IN the letters of the Laird of Ormistoun to his
gardener, which Dr. Colville has edited with diligence and sympathy, we have a document which, in an era of gardening hooks, should find many curious readers. Scotland, which has pro- vided gardeners for half the world, has never been productive of gardening literature; and eighteenth-century Scotland, to which these letters belong, was still too poor and unsettled for so pacific an art to flourish. The Statistical Account published at the close of the century shows us a bare, un- drained, nnreclaimed country, with heath and moss where we now find rich meadows and trim plantations. In the first part of the epoch not only was the land poor, but it was split into violent factions, and the country gentleman was more often engaged in plotting for Kings over the water or mending his neighbour's creed than in studying how to improve his little domain. Here and there may have been places like Andrew Fairservice's native parish of Dreepdaily, " where they false lang-kale under glass and force the early nettles for their spring kale " ; but they were far from common, and a little vegetable yard was all that most country houses could boast of. The letters end in the year before the Forty-five, and deal with the countryside where the Prince won his only victory. One wonders if Charles Bell, the gardener, had any share in Prestonpans, or what happened to Cockburn's pleasaunce when the 'Highlanders were tramping the country.
• Letters of John Cockburn of Ormistoun to Ms Gardener, 1727-1744. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by James Colville, M.A. D.Sc. Vol. XIV. of the Publications of the Scottish History Society. Edinburgh : F. and T. Constable. (Printed for Members.) The Ormistoun Agricultural Club, which Cockburn founded,' contained some members who figured, largely in the evente of the time,—Macleod of Skye ; Anderson of Whiteburgh, who led the Prince's army across the bog at Prestonpuns; and the ill-fated Duke of Perth, who died on the voyage to. France after Culloden. In the midst of SC turbulent a time and so poor and backward a country, it is pleasant to come upon a laird who assiduously cultivated the Graces, and was a pioneer in that progressive farming which has since made the Lothians famous. The poor gentleman made little out of it :. even while he was improving the estate it carried ten thousand pounds of mortgage, and it eventually passed out of his hands. We have only the letters to show how unconquerable was his zeal for rural progress.
The laird was a scion of the old Border family of Cock- burn;the son of the Cockburn who held the office of Lord Justice-Clerk under Queen Anne. He sat in Parliament from 1707 to 1741, and up to 1744 was of the profession of Pepys and a Lord of the Admiralty. He spent most of his life in England, but his heart was always in his Scottish estate, as is shown by the loving minuteness of his directions to his gardener. A fine soft shower at his English home makes him think of Ormistoun, and chafe that he cannot see the changes which spring is making on his own fields. He was, indeed, a very remarkable type of laird for his day. Sport, the ordinary business of his class, is never men- tioned, save for a denunciatory reference to hares, and all his elaborate plantings are for fences and shelters, and not for coverts. He was an admirable landlord, and designed not only to make a pleasant retreat out of his home, but a thriving rural community. "I hate tyranny," he writes, "in every, shape, and shall always have greater pleasure in seeing my tenants making something under me which they can call their own, than in getting a little more myself by squeezing a hundred poor families till their necessities make them my slaves." He endeavours to instil sound notions of economics into Charles Bell, and we may gather from the letters that the mind of Charles was not over-receptive. The natives cf Ormistoun were full of "foolish, narrow, low notions," and did not understand how to increase the area of sale for their produce, or lower their prices on proper occasions. He wants his people to live better, for their dull spirit, he thinks, proceeds from "low diet both in eating and drinking. Our common food gives little strength to either body or mind, and our malt-drink is the most stupefying stuff ever was contrived." But be is a reformer rather than a pro- hibitionist, and he has a scheme for a public-house in his village where the gentlemen of the neighbourhood shall rdsort, and which shall be better than "our common Hog stays where nothing is to be gott but nasty Berm which we call Tuppeny and by accident sue Oat or Pease Cake." His ideas; agricultural and economic, were largely English, acquired during his residence in Herta, and, full as he is of sentiment for Scotland, he takes often a gloomy view of the character of his countrymen. He deplores their lack of elegance, their unprogressive conservatism, and their false economy. "It is a common wise practice which proceeds from their wise heads and noble way of thinking in Scotland, that if anything is made look ugly, or if neat is spoiled in dressing, it is thrift. Losing a hog for a halfpenny worth of Tar is with them a mark of judgment. How many instances do you see daily (if you look about you) of pounds being lost by saving as many shillings, which if laid out to purpose in doing what they were about completely, would have made it by so many pounds better." His energy is as remarkable as his good sense. He. sends to " Norroway " for fir-seeds, he hunts high and low and plagues his neighbours for slips and cuttings; he is even an architectural reformer, and thinks to improve the appearance of his village, by pro- viding that all new houses shall be two storeys high„ so that men may go in and out without "ducking like a goose." He has many trials to bear. His man does not answer his letters or forgets his instructions, and is soundly rated for "unthink- ing stupidity." Evil-intentioned persons set fire to his whine, which at that time were fodder plants, and useful for winter feeding. But in spite of set-backs and misfortunes, Ormistoun grew under his hand into a model domain. Defoe, who visited Scotland at the time, called it a "perfect English plantation," and from the Statistical Account we learn that Cockburn's
A Scottish estate in that age was not ,the best material for gardening enthusiasm to work on. The uplands were wild moor, the haugh lands by the river undrained bog, and the only arable grounds were the patches on the slopes which the village crofters cultivated. Cockburn was, therefore, neces- sarily more of a farmer and an arboriculturist than a gardener. We have mentioned his system of hedges and hedgerow elms on the English model, and indeed it was his planting which chiefly.beld his affections. His gardener did not understand thinning, and the letters are full of patient attempts to explain to him the principle. For his day he was a daring innovator, for he planted spruces and silver firs, Spanish chestnuts, 'walnuts, evergreen oaks and maples ; and in his orchard, which he took special pride in, he had mulberries, grapes, and quinces. Not all succeeded, or were expected to succeed ; but the bold range of the experiment argues a remarkable mind. When we remember that he had to fight with an immense prejudice, not only against new fruits, but against attempts to improve the existing ones, we must give him all the credit of a pioneer. In that turbulent day it is too much to expect much interest in flowers. Once only he mentions them, when he bids his gardener plant the dykes with " quicks of each kind, not forgetting roses, honeysuckle, and the like." It is pleasant to know that Cockburn's sweetbriar and honeysuckle still survive to adorn the countryside.
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