|
|
| The Gardens - Creating the gardens |
When Sir William Bruce purchased the Kinross
Estate from the Douglases in 1675, the first thing he did was
to level and drain the land chosen as the site for his new house
and gardens. Planning of the gardens started immediately he
decided they were to be formal in the contemporary Franco Dutch
style, with terraces, parterres and orchards. Indeed, the building
of the house itself did not commence until 1685 and the period
1679-85 was spent with Bruce concentrating entirely on the laying
out and planting of the gardens, whose complex design can be
clearly seen on his plans.
Bruce and his son, John, planted
an enormous number of trees, as many as 100,000 by the year
1700, on the estate, creating avenues and woods of oak, ash,
elm and Scots pine. John was tasked with bringing back the seeds
for 300 chestnuts from France and he did so after consulting
with Monsieur Marcian, Intendant of the Physic Garden in Paris.
The oldest chestnut tree, still standing in the garden, is thought
to be one of those original ones.
The head gardener and forester
at the time, James Shanks, worked with Sir William Bruce, his
wife Mary (nee Halket) and their son John to create the garden.
He received £62 Scots a year with six bolls and two firlots
meal. Shanks' three or four assistants earned 20 merks by the
half year, a similar quantity of meal and a pair of bounty shoes
worth half a crown a pair. A number of children were also employed
as weeders for between 2 pennies and 4 pennies a day. The gardens
were very labour-intensive and are said to have cost Bruce £400
per year to keep, after they had been laid out!
The very considerable
efforts and money put into creating the gardens at Kinross can
be explained by the fact that gardens such as these were seen
as a symbol of wealth and status by the 17th century aristocracy.
The fame of the gardens at Kinross was widely known even before
the house itself was finished. Sir Charles Lyttleton says in
a letter to Bruce from London dated 18th October 1687...
|
|
|
I hear that Lady Lauderdale's gardens at Ham are but a wilderness to
be compared to yours at Kinross
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
