturesque. That rage has now subsided; and in landscape-gardening, as in architecture, and in other arts which combine beauty with utility, reason is the governing principle.

Of Mansion Residences, the first we saw in order of time was Terragles, where some additions to the house were being made, and where the park had been sprinkled over with single trees, in the equidistant manner, so as to destroy all allusion to natural grouping, and, in a great measure, obliterate whatever variation of surface there was originally in the ground. These trees were chiefly oaks, from 20 to 30 ft. high they were removed without any preparation, in the preceding two years; and scarcely one of them had failed, much to the credit of the very intelligent gardener, Mr. Carruthers. Adjoining the house was an old architectural garden, consisting of a level square platform, with thick, lofty, hornbeam hedges, and on two sides a broad grass terrace, between 20 and 30 ft. higher than the exterior grounds. The view from this terrace to a new kitchen-garden, which meets the eye on a gentle slope, backed by wood, is striking, because uncommon, and is, we think, agreeable. By the routine manner of improving, this garden would be turned into a pleasure-ground; but, from the impressions it made on us, we should be inclined to retain it as a garden of fruit and flowers. It was in excellent order.

Jardine Hall, in the midst of what was recently a wild country, and several miles distant from any similar mansion, is an imposing object; and, as we approached it, the broad flight of steps to the portico, with the group of stable offices with clock cupola on the one side, and the encircled boundary wall with its porticoed doors and ornamented railings on the other, had an Anglo-Italian air, the more charming, because unexpected in such a style of country. The ample entrance hall of this house contains some large handsome paintings, and rare specimens of natural-history subjects; and, like the first bar in a piece of music, it gives a note of preparation for the ornaments which prevail throughout the house, and for the almost complete museum of British birds collected by Sir William Jardine, and admirably mounted and displayed. There is a large botanic garden, which already includes a considerable American ground; an arboretum, which will be as complete as the climate will admit, is commenced; and Linnæan and Jussieuean arrangements of herbaceous plants are in

contemplation. The object is, to combine general effect and ornamental display with science. On the whole, Jardine Hall, and the pursuits of its amiable and hospitable owner, show how much happiness a cultivated mind may enjoy in the country, without reference to towns, cities, or a populous neighbourhood.

Raehills is in a situation still more wild than Jardine Hall, but it has the advantages of having a hilly surface, a great extent of wood, and a river considerably below the house, and not on a level with it, as at Jardine Hall. It is singular that there should be considerable streams near both mansions, without the water being seen from either of them. This defect might be removed in both cases, but not without some expense. At Raehills, there is a holm which might easily be flooded, so as to form a lake; or, the bed of the river, which is now along one side of this holm, might be changed to the other side, where it would be seen from the house. The natural features of Raehills are all grand and picturesque; but, with the exception of the new additions making to the house, and the general masses of the distant plantations as seen from it, we cannot say much for the operations of art. Whoever may lay out the approach road will do well to consider what we have said on this subject in a preceding page; and the whole of the walks among the natural woods and rocks require reformation, agreeably to the principles alluded to.

Kirkmichael House is rebuilding, in a sort of Elizabethan style, from the design of Mr. Burns. There is a good kitchen-garden just completed, including a suitable gardener's house, and forcing-pits. The situation of this house has little to recommend it, in a country abounding with so much natural beauty; but highly improved design and high keeping will effect much; and, in a country where these qualities are less common than the beauties of nature, they will probably be valued more.

Closeburn Hall is a plain but very commodious mansion, and its vicinity has been the scene of more improvements of the useful kind, than that of any other mansion in the south of Scotland. The extent of surface that, from useless bog heath or other sterile soil, has been turned into good pasture,. irrigated, rendered arable, or planted with trees, during the last forty years, is astonishing. During this time, limeworks have been established on a highly improved principle, and the practice of liming both arable and grass land rendered general throughout the country. Saw mills have been erected, and the pines and firs planted by Mr. Menteath sawn up into