Janet Queen

Prologue

When I first arrived at Rose Castle in the summer of 1995, I was captivated by the stateliness of this red sandstone property, its picturesque setting amongst fields above the Caldew river, and the aura of timelessness I felt when walking round the garden and grounds.

Over a period of eight centuries, the castle has evolved to its present form, and the garden and surrounding grounds have evolved along with it. Historical records concerning the castle’s garden are scarce. There is little documentation about garden layout, crops cultivated or plants grown for ornamental use. Even more elusive is information on the many gardeners who have tended this ecclesiastical site for hundreds of years.

It is not until the early 1700s that a glimpse of the garden’s past is revealed in detail when William Nicolson, the 45th Bishop of Carlisle, records in his diary lists of plants that he brings to Rose Castle from the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh.

It was while holding Bishop Nicolson’s diary in my hands that I decided, as a working gardener and former student of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, I would like to keep a diary of one year’s work at Rose Castle garden. The period between August 2002 and August 2003 that I have chosen to document falls almost exactly 300 years after Bishop Nicolson was writing about the garden in his own diary.

While gardening at Rose Castle, I have worked closely with both Bishop Harland and Bishop Dow. After fourteen years, I find I am even more enthralled by my surroundings. In producing this diary, I hope to transmit my deep affection for the garden and provide some detailed information that may be of interest to those who tend this garden in the future.

But most importantly, I hope to capture the nature, spirituality, history and beauty that combine to form such deep, natural tranquillity in a garden where bishops have walked since the 1200s.