44 
over a rocky and stone strewn channel, and its murmur is never absent from the air. 
As an example of picturesque and simple treatment of a small garden space, it would be difficult to 
find a more pleasing subject than Stobhall. There is but little originality in its plan; a piece 
of ground oblong in shape, thirty or forty yards wide by about double that in length, divided by narrow 
grass paths into four plots, containing beds of hardy flowers. Nothing could be more simple, and yet 
there is a quaint charm about the garden, with its bright flowers and sentinel like trees at regular 
intervals, that has appealed to no less an artist than Fred Walker, who painted Stobhall as the setting 
to his lovely water-colour of “ The Lady in the Garden.” Almost in the centre of the garden, and raised 
on a mound of grass, is the sundial, consisting of a circular shaft supporting a square block with 
hollowed sides. In the middle of the shaft is another block with the Drummond Arms and the initials 
of Earl John Perth, who succeeded to the estate about the year 1612, and is said to have been the builder 
of the Dowry House. Another sundial here is shown on Plate 117. 
BALCASKIE, FIFESHIRE. 
PLATES 73, 74, 75 - 
TUATE in the south-eastern parts of the county of Fife, about a mile and a half 
from the Firth of Forth, Balcaskie lies in the centre of a good, well watered 
stretch of arable land. It has changed hands more than once since the days of 
“Thomas de Balcaskie,” who lived in the early part of the thirteenth century, and 
was held between 1665 and 1684 by Sir William Bruce, the royal architect, who 
completed Holyrood Palace and other well known buildings. It was acquired by 
the ancestor of the present owner in 1698. 
The house is of various periods, but the principal portion, together with the terraced garden, dates 
from the end of the seventeenth century. Sir Robert Sibbald, in his “ History of Fife” (published in 
1710), mentions it as “ a veiy pretty new house with all modish conveniences of Terraces, Gardens, Park 
and Plainting.” The gardens have been skilfully adapted to the fall of the ground, as a reference to the 
plan on Plate 73 and the bird’s-eye view on Plate 74 will show. 
An avenue of limes and elms leads to the square grass forecourt, which is partly enclosed by the two 
projecting wings of the house, and partly by a thick yew hedge. The garden is arranged on the south 
side of the house, in three different levels almost too broad to be called terraces. The upper level is 
divided into three parts, two of which are sheltered on three sides by yew hedges, which were formerly 
very large, but in recent years have been cut down to their present size, and are now kept at a height of 
5 or 6 feet. One of these three enclosures is laid down in grass ; the other two have beds, the shape of 
which being hardly satisfactory are to be brought more in keeping with the character of the garden. 
The rose garden on the west side of the house was laid out in the seventies. 
The present arrangement of the lower terraces was designed by the late Sir Ralph Anstruther, who 
found this part of the garden planted as an orchard. It was he who introduced the balustrade in the 
middle of the upper terrace wall, and built the stone staircases at either end of the terraces. The effect of 
this is harmonious and thoroughly in keeping with the style of the place, according well with the 
massive buttresses above referred to with their quaint busts of Roman Emperors. This arrangement of 
buttresses is not infrequently met with in Scotland and is a good one, as besides supporting the 
