While the original plants may not have survived, work is going on to re-establish the beds with the plants and flowers that the Carlyles enjoyed, including many of the shrubs chosen by Jane and detailed in both of their letters.
Below are extracts from Thea Holme’s book 'The Carlyle’s at Home'. The book, which was written in 1965, describes the Carlyles’ domestic life at 24 Cheyne Row through the Carlyles’ many letters.
'…the garden at Cheyne Row was a typical town garden - an oblong patch, 79 feet by 20 feet, surrounded by high brick walls.'
'There was little sentimentality in Jane's nature, but what there was expressed itself in her garden. She tried to fill it with flowers that reminded her of Scotland and of the places and people she loved.'
'When she returned to London she brought with her a nettle, uprooted from Mrs. Welsh's grave in Crawford church-yard, and a 'little thing with two tiny leaves' which she found growing on her father's grave in Haddington. These were duly planted in the garden and tended with loving care; and in time the 'little green thing' proved to be a gooseberry plant. 'Oh! Be kind to Nero, and slightly attentive to the canaries, and my poor little nettle and gooseberry bush,' she begged Carlyle, eight years later.'
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