158 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



have regretted the expense, however, and would have buried 

 the memory of it. Tradition, at any rate, asserts that he 

 tied up the papers containing the accounts of his outlay and 

 placed upon the packet the inscription, " The Deil pike out his 

 een wha looks herein." But the Duke built well, and all around 

 are evidences of his taste and discrimination. Dr. C. T. 

 Ramage, who has written an account of the place, says it 

 is recorded that, when the castle was building, "Sir Robert 

 Grierson of Lag gifted to Queensberry eleven score of tall 

 stately oaks out of Craignee Wood for joists to the said house, 

 and could spare a good cut off the thick end of them." Of 

 course since that time many changes have passed over the 

 structure, and its surroundings grievously suffered at the 

 hands of "Old Q." ; but it has been judiciously restored 

 to a state far better than the old, though the trees that 

 Queensberry ruthlessly cut down will be long in growing 

 again. Spacious and noble is the interior, and in its many 



a large gravel walk down betwixt them from the south parterre' 

 to the cascade." The cascade no longer exists, but it appears 

 that the present generation had knowledge of it, for its remains 

 were there, plashing out by the leaden figure of a man, well 

 known as "Jock o' the Horn." It is a charming spot where 

 the peasantry say the elves still dance in the moonlight. Mr. 

 Rae's description admirably pictures the character of the did 

 gardens, which in great part still survives. They were laid 

 out in terraces ; they were divided into formal parterres ; and 

 they were natural only where Nature compelled them to 

 wildness. 



Pennant also describes the old gardens as he found them 

 in 1772 on his journey through Scotland. He says that he 

 saw there a bird cherry of a great size, " not less than 7ft. Sin. 

 in girth, and among several silver firs one i3jft. in diameter." 

 The bird cherry is no longer there, and no fine silver firs 

 remain, but an excellent specimen of the common Scotch fir, 



A AURBLE VASE. 



rooms hang a large number of portraits of the Douglases and 

 their kin. 



We may now enter the magnificent terraced gardens, 

 which deserve to rank with the best gardens of Scotland. 

 Fortunately an early ik'scription of them has been preserved. 

 It is in a manuscript history of Durisdeer (in which parish 

 Drumlanrig lies) by the Rev. Peter Rae (1700-40), quoted 

 by Dr. Ramage : " The gardens of Drumlanrig are very 

 beautiful, and the rather because of their beauty. The regular 

 gardens, with one designed to be made on the back of the 

 plumbery, the outer court before the house, and the house 

 itself, make nine square plots of ground, whereof the kitchen 

 garden, the court before the house, and the garden designed 

 make three; my lady Duchess's garden, the house, and the 

 last parterre and the flower garden make other three, that is 

 nine in all, and the castle is in the centre. Only as to the last 

 three, the westernmost is always more than a story above 

 the rest. As to those called irregular gardens, because the 

 course of the Parkburn would not allow them to be square, 

 they are very pretty and wdl suited to one another. They 

 call one part thereof Virginia, the other Barbados ; there goes 



close to the old cascade, measures nearly lift, in girth at the 

 base. Pennant also described the gardens as "most expensively 

 cut out of a rock," doubtless referring to the magnificent terrac- 

 ing and the stairways. Not much rock-cutting appears, however, 

 to have been required ; th^ natural slope of the ground gave the 

 advantage which the garden architect and designer have taken 

 full advantage of. The great and stately ascent, broad and 

 massive, leads up to a magnificent terrace, skirting the south 

 front below a grass slope, and at the west end is a fine formal 

 parterre, laid out gaily and ch. racteristically. Ivy -climbs 

 up the terrace wall, from which there is a glorious outlook. 

 The High White Garden, with its gleaming pathways, is a 

 purely formal parterre in the grand style, and has a semi- 

 circular garden at its termination below the wood. The 

 American garden is analogous, and a like character is found 

 elsewhere. 1 he contrast relieves the formal character of 

 the grounds, and the woodland that enf-ames them enhances 

 the effect of both, and the park is full of charm, while the 

 landscape surveyed from the height is truly superb. Taken 

 altogether, the scene is very characteristic and eminently 

 pleasing. 



