January 2018



Round and round the garden



The view from the Italianate terraces over the lake to the Cheviot Hills is quite enchanting but when you look back from the lawn to the main building designed by Robert Adam, you will see how well the building also complements the designed landscape. This article takes you through the fascinating history behind the spectacular gardens that we enjoy at Mellerstain to this day.


When George Baillie returned from exile in Holland, he and his wife Grisell commissioned William Adam to build the new house at Mellerstain. Adam was also required to landscape the surrounding area and part of this project was to form a lake. This was done in the style of a Dutch Canal, surrounded by raised grass walks on which, at intervals, stood classical statues. Little trace of this exists today apart from the remains of walks in the surrounding woodlands. The present plan was carried out by Sir Reginald Blomfield in 1910. He altered and enlarged the lake, linking it to the terraces which are 600 feet above sea level, with a long wide sweep of lawn: a lovely and noble companion, seemingly reaching to infinity.


Mellerstain was Sir Reginald Blomfield’s (1856 – 1942) grandest commission. He was employed by Lord and Lady Binning to create a formal garden on the south front of the Adam mansion. He laid out a series of three balustraded terraces leading to a sweeping lawn which descends to the lake with the Cheviot Hills in the distance. The upper terrace with lawns and clipped yews leads via divided flights of steps over the roof of a pillared loggia (Blomfield called this a ‘crypto – porticus’) down to the middle and largest terrace. The middle terrace is laid out with an intricate parterre on either side of a central pavement with a raised ballustraded lawn at each end. The pavement leads to another divided flight of steps, around a fish pond, and down to the smaller third terrace and then to the lawn sloping down to the lake. The original design produced by Blomfield called for a larger middle terrace and an even bigger lower terrace extending down toward the lake, however the family curbed his ambitions.



“I think it must have been somewhere about 1900 that I was called in by Lord Binning to transform and recondition the great house of Mellerstain, near Kelso... Lord and Lady Binning were enthusiastic on the matter of garden design, and with their help I laid out an important garden here with terraces, a crypto-porticus, parterres and water-pieces, and my scheme was to have carried on to an immense grass hemicycle overlooking the lake at the foot of the hill, in the manner of Lenôtre, but we had to abandon this; indeed, it would have required the resources of Louis XIV to carry out the whole of my design.”



Memoirs of an Architect by Sir Reginald Blomfield, R.A., M.A.



In 1965 Lady Haddington, the 12th Countess, had the parterres planted with many of the old roses, these included Centifolias, Gallicas, Hybrid Musks, Damascena and Bourbons. This planting was replaced in 1995 following a few years rest for the beds enabling them to recover from rose sickness. During the rest period bedding plants were used. The new roses, supplied by Peter Beale, are Bonica, Little White Pet, Cardinal Hume, Rose De Rescht, Baby Fauray, The Fairy and Gruss Am Aachen. Bonica, The Fairy and Rose De Rescht are particularly recommended having come through the wet 1998 season in good health and requiring no spraying whatsoever.

The mixed borders which are hidden when viewing from the house are planted with much variety, the main planting is of geraniums, delphiniums, cimicifuga, with a backdrop of wall roses. Recent plantings have included a collection lavender, Princess Blue, Lodden Pink, and Miss Katherine, Rosemary Majorca Pink, and Miss Jessop’s Upright, and a number of Hostas, Halcyon, and Vladivostok.

The view from the terraces over the lake to the Cheviot Hills is enchanting, accompanied by the sounds of the woodland and waterside drifting up into the stillness of the garden. There are secret places and arbours where you are welcome to sit among the scented flowers and absorb some of this lovely place.


On the neatly manicured lawns Mercury stands sentinel, he is one of the oldest residents here having been one of the original statues included in the 1725 plans but gardening was a part of Mellerstain life long before William Adam introduced his classical design. Grisell Baillie in her famous Household Accounts records many purchases of seeds and trees for the gardens here in the first quarter of the 18th century.

When you visit, there are different circuits that you can take to explore and enjoy the gardens and grounds. Our ‘South Gardens and Lake’ route is a delightful amble down through the wooded Glen to the beautiful picnic areas by the River Eden and you will emerge from the trees onto the wide garden lawns and a superb view of Mellerstain House greets you framed by terraces of summer flowers. The ‘North Parkland’ route guides you up to the delightful thatched Tea Cottage with its little parterre garden and back around to the Play Park. In early summer the air is filled with the sound of songbirds proclaiming their nesting sites high in the branches of the stately broadleaf trees.

From our stunning formal gardens with breathtaking views to the lake and the Cheviot Hills to our magnificent parkland and ancient woodland, garden lovers will be in their element at Mellerstain.

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