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History of Early American Landscape Design

Otranto (Charleston, SC)

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Otranto (Charleston, S.C.) was a rice plantation on Goose Creek, fifteen miles north of Charleston, South Carolina, owned by the physician and botanist Alexander Garden. He pursued agricultural experiments on the property and created a garden for the indigenous and exotic plants that he had collected over many years.

History

The 1,689 acres of land that Alexander Garden purchased in 1771 were originally part of a land grant given in 1669 to the brothers Arthur and Edward Middleton, English colonists who came to South Carolina from Barbados. The property had passed among several other owners and acquired the Native American name “Yeshoe” by the time of Garden’s purchase.[1] Garden’s new name for the property, “Otranto, possibly alluded to the southern Italian port town of the same name (which he might have visited while serving as a naval surgeon in ___) or to Horace Walpole’s gothic novel ‘’The Castle of Otranto’’, published in 1764. [2] The novel’s famed romanticism matched Garden’s conception of his own Otranto as a “beautiful and romantick spot.” Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content One of the foremost authorities on botany in America, Garden had devoted many years to corresponding with naturalists in Europe and America. He had already filled the garden of his Charles Town house with an abundance of specimens gathered from the surrounding countryside and on expeditions further south, as well as through botanical exchanges with leading European naturalists and with American botanists such as John Bartram and Cadwallader and Jane Colden. With the encouragement of the Royal Society of London, he had dabbled in experimental agriculture, and he encouraged his Charles Town neighbors to join him in cultivation of useful crops that could not be grown in Britain. After acquiring Otranto, Garden was able to pursue his horticultural, botanical, and agricultural pursuits on a much larger scale. In addition to rice, he grew indigo and reportedly advised Eliza Pinckney, who is credited with developing the techniques that enabled large-scale processing of indigo in South Carolina. Three vat systems used in the processing of indigo at Otranto survived until the early twentieth century, and two the plantation’s brick and stucco vats are still preserved— the only known examples in existence in South Carolina.[3]

Garden wrote a detailed account of Otranto’s terrain and of the plants he cultivated there in a letter of 1789 to his friend George Ogilvie. [view text]. He noted that “Diversified grounds” combined “Hill & Dale,” with “A fine winding River” bounding the property. The view across the river added to the scenic effects, “the opposite banks covered with tall primaeval trees with many a flourishing shrubs making the most picturesque background.”[4] The river abounded with varieties of fish and ducks, as well as alligators, and fish ponds on the grounds were stocked with perch, carp, and blue bream. [5] Ogilvie himself conveyed additional information about the estate in his poem “Carolina; or, The Planter” (1790), which celebrated Otranto as the perfect example of a southern plantation and a prime example of the natural English landscape garden, in which “taste’s soft pencil mellow[s] art[‘]s harsh line/And nature’s flowing mantle veil[s] design.”[view text] In their recollections of Otranto, both Garden and Ogilvie emphasized the dramatic visual effects created by the siting of the house and the layout of the grounds in relation to the natural terrain. Both called attention to the elaborate system of walks laid out on the property. A maze of serpentine paths wound throughout the garden, but when viewed from the river they disappeared from view and only straight paths could be seen—an effect Garden characterized as a “magical deception.” Dramatic optical effects also determined the position of the house, which Garden described as “on the top of the hill commanding a fine prospect of the adjacent grounds & many different views of the meanderings of the River.” By day, towering tulip trees (Liriodendron tulipfera) more than eighty feet in height shaded the west side of the house from the afternoon sun. By night, a beautiful view of the moon could be glimpsed through the parted branches of the tulip trees from the piazza surrounding the house.[6] Despite its modest size, the house gained dramatic emphasis from its elevated position, according to Ogilvie, who wrote: “There midst the grove, with unassuming guise/ But rural neatness, see the mansion rise!” Another important structure on the grounds was a freestanding “rural library” (shaded by “an Umbrageous Catalpa & Lofty magnolia) containing Garden’s extensive collection of books. [7]Along with classical authors and works of English literature, the library contained important books on natural history, including those by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707- 1788), Carl Linnaeus, John Clayton, and Johann Gronovius. [8] A plat of Otranto represents a circular drive and central fountain near the entrance to the property. Despite his passion for collecting exotic specimens from other parts of America and the world, Garden’s intention at Otranto was evidently to showcase indigenous plants— to show, as he put it, “what a Carolina situation ornamentted with only the natural productions of the Country can arrive at when so laid out.”<Quotation from Garden to Ogilvie, ---, Ogilvie and Garden, 132</ref> His description of Otranto repeatedly calls attention to the splendor of Carolina nature which vastly surpasses the cultivated botanical specimens of the Old World. Ogilvie similarly claimed that even though Holland’s tulips bloomed brighter and Damascus’s roses smelled sweeter when cultivated in America, these flowers were surpassed by the Magnolia and humble Glauca that grew naturally in Carolina. At Otranto, he asserted, “all the pride of Europe’s florists yields/ To the assembled wildings of our fields.”[9] Among the native trees that flourished in the grove at Otranto were Magnolia tripetala (umbrella magnolia), Magnolia Gordonia (Loblolly Bay), and Magnolia altissima (the Laurel Tree of Carolina), the latter characterized by Garden as “the Proudest of the Vegetable kingdom, challenging both Indies in the rich Verdure of its foliage and Excelling Every Vegetable in the Magnitude and grandeur of its flowers.”[10] He also grew Cypress, allowing the “flow’ry tindrils” of climbing azaleas and flowering vines, such as scarlet woodbine (Lonicera periclymenum), yellow jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens), and wisteria (Glycine), to weave through the branches so that “one continu’d gardland binds the grove.”[11] The borders of the garden included flowers and shrubs that were as aromatic as well as colorful, giving “a lovely glow to the gardens of Otranto that your cold bleak gardens of Albion can never see or produce.” Garden made similar claims for Otranto’s orchard, which boasted Kennedy peaches whose “taste the cold clime of Albion with all her art can never Emulate.”[12]


Texts

  • Ogilvie, George, 1776, describing Otranto, in Carolina; or, The Planter: Written in 1776 (Berkeley and Berkeley, 1969, 352-57)
"And lo! my friend, where all the muse demands,
"On Goose-creeks banks thy own Otranto stands!
"Where pleas'd and wond'ring as we thrid the maze,
"We doubt what beauty first demands our praise
"The river bounded by the impervious shade,
"The smooth green meadow, or the enamel'd glade,
"Where all the pride of Europe's florist yields

"To the assembled wildings of our fields....

"Here Pales seems with Flora to have strove,

"To blend the beauties of the lawn and grove....

Bright as the blush of Venus when she loves,
"Sweet as the woodbine of her Paphean groves...
"From tree to tree the flow'ry tindrils rove
"Till one continu'd garland binds the grove
"Winding through shady walks, we slow descend,

"To skirt the mead, or trace the river's bend...

"There midst the grove, with unassuming guise
"But rural neatness, see the mansion rise!...


  • Garden, Alexander, July 24, 1789, to Cadwallader Colden ("The Letters of George Ogilvie and Alexander Garden," 1986: 117)[13]
"A few unconnected remarks on the situation and productions of Otranto [and] the Reasources of Carolina are inclosed. Such of them as you can weave into a description of that once beautiful and roman tick spot, may show what a Carolina situation ornamentted with only the natural productions of the Country can arrive at when so laid out.— The magical deception of the winding of Streight walks was not the least ornament of the garden for while walking in the garden you saw no straight walk & yet when turning and walking along the Bank of the river you saw none but Streight walks & not one of these winding walks thro the meanders of which you had visited all parts of the Garden while in it. And what is it now— possessed by a Goth! It sickens my soul to think of it.

"Diversified grounds— Hill & Dale— A fine winding River— The opposite banks covered with tall primaeval trees with many a flourishing shrub making the most picturesque background. The river plenteously stored with a variety of Fish— the labrus sapidus or large voracious fresh water trout— The blue bream the most delicate and sweetest of fishes....

"The house on the top of the hill commanding a fine prospect of the adjacent grounds and many different views of the meanderings of the River— guarded on the West from the afternoon's sun by two large Liriodendrons or Tulip trees full of foliage and beautiful Blossoms during May June and part of July. Remember the large Liriodendron between the fish ponds rising eighty feet without a branch then spreading out into a large head having a large opening in the middle thro which the full moon about an hour high was seen from the Piazza of the house — Never was Cynthia seen so much to advantage before having not the simple fig leaf that Mother Eve resorted to but a full grown beard of tulip tree leaves and flowers. Had Endymion seen her thus arrayed what would he have said?

"Near the house is a rural Library overshaddowed with an Umbrageous Catalpa & Lofty magnolia under Cover of which the first Company of the world reside [Milton, Tasso, Ariosto, Gay, Voltaire, Horace, Theocritus, Thompson]... Lineaus & Bufon accompany you to the Fields — Sir Issac & Cassini to the Celestial dance.

"The ponds full of fish Juletta a successful fisher for Perch, Carp, Blue Bream &c.

"The River at different seasons Covered with Ducks of Various kinds: ... the Mandarine Ducks— the blue winged teal and even the alligator in plenty....

"The gently hanging garden where Art only gives easy access to the Various inimitable productions of Nature from the early and mildly blushing Atamasco Lily to the modest Moccasine flower the pride of the meadows surrounded by the jessamines, orange coloured asclepias, the Candid Crinums, the Azure Lobilias and purple Iuccas[?] and day Gentianellas—... Leaving the pearled Lobelia, the rich velvety Erythrina or Corrollodendrons— the blushing rose Coloured Accacia and in the number and magnitude of its clusters of flowers— to face the solsticial sun— The Andromedas— The Iteas— The Cyrilla— stillingia— The styrax, the Stewartia— The Illicium— all beautiful flowering Shrubs.

"The Chionanthus.

"The Magnolia altissima, the Proudest of the Vegetable kingdom, chal­lenging both Indies in the rich Verdure of its foliage and Excelling Every Vegetable in the Magnitude and grandeur of its flowers—

"The Magnolia Glauca, or Sweat flowering Bay, scenting all the Circumambient air with its fragrance.

"The Calycanthus or sweet scented shrub diffusing an Aromatick fragrance seemingly a Compound of Strawberry, Pineapple, & the Clove— called sometime by the envied name of Bubby Blossom from the Ladies often carrying them in their bozoms.

"The Kalmia or Callicoe flower, a beautiful shrub.

"The Borders deakt with full blown Illiciums-Kalmias Erythrinas Calycanthus-Accacia Coccinea[?]— Umbrella Magnolias-Stewartia­ Ptelias— Styrax— Itea Cyrilla and many other aromatick and flowering shrubs give a lovely glow to the gardens of Otranto that your cold bleak gardens of Albion can never see or produce.

"The Liriodendron, Magnolia Gordonia, or Loblolly Bay— the Catalpa— the large flowering Cornus— the Chionanthus— the Halesia, all large trees overshadow the Lesser greatly.

"The yellow Jessaminy rich in the wallflower smell, luxriantly covering the tallest trees mingles its fragrant flowers with the Snow Drop or Chionan thus together with the Periclymenum or Scarlet woodbine.

"These invite a thousand warblers— the Mocking bird. The Nonpareil, the Last in beauty of colours and the first in variety of notes exceeding all known birds—

"Innumerable hosts of fireflies—

"A storm of thunder and lightning.

"Fair Peaches— the Kennedy Peach when full ripe exceeding in richness and flavour any other fruit or what even fancy can suggest— a taste the cold clime of Albion with all her art can never Emulate.

Images


References

Notes

  1. For the history of the property, see Michael James Hetizler, Goose Creek, South Carolina: A Definitive History 1670-2003 (Charleston: The History Press, 2005), 174-75, view on Zotero; Berkeley and Berkeley, 1969, 236,
  2. Berkeley and Berkeley, 1969, 236
  3. Schneider, David B., Otranto Plantation Indigo Vats (U.S. Department of the Interior. National Park Service, 1988), https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/4V2ZV5KZ view on Zotero].
  4. Ogilvie, George, and Alexander Garden, ‘The Letters of George Ogilvie and Alexander Garden ’, The Southern Literary Journal, 18 (1986), 132,
  5. Garden to Ogilvie, 132, 133
  6. Garden to Ogilvie, 132, 133; Ogilvie, 71.
  7. The quotation is from Garden to Ogilvie, ---,
  8. Ogilvie, 1790, 71
  9. Garden and Ogilvie, __Ogilvie, 67
  10. Garden to Ogilvie, p. 133
  11. Ogilvie, Carolina, 68
  12. Garden to Ogilvie, p. 134
  13. "The Letters of George Ogilvie and Alexander Garden," The Southern Literary Journal, 18 (1986): 117–34, view on Zotero.

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