Zone d'identification
Cote
Titre
Date(s)
- 1775 - 1822 (Production)
Niveau de description
Série organique
Étendue matérielle et support
Three vellum-bound notebooks including diaries, financial records and language studies.
Zone du contexte
Nom du producteur
Notice biographique
Thomas Blaikie was born in 1751 in Corstorphine, the son of a market gardener. It is suggested he may have been a student gardener at RBGE and possibly then worked at Kew, the Hammersmith nursery and Upton House in East Ham for Dr John Fothergill. He was engaged jointly by Dr Fothergill and Dr William Pitcairn to undertake a plant collecting trip in the Swiss Alps from April to December 1775. In September 1776 James Lee of the Hammersmith Nursery engaged Blaikie to provide plants for the Comte de Lauraguais and he was subsequently employed to work on the Comte’s garden in Normandy. From 1778 he was employed in the gardens at Bagatelle by the Comte D’Artois, the youngest brother of Louis XVI and future Charles X. He also worked at St Leu, Monceau and Le Raincy for the Duc de Chartres (who later became Duc D’Orleans and then Philippe Égalité) and undertook a number of private commissions. It is also thought that he was involved in making alterations to the gardens at Malmaison.
Blaikie is credited with introducing the English style of gardening and British gardeners to France, where his method of grafting came to be known as ‘graffe Blaikie’. He died at his house on the rue de Vignes in Paris in 1838. His diaries covering the period 1775 to 1792 were published in 1931, entitled ‘Diary of a Scotch Gardener at the French Court at the end of the Eighteenth Century’.
Histoire archivistique
Source immédiate d'acquisition ou de transfert
Zone du contenu et de la structure
Portée et contenu
Three vellum bound notebooks covering the period 1775-1822.
Évaluation, élimination et calendrier de conservation
Accroissements
Mode de classement
Zone des conditions d'accès et d'utilisation
Conditions d’accès
Open for consultation on appointment with the archivist.
Conditions de reproduction
Permission for reproduction is required from RBGE.
Langue des documents
- anglais
- français
Écriture des documents
Notes de langue et graphie
Caractéristiques matérielle et contraintes techniques
Material is fragile and requires careful handling.