Abbotsford House - Park

Abbotsford House is situated in very beautiful countryside and is surrounded by spacious park. The hilly land gives a very special charm to the park in its naturalness. Abbotsford House and Park adjoin the wonderful River Tweed, a river inviting for long walks along its banks.

Sir Walter Scott had been inspired by his homeland and environment, the spacious Borders, to write his novel "Guy Mannering". Much has been contributed by his experience and adventured he has had as Sheriff of Selkirkshire. At that time he surely will not have any presentiment of the thoughts and feelings later generations would connect with his novel.

"Guy Mannering" tells of the live of and in the Borders, a frontier region of Scotland and England fought for for many centuries, its hills and dales, its the people and animals. Scott very vividly describes the character of those rough, yet honest and generous types of men. Without keeping to real person, he makes that clear by describing the figure of James Davidson, named Dandie Dinmont, and his dogs. At that time these dogs had been known as Mustard and Pepper Terriers, or they were named after the farm where they lived or the name of their breeder.

Still under the impressions of that sphere of activity of Sir Walter Scott, the rooms with the wonderful memories, the sympathetic explanations of his great-great-great-great-great-grand-daughter Dame Jean, we were admitted to have a look on the private gardens of Abbotsford House. Hardly to believe that all of this was to be lying back nearly two hundred years.

The pictures in the margin will show the overwhelming magnificence of blossoming. The deep lawn, the flowers and last but not least the fruit growing will give evidence of the horticulture, done with the heart in that work and for one's own devotion - and not because of the tourists.

We left Abbotsford House, that place inseparably connected to name of our breed through the person of Dandie Dinmont in Sir Walter Scott's novel "Guy Mannering", and went on to Oxnam.

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