40 C O N T E X T 1 1 9 : M A Y 2 0 1 1 What would you like to be doing in five years time? Still to be in a position to pursue my interests in researching and writing about landscape and garden history, and to be fit enough to back this up with fieldwork. Also still to have the opportunity to communicate my enthusiasm to others through lecturing and leading groups in the field. What is your favourite building? High on my list would have to be Kinross House, built by the Scots architect Sir William Bruce for himself in around 1683. Unspoiled by later alterations and additions, this exquisitely detailed classical mansion house in honey-coloured sandstone stands serenely within its original walled and terraced garden enclosure, overlooking Loch Leven. On a sunny morning, with mist rising off the loch, one can forget the troubles of the modern world, and marvel at the survival of this masterpiece of composition for more than three and a quarter centuries. Your favourite place? I generally refuse to answer this type of question if it is asked at the end of a lecture. That said, there are places which have a special resonance for me. High among these is the Hermitage at Dunkeld, first built in 1758, much altered in 1783, blown up in 1869, subsequently rebuilt and ruined, before being acquired in 1948 by the National Trust for Scotland, which organisation has been responsible for its recent and imaginative renovation. The Hermitage, overlooking the Black Linn falls on the River Braan, has a complex history, in the course of which the strands of 18th century taste for sublime landscape and romantic poetry are woven together with the history of tourism, 18th century politics and successive Dukes of Atholl. To walk by the Braan is to walk in the footsteps of notable people who have visited the place, many of whom recorded their impressions of the place in pictures or in words. Your favourite book? Another really difficult question to answer, as my bookshelves are full of much-loved treasures. Among the most treasured is probably a small leather-bound edition of Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, dating from 1558, a detailed account of the lands and people of Scandinavia by the Swedish Archbishop Olaus Magnus, illustrated with numerous woodcuts, and beautifully typeset in Antwerp by Chistopher Plantin more than 450 years ago. This was a present from my late father. Another favourite isThe Road Plate depicting the war between the Swedes and the Danes from the earlier Rome printing of Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, 1555 to Xanadu: a study in the ways of the imagination by John Livingston Lowes, an exploration of the extraordinary mind of poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the sources of the imagery to be found in his poetry. Also the assembled works of John Claudius Loudon alone occupy around a metre-and-a-half of shelf-space. What do you do in your spare time? Apart from reading and photography, much of it loosely related to my work, one of my greatest pleasures is to be found in my singing as a regular member of the choir in St Ninian’s Episcopal Cathedral in Perth – a fine building by the Victorian architect William Butterfield to whom, by a curious coincidence, I am distantly related by marriage. What organisations are you a member of? I am a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a subscriber to the Historic Gardens Foundation, Garden History Society, Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland and ScottishWildlife Trust, and a Friend of the British Library. Also a member of the National Trust for Scotland’s gardens advisory panel, and a voluntary tree warden for Perth and Kinross. Other less conventional memberships include those of the Milestone Society and the Cloud Appreciation Society. Which one issue would you particularly like the IHBC to campaign on? It will surprise no one that I should like to see more attention given to the settings of listed buildings, and to historic designed landscapes in their own right as part of Scotland’s national heritage. This could and should be achieved through an expansion of the listing of gardens, and more robust policies for the protection of gardens and designed landscapes in local authority development plans. The Hermitage at Dunkeld: combining landscape, poetry, tourism and politics ©iStockphoto.com/Tommydickson
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