The Nineteenth Century Scottish Landscapethrough the Eyes of a German Traveller

Alexander Fenton

In 1844, a book by the German traveller J. G. Kohl was published in English. Itwas called Travels in Scotland, based on an autumn journey undertaken in 1842, andfirst published in German. The translator praised Mr. Kohl highly:

His[ Mr. Kohl's] remarks upon our institutions, our manners, our social condition,and modes of thinking and acting, place all these before us in a light we have not beenaccustomed to regard them in. We behold our social features in another mirror.... Weperceive how matters on which we pride ourselves strike a stranger, and how socialadvantages, of which we think lightly, call forth his admiration.'

Among the highlights of his journey was his visit to a recently establishedagricultural museum in Stirling in Central Scotland. I shall use this visit, and' Drum-mond's Agricultural Museum', as a focal point for this paper, the purpose of which isto look at the state of farming and the agricultural landscape of Scotland around themid- nineteenth century.

Drummond's Agricultural Museum was started by Messrs W. Drummond& Co,Nurserymen and Seedsmen, in November 1831. That it was started by such a firm is initself significant, for it reinforces a point that has been little commented on by historians,namely the role of horticulture in the history of agricultural improvement. ArchibaldGorrie of Annat Garden, Perthshire, was aware of this when he wrote in 1835 that it' must be allowed... that in the race of improvement, horticulture has by far the start,and that the cultivators of the field have much ground to go over before they canovertake their brethren of the garden'.²

1 Kohl, J. G.: Travels in Scotland. London 1844, p. x.

2 Gorrie, A. in: Third Report, 1835, p. vi.

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