Garscube House. 147 



where all the plants are grown in the free soil. Where only 

 the climbers are grown in the free soil, and all the other plants 

 in pots or boxes, as at Ashridge and Bromley Hill, we would 

 endeavour, unless it could not be done without offering great 

 violence to the plant, to give each individual plant a regular 

 form. 



The terrace garden, between the house and the river, is the 

 only part of design connected with Garscube House that ap- 

 peared to us open to objections. The space is too small, and 

 what makes it appear ridiculous is, that a broad gravel walk 

 carried from the steps of the upper terrace terminates abruptly 

 at the river in a triangular point ; that is to say, the walk is 

 some feet longer on one of its sides than on the other. It 

 has no artificial termination, and a stranger is puzzled to know 

 what it can possibly mean. The truth is, that when a house is 

 set down on the margin of a river, it ought either to be placed 

 close to it, as Culzean Castle is placed close to the sea, or placed 

 at such a distance from it as to afford room for a system of 

 terraces which shall not give an idea of incompleteness ; 

 technically speaking, the main walk here is imperfectly de- 

 veloped. In the case of Garscube, the outer wall of a terrace 

 might have been founded on the rock which forms the bed of 

 the river, and this would have given a degree of grandeur, 

 originality, and dignity to the situation of the house, which would 

 have corresponded admirably with the house itself from its 

 architecture, and the romantic character of the sloping declivities 

 which form the boundaries of the park. 



From the house we proceeded to the farm-yard and the 

 kitchen-garden. The former exhibits a very ample and com- 

 plete arrangement, Sir Archibald being a great agriculturist, and 

 having, by the frequent-drain system and subsoil-ploughing, 

 greatly increased the value of lands not before worth more 

 than a shilling or two per acre. The substantial manner in 

 which the stable and farm-offices are built, and the order and 

 regularity which appeared to reign through them, gave us the 

 highest satisfaction. 



The kitchen-garden is large, and surrounded by substantial 

 brick walls ; but, like almost all the Scotch gardens, even the 

 magnificent one lately formed for the Duke of Buccleugh at 

 Dalkeith, there is a want of architectural design, which, in a 

 grand place like Garscube, where every thing else is archi- 

 tectural, is to us a great defect. The doors and gateways are 

 mere holes in the walls, without architraves or architectural 

 piers to give consequence to them ; and where so much archi- 

 tectural design is very properly shown on the offices, we know 

 no reason why a proportionate care should not be exhibited in 

 the details of the walls and buildings of the kitchen-garden. 



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