Proposed alterations to the grounds at Drumlanrig Castle

The old bedding pattern managed as a wildflower meadow
Drumlanrig lower terrace in 2008
Drumlanrig lower terrace in 2008

John Claudius Loudon concluded his 1831 visit to Drumlanrig with the alterations quoted below. Following upon my own visit in 2008, I would also like to proposed an alteration. It is shown in the illustrations of the lower terrace. It appears from the patterning of the grass that an elaborate parterre once filled the space. My proposal is to re-create the old bedding pattern with a wild flower meadow, as shown on the collage. It could be done by the simple expedient of ploughing the land and sowing a different wild-flower mix each year. The result, I believe would be beautiful, good for butterflies and a popular new attraction for Drumlanrig.

“Of all the alterations which we should wish to make on the grounds at Drumlanrig, there is none that strikes us as of half the importance as that of forming new approaches. There is one now going on; but a more preposterous under-taking of the kind we have seldom or never witnessed in any country. An attempt is made, or was making in August, 1831, to ascend a steep acclivity directly in front of the house; a still more hopeless task than that of cutting the rock into terraces, above related by Gilpin, by the old Duke of Queensberry. The duke did succeed, and the terraces were formed, and now exist; but this approach never can form an easy ascent; and we maintain that, even if it did, it would be in the very worst taste imaginable in the given situation; for this specific reason, that it would show all the striking beauties of the spot before entering the house. Now, we hold it to be a fundamental principle, in laying out grounds, that the grand beauties of every situation should be first shown to the stranger from the drawing-room windows. If this be not a fundamental principle, we should be glad to know on what reasons either the situation for a house is fixed on, or the direction of a road to it islaid out. There are many points in which a stranger taking a cursory glance at a place may be mistaken; but, if he has his eyes open, he never can err in forming an opinion as to the approach. As to the terraces we certainly have no wish to alter them. At the time Gilpin wrote, terraces were common, and the great rage was for nature and the picturesque. That rage has now subsided; and in landscape-gardening, as in architecture, and in other arts which combine beauty with utility, reason is the governing principle.”

6 thoughts on “Proposed alterations to the grounds at Drumlanrig Castle

  1. Christine

    This novel garden has a mysterious ephemeral quality reminiscent of a woodland clearing. Are you proposing to plant the garden in the collage with woodsage, hawthorn, ransoms, strawberry, Wood anenome and honey suckle?
    http://www.pbase.com/byrontilly/wild_flowers&view=slideshow.

    When, in what sequence and for what duration do you expect the flowers to bloom? When and which butterflies will be about to enhance this visual display? How are you proposing to change the wild flower display from time to time? Can you see the garden from the castle? [There was an amazing drawing on the website where you could ‘click’ on each of the gardens around the castle grounds…but I don’t seem to be
    able to find it again.]

    A really extravagant decorator would take advantage of such a subtle floral display to make deft changes to the interior decor of the rooms to reflect the dynamics of the blooms outside and to create opportunities for their display within the house as fresh cut flowers!

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  2. Tom Turner Post author

    Yes, I would like to see the large extent of the lower ‘parterre’ managed as a wild flower meadow. This would involve lowering its fertility and perhaps over-sowing with a wildflower mix. The old path pattern, if that is what it is, would then be recovered with a mower. Christopher Lloyd popularised this approach at Great Dixter and it is now seen in many English gardens. As an alternative to ‘recovering’ the old path pattern, one could treat the ‘parterre’ as a great canvas and invite different artists to ‘draw’ on it each year. This could do a lot to raise the profile of Drumlanrig and thus increase visitor numbers, though I do not know if this is what the estate wants.

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  3. Tom Turner Post author

    Yes, I would like to see the large extent of the lower ‘parterre’ managed as a wild flower meadow. This would involve lowering its fertility and perhaps over-sowing with a wildflower mix. The old path pattern, if that is what it is, would then be recovered with a mower. Christopher Lloyd popularised this approach at Great Dixter and it is now seen in many English gardens. As an alternative to ‘recovering’ the old path pattern, one could treat the ‘parterre’ as a great canvas and invite different artists to ‘draw’ on it each year. This could do a lot to raise the profile of Drumlanrig and thus increase visitor numbers, though I am not sure if this is what the estate wants.

    Reply
  4. Christine

    INTEGRATING DESIGN WITH NATURE OR NATURE WITH DESIGN

    5. I do agree more has to be done about integrating cities and nature; whether that is through strong ideas of cities in nature or nature in cities.

    I’m not sure I agree with you about Hundertwasser. (You haven’t convinced me yet.) I’ll go with po-faced any day over ‘Disney-style’ architecture. If I wasn’t happy with the po-faced sterile architecture I guess that I would at least have a better base to work with to renovate etc than something in Hundertwasser’s mode of expression. (You could send me an example of po-faced architecture as I may dislike it just as much as you do.)

    But I suppose all is not lost if Hundertwasser makes someone (yourself) feel positively about the world, their day and their environment. [I’ll just look the other way when I go passed and hope it doesn’t proliferate!!]

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  5. Christine

    Maybe the following quote may assist you in considering the Seagram building?

    “On my way to work every day, I saw every day a very old house I liked particularly. I didn’t know then why and so on. But I liked it more and more. And then I asked myself, “What is the quality of this house? What is it?” It was not that it belonged to a certain style. It was just a plain, but to me a very fine house. By looking at it carefully, I found that the brickwork was done very well, and that the stone frames of the windows was done very well, and that the timber work was done very well. It takes no particularly elegant proportions, but it had very good proportions. And the workers of the house seemed equally … and reasonable. Everything was in harmony with the other parts, and I think that gave this house the beauty I saw.” Quote from Mies van der Rohe’s commencement address 1958 at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

    Perhaps you might also like to view the following weblink: http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgi-bin/building_street_views.cgi?Seagram_Building

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