4— THE AYRSHIRE ROSES 
Although the Ayrshire Roses have occupied a prominent place 
in our gardens for more than a hundred years, they still enjoy so much 
favour that some account of their history may be of interest. This 
history has not been easy to trace, for unfortunately the present 
representatives of the two Scotch firms, Brown of Perth and Austin 
of Glasgow, which played an important part in Rose raising and 
growing in Scotland early in the last century, are not able to throw 
any light upon the subject, and there seem to be no documents relating 
to the work of these enthusiastic and enlightened florists. Loudon 
in his Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum gives “ Rosa arvensis 
Ayrshirea” as having been introduced from America in 1 8 1 8, but he 
adds a mark of doubt, and in volume viii. of the Florictdtural Cabinet 
two double forms of Rosa arvensis Huds. are said to be cultivated in 
Germany. These are hybrids, according to the Annals of the Horti- 
cultural, Society of 1845. 
An interesting account of the Ayrshire Rose by Mr. Patrick 
Neill, Secretary of the Caledonian Horticultural Society, appeared in 
the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal in 1820. 1 He says that, for a 
number of years past, a very rampant climbing Rose-bush has been 
cultivated in Scotland under the name of the Ayrshire Rose. From 
this it would appear that the Rose was already established in Scotland 
before 1818. In 1817 John Goldie, son-in-law of Mr. Smith who 
founded a nursery-garden at Monkwood Grove in Ayrshire about 1821, 
went to America and remained there for three years in search of plants 
wherewith to stock the new nursery. The Gardeners Magazine for 
1831 contains a list of some of the plants cultivated in this nursery; 
among these occur Rosa arvensis v. foliis variegatis and v.fl. pleno. In 
1828 Daniel Stewart exhibited at Dundee a seedling Rose named 
Craighall Climbing Rose. The description of this Rose says that 
“to the rambling habit of the Ayrshire it adds the beauty of some of 
the double white varieties.” 
In view of all this evidence of the tolerably widespread existence 
of the Ayrshire Rose in Scotland at this period, it is strange to read 
1 Vol. ii. art. xvii. p. 102. 
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