Hornel's Hidden Garden

            Kirkcudbright is a town with a long history, going back to the first religious settlement there in the 11th century.  By the 15th century it was a thriving port from which one quarter of Scotland's woollen products were exported to the Continent.  When that trade died, however, the little town became a forgotten corner of Scotland until the early 1900's when it once again achieved prominence through the many artists who settled there, attracted by the quality of its light.

     Amongst the best known Kirkcudbright painters whose works still sell for high sums are George Henry, Charles Oppenheimer, Jessie Marion King, her husband E.A. Taylor ? and most of all, Edward Atkinson Hornel.
      Thanks to Hornel, one of the west of Scotland's best known tourist attractions is a garden that attracts thousands of visitors every year.

     Though he was born in 1864 to Scottish parents in New South Wales, Hornel was brought back to Kirkcudbright when he was three years old.  His career as a painter was slow to take off, but by 1900 he had achieved enough fame and fortune to buy Broughton House, an old town house at 12 High Street, Kirkcudbright, for £400. There he not only built a studio and art gallery, but also created a wonderful walled garden.

    Hornel and his friend George Henry, one of the "Glasgow Boys", went on an 18 month painting trip to Japan in 1893.  On return, Hornel not only developed his particular style which became immensely popular with art collectors, but also gained a fascination for Japanese culture, especially for the gardens.

     His pictures of rosy cheeked young girls, often in Japanese costumes, posing against dense backgrounds of flowers ? a device that some critics called "The Parisian carpet school" ? were not to everyone's taste, but they made so much money that he did not bother to develop his theme or style much for another 30 years till he died in 1933.   

    What he did develop was his garden, and even people who do not care for his pictures acknowledge him as a gardener of genius.  Remembering Japan, he laid out pools of water lilies crossed by stepping stones, rivulets of water trickling from bamboo pipes, and trellised walks fringed by Oriental plants, many of which he brought to Scotland for the first time.   Painting provided the money for this enterprise and it is said that on days when it was too rainy to work outside, canny Hornel taught his gardener how to paint in the backgrounds of his paintings which provided the money for their efforts in the garden.

    On his death Hornel left his house and garden to the town of Kirkcudbright and it has now passed into the ownership of the National Trust for Scotland.   Visitors can tour his studio, see his fine library of Scottish books, and his art collection that contains many works by famous contemporaries, but the biggest attraction is his garden which is still lovingly kept up.  Broughton House garden is open from Easter till the end of October and admission to the garden is around £5 a head.    The interior of the house is open from June till the end of October and family tickets cost about £20.  Telephone 01557330437.